Manuel de Falla: Siete canciones populares españolas (1914)

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Manuel de Falla (1876-1946):  Siete canciones populares españolas (Seven Popular Spanish Songs) (1914)

Despite the undeniable “Spanishness” of most of de Falla’s music, this cycle of seven songs is one of the few to directly use pre-existing Spanish melodies. Written in Paris, toward the end of his seven-year stay, the songs have remained so popular as to have overshadowed most of his other vocal works. Their premiere occurred shortly after that of his opera La Vida breve. At the eve of a World War there is a certain naive quality to be found in these songs, a nostalgia for the folk-music of his homeland. An intense period of work produced a series of quasi-nationalist masterpieces. Incredibly the end of 1915 saw the first performances of both El amor brujo (a dance-work or “gitanería” in one act) and the tone poem (and piano concerto in all but name) Noches en los jardines de España.

Spanish Text	Free translations by Albert Combrink
El Paño Moruno Al paño fino, en la tienda, una mancha le cayó; Por menos precio se vende, Porque perdió su valor. ¡Ay!(Gregorio Martinez 1881-1947)	The Moorish Cloth On the fine cloth in the store a stain has fallen;  It sells at a lesser price,  because it has lost its value.  Alas!
Seguidilla Murciana Cualquiera que el tejado  Tenga de vidrio,  No debe tirar piedras  Al del vecino.  Arrieros semos;  ¡Puede que en el camino  Nos encontremos!  Por tu mucha inconstancia  Yo te comparo  Con peseta que corre  De mano en mano;  Que al fin se borra,  Y créyendola falsa  ¡Nadie la toma!	Seguidilla Murciana Who has a roof of glass  should not throw stones  to their neighbor's (roof).  Let us be muleteers;  It could be that on the road  we will meet! For your great inconstancy,  I compare you  to a [coin] that runs  from hand to hand;  which finally blurs, and, believing it false,  no one accepts!
Asturiana Por ver si me consolaba, Arrime a un pino verde, Por ver si me consolaba.  Por verme llorar, lloraba. Y el pino como era verde, Por verme llorar, lloraba.	Asturian To see whether it would console me,  I drew near a green pine,  To see whether it would console me.   Seeing me weep, it wept;  And the pine, being green,  seeing me weep, wept.
Jota  Dicen que no nos queremos Porque no nos ven hablar; A tu corazón y al mio Se lo pueden preguntar.  Ya me despido de tí, De tu casa y tu ventana, Y aunque no quiera tu madre, Adiós, niña, hasta mañana. Aunque no quiera tu madre...	Jota  They say we don't love each other because they never see us talking But they only have to ask both your heart and mine.  Now I bid you farewell your house and your window too and even ... your mother Farewell, my sweetheart until tomorrow.
Nana  Duérmete, niño, duerme,  Duerme, mi alma,  Duérmete, lucerito  De la mañana.  Naninta, nana,  Naninta, nana.  Duérmete, lucerito  De la mañana.	Nana Go to sleep, Child, sleep,  Sleep, my soul,  Go to sleep, little star Of the morning.  Lulla-lullaby,  Lulla-lullaby,  Sleep, little star of the morning.
Canción  Por traidores, tus ojos, voy a enterrarlos; No sabes lo que cuesta, »Del aire« Niña, el mirarlos. »Madre a la orilla Madre«  Dicen que no me quieres, Y a me has querido... Váyase lo ganado, »Del aire« Por lo perdido, »Madre a la orilla Madre«	Song  Because your eyes are traitors I will hide from them You don't know how painful it is to look at them. "Mother I feel worthless,Mother" They say they  don't love me and yet once they did love me "Love has been lostin the air Mother all is lost It is lost Mother"
Polo ¡Ay! Guardo una, ¡Ay!  Guardo una, ¡Ay!  ¡Guardo una pena en mi pecho,  ¡Guardo una pena en mi pecho, ¡Ay!  Que a nadie se la diré!   Malhaya el amor, malhaya,  Malhaya el amor, malhaya,  ¡Ay!  ¡Y quien me lo dió a entender!  ¡Ay!	Polo Ay! I keep a... (Ay!)  I keep a... (Ay!)  I keep a sorrow in my breast,  I keep a sorrow in my breast (Ay!) that to no one will I tell.   Wretched be love, wretched,  Wretched be love, wretched,  Ay!  And he who gave me to understand it!  Ay! (“Ay” can be translated as “alas” or as a cry of pain. In the context of this fiery song, “alas” is too mild an exclamation. Melismatic “Ay”s are a feature in Spanish gypsy-influenced cante hondo.)

Musical Considerations

In the music of De Falla, the world of Flamenco is never far from the surface. His accompaniments are inspired by guitar-figuration and his melodic material full of the flattened intervals and embellishments of the Flamenco style. A performance trend that has yielded interesting fruits has been to apply Flamenco performance tradition on what has essentially been regarded as a mainstream classical tradition.

Picasso: "The Old Guitar Player" 1903	Jason O'Donnell: "Picasso's Old Guitar Player" 2003

1. Vocal Style:

Operatic Mezzo-Soprano Jennifer Larmore sings a very idiomatic and passionate rendition of “Cancion del amor dolido” from the Theatre/Dance work (often referred to as his “ballet” “El amor Brujo”. Listen to Jennifer Larmore HERE. Another astonishing recording in the classical vein is that by Leontyne Price, excerpts of which can be heard HERE. Her voice is clearly a soprano, yet her strong lower register and the “chest” sounds so useful in her portrayals of Verdi heroines, is here put to dramatic use. Yet, it is still broadly operatic in conception.

Compare that classical style of performance with that of Ginesa Ortega, a Flamenco Singer. Or the cantaora in this clip with Pierre Boulez. I have not found any recordings of the Siete canciones in the Flamenco style, but it is clear that the melodies use Flamenco inflections. Lullabies with tranquil melodic lines share the stage with more fiery outbursts. In particular, the dark fury of the 7th song Polo reflects the Spanish “Duende” or “gravitas” in its melismatic writing. De Falla was clear that the melismas were not to be executed as coloratura in Italian opera, but rather as “extensive vocal inflections”  based on the flamenco style. (Martha Elliott: “Singing in Style: a giude to vocal performance practices” p.269)

2. Influences on the accompaniments:

– De Falla and Riccardo Vines

While not achieving the fame as performer of his fellow Spaniards Granados or Riccardo Vines, De Falla nonetheless had an excellent reputation as a performer. In Paris he performed in the salons alongside the likes of Debussy. Vines in particular premierred many of his piano works and encouraged him to stretch his creative palet beyond his own abilities. The piano parts of the Siete canciones are virtuosic and remarkably pianistic,

–  De Falla and Garcia Lorca

De Falla was an excellent pianist and performed as soloist and acompanist. It appears that he played a bit of guitar as well. In the 1920’s he worked with playwright Frederico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936), acting as a mentor and guide to the writer’s musical aspirations. By all accounts he became quite an expert pianist and guitar player under de Falla’s guidance. They perhaps did not overtly “colloaborate” on projects, but it is clear that works such as Lorca’s Canciones Españolas Antiguas were not only fashioned along the model of De Falla’s Siete canciones, but that in fact De Falla was the overseer of the process which led to their completion. Lorca was firstly a pianist and appeared to have made arrangements for guitar later such as the 12 Canciones. Lorca and de Falla shared a deep love for Flamenco and in 1922 organised a festival of Flamenco’s “Dark and Deep Song”, the Cante Jondo at the Alhambra in Granada. Their musical relationship is explored on this Compact Disc Recording.

–  De Falla and Andres Segovia

Siete cancioneswas composed for piano, but has been orchestrated and arranged for guitar accompaniment. Segovia brought the virtuosic abilities of the solo guitar to the attention of many composers of the day and comissioned many new works. Falla wrote a large number of guitar works for Segovia, and it appears that they collaborated on transcriptions. It is not clear if the Segovia transcription of the Siete cancioneswas done in collaboration with De Falla. What is clear however was that the guitar version was done much later. Guitar-like figurations abound in the piano part. Repeated tremolo-figures reminiscent of repeated plucking of the same string abound in the writing. Strummed chords are recreated in “apreggiated” figures. Repeated pedal notes reflect an imagined guitar.

A comparison of recorded versions of the different accompaniments

Here follows some links to Youtube of various recordings of this cycle all featuring famous Spanish Mezzo-Soprano Theresa Berganza.

With original Piano version by De Falla	With Orchestral arrangement made by Luciano Berio	With Guitar – version by Segovia
Full Cycle with Gerald Moore Part 1 Part 2	5. Nana only Full Concert part 1 Full Concert part 2 Full Concert part 3	1. El Paño Moruno 2. Seguidilla Murciana 3. Asturiana 4. Jota 5. Nana 6. Canción 7. Polo
Theresa Berganza – Mezzo-Soprano Gerald Moore Piano London 1960	Theresa Berganza  – Mezzo-Soprano Paris 1987	Theresa Berganza  – Mezzo-Soprano Gabriel Estarellas – Guitar Edinburgh 1987

The following link is to Amazon.com, featuring a disc by South African Soprano Andrea Catzel, giving a beautiful and idiomatic performance of this cycle with Thomas Rajna on the piano. The site has MP3 samples of the music. Andrea Catzel sings Falla et al.

A free copy of the Sheet Music in the original key can be downloaded HERE. A transposition of the entire set up a whole tone, was published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Cape Town Soprano Filipa van Eck and myself will be performing songs from the cycle Siete canciones populares españolas in various upcoming recitals such as this one:

Lindbergh Arts Foundation – 18 Beach Road, Muizenberg

Thursday 17 September 2009

10.30 am

R50 including Tea and Refreshments

Bookings: 021 788 2795