Albeniz, from the piano to the wind

Celia Matamoro

Albéniz was one of Celia’s favorite composers from her childhood and always felt a special connection to his work. However, in the fifteen long years that she has been studying music, she has never been able to play any of his pieces on the bassoon. Now that she has finished her master's degree -and she had to reflect on where she comes from and, ultimately, who she is-, she decided to investigate the composer in depth with the aim of arranging his Spanish Suite, originally written for piano, so that at the end of so many things, she can interpret it with her reed quintet. Thanks to its flexibility and wide palette of colors, sound, and articulation, the combination of reed instruments achieves a greater range of register and color, and provides Albéniz's music, inspired by elements of flamenco and Spanish folklore such as cante jondo, a texture and expressiveness that evokes the human voice. Caire Reed Quintet was formed in 2020, in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic crisis. The five of them are from Spain and they share the same passion for Albéniz. With this work the author wishes to offer other composers and performers the opportunity to discover, learn and experience how much the reed quintet's sonority can contribute to certain styles of music such as Spanish nationalist, reaching a greater range of register and color, and endowing this style of music from a new perspective.

Sevilla (Sevillanas)

This third piece of the suite is presented in the Sevillana style. The Sevillana is a type of cante and dance from the region of Andalusia performed during the Seville fair, whose capital is the city that gives it its name, Seville. Here Albéniz rescues again the flamenco style in a ternary form A-B-A where the first section is cheerful in character, with a marked rhythm typical of dance in ¾. The design is maintained throughout the entire section, maintaining a harmonic scheme in which he introduces the 1st theme in G major, then modulating in link for third to Eb, then reintroducing the theme in D major that later, for a change to its Phrygian mode (typically Andalusian mode), it modulates to G minor and then presents the theme in G major again and ends the section.

Here it’s seen the harmonic treatment that Albéniz uses as a man of the 19th century, but which is framed within the flamenco style that the composer chooses in this case.

The B section of this piece is the cante jondo, this time the melody is doubled at double octave, where the color is much more gloomy, focusing on the Phrygian mode. Albéniz reinforces the character of cante jondo by implementing more ornaments, passages of virtuosity that resembles the vocal, and a rhythmic that is not so marked, almost imitating the passages of a capella singing called palo seco that are very typical in Andalusian flamenco.

Figure 5 (m.1-7): Again following the flamenco forms, Albéniz makes a brief rhythmic introduction and then presents a cheerful, lively and rhythmically clear 1st theme like the typical guitar introductions of the style.

Figure 6 (m.76-81): Phrygian mode once again from the cante jondo, together with an expressive melodic line and more variable rhythmic contrasts with A section.

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