C.F.K. Spain #1 – Classical Music in Spain
Hello – I'm Naomi Lewin. Welcome to Classics for Kids. One of the earliest known composers in Spain was 13th century king Alfonso X. He was so interested in learning, that he was called “Alfonso El Sabio” – Alfonso the Wise. Alfonso was a poet, and he also wrote melodies for some of his work.
MUSIC: ALFONSO X: Sancta María strela do dia (Cantigas de Santa María) Alia Vox/ /La Capella Reial de Catalunya/Hespèrion XX/Jordi Savall, conductor
Back then, Spain was made up of several different kingdoms. Even earlier – in the 8th century – a lot of the country was taken over by Muslims from Northern Africa. They were known as Moors in English ... “moros” in Spanish. The Moors ruled parts of Spain until 1492, when Spain officially became a Catholic country. But the music the Moors brought with them became part of Spanish music.
MUSIC: ANONYMOUS: Danza morisca Alia Vox/Hespèrion XXI/Jordi Savall, conductor
The other people who were forced out of Spain in 1492 were the Jews, who had their own music.
MUSIC: ANONYMOUS, arr. MANUEL VALLS: Yo m’enamori d’un aire RCA/Victoria de los Angeles, soprano/ Jean-Claude Gérard, flute/Oscar Ghiglia, guitar
The most famous 16th century Spanish composer was Tomás Luis de Victoria. Victoria spent some time in Rome, where he worked as an organist, singer, teacher, and conductor – and also became a priest.
MUSIC: VICTORIA: O magum mysterium 2L (Lindberg Lyd)/Grex Vocalis/Carl Høgset, conductor
One of the instruments the Moors brought to Spain was the oud, which is a close relative of the lute. The oud and the lute evolved into the vihuela, and by the 17th century, the vihuela had evolved into the Baroque guitar.
MUSIC: SANZ: Canarios Delphian/Gordon Ferries, baroque guitar
Gaspar Sanz wrote three books on how to play the guitar, including lots of music. Centuries later, other composers used Sanz's music in their work. Joaquín Rodrigo put it into his Fantasía para un gentilhombre – Fantasy for a Gentleman.
MUSIC: JOAQUÍN RODRIGO: Fantasia para un gentilhombre: Mvt. 4, "Canario" Deutsche Grammphon/Andres Segovia, guitar/Symphony of the Air/Enrique Jorda, conductor
After 18th century composer Fernando Sor's father introduced him to opera and the guitar, he fell in love with both of them. Sor combined his two musical loves in the piece he based on a theme from Mozart's opera The Magic Flute.
MUSIC: SOR: Introduction and Variations on a Theme by Mozart Alto/John Williams, guitar
Not all Spanish composers were guitar players. Antonio Soler played the organ, and other keyboard instruments. He's also known as Padre, or Father Soler, because he was a priest, who spent over 30 years living and working in the monastery El Escorial.
MUSIC: SOLER: Sonata in D Transart Live/Marcela Roggeri, piano
There's a Spanish composer who was born 50 years to the day after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Just like the Austrian Mozart, Juan de Arriaga was a musically talented kid, so he became known as the "Spanish Mozart."
MUSIC: ARRIAGA: Overture in D Chandos/BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena, conductor
One of the greatest violinists of all time was Pablo de Sarasate, whose composition Aires gitanos – Gypsy Airs – shows another big influence on Spanish music: the Roma, or Romani people, who settled all over Europe.
MUSIC: SARASATE: Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) Deutsche Grammophon/Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin/Vienna Philharmonic/James Levine, conductor
The Romani probably came from India, but Europeans thought they were from Egypt, which is where the word gypsies – in Spanish, gitanos – comes from. By the 19th century, the Baroque guitar had become the modern guitar, which is larger, louder, and tuned differently. Francisco Tárrega was born in 1852 – just about when the modern guitar came into its own. Tárrega became such a good player that he's known as the "father of classical guitar."
MUSIC: TÁRREGA: Recuerdos de la Alhambra Tonar/Manuel Barrueco, guitar
Tárrega wrote Recuerdos de la Alhambra – Memories of the Alhambra – about the historic palace that the Moors built in the city of Granada. Spanish composers began describing places — and using songs and dances from around their country — to create a distinctly Spanish classical music sound. More about that next week. I'm Naomi Lewin – I write Classics for Kids, and produce it for WGUC, Cincinnati. Please join me again for more Classics for Kids.
C.F.K. Spain #2 – Composers Who Created a "Spanish Sound"
Welcome to Classics for Kids – I'm Naomi Lewin. When composers use their country's folk songs, dances, and rhythms to paint musical pictures of local places and legends, it's called musical nationalism. Isaac Albeniz, who was born in 1860, was one of the first Spanish composers do that.
MUSIC: ALBENIZ: Asturias (Leyenda) Decca/Alicia de Larrocha, piano
The name Albeniz is spelled with a “z” at the end. In Latin America, that “z” is pronounced “ss,” but in Spain, they say it with a “th” sound. The same goes for the letter “c” when it’s follwed by an “e” or an “i.”
MUSIC: GRANADOS: 12 Spanish Dances: X: Danza Triste, Melancolica Torill Music/Enrique Granados, piano (Aeolian Duo-Art player piano roll)
That's Granados himself performing one of his Spanish Dances. When Granados visited the United States in 1916, he made a piano roll – one of the earliest ways to record sound – on a reproducing, or player piano. The most famous Spanish composer to put his country and its music into his work was Manuel de Falla.
MUSIC: FALLA: Three-Cornered Hat: Dance of the Miller’s Wife Warner/Philharmonia Orchestra/Rafael Frühbeck de Burgos, conductor
Falla was born in Cádiz, a city in the southern Spanish region of Andalucía. That's the home of flamenco – a Spanish folk style that combines a lot of the country's musical history: Christian, Arabic, Jewish, and Roma, or gypsy. Here's some pure flamenco:
MUSIC: TRADITIONAL: Romera Magnesound/Rafael Romero, Perico el del Lunar, guitar
And here's music by another composer from Andalucía: Joaquín Turina. He was from Seville – “Sevilla” – so he grew up hearing flamenco, too.
MUSIC: TURINA: Piano Quartet, Op. 67, mvt. 2 (Vivo) Claves/Menuhin Festival Piano Quartet
The best known classical guitarist of the 20th century – Andrés Segovia – was also born in Andalucía. Segovia got people interested in classical guitar again, so a lot of composers wrote for him – including Federico Moreno Torroba.
MUSIC: TORROBA: Suite Castellana #1: Fandanguillo Classical Pages/Andrés Segovia, guitar
In addition to being a composer, Torroba was a conductor. He liked to stage zarzuelas, which are Spanish operettas. In opera, characters sing all the time, but in operetta and zarzuela, they speak between singing. Pablo Luna was a zarzuela composer whose work definitely sounds like Spain.
MUSIC: LUNA: El Niño Judío: "De España vengo" EMI/Victoria de los Angeles, soprano/Sinfonia of London/Rafael Frühbeck De Burgos, conductor
Another composer who used the folk music he grew up with in his work was Jesús Guridi. He was from Basque country, in northern Spain, just over the Pyrenees
Mountains from France. Basque people have their own langague – Euskara – and their own melodies.
MUSIC: GURIDI: 10 Basque Melodies: Festiva Digital World Music/Spanish National Orchestra/Ataúlfo Argenta, conductor
There were three Spanish composers – all related – named Halffter: cousins Ernesto, Rodolfo, and their nephew Cristóbal. Ernesto Halffter put the "Dance of the Shepherdess" into his ballet Sonatina.
MUSIC: ERNESTO HALFFTER: Sonatina (ballet): Dance of the Shepherdess Deutsche Grammphon/Nicanor Zabaleta, harp
That's Nicanor Zabaleta, one of the greatest harpists of the 20th century. He was also from Basque Country. One of the greatest guitar concertos of the 20th – or ANY – century was by Spanish composer Joaquín Rodrigo. Rodrigo went blind when he was three years old, so he wrote all his music in Braille, using a system of raised dots.
MUSIC: RODRIGO: Concierto de Aranjuez: mvt. 1 Decca/Pepe Romero, guitar/Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Neville Marriner, conductor
Rodrigo's Concierto de Aranjuez – Aranjuez Concerto – is named for the royal palace with beautiful gardens where Spanish kings went get away from the capital city of Madrid. When Rodrigo was in his 80s, the King of Spain made him a nobleman, with the title “Marqués de los Jardines de Aranjuez” – Marquis of the Gardens of Aranjuez. And when Rodrigo died, at age 97, he was buried in the Aranjuez Cemetery.
Next week on Classics for Kids – music from a country across the Atlantic from Spain: Mexico! I'm Naomi Lewin – I write Classics for Kids, and produce it for WGUC, Cincinnati. Please join me again for more Classics for Kids.
C.F.K. Spain #3 – Mexican Composers
Welcome to Classics for Kids – I'm Naomi Lewin. In the 16th century, “conquistadores” – soldiers from Spain – sailed to Mexico, and took over the country from the native, or indigenous people who lived there. The Spanish brought their language, their religion, and their music to the place they called “Nueva España” – New Spain.
MUSIC: LÓPEZ CAPILLAS: Aufer a nobis iniquitates Lindoro/Capella Prolationum/Ensemble La Danseye
17th century composer Francisco López Capillas was a singer, organist, bassoonist – and priest. He directed music at the Cathedral in Mexico City – the country's capital.
For hundreds of years, classical music by Mexican composers sounded a lot like music by Europeans. One of the most famous waltzes ever written, “Sobre las Olas” – Over the Waves – is by Juventino Rosas.
MUSIC: ROSAS: Sobre las Olas Sony/Philharmonic of the Americas/Alondra de la Parra, conductor
Rosas came from central Mexico. He grew up playing violin – and he toured the United States and Cuba. After Rosas died when he was just 26, the town where he was born changed its name to Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas.
Mexico became independent from Spain in the 19th century. But the music the Spanish brought with them stayed. So did the music from enslaved people who'd been brought to Mexico from Africa. Those combined with the music of indigenous
people – whom the Spanish called "indios" – to create a distinctly Mexican sound known as "son," Spanish for sound.
MUSIC: JESÚS GONZÁLEZ RUBIO: El Jarabe Tapatío (Mexican Hat Dance) Vintage Music/Mariachi México de Pepe Villa
That's a mariachi band playing “El Jarabe Tapatío” – also called the Mexican Hat Dance. "Mariachi" can mean a kind of band, the music that band plays, or a musician in the band – which usually consists of violins, trumpets, and guitars. And all the instrument players sing.
Early in the 20th century, Manuel Ponce started putting music he grew up with into compositions for the concert hall.
MUSIC: PONCE: Scherzo Mexicano Yellow House Records/Laura Dean, piano
Since Ponce was the first composer to use Mexican folk tunes and popular songs in his music, he became known as the father of Mexican musical nationalism. After the Mexican Revolution, which ended in 1920, Mexican nationalist composers started including more "indio" elements – rhythm and melody – in their music.
MUSIC: CHAVEZ: Sinfonía Índia Everest/The Stadium Symphony Orchestra of New York/Carlos Chávez, conductor
That's Carlos Chávez conducting his Sinfonía Índia – Indian Symphony – which is based on indigenous melodies from three different Mexican states. Chávez also used native percussion instruments in the piece. After he became music director of the oldest symphony orchestra in Mexico, Chávez asked Silvestre Revueltas to be his assistant conductor.
MUSIC: REVUELTAS: La Noche de los Mayas: Noche de Jaranas (mvt. 2) Sony/Los Angeles Philharmonic/Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Revueltas was a violinist who wrote all kinds of music. Part of his score for the film La noche de los mayas – The Night of the Mayas – is based on a dance called "jarana" from Yucatán, a state on the Gulf of Mexico. Dance music from a different Gulf Coast state – Veracruz – inspired José Pablo Moncayo.
MUSIC: MONCAYO: Huapango Naxos/Eduardo Mata University Youth Orchestra/Gustavo Rivero Weber, conductor
When Carlos Chávez was was planning a concert of Mexican music, he asked Mocayo to write something based on the huapango.
Gabriela Ortiz grew up surrounded by folk music. Both her parents were members of the group "Los Folkloristas," which was started to keep Mexican and Latin American folk music alive.
MUSIC: ORTIZ: 3 Toritos: A que te reto (I dare you) Urtext/Mary-Elizabeth Thomson, Alejandro Escuer, Leonardo Bejarano, flutes
Ortiz dedicated her composition “Trés Toritos” – Three Little Bulls – to a member of Los Folkloristas.
Arturo Márquez grew up in a musical family, too. His father was a member of a mariachi band – but that wasn't the music that inspired Márquez the most.
MUSIC: MÁRQUEZ: Danzón #2 Deutsche Grammophon/Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela/Gustavo Dudamel, conductor
"Danzón" – a Latin ballroom dance – got started in Cuba. Then, like a lot of things from Cuba, it crossed the Gulf of Mexico … to Mexico! Marquez composed a whole set of orchestra pieces called "Danzón." #2 is the most famous. Next week on Classics for Kids: music from more Latin American countries. I'm Naomi Lewin – I write Classics for Kids, and produce it for WGUC, Cincinnati. Please join me again for more Classics for Kids.
C.F.K. Spain #4 – More Latin American Composers
I'm Naomi Lewin – welcome to Classics for Kids. After Christopher Columbus made his first trip across the Atlantic Ocean, Spain and other European countries began to colonize the Americas. Spanish music had a big influence on Latin American music – and so did the music of the enslaved people who were brought over from Africa. One of the first places Columbus landed in 1492 was Cuba.
MUSIC: WHITE: La Bella Cubana Classical Media/Aisha Syed, violin/Ciro Foderé, piano
19th century violinist José White Lafitte had a Spanish father and an Afro-Cuban mother. White's composition La bella cubana – the beautiful Cuban – uses dance rhythms from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, on the island of Hispaniola. 20th century Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona was a pianist.
MUSIC: LECUONA: Malagueña Vintage Music/Ernesto Lecuona, piano
That's Lecuona performing his most famous piece, “Malagueña,” which is a Spanish dance. Lecuona's family was full of musicians, including his great-nephew, Leo Brouwer.
MUSIC: BROUWER: 2 Aires Populares Cubanos: Guajira Criolla Erato (now Warner)/Leo Brouwer, guitar
Leo Brouwer was a guitarist, until he hurt his right hand. Even after he had to stop playing, he kept on composing. In 1493, Columbus landed on the island we call Puerto Rico, Spanish for "rich port." The Taíno people who originally lived there called it Land of the Great Lords – in their language, "Borikén" – which is the title of this piece by Puerto Rican composer Roberto Sierra.
MUSIC: SIERRA: Borikén Naxos/Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra/Maximiano Valdés, conductor
Teresa Carreño was born in Venezuela in the mid 19th century.
MUSIC: CARREÑO: Little Waltz Pierian Recording Society/Teresa Carreño, piano roll
Carreño toured all over the world as a pianist; she was also an opera singer and composer. After the Venezuelan waltz – vals venezolano – became popular as a piano piece, Venezuelan guitarist Antonio Lauro decided to compose waltzes for his instrument, too.
MUSIC: LAURO: El Marabino Etcetera/Jésus Castro Balbi, guitar
Another Venezuelan-born composer, pianist Gabriela Montero, nicknamed her First Piano Concerto "Latin" because of all the Latin-American rhythms she used in it.
MUSIC: MONTERO: Piano Concerto #1 "Latin": mvt. 3 Allegro Venezolano Orchid Classics/Gabriela Montero, piano/The Orchestra of the Americas/Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor
Guitarist Agustín Barrios Mangoré was from Paraguay.
MUSIC: MANGORÉ: Danza Paraguaya Harmonia Mundi/Pablo Villegas, guitar
Mangoré's “Danza Paraguaya” – Paraguayan Dance – is based on the “polca Paraguaya,” or Paraguayan polka. It's different from the European polka, which has two beats to the measure. The Paraguayan polka shifts back and forth between
three beats and two.
MUSIC: GINASTERA: Concierto Argentino: mvt. 3 Chandos/Xiayin Wang, piano/BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena, conductor
Ginastera's "Concierto Argentino," or Argentinian Concerto – is full of folk dance rhythms. Argentinian composer Astor Piazzolla played the bandoneón – a kind of concertina, which is related to the accordion. A lot of Piazzolla's music is based on a dance that's very important in Argentina: the tango.
MUSIC: PIAZZOLLA: Escualo Trova Industrias Musicales/Astor Piazzolla, bandoneón (and Astor Piazzolla’s ensemble)
Of course, Spain wasn't the only country that colonized Latin America. Explorer Pedro Álvares Cabral claimed Brazil – the largest country in South America – for Portugal. Heitor Villa-Lobos combined the style of Johann Sebastian Bach with Brazilian music to make a set of pieces he called Bachianas Brasileiras. In the second one of them, there's a train!
MUSIC: VILLA-LOBOS: Bachianas Brasileiras #2: Little Train of the Caipira Everest/London Symphony Orchestra/Eugene Goosens, conductor
Villa-Lobos's train even does a Brazilian dance: a samba. [Show 4b for five-week months: A lot of Spanish and Latin music was inspired by dance forms – next week, a look at some of those.] I'm Naomi Lewin – I write Classics for Kids, and produce it for WGUC, Cincinnati. Please join me again for more Classics for Kids.
C.F.K. Spain #5 – Music based on Hispanic Dance Forms
Welcome to Classics for Kids. I'm Naomi Lewin. Dance is very important in Spain, and Spanish dance forms have made their way all over the world. They've even turned into music that was never meant for dancing.
MUSIC TÁRREGA: Gran Jota Sony/Pablo Sainz Villegas, guitar
Guitarist Francisco Tárrega composed the “Gran Jota” – Grand Jota – for his instrument. There are guitars everywhere in Spain, and the jota is probably the most popular dance in the country. There are different versions in every region, but the jota was probably originally from Aragón, in the northeast. After Russian composer Mikhail Glinka visited Spain, he turned a "jota aragonesa" into a concert overture.
MUSIC GLINKA: Spanish Overture #1: Capriccio brillante on the Jota aragonesa Decca/London Symphony Orchestra/ Sir Charles Mackerras, conductor
Another dance that's found all over Spain is the fandango. This one is by 18th century Spanish Baroque composer Antonio Soler.
MUSIC: SOLER: Fandango Alpha/Bertrand Cuiller, harpsichord
When Luigi Boccherini spent time working as a court composer for the King of Spain, he put a fandango into one of his guitar quintets.
MUSIC: BOCCHERINI: Guitar Quintet #4 in D: Fandango (4th mvt.) Deutsche Grammophon/Melos Quartet/Narcisco Yepes, guitar/Lucero Tena, castanets
Boccherini also included a rhythm instrument you hear all over Spain in that fandango: castanets, or castañuelas. A third dance that's very popular in Spain is called "seguidillas" – with an "s" on the end. But if you're talking about the dance form, you can drop the "s," which is why Federico Moreno Torroba called his guitar concerto Homenaje a la Seguidilla – tribute to the seguidilla.
MUSIC: TORROBA: Homenaje a la Seguidilla Naxos/Pepe Romero, guitar/Extremadura Symphony Orchestra/Manuel Coves, conductor
The most famous seguidilla is the one French composer Georges Bizet wrote for his opera Carmen, which is set in Spain.
MUSIC: BIZET: Carmen: Seguidilla Deutsche Grammphon/Agnes Baltsa, mezzo-soprano/London Symphony Orc./Claudio Abbado, conductor
In Carmen, Bizet also borrowed a dance that migrated from the New World to the Old: the habanera, which mixes African rhythms with European dance. It's named for the city where it got its start: Havana, Cuba.
MUSIC: CERVANTES: Danzas Cubanas: Soledad Concerto/Davide Cabassi, piano
Many of the Danzas Cubanas – Cuban Dances – by Cuban composer Ignacio Cervantes are habaneras … “habaneras” in Spanish. In Argentina, a dance with African, European, and South American roots is the tango. Astor Piazzolla turned the tango into a musical form. This is "Spring" from his Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas – Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.
MUSIC: PIAZZOLLA: Four Seasons of Buenos Aires: Primavera Porteña Ancalagon/Lara St. John, violin/Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra/Eduardo Marturet, conductor
Some musical forms started out as dances so long ago that the dances have practically disappeared. People don't dance the bolero much today, but orchestras certainly play Maurice Ravel's Bolero.
MUSIC: RAVEL: Bolero Sony/French National Orchestra/Loren Maazel, conductor
In 16th century Latin America and Spain, the zarabanda was a wild dance with singing ... and the words to the songs were not always polite. When the sarabande spread around the rest of Europe, it became slow and stately – like the one George Frideric Handel put into a keyboard suite.
MUSIC: HANDEL: Keyboard Suite in d minor (HWV 437): Sarabande Decca/Christopher Hogwood, harpsichord
Handel's sarabande may actually be two dances in one, because it also sounds a lot like an old Spanish – or maybe Portuguese – dance called "La folía": craziness. Music is full of Spanish dance forms! One last one is zapateado, which uses footwork from a dancer's shoes – in Spanish, “zapatos” – to make percussion sounds. In his Zapateado, Pablo de Sarasate has the violin make percussion sounds – but not with shoes.
MUSIC: SARASATE: Zapateado Warner/Itzhak Perlman, violin/Samuel Sanders, piano
I hope you've enjoyed all these Spanish dances! I'm Naomi Lewin – I write Classics for Kids, and produce it for WGUC, Cincinnati. Please join me next time for more Classics for Kids.