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.

2. Research Question, Description and Methods

I arranged the original suite española: Granada, Cataluña, Sevilla and Cuba; to investigate and learn about the process of arranging for reed quintet, in this case from the piano writing. My reseach question was: How can I arrange the Suite Española for reed quintet?

The research was done in two phases. In the first phase, I did an investigation on the composer, to learn about him, his life, and his work the Suite Española; In the second phase I made my own arrangements of the piece, brought it to the rehearsal and gathered feedback from the other members of Caire reed quintet; the composers Miguel Matamoro and Abraham Gomez; and Calefax member Raaf Hekkema.

For every phase I used the following subquestions:

What did the arrangement process involve?
What did I learn from the arranging process?
Do the arrangements work for the reed quintet formation?
The feedback from the composers

In the 1st phase I did a deep investigation on Albeniz in order to learn about his context, his life and his writing to be able to arrange the piece in the most suitable way and respecting the composer's style. I collected information from books, articles, and documentaries, and learnt from this.

In the 2nd phase, I made my own arrangements of the original Suite Española, and gathered feedback from the quintet and from composers Miguel Matamoro and Abraham Gomez, and Calefax member Raaf Hekkema.

To gather feedback about my arrangements I brought them to the rehearsals to try out my ideas and put them in common with the other members, checking wether they could work or not. At the same time I would also ask feedback from Miguel Matamoro, every so often, and Abraham Gomez and Raaf Hekkema.

I recorded some of the rehearsals in order to check later the arrangements and come up with new versions in case it was needed.

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