5. Suite Española

5.1 Original Suite Española

The Suite Española was initially composed in 1886. In 1887, Albeniz grouped four pieces into a Suite in honor of the Queen Regent of Spain1 María Cristina de Habsburgo-Lorena, widow of Alfonso XII and mother of Alfonso XIII, who was king from his birth and in that year, 1887, he was barely one year old.

That original Suite consisted of four pieces between three and five minutes long: Granada, a serenade; Catalonia, a corranda, a dance that is danced in a circle, with the hands of the women on the shoulders of the men; Sevilla is a Sevillana, with a short interlude in the form of a couplet; and Cuba, a nocturne in the form of a habanera (in 1887 Cuba was not a colony, but one more province of Spain, a province that was lost in the Spanish-American War of 1898). 

The remaining pieces appear in later collections, under different titles, and were included in the suite after Albéniz’s death by the publishers Hofmeister (1911) and Union Musical Española (1913), with titles adjusted to Albeniz's original list. These four additional titles are: Cádiz, a melancholic saeta, a popular Andalusian Holy Week song; Asturias, subtitled “Leyenda”, a typical Andalusian soleá, and is perhaps the best-known piece of the entire suite; Aragón, a fantasy about an Aragonese jota; and Castilla, seguidillas, a type of song and dance typical of Castilla and other regions of the interior of Spain. 

Albeniz was not unduly fortunate with the titles of some of the selected pieces, which barely reflect the region to which they are supposedly dedicated. 

The Opus number, 47, assigned by Hofmeister, actually bears no relation to any type of chronological order in Albéniz's work, in which, on the other hand, the opus numbers were randomly given either by the publishers or by the same Albéniz. There are works, even, that for more confusion appear in more than one collection.

“The application of mistitles by publishers is not the only source of confusion regarding works from this period. The opus numbers of Albéniz’s compositions are almost meaningless, since he did not keep track of his works well, and his various editors never consulted him about the correct sequence of his composition and publication2.”

5.2 Traditional music features: folk and flamenco

Albéniz freely adapts certain rhythmic and melodic elements of Spanish popular music, which give the works their peculiar aroma. In a sense, they are idealized prints for popular consumption, and they also parallel costumbrismo, a contemporary literary style that tries to capture the landscapes and language of everyday life with a strong regional flavor. 

Albéniz had a special attraction to flamenco, the exotic music of Andalucia (where he traveled extensively in his youth and where he later returned as a tourist).

He frequently evokes the dotting and strumming of the Spanish guitar, and his pieces frequently begin with an evocation of the guitar accompaniment before the introduction of the melody itself. The influence of popular music is also noticeable in his penchant for symmetrical phrasing in four-bar units. The modality is usual, especially the Phrygian mode, although its harmonies are generally conservative for the parameters of the time (20 years had already passed since the premiere of Tristan and Isolde). The ternary measure and the compound binary, sometimes in an alternation that gives rise to the hemiolia, predominant in his nationalist music, as it happens in Spanish popular music.  

Another aspect to point out is the alternation between sections that in their rhythmic vivacity clearly denote dances and more lyrical sections that evoke a couplet, that is, a song or sung verse (which alternates with the chorus). Here it’s frequently perceived as the influence of the jota, an essentially southern song and dance from Aragon that, like the fandango, exists in various regional varieties, even within Andalucia itself. The jota couplets have particular characteristics that can be found in Albéniz’s melodies. They have a soft melodic profile (predominant joint movement) and conclude with a rhythmic flourish, usually a triplet. In addition, its rhythm reflects the octosyllabic verses so characteristic of Spanish poetry and song in general. However typical of the jota the octosyllabic rhythm may be, it is not exclusive to it. As Jacinto Torres points out, it is “one of the most authentic and characteristic substrates [...] of Spanish popular music, something like the primordial soup of the evolution of Hispanic folklore3.”

On other occasions, however, Albéniz evokes the cante jondo of pure flamenco, with its characteristic rhythmic freedom, melismas and vocalizations on the syllable ‘ay’. This style of singing, with a very oriental sound, has its origins in the most remote history of flamenco, and in particular in the popular and liturgical song of the Jewish, Muslim and Christian fugitives who mixed with their marginalized companions, the gypsies. The lyrics are often fatalistic and tragic, something to which the melancholic side of Albéniz’s personality was sensitive. But Albéniz does not feel obliged to equate danza and copla to genres as such, and the title or program of a work may not correspond to the character of the music as such.

5.3 Analysis 

Go to the original version of Granada

Go to the original version of Cataluña

Go to the original version of Sevilla

Go to the original version of Cuba