Spanish Music and its Representations in London

(1878-1930):
From the Exotic to the Modern.

Kenneth James Murray

Submitted in total fulfilment

of the requirements of the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

July 2013

Melbourne Conservatorium of Music

University of Melbourne

Produced on archival quality paper

 ABSTRACT

This thesis argues that the landscape of Spanish music in London evolved between 1878
and 1930 from Romantic exotic constructions to a recognition and appreciation of
Spanish musical nationalism, which reflected some of the concerns of post-war musical
modernism in a newly cosmopolitan context. This transformation will be traced through
the study of specific protagonists and events that contributed to the English reception of
Spanish music during this period. While the development of Spanish nationalist music
and its important intersections with French music have been studied in numerous texts,
little has been written on the English engagement with Spanish music. A key event in
defining musical and theatrical Spain in the latter part of the nineteenth century came
from France in the guise of George Bizet's Carmen (1875, London 1878). The opera,
and its many parodies and theatrical re-workings in London, provides a foundation for
discussions of Spanishness in late nineteenth-century England, and influenced the
reception of Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz.

In the Edwardian era, closer ties between England and Spain, increased travel
possibilities and specialist writers rekindled enthusiasm for Spanish music. The anti-
German currents of the pre-war years and the influence of French writers and musicians
set the scene for the further English appreciation of Spanish music in the aftermath of
the death of Enrique Granados in 1916. The English success of the Ballets Russes
production of The Three-Cornered Hat (1919), with music by Manuel de Falla, marked
the broader acceptance of Spanish musical nationalism. With the critical recognition of
Falla's neoclassical works of the 1920s Spanish music achieved further
acknowledgement in England from cosmopolitan critics. At the same time the Spanish
guitar was seen to embody many aspects of post-war Spanish music, and through the
concerts of Andrés Segovia established itself in a new guise in London. By 1930, the
recognition and popularity of Spanish music indicated the extent to which it had
integrated and evolved beyond the Romantic stereotypes prevalent half a century
earlier.
 This is to certify that

(i) the thesis comprises only my original work, except where indicated in the
preface

(ii) due acknowledgment has been made in the text to all other material used,

(iii) the thesis is less than 100,000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps,
bibliographies and appendices.

Signature:

Name in Full: Kenneth James M

Date: 28 July 2013

 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My sincere thanks to my supervisor Michael Christoforidis who inspired me to

undertake research into Spanish music and has been a great support throughout my
candidature.

I am grateful to library staff who have assisted me at the following archives and
libraries during my research: the Archivo Manuel de Falla and Centro de
Documentaciôn Musical de Andalucia in Granada, the Percy Grainger Museum in
Melbourne, the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, the British Library Newspaper
Library in Colindale, London, the Theatre Museum in London, and especially the staff
at the University of Melbourne Music Library.

To my wife Tracy, thank you for your love and understanding and my sincere thanks
for your help in putting together the final document. A special thank you to our children
Lydia, Lachlan and Ruben for their patience. The love and support of my family has
been invaluable and special thanks to Mum, Dad, Jo, Gran and Beth.

Thanks to all my colleagues at the Conservatorium of Music, the University of

Melbourne, especially Professor Gary McPherson. To Elizabeth Kertesz and Alexandra
Williams, many thanks for your valuable feedback, advice and encouragement. Thanks
also to Andrys Onsman and Stephen Langley for their generous assistance.
 CONTENTS
Introduction 1

1. Spanish music in London from the Peninsular War to the premiere of 21

Bizet's Carmen: travel writers, the guitar and Spanish dance
Travel writers on Spain 22
The Spanish guitar in England in the nineteenth century 29
Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London 34

2. Carmen and Victorian musico-theatrical notions of Spanishness 42

The reception and performance history of Bizet's Carmen in London 42
Carmen burlesques and adaptations 60
Arthur Sullivan and Spanish music 70

3. Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz: Prominent Spanish performer- 77

composers in late Victorian London
Pablo Sarasate in London 77
Isaac Albéniz in London 87

4. Estudiantinas and Spanish dancers as popular entertainment in 116

fin-de-siècle London
Estudiantinas and spectacle in Victorian London 117
Spanish dance in late Victorian and Edwardian London 127
The Carmen ballet 135
The Spanish guitar in London from Francisco Tarrega to Angel Barrios 138

5. English fin-de-siècle literary and musical evocations of Spanish music 143

Three Edwardian travel writers on Spain 143
Edward Elgar and Spanish Music 148
Percy Grainger and Spanish Music 154

6. Changing Political Alliances and Spanish Music: From the Entente 160
Cordiale (1904) to the death of Granados (1916)
The Entente Cordiale and Spanish music in Edwardian London 162
Spanish music and French music in London 165
The Death of Enrique Granados, Anglo-Spanish relations and Spanish music 172
in London
7. Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat and Flamenco 182
The English critical reception of The Three-Cornered Hat 185
The Ballets Suédois and Cuadro Flamenco 189
Falla and images of flamenco 194
Critics writing on Spain: Georges Jean-Aubry and J.B. Trend 198
Lord Berners and the Fantaisie Espagnole 206

8. Spanish Musical Nationalism, Neoclassicism and the guitar 217

Falla and Spanish Neoclassicism in 1920s England 219
Spain and English musical cosmopolitanism and the writings of Morales and 228
Trend
Andrés Segovia and the new classical guitar 234

Conclusion 245
Bibliography 250
 MUSICAL EXAMPLES

Example la. Meyer Lutz, "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!" Carmen Up to 66
Data, act 1, no. 5, ms.1-8.

Example lb. Lutz, "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!" Carmen Up to Data, 67
act 1, no. 5, ms.24-31.

Example 2. Arthur Sullivan, "Hullo! What's That?," La Contrabandista, act 73

1, no. 6, ms.234-249.

Example 3. Sullivan, Dance, La Contrabandista, act 1, no. 7, ms.1-14. 74

Example 4. Francisco Barbieri, "Jota de los Estudiantes," El Barberillo de 119

Lavapiés, act 1, no. 6, ms.23-29.

Example 5. Edward Elgar, Sérénade Mauresque, op. 10, no. 2, ms.5-6. 150

Example 6. Elgar, Movement 1, Moderato-Allegro, Piano Quintet in Amin., 152

op. 84, ms.78-92.

Example 7a. Lord Berners, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.1-6. 210

Example 7b. Berners, bassoon melody, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, 211

ms.20-21.

Example 8a. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.1-5. 212

Example 8b. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.62-64. 213

Example 9. Berners, "Pasodoble," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.140-148. 215

 LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. An advertisement for Donato the one-legged Spanish dancer in 40

matador's costume and with castanets.

Figure 2. Minnie Hauk as Carmen. 45

Figure 3. Advertisement for the sheet music for musical items from Carmen 63
up to Data, featuring Letty Lind as Mercedes.

Figure 4. Arthur Sullivan and F.C. Burnand, La Contrabandista, dialogue 72

from the end of Act 1.

Figure 5. Program for Albéniz's first London concert of Spanish Music, 96

(St. James's Hall, 7 Nov. 1890).

Figure 6. Program for Albéniz's second London concert of Spanish Music, 103
(St. James's Hall, 21 Nov. 1890).

Figure 7. Spanish Estudiantina in Paris, 1878. 118

Figure 8. Repertoire from the Estudiantina Figaro's Viennese tour October- 122
December 1878.

Figure 9. A list of countries visited by Estudiantina Figaro between 1878 124

and 1884.
Figure 10. Poem from the Clarion in praise of Otero. 128

Figure 11. Carmen as played by a real Spaniard. Signorina Guerrero at the 136
Alhambra. July 1903.

Figure 13. Program for Andres Segovia's concert at the Wigmore Hall, 240
29 January 1927.
 Introduction

From a musical point of view Spain has for generations been a sort of Ruritania, an
imaginary country which existed only as a department of the theatrical costumier's
warehouse. Thanks to Albéniz, Granados and others, we are at last beginning to
realize that Spain has a musical life of its own...De Falla arrives at an opport une
moment. He finds here in London an audience ready prepared with a knowledge of
his Spanish predecessors, and with a knowledge, too, of Stravinsky and other non-
Spanish composers whom he has evidently studied to some purpose.'

So wrote Edward Dent in response to the 1919 London premiere of The Three-
Cornered Hat presented by the Ballets Russes with music by Manuel de Falla. As
Dent observed, London audiences had an extensive and significant history of
engagement with Spanish music and dance, and Falla's music for The Three-
Cornered Hat marked a new critical appreciation of Spanish works in London. In this
thesis I will draw on selected examples of the English experience of Spanish music
(and to a lesser extent dance) over the previous four decades in order to illustrate
changes that led to the acceptance of Spain as a nation with its own musical
nationalism.

The main period under consideration in this thesis is from the London premiere of
Carmen in 1878 to 1930. For much of the nineteenth century Spain was considered
part of the exotic Orient, a place where traditions remained unchanged, while
powerful Western nations were creating empires. Throughout the 1800s London was
a significant hub for Spanish artists, and Spanish music was a regular and ever-
changing presence on the stages of nineteenth-century London.

A key event in defining musical and theatrical Spain in the latter part of the century
came via France in the guise of Georges Bizet's Carmen (1875), which incorporated a
highly original synthesis of Spanish musical and theatrical styles. The opera quickly
became the standard by which other Spanish entertainments were measured.

' Edward J. Dent, 'A Spanish Ballet,' Athenaeum, 1 Aug. 1919.

1
In this thesis I have investigated a range of responses to Spanish music in London and
the engagement of English writers with Spanish music and dance. The scope of this
study includes references to instrumental music, opera, light opera, burlesque, outdoor
entertainments and music hall performances. The Spanish guitar in London is also a
recurring theme, from the Estudiantina phenomenon of the 1880s and 1890s, to the
reception of concerts given by the Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia in the mid 1920s.

It has not been possible to provide an exhaustive survey of Spanish music in London
from 1878 to 1930 and I have focused on pivotal figures and episodes in my narrative.
Nor could the study encompass the presence of Latin-American music and performers
during this period. Spanish music cannot be divorced from dance, opera and musical
theatre and I will consider these related artforms alongside concurrent political and
social movements which provide context for the critical commentary cited in my
discussion. It is outside of the scope of my study to examine the reception of Spanish
music in private English salons. The English press provided invaluable sources such
as reviews of concert music, opera, ballet and theatre, whereas critical commentary on
salon music has proved harder to find.

In the early twentieth century the emerging political rapprochement between England
and Spain grew into an artistic alliance, matching trends in Paris that had been
documented by a body of French musical criticism. As a significant centre of Spanish
cultural activity, London played a role comparable to that of Paris in the support and
dissemination of the new nationalist school of Spanish music. By the 1920s the new
Spanish school was promoted and supported by specialist critics in London and Paris.
I conclude my research at the end of the 1920s, as the 1930s—with the
pronouncement of the Republic and the ensuing Civil War—marked a new political
landscape in Spain and different modes of engagement with Spanish entertainment in
Europe.

Methodology
The methodology for this dissertation is based principally on the study of the
reception of Spanish music and dance in London as chronicled in press reviews,
periodicals and critical writings during the years 1878 to 1930. I have drawn on a

2
range of sources in order to contextualize and understand these responses and the
ways in which they changed. Principal sources for this study have been: reviews in
newspapers and music journals, supplemented by the writings of specialist critics,
scores, recordings, concert programs, correspondence and travel writings. Secondary
sources such as biographies and general historical texts have provided the background
for my research.

The sources I have consulted reflected various opinions about Spain and Spanish
music. Rather than provide an exhaustive survey of press or critical responses I have
focused on particular periods or events in order to give a sense of this evolution. My
investigations have focused on finding references to the presentation of Spanish music
and dance in London, and within these references, evidence of changing attitudes. I
have also searched for indications of the English engagement with Spanish music and
how this may have been conditioned by the political and cultural interaction between
the two countries.

The examination of the reception of Spanish music in London has been largely
informed by the English press. The papers I have looked at most frequently include
The Times and The Manchester Guardian. Both papers are available on microfilm at
the University of Melbourne library, although since I began my investigations a
decade ago some newspapers have become available online, including The Times
through The Times Digital Archive and a collection of nineteenth-century papers in
the 19" -Century British Library Newspaper Database? There are often
inconsistencies and divergent views given in different papers and by various authors,
and I have consulted a range of sources in order to piece together a more complete
picture of my subject. In this respect information gained from concert programs and
musical scores has informed my reading of the press reviews and articles.

In the course of researching material for this thesis I visited a number of archives. At
the Archivo Manuel de Falla in Granada I consulted Falla's correspondence,
manuscripts and musical sketches. Falla's extensive library of books and scores were
also viewed. Scores and sketch material by Angel Barrios are housed at the Centro de

2
The Times Digital Archive, 1785-2006, www.gale.cengage.co.uk; 19'h Century British Library
Newspaper Database, www.gale.cengage.co.uk.

3
Documentaciôn Musical de Andalucia in Granada and provided valuable insights into
Barrios' musical career. At the Percy Grainger Museum in Melbourne I studied
concert programs, press reviews and scores in preparation for the discussion of
Grainger and Spanish music in Chapter 5. I examined the two scrapbooks in the Isaac
Albéniz collection at the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona, kept by Albéniz as a
record of his time in London during the 1890s. These press cuttings were collected
for Albéniz by the Romeike and Curtice Press Cutting and Information Agency.
Albéniz's correspondence with Francis Money-Coutts was also consulted at the
Biblioteca de Catalunya. I used the British Library Newspaper Collection in
Colindale, London to search the daily and periodical press for reviews, references to
important concerts and visits to London by Spanish artists. I also visited the Theatre
Museum in London where I found useful material relating to the various theatrical re-
workings of Carmen in the 1880s and 1890s. The Dent Archive at the library of
King's College, Cambridge holds a small amount of material relating to his work with
the International Society of Contemporary Music and correspondence between
Edward Dent and J.B. Trend. These papers were not viewed as part of the research
for this thesis but constitute an area for future research (see conclusion).

This thesis will not be framed primarily in terms of current critical theories relating to
exoticism or orientalism, although some of the literature as it relates to Spanish music
informs my discussion. Rather, the approach is based on a reading of historical
sources informed by contemporaneous aesthetic debates, and to a lesser extent the
social and political events that had an impact on Anglo-Spanish relations.

Literature review
Scholarly literature has largely neglected fin-de-siècle English engagement with
Spanish music, in contrast to the significant body of research devoted to Spanish
music and musicians during the same period. In addition to studies of specific
composers, Spanish and French exchanges in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries have received more sustained attention. Louis Jambou and François Lesure
have edited books investigating the interactions between Spanish and French music.3

s
Lou is Jambou, ed., La musiquee Entre France et Espagne: Interactions stylistiques. Actes du
colloque international tenu à Paris, en Sorbonne-Paris IV et à l'Instituto Cervantes, les 14-16 mai
2001 (Paris: Presses de I'Univ. de Paris-Sorbonne, 2003); François Lesure, ed., Échanges musicaux

4
 Stéphan Etcharry has published pioneering work on the influence of French
musicologist and composer Henri Collet, and Monserrat Bergadà's thesis focused on
Catalan pianists in Paris from 1875-1925.4 These ideas have been expanded upon by
Samuel Llano in his recent book Whose Spain?: Negotiating Spanish music in Paris,
1908-1929, a major addition to the literature on twentieth-century Spanish music.5
Llano analyzes the powerful influence of French critics and musicians on the
development of a national style of Spanish music. He writes extensively on the
French critic Henri Collet and composer Raoul Laparra, in this detailed and wide-
ranging exploration of Spanish music. Whose Spain? is a landmark work and has
influenced my understanding of the French influence on Anglo-Spanish musical
relations.

For much of the nineteenth century Spain was viewed as part of the exotic Orient,
with an emphasis on its Moorish heritage and the exotic status of marginalized groups
such as the gypsies. There are, however, difficulties in trying to fit Spanish music
into the standard definitions of, and arguments about, orientalism, which is often
studied with reference to either the Middle East or the Far East. Spain was a distinct
case partly because it was an internal exotic "Other" within Europe. Llano refers to
Spain as a "low Other" in the French imagination due to the minimal political and
economic authority it exerted in Europe in the nineteenth-century.6 Both France and
England have had a centuries-long history of engagement with Spanish culture, and
these relationships have not been static.

The French invaded Spain twice in the nineteenth century, first during the Napoleonic
Wars (1808-1813) and later in the 1823 military intervention to restore the Bourbon
monarchy. Military superiority gave France a dominant position in the relationship
with Spain, however, the basis of the nineteenth-century affiliation between England
and Spain was different. England had fought alongside Spain against Napoleon and

franco-espagnols XVlle-XIXe siècles: Actes des Rencontres de Villecroze, 15 au 17 octobre 1998

(Paris: Klincksieck, 2000).
4 Monserrat Bergadà, Les pianistes catalans à Paris entre 1875 et 1925 (PhD diss., Université François
Rabelais, Tours, 1997); Stéphan Etcharry, "Henri Collet (1885-1951), compositeur: Un itinéraire
singulier dans l'hispanisme musical français" (PhD diss., Université de Paris-Sorbonne, 2004).
3 Samuel Llano, Whose Spain?: Negotiating Spanish music in Paris, 1908-1929 (New York: OUP,
2013).
6 Ibid., 3.

5
the English appreciation of Spain in the nineteenth century was framed by this
political alliance. In the late nineteenth century England and Spain had much in
common, both searching for the inspiration for a nationalist revival in the music of the
golden age of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In the early twentieth century
France viewed Spain as a junior partner in a Latin alliance of nations, whereas the
relationship between England and Spain had evolved on a different footing.

To complicate the issue of exotic "Otherness", within Spain there were various
internal "Others" who were exoticised by the Spaniards themselves, such as the
Andalusians and gypsies. Studying Spanish music as an exotic construct is
problematic because of the numerous, divergent influences operating throughout the
nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The influence of Romantic writers and
artists and their fascination with the Orient was pivotal in establishing modes of
thinking about Spain. Also important were the outcomes of military conflict with
France and the changes brought about by Spain's loss of empire. The many English
and French artists who performed and interpreted Spanish music and dance played a
central role in the dissemination of stereotypes, as did Spanish musicians and dancers
who responded to foreign notions about "true" Spanish music in their concerts.

Edward Said set the agenda for discussions on exoticism and Western perceptions of
the Orient in his seminal book Orientalism.8 He redefined orientalism as the means
by which Western nations asserted power over weaker nations by emphasizing their
cultural differences, thereby demonstrating their inferiority.9 Said also wrote on
music but did not address the issue of orientalism or exoticism in Spain. The debate
on orientalism has extended to all artforms and John MacKenzie's book Orientalism:
History, Theory and the Arts, is a concise summary of the issues in orientalist
discourse across the visual arts, architecture, design, theatre and music.10

7 I will discuss the writings of Washington Irving, George Borrow and Richard Ford in Chapter 1. The
most dominant nineteenth-century French writings on Spain include: François-René Chateaubriand,
Atala: René; et Les aventures du dernier Abencérage (Paris: De Mat, à la Librairie Nationale, 1826);
Victor Hugo, Odes et ballades: Les orientales (1829; Paris: L'imprimerie nationale, 1904); Prosper
Mérimée, Carmen: 1845; (suivi de) Les âmes du purgatoire: 1834, ed. by Nicolas Leclerc (Paris:
Hatier, 2006); Théophile Gautier, Voyage en Espagne (Paris: Charpentier, 1862).
8 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Pantheon, 1978).
9 Said described Orientalism as "A Western style for dominating, restructuring, and having authority
over the Orient." Ibid., 3.
10 John M. MacKenzie, Orientalism (Manchester: Manchester Universi ty Press, 1995).

6
 The discussion of orientalism and exoticism in the field of music has been led by
some distinguished scholars, most notably Jonathan Bellman and Ralph Locke.
Bellman edited the important collection of essays, The Exotic in Western Music,"
which contains an extensive chapter on exoticism and Spanish music by James
Parakilas, `How Spain Got a Soul.'12 Locke's recent contribution to the field is the
2009 book Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections, a culmination of his ideas on
musical exoticism.13 Locke has also written on Carmen and in his essay `Spanish
Local Color in Bizet's Carmen,' he analyses Bizet's borrowings and inspirations for
the Spanish colour evident in the opera.14 Bellman offers an explanation for the
dearth of studies of Spanish music and exoticism: "The cultural complexities are
forbidding, so aside from James Parakilas's definitive study `How Spain Got a Soul,'
people tend to stay away from the subject, despite the obvious cultural and musical
richness."15 One author who has tackled the subject of Carmen and the gypsies as
symbols of Spanish orientalism is José Colmeiro in his excellent article `Exorcising
Exoticism: "Carmen" and the Construction of Oriental Spain.' 16 The most
comprehensive and thought-provoking examination of Spanish music and exoticism is
Samuel Llano's Whose Spain?, discussed earlier in this section.

Given the importance of English press sources to this dissertation, some secondary
literature proved useful in guiding my research. Meirion Hughes' book The English
Musical Renaissance and the Press 1850-1914,17 offers valuable insights into the
thinking of English music critics and the English press in the long nineteenth century.
One of the most famous critics in this period was George Bernard Shaw and a number

11 Jonathan Bellman, ed., The Exotic In Western Music (Boston: Northeast University Press,1998).
12
James Parakilas, `How Spain Got a Soul,' in The Exotic in Western Music, ed. Jonathon Bellman
(Boston: Northeast University Press,1998), 137-193.
13 Ralph P. Locke, Musical Exoticism: Images and Reflections (Cambridge: CUP, 2009).
14 Ralph P. Locke, `Spanish Local Color in Bizet's Carmen,' in Music, Theater, and Cultural Transfer:
Paris, 1830-1914, eds. Annegret Fauser and Mark Everist (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2009), 316-360.
15
Jonathan D. Bellman, 'Musical Voyages and Their Baggage: Orientalism in Music and Critical
Musicology,' Musical Quarterly 94, no. 3 (2011): 433.
16
José F Colmeiro, 'Exorcising Exoticism: "Carmen" and the Construction of Oriental Spain.'
Comparative Literature 54, no. 2 (2002): 127-144.
17 Meirion Hughes, The English Musical Renaissance and the Press 1850-1914: Watchmen of Music
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2002).

7
of his reviews were pertinent to my study of the reception of Albéniz and Sarasate in
London.18

Travel writing has emerged as a serious field of academic enquiry in recent years and
publications such as The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing have contributed
to the expansion of the field.19 Research on English travel writers to Spain in the
nineteenth century is still relatively sparse, but Ana Hontanilla's article `Images of
Barbaric Spain in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Writing' highlights the
prejudices that existed toward Spain during the 1700s and the portrayal of it as a cruel
country 20 The British and the Grand Tour by Jeremy Black contains some references
to British travel to Spain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries 21

Much of the scholarly work on the political relationship between England and Spain
has focused on two main periods, the sixteenth century and the Spanish Civil War
(1936-1939) and its aftermath. Little has been written on Anglo-Spanish relations in
the period focused on in this thesis (1878-1930), however, writings examining the
relationship outside of my main area of research have provided valuable context and
insights. Kirsty Hooper from the University of Liverpool was granted a Phillip
Leverhulme Prize in 2011 to study the development of the English fascination with
Spain between the years 1888 and 1919.22 Her forthcoming book on the topic will be
titled The Edwardians and the Making of a Modern Spanish Obsession and I have
engaged in discussion with the author on aspects of this research.23

In the sixteenth century both England and Spain were expanding their interests into
America and competing for colonies and influence. The English writer Richard
Hakluyt (c.1552-1616) perpetuated a view of imperial Spain as a cruel and violent

18
George Bernard Shaw, Music in London, 1890-1894, vols. I-III (London: Constable, 1937); London
Music in 1888-89 as Heard by Corno di Bassetto: (Later Known as Bernard Shaw) with some Further
Autobiographical Particulars (London: Constable, 1917).
19 Peter Hulme and Tim Young, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing (Cambridge: CUP,
2002).
20 Ana Hontanilla, `Images of Barbaric Spain in Eighteenth-Century British Travel Writing,' Studies in
Eighteenth Century Culture 37 (2008): 119-143.
21 Jeremy Black, The British and the Grand Tour (London: Croom Helm, 1985).
22
Kirsty Hooper, `The Leverhulme Trust', accessed 7 May 2013,
www.leverhulme.ac.uk/news/news item.cfm/news id/3 8/newsid/ 14 8.
23 Kirsty Hooper, `Dr Kirsty Hoope-r', accessed 7 May 2013, www.kirstyhooper.net.

8
country.24 Francisco J. Borge has examined Hakluyt's writings on Spain in a book
chapter titled: `We (upon peril of my life) shall make the Spaniard ridiculous to all
Europe.'25 Alexander Samson has published on Anglo-Spanish relations in the 1500s
and examines the changing nature of the alliance up to the seventeenth century.26 The
influence of Cervantes on British writing and on the English appreciation of Spain is
the subject of the book The Cervantean Heritage: Reception and Influence of
Cervantes in Britain edited by J. A. G. Ardila.27 The period of Anglo-Spanish
relations best served by scholars is the Spanish Civil War. In this area the work of
Enrique Moradiellos has been particularly influential, focusing on the tacit British
support of the right-wing Nationalist supporters.28

Of the general literature on Spanish history, Salvador Madariaga's simply titled Spain
was first published in 1930, before the onset of the Spanish Civil War.29 The book
provides a unique perspective on the Anglo-Spanish relationship, having been written
in English by a prominent Spaniard living in London. Other Spanish histories that
have informed my work include the excellent collection of essays by leading Spanish,
American and British authors, Spanish History Since 1808,3° and Mary Vincent's
Spain, 1833-2002: People and State.31

In this thesis I will argue that the guitar's presence in London, as both a solo and
ensemble instrument and as an accompaniment to Spanish dance, was a significant
contributor to perceptions of Spanish music from 1878 until 1930, yet little has been
written on the subject. Stuart Button's book The Guitar in England 1800-1924,32 is a

24
Daniel Carey and Claire Jowitt eds., Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern Europe
(Farnham: Ashgate, 2012).
25
Francisco J. Borge, 'We (upon peril of my life) shall make the Spaniard ridiculous to all Europe":
Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse" of Spain,' in Richard Hakluyt and Travel Writing in Early Modern
Europe, eds. Daniel Carey and Claire Jowitt (Farnham: Ashgate, 2012), 167-176.
26
Alexander Samson, `A Fine Romance: Anglo-Spanish Relations in the Sixteenth Century,' Journal
of Medieval and Early Modern Studies 39, no. 1 (2009): 65-94.
27
J. A. G. Ardila, ed., The Cervantean Heritage: Reception and Influence of Cervantes in Britain
(London: Legenda, 2009).
28 See Enrique Moradiellos, `The Origins of British Non-Intervention in the Spanish Civil War: Anglo-
Spanish Relations in Early 1936,' European History Quarterly 21, no. 3 (1991): 339-364; `British
Political Strategy in the Face of the Military Rising of 1936 in Spain,' Contemporary European History
1, no. 2 (1992): 123-137, and `The British Image of Spain and the Civil War,' International Journal of
Iberian Studies 15, no. 1 (2002): 4-13.
29
Salvador de Madariaga, Spain (London: Ernest Benn, 1930).
30 José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert, eds., Spanish History Since 1808 (London: Arnold, 2000).
31 Mary Vincent, Spain, 1833-2002: People and State (Oxford: OUP, 2007).
32
Stuart Button, The Guitar in England 1800-1924 (New York: Garland Publishing, 1989).

9
selective survey of guitar players and teachers in London. He focuses on the history
of the concert guitar rather than the popular manifestations of the instrument in the
late nineteenth century, paying particular attention to British guitarists such as
Catharina Josepha Pratten (later known as Madame Sidney Pratten) and Ernest Shand.
Phillip J. Bone's dictionary The Guitar and Mandolin, first published in 1914,
provides an authoritative survey of major figures in the guitar world of late Victorian
and Edwardian England.33

Brian Jeffrey has researched the life and music of Spanish guitarist and composer
Fernando Sor, an influential figure who was based in London from 1815 until 1823.
His biography provides many insights into Sor's time in London.34 Also valuable for
my discussion of the guitar and Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London was the
collection of essays on Sor edited by Luis Gasser.35 Very little has been published on
the plucked-string Estudiantina ensembles that first visited London in 1879 and in
Chapter 4 I will document their role in the dissemination of the Spanish guitar in the
late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.36

The classical guitar was reinvented and remade by the Spanish guitarists Andrés
Segovia, Emilio Pujol and Miguel Llobet, all three of whom toured internationally in
the early decades of the twentieth century. Segovia was especially successful in
London where he concertized, made recordings and broadcast conce rts for the BBC.
Graham Wade and Gerald Garno's book, A New Look at Segovia: His Life, His
Music, considers the early reception of Segovia in London.37 More recently, Alberto
López-Poveda's Spanish-language biography thoroughly surveys all the tours of
Segovia's long career.38 Both books include some reviews of London concerts given
by Segovia. Through a survey of reviews and responses to Segovia's first conce rts I
have been able to raise important themes in the critical reception of his first London

33
Phillip J. Bone, The Guitar and Mandolin, 2nd ed. (1954; reprint London: Schott, 1972; originally
published 1914).
° Brian Jeffrey, Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist (London: Tecla, 1971).
35
Luis Gasser ed, Estudios sobre Fernando Sor (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003).
36
Two authors who have written about the Estudiantina phenomenon of the late nineteenth century are
Paul Sparks, The Classical Mandolin, (New York: OUP, 1995) and Jeffrey J. Noonan, The Guitar in
America: Victorian Era to Jazz Age (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2008).
37 Graham Wade and Gerald Garno, A New Look at Segovia: His Life, His Music, vol. 1 (Pacific, MO:
Mel Bay, 1997).
38
Alberto Lopez-Poveda, Andrés Segovia: vida y obra, vol. 1 (Jaén: Universidad de Jaén, 2010).

10
concerts and those of his Spanish predecessors Pujol and Llobet. Michael
Christoforidis and Ruth Piquer Sanclemente's article on the guitar and neoclassicism
highlights the importance of the visual arts and neoclassical currents to both the
repertoire and reception of the twentieth century classical guitar.39

The reception of Spanish music cannot be divorced from Spanish dance, with
stereotypes of Spanishness linked firmly to both. Ivor Guest's study of The Romantic
Ballet in England is an insightful history of dance in London in the nineteenth
century,40 and the work of Kurt Gänzl, particularly The Encyclopedia of the Musical
Theatre, covers popular theatre forms such as operetta, burlesque and musical
comedy.41

After the London premiere of Carmen in 1878 the landscape changed significantly
and a series of Spanish dancers, most notably Carolina "La Belle" Otero and Rosario
Guerrero, introduced a new style of Spanish dance to London, incorporating elements
of flamenco. There have been few studies written on these dancers and much of the
literature is either anecdotal or inaccurate.42 The Spanish dancer Carmencita was
particularly successful in the United States and she served as a model for Otero.
Camille Hardy has used press reviews to document and discuss the reception of
Carmencita and Otero in New York, but there have been no comparable studies on the
London context.43 A recent book in Spanish on Carmencita by José Luis Navarro
Garcia and José Gelardo Navarro has helped to correct many misconceptions about
her life and career.44 I will examine the reception of Spanish dancers in London in the
light of changing fashions and perceptions of Spain.

39 Ruth Piquer Sanclemente and Michael Christoforidis, 'Cubism, Neoclasicismo y el renacimiento de

la guitarra espafiola a principios del siglo XX,' Roseta. Revista de la Sociedad Espanola de la Guitarra
6, no. 1 (2011): 6-19.
4o Ivor Guest, The Romantic Ballet in England: Its Development, Fulfilment and Decline (Middletown:
Wesleyan University Press, 1972)
41 Kurt Gänzl, The Encyclopedia of The Musical Theatre (New York: Schirmer, 2001).
42
For example Arthur H. Lewis, La Belle Otero (New York: Trident Press, 1967) contains many
unverified anecdotes and inaccurate historical facts. Even the more recent Spanish biography by Javier
Figuero and Marie-Helene Carbonell, Arruiname pero no me abandones: La Belle Otero y la Belle
Epoque (Madrid: Espasa-Culpe, 2003) perpetuates many of the errors of earlier texts.
43 Camille Hardy, `Flashes of Flamenco: The American Debuts of Carmencita and Otero,' Arabesque:
A Magazine of International Dance 9, no. 1 (1983): 16-23.
44
José Luis Navarro Garcia and José Gelardo Navarro, Carmencita Dauset: Una bailaora almeriense
(Almeria: La Hidra de Lerna, 2011).

11
The Ballets Russes' performance of The Three-Cornered Hat in London was an
important milestone in the appreciation of Spanish music in London, as will be argued
in Chapter 7. The work of Lynn Garafola on the Ballets Russes and the reception of
their performances in London provided valuable background material for my
research.45 Los Ballets Russes de Diaghilev y Espana, edited by Yvan Nommick and
Antonio Alvarez Canibano, provides a wide-reaching examination of the Ballets
Russes in Spain and highlights many of the issues that affected responses to these
works in London.46 Michael Christoforidis' article on the London reception of The
Three-Cornered Hat has provided invaluable guidance for my work.47

A number of scholars have studied the French reception of the opera Carmen, notably
Lesley Wright and Kerry Murphy.48 Elizabeth Kertesz and Michael Christoforidis
have analysed the reception of Carmen in Madrid, where responses to the opera were
very different to the London context.49 There have been no recent studies of the
reception of Carmen in London. I have surveyed English press reviews and
documented the evolution of stereotypes of Spanishness as seen through the work, in
particular changes in how the character of Carmen was portrayed. The opera is
central to my thesis because it served as the backdrop for the reception of Spanish
music and dance from its premiere until World War I, and had a profound influence
on the evolution of Spanish stereotypes.

Until relatively recently Isaac Albéniz's activities as a pianist, composer and concert
promoter in London from 1889-1893 have been paid scant attention. Previously,
musicologists concentrated more on his time spent in Spain and Paris, although
Walter Aaron Clark's book, Albéniz, Portrait of a Romantic (1999), provided some

45
See Lynn Garafola's survey of the Ballets Russes in London: Lynn Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets
Russes (New York: OUP, 1989), 300-329.
46 Yvan Nommick and Antonio Alvarez Canibano, eds., Los Ballets Russes de Diaghilev y Espana
(Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla, Centro de Documentaci6n de M6sica y Danza, 2000).
See also Yolanda Acker, Los Ballets Russes en Espana: recepciôn y gula de sus primeras Actuaciones
(Granada: Fundaci6n Archivo Manuel de Falla, 2000).
47 Michael Christoforidis, `Issues in the English Critical Reception of The Three-Cornered Hat,'
Context 19 (Spring 2000): 87-94.
48 Lesley Wright, ed., Georges Bizet, Carmen: dossier de presse parisienne (1875) (Weinsberg: L.
Galland, 2001); Kerry Murphy, `Carmen: Couleur Locale or the Real Thing?,' in Music, Theatre and
Cultural Transfer: Paris, 1830-1914, ed. Annegret Fauser and Mark Everist (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2009), 293-315.
49 Elizabeth Kertesz and Michael Christoforidis, `Confronting "Carmen" Beyond the Pyrenees: Bizet's
Opera in Madrid, 1887-1888,' Cambridge Opera Journal 20, no. 1 (2008): 79-110.

12
 balance with a discussion of the theatre and operatic music Albéniz wrote in London,
and the effect this period had on his later, more influential works.50 Albéniz wrote
three operas to libretti by the wealthy English patron Francis Money-Coutts, Henry
Clifford (1895), Pepita Jiménez (1896) and Merlin (1902), and Clark has written
perceptively on this relationship.51 Other scholars who have contributed to an
understanding of Albéniz's operas from his London period include Clifford Bevan
and Robert Haller.52 Sonia Maria Rodriguez Bermejo's thesis, "Discovering Isaac
Albéniz as a song composer" includes a chapter on his English songs with words by
Money-Coutts.53 Through archival research, namely the Albéniz scrapbooks in the
Biblioteca de Catalunya, I have been able to piece together a more complete picture of
the reception of Albéniz's concerts in London and how he was received as both a
pianist and a composer. A number of Albéniz's piano pieces were first performed
with titles that were later changed. Where possible I have chosen to use the titles
given by Jacinto Tones in his catalogue of Albéniz's works, Catcilogo sistematico
descriptivo de las obras musicales de Isaac Albéniz.54

Pablo Sarasate's activities in London and his prominent profile as a Spanish artist in
London have received limited scholarly consideration. Luis Iberni's ground-breaking
biography provides many new details on Sarasate's activities and his relationships
with his contemporaries, but does not focus extensively on his performances in
London.55 His violin playing style and recordings have been analyzed in recent
research, but rarely with any reference to his identification as a Spanish performer and
composer.56

50
Walter Aaron Clark, Isaac Albéniz: Portrait of a Romantic (Oxford: OUP, 1999).
51 Clark's Albéniz biography synthesizes material from his earlier work `Isaac Albéniz's Faustian Pact:
A Study in Patronage,' Musical Quarterly 76, no. 4 (1992): 465-487; and his doctoral thesis: Spanish
Music with a Universal Accent: Isaac Albéniz's Opera Pepita Jiménez (UMI, Dissertation Information
Service, 1995).
52
Clifford James Bevan. `Albéniz, Money-Coutts, and "La Parenthese Londonienne"' (PhD diss.,
University of London, 1994); Robert S. Haller, `Malory Meets Wagner in Madrid: Albéniz's Merlin
and the Mythologizing of Arthur,' Ars Lyrica 15, no. 1 (2006): 67-78.
53 Sonia Maria Rodriguez Bermejo, `Discovering Isaac Albéniz as a Song Composer,' (PhD diss.,
University of Cincinnati, 2010) 82-130.
54
Jacinto Torres, Catcilogo sistematico descriptivo de las obras musicales de Isaac Albéniz (Madrid:
Instituto de Bibliografla Musical, 2001).
55
Luis G. Iberni, Pablo Sarasate (Madrid: ICCMU, 1994).
56
See David Milson Theory and Practice in Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance: An
Examination of Style in Performance 1850-1900 (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003); Pablo L. Rodriguez, `De
la Manière des Zigeuner: On Pablo Sarasate's 1904 recordings,' in Henryk Wieniawski and the 19m-
Century Violin Schools: Techniques of Playing, Performance, Questions of Sources and Editorial

13
During World War I Enrique Granados was the victim of a German U-boat attack on
a civilian vessel in the English Channel. This incident became a defining moment in
the history of Spanish music in London. Subsequently, Granados' works and the
music of his Spanish contemporaries were promoted with zeal, due in large part to the
anti-German sentiment aroused by the war and the emerging alliance between
England and Spain. Carol Hess' book Enrique Granados - A Bio-Bibliography was
for a number of years the primary resource for Granados studies.57 Walter Aaron
Clark's comprehensive biography of Granados has been a welcome addition to
twentieth-century Spanish music studies, providing valuable context for Granados'
works and a broad survey across his entire output.58 Through an assessment of
critical writings I will establish the context for the acceptance of modern Spanish
music in London that began with the death of Granados in 1916 and culminated in the
critical response to the neoclassical works of Manuel de Falla.

The music of Manuel de Falla and its reception in England in the 1920s is discussed
in Chapter 8. Of all the Spanish composers I have considered, Manuel de Falla's life
and works have received the most detailed attention from scholars. Two books by
Carol Hess situate Falla's music and life in new contexts.59 Manuel de Falla and
Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936 focuses on the Spanish context for Falla's works and
follows on from her PhD dissertation `Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat
and the Advent of Modernism in Spain' (1994).60 Chapter 5 of Hess' book, `The
Three-Cornered Hat and its Spanish Critics' examines the reception of the work in
Spain and illustrates important issues in the reception of the work, which are relevant
to my research even though very different issues were played out in the London
context.61 Her more recent book Sacred Passions is a thoroughly-documented
biography of Falla and, amongst other new research, explores the American reception

Issues, Maciej Jablonski and Danuta Jasinska (Poznan: The Henryk Wieniawski Musical Society,
2006).
57 Carol Hess, Enrique Granados - A Bio-Bibliography (New York: Greenwood Press, 1991).
58 Walter Aaron Clark, Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano (Oxford: OUP, 2005).
59
Carol Hess, Manuel de Falla and Modernism in Spain, 1898-1936 (Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 2001); Carol Hess, Sacred Passions: The Life and Music of Manuel de Falla (Oxford: OUP,
2005),138.
60 Carol Hess, `Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat and the Advent of Modernism in Spain'
(PhD diss., University of California, Davis, 1994).
6t Hess, Manuel de Falla, 130-160.

14
of Falla's work. In terms of the English context, Chris Collins' article `Falla in
Britain' is a fascinating and detailed survey of Falla's activites in London and his
network of friends, colleagues and supporters 62 The 2005 Falla volume by Nancy
Lee Harper, Manuel de Falla: Life and Works, includes a comprehensive survey of
Falla's output and features specialist chapters written by Chris Collins, Michael
Christoforidis and Louis Jambou.63 Several articles by Michael Christoforidis have
provided invaluable guidance in my work,64 and his PhD thesis, `Aspects of the
creative process in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de Maese Pedro and Concerto' is a
key study of Falla's neoclassical style.65

J.B. (John Brande) Trend was one of the most influential English critics to write on
Spanish music. He transcended the role of travel writer and became an authority on
Spanish music, playing an active role in its performance and dissemination in
England. In addition to his work for newspapers and music periodicals, Trend's
books range from early Spanish music to the music of his friend Manuel de Falla.66
Nigel Dennis has edited the letters between Falla and Trend in Epistolario (1919-
1935), a correspondence that details the close relationship between the two men.67
Trend's music criticism published in the Criterion is the focus of an article written in
Spanish by Margarita Garbisu Buesa.68 In Chapters 7 and 8 I will examine Trend's
role in advancing a modern perspective on Spanish music for an English readership.

I have chosen to include three brief case studies of English composers and their
interactions with Hispanic music as examples of the English engagement with
different aspects of "Spanish" music, that relate to some of the issues raised in this

62
Chris Collins, `Falla in Britain,' Musical Times 144 (Summer 2003): 33-48.
63
Nancy Lee Harper, Manuel de Falla: His Life and Music (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005).
64 Michael Christoforidis, `Igor Stravinsky, Spanish Catholicism and Generalissimo Franco,' Context,
22 (Spring 2001): 61-67; 'Invasion of the Barbarians:" Spanish Composers and Challenges to
Exoticism in Belle-epoque Paris' Context: Journal of Music Research 29/30 (2005): 111-118
65
Michael Christoforidis, `Aspects of the creative process in Manuel de Falla's El retablo de maese
Pedro and Concerto,' (PhD diss., University of Melbourne, 1997).
66
J.B. Trend, Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas (London: OUP, 1925); J.B. Trend, The Music of Spanish
History to 1600 (London: OUP, 1926); J.B. Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music (New York:
Knopf, 1934).
67 Manuel de Falla - John B. Trend: Epistolario (1919-1935), ed. Nigel Dennis (Granada: Universidad

de Granada and Archivo Manuel de Falla, 2007).

68
Margarita Garbisu Buesa, `La recepcibn de la mi Sica espafiola de The Criterion a traves de los
escritos de John B. Trend,' Anuario Musical, 63 (Jan.-Dec. 2008): 153-180.

15
thesis. Selected works by Arthur Sullivan, Edward Elgar and Lord Berners will be
69
considered, alongside Percy Grainger's pioneering performances of Albéniz.

Arthur Sullivan's early music theatre work La Contrabandista (1867) is set in Spain
and riddled with Spanish clichés. Written in collaboration with the writer F.C.
Burnand, it was reworked in the wake of the success of Carmen and renamed The
Chieftain (1894). This piece has received little attention from Sullivan scholars with
his later, more successful, collaborations with William Gilbert the subject of more
discussion. Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician by Arthur Jacobs includes a brief
discussion of the Spanish elements in this work.70

Robert Anderson's study of Elgar's manuscripts has brought to light many new
sketches and source materia1.71 His biography of Elgar makes several references to
the English composer's penchant for Spanish music.72 The Cambridge Companion to
Elgar includes articles by a number of scholars who provide insights into Elgar's
early Spanish-flavored works such as the Sevillana and the Intermezzo Moresque.73

The lack of studies on Grainger and Spanish music has contributed to the scarce
recognition of his role as a pioneer in the dissemination of contemporary Spanish
music in the early twentieth century. His own writings and letters are the best sources
for his thoughts on the subject and the volumes edited by Malcolm Gillies, Bruce
Clunies Ross, David Pear and Mark Carroll are the main published resources for
Grainger's writings.74 Kay Dreyfus' book of Grainger' letters, The Farthest North of
Humanness is also essential reading for insights into Grainger's activities in the first
decades of the twentieth century.75 Michael Christoforidis and I have co-authored a

69
Born in Australia in 1882, Grainger was based in London from 1901 to 1914 and established himself
at the heart of English musical nationalism through his folksong collecting and associations with key
English composers and artists.
70 Arthur Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician (Oxford: OUP, 1984), 52, 352-354.
71
Robert Anderson, Elgar in Manuscript (London: British Library, 1990).
72 Robert Anderson, Elgar (London: Dent, 1993), 15.
73 Daniel M. Grimley, and Julian Rushton, eds., The Cambridge Companion to Elgar, (Cambridge:
CUP, 2004).
74 Percy Grainger, Grainger on Music, eds., Malcolm Gillies and Bruce Clunies Ross (Oxford: OUP,
1999); Malcolm Gillies and David Pear, Portrait of Percy Grainger (Rochester: University of
Rochester Press, 2002); Malcolm Gillies, David Pear and Mark Carroll, eds., Self-Portrait of Percy
Grainger (Oxford: OUP, 2006).
73
Kay Dreyfus, The Farthest North of Humanness: Letters of Percy Grainger, 1901-14 (London:
Macmillan, 1985).

16
chapter titled `The Hispanic Grainger: Encounters with the Modern Spanish School,'
in the forthcoming book Grainger the Modernist, edited by Suzanne Robinson and
Kay Dreyfus to be published by Ashgate in 2014.

The English composer Gerald Hugh Tyrwhitt-Wilson, the 14t" Baron Berners, better
known as Lord Berners, has been the subject of two recent monographs. Bryony
Jones' The Music of Lord Berners (2003) includes a biographical chapter and focuses
on Berners' music, including a discussion of the composition and orchestration of his
Fantaisie espagnole.76 Peter Dickenson's 2008 book on Berners reproduces
interviews with a number of the composer's friends and focuses on his activities as a
painter, writer and composer.77

Chapter overview
The nineteenth-century English fascination with Spain grew in part out of the broader
Western European fascination with the Oriental East. Novels, travel writings and
images from the visual arts all influenced the creation of stereotypes that defined
Spanish culture for international audiences. In Chapter 1, I provide some background
to English engagement with Spain and its music in the decades prior to the London
reception of Bizet's opera Carmen. To illustrate the important role played by travel
writers in the formation of nineteenth-century ideas about Spain I have selected three
of the most widely read books published in English on Spain: The Bible in Spain by
George Borrow, Tales of the Alhambra by Washington Irving and Richard Ford's
Hand-book for Travellers in Spain.78 References to music in these works often relate
to dance and the guitar. To contextualize my ensuing discussions of Spanish music
and dance, I present an overview of the Spanish guitar and changing responses to
Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London.

The second chapter of this thesis examines and discusses Carmen and Victorian
musico-theatrical notions of Spanishness. I consider the performance history of

76 Bryony Jones, The Music of Lord Berners (1883-1950): 'The Versatile Peer' (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2003) 52-61.
77 Peter Dickinson, Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter (Woodbridge: Boydell Press, 2008)
78 George Borrow, The Bible in Spain (London: J. Murray, 1843); Washington Irving, Tales of the
Alhambra (1851; Tarrytown: Sleepy Hollow Press, 1982); Richard Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in
Spain, and Readers at Home (London: John Murray, 1845).

17
Carmen in London, followed by a discussion of various burlesques and adaptations of
the opera. To be successful in the title role, performers had to measure up to the
expectations of audiences and critics who demanded evidence of Spanish traits in
performances. In this chapter I also discuss Spanish elements of another musico-
theatrical work on the London stage, Arthur Sullivan's La Contrabandista. This work
looks back to clichés of Spanish music prominent in the first half of the nineteenth
century and was later revised for performance in the aftermath of London's
engagement with Carmen.

The two most prominent Spanish musicians to perform regularly in London in the
1880s and 1890s were Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz.79 In Chapter 3 I will discuss
the reception of their activities in London, with an emphasis on how they presented
themselves as Spanish artists and English references to their nationality and local
colour. Both Sarasate and Albéniz were performing and composing in London at a
time when Carmen provided the overriding template for Spanishness. In response
Sarasate performed his own Spanish works, and his Carmen Fantasy, which he often
played at the end of concerts or as encore pieces. Albéniz organized two concerts of
his own music and music of his Spanish contemporaries in 1892 in an effort to
disseminate a broader view of what constituted Spanish music. My discussion of the
reception of Sarasate and Albéniz in London reveals the tension between English
expectations of Spanish music, and the way Spanish performers and composers
viewed themselves.

Chapter 4 focuses on popular entertainments featuring Spanish music and dance in

fin-de-siècle London.80 Coinciding with increased British tourism to Spain, traveling
groups of Estudiantinas presented a fresh perspective of Spanish music in London,
one that featured plucked instruments, and often provided the accompaniment for
Spanish dance acts. Dancers such as Carolina Otero introduced a new type of Spanish

79 The Catalan cellist Pablo Casals (1867-1973) first performed in London in 1899 and played for
Queen Victoria. Due to the repertoire he performed Casals was less influential than Sarasate and
Albéniz in propagating ideas of Spanishness and is not discussed in Chapter 3 for this reason.
B0 The French phrase fin de siècle has become widely used outside France to denote the period of rapid
cultural change from the 1890s to the early years of the twentieth century. Examples of the use of the
term in a broader context may be found throughout Gail Marshall, ed., The Cambridge Companion to
the Fin de Siècle (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), a series of essays focusing on influential English writers
and artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

18
dance to London audiences in the 1890s, at times incorporating elements of flamenco.
These Spanish attractions were still strongly linked to Carmen and this connection
was borne out in the highly successful Carmen ballet of 1903 featuring Rosario
Guerrero. Through my discussion of these popular entertainments I will examine the
evolution of Spanish stereotypes in this period and demonstrate their importance to
the continuing English fascination with Spanish music and dance.

In Chapter 5 I will consider three Edwardian literary reflections on Spain, authored by

L. Higgin, Havelock Ellis and Bogue Luffman, all of whom sought to project a more
modern and contemporary picture of modern Spain in the first decade of the twentieth
century. The engagement with some aspects of Spanish music by eminent English
composer Edward Elgar and the London-based Australian pianist and composer Percy
Grainger, are discussed to show contrasting interactions with Spanish music in this
period. Elgar's musical interpretations of Spain hark back to well-known and
established Spanish forms. Grainger, through his friendship with the painter John
Singer Sargent, engaged with the new school of Spanish piano music and was one of
the first pianists to present movements from Albéniz's Iberia in London. His
appropriation of the guitar in several of his works shows an awareness of the
popularity of the Estudiantinas and the expanding Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar
movement. The fin-de-siècle was a period of rapid change and the coexistence of
both old and new perceptions of Spanish music and dance.

The alliance between England and Spain grew closer in the Edwardian period and two
pivotal events in solidifying the relationship were the Entente Cordial (1904) between
England and France (with reference to Spain) and the royal wedding of Princess
Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg to King Alfonso XIII of Spain in 1906. These events
will be discussed in Chapter 6, along with the anti-German musical alliances
promoted by French critics Henri Collet and Raoul Laparra which influenced
developments in England, especially in the work of critics such as Edwin Evans and
the editor of The Chesterian, Georges Jean-Aubry. The death of Enrique Granados in
1916 was the catalyst for concerts of Spanish music and greater awareness of the
modern school of Spanish music in England. The anti-German currents of the pre-
war years and the developing relationship between Spain and England account for the

19
reaction to the death of Granados, and set the scene for the further English
appreciation of Spanish music in London as discussed in Chapters 7 and 8.

The English critical reception of the Ballets Russes production of The Three-
Cornered Hat in 1919 marked the broader recognition of Spanish musical
nationalism. The reception of The Three-Cornered Hat in London forms the first part
of Chapter 7. The work spawned a number of other Spanish-themed ballets that
played in London in the 1920s, each with a different take on Spanish music and
dance. Flamenco continued to influence perceptions of Spanish music, while
specialist critics promoted new Spanish music in London. The engagement of
English composers with Spanish music continued in this period, including Lord
Berners' Fantaisie Espagnole (1919), which was closely aligned to the aesthetic of
The Three-Cornered Hat.

In the aftermath of World War I the recognition of both modem and popular forms of
Spanish music and dance in London set the scene for the positive reception of Falla's
neoclassical works. In Chapter 8 I will consider the level of popularity and critical
acclaim attained by Falla in the 1920s. He forged a new path for Spanish music with
El retablo de maese Pedro and the Concerto for harpsichord and five instruments,
synthesizing diverse elements to forge a modem Spanish neoclassical style. At the
same time works such as the Siete canciones populaces espanolas and Noches en los
jardines de Espana kept his name before the public as a composer of folk-derived
Andalusian music. During this period Spanish music achieved further
acknowledgement in England, aided by cosmopolitan critics who fostered musical
alliances with other continental nations. The activities of music associations and
publishers attest to the increasing recognition of Spanish music in London in this
period. The Spanish guitar embodied many aspects of Spanish music in the 1920s,
with a repertoire showcasing transcriptions of early Spanish music, folk-inspired
piano music and modern neoclassical works. The new classical guitar, as popularized
by Andrés Segovia, thrived in London and established itself at the heart of Spanish
music by the late 1920s. By 1930, the recognition and popularity of Spanish music
indicated the extent to which it had integrated and evolved beyond the Romantic
stereotypes prevalent half a century earlier.

20
 Chapter 1:
Spanish music in London from the Peninsular War to the premiere
of Bizet's Carmen: travel writers, the guitar and Spanish dance.

In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries Spain was seen as a dangerous,

inaccessible place for English travellers.' Not only was the country physically
remote,2 but Spaniards were thought of as cruel, and Spain was regarded as a bastion
of intolerance.3 This characterization of Spain later became known as the `Black
legend' .4

Relations between England and Spain improved dramatically with the Peninsular War
of 1808-1814 when England and Spain fought together against Napoleon's forces.5
Numerous returned English soldiers published books about their time in Spain and
many Spanish refugees settled in London.6 The Peninsular War was the catalyst for
greater interest in Spanish culture and the Romantic generation of writers promoted
an exotic image of Spain. The English fascination with Spain in the nineteenth
century was stimulated by the publications of travel writers and novelists, especially
the three writers discussed in this chapter, Washington Irving (1783-1859), George
Borrow (1803-1881) and Richard Ford (1796-1858).8 These authors featured
observations on Spanish music and dance in their works and their views on Spanish
life and culture were disseminated to a broad audience.9

I Black, British and the Grand Tour, 24.

2 The construction of much of the Spanish rail network relied on foreign capital and was not completed
until the 1870s. See Henry Kamen, The Disinherited: The Exiles who Created Spanish Culture
(London: Allen Lane, 2007), 216. Salvador de Madariaga opened his book on Spain with the sentence,
"The main fact about the land is its inaccessibility." Madariaga, Spain, 15.
José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert, Introduction to Spanish History Since 1808, eds. José
Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), 2-3.
4 William D. Phillips, Jr. and Carla Rahn Phillips, A Concise History of Spain (Cambridge: CUP, 2010),
152-153. In England, this rhetoric had its roots in the rivalry between England and Spain in the quest
for territories and power in the New World. See also Borge, `Richard Hakluyt's "Discourse" of Spain,'
167-176.
s This war is known as the War of Independence in Spain. See Enrique Moradiellos, 'Spain in the
World: From Great Empire to Minor European Power,' in Spanish History Since 1808, ed. José
Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), 111-112.
6 Alvarez Junco and Shubert, Spanish History Since 1808, 4.
7
Ibid., 4-5.
s
Irving, Tales of the Alhambra; Borrow, Bible in Spain; and Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain.
9 Books on Spain by these authors were published in multiple editions during the nineteenth century.

21
A key element of the cultural image of Spain projected by these writers was the guitar,
both as an icon of folk music and as the instrument that accompanied Spanish dance.
In the nineteenth century the Spanish guitar became the dominant version of the
instrument in England.10 Early in the century the Spanish guitar was commonly
taught to young English ladies as an accompaniment to singing," however, with the
onset of the Peninsular War and the arrival in London of Spanish refugees, the guitar
also rose to prominence as a concert instrument.

Spanish dance was a crucial medium for the dissemination of Spanish stereotypes in
England.12 Interest in Spanish dance reached a peak in the 1830s and 1840s, but was
still most often performed by non-Spaniards. The desire to see native Spaniards
performing the dances, songs and music of their country grew stronger throughout the
nineteenth century. This chapter presents the background to the English reception of
Spanish music in the late nineteenth century through an examination of travel writers,
the guitar and Spanish dance in London from 1800 to 1870.

Travel writers on Spain

Englishmen rarely travelled to Spain in the seventeenth century and a strained
political relationship meant that travel visas were only rarely issued.13 A lack of
contact between the two countries led to suspicion and misunderstanding and, as
Christopher Baker wrote in The Discovery of Spain, "Spain was invariably considered
a threatening power, a stronghold of Catholicism, a bastion of cruelty and sensuality,
or more often than not as simply unknown—and therefore frightening."14

Although during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, political
allegiances between England and Spain grew closer, English travellers on the Grand
Tour still rarely visited Spain. The Pyrenees were both a physical and a cultural
obstacle, furthermore, Spanish roads were badly maintained and accommodation was
limited. In his book The British and the Grand Tour, Jeremy Black outlines some of

10 Button, Guitar in England, 22.

11 Ibid., 31.
12 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 121.
13 Antoni Maczak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, trans. Ursula Phillips (Cambridge: Polity Press,
1995), 47.
14 Christopher Baker, Introduction to The Discovery of Spain (Edinburgh: National Galleries of
Scotland, 2009), 9.

22
the reasons Spain did not attract visitors during this period. He writes, "There was no
vogue for the beach, the mountains lacked the interest of the Alps, the Roman
antiquities were less well known than those of Italy and there was little interest in
Moorish remains."15 Those who did make the journey south of the Pyrenees were
seen as risk-taking adventurers. One such man was the ninth Earl of Huntingdon
about whom The Gentleman's Magazine wrote, "some part of his younger years he
gave to Italy and France, and at last finished his travels with a tour, which few of our
nobility, of late years, have had the courage to make, through Spain."16 Spanish ports
had always been frequented by foreigners, but travel to the heart of the country was
much less common and the Carlist Wars continued to make travel to Spain hazardous
in the nineteenth century.17

The catalyst for greater exploration of Spain was the boom in publication of travel
books and literature with a Hispanic focus. Three books in particular had a profound
effect on English audiences, Washington Irving's Tales of the Alhambra (1832), The
Bible in Spain (1843) by George Borrow and Richard Ford's Handbook for Travellers
in Spain (1845). These writers were largely responsible for making travel to Iberia
fashionable and their books played a fundamental role in projecting images and
stereotypes of Spain.18 While all three writers acquired considerable knowledge of
Spain and the variety of cultures within it, the most powerful and influential elements
of their writing concerned the south of the country, particularly the region of
Andalusia.19 The gypsy and Moorish elements of this region came to define Spain in
the eyes of many. These stereotypes were reinforced by the huge success of Georges
Bizet's (1838-1875) opera Carmen (1875), based on Prosper Mérimée's (1803-1870)
story Carmen (1845), which had drawn from Borrow's writings.20

15
Black, British and the Grand Tour, 24.
16 Ibid., 24.
17 The Spanish Carlist Wars were fought sporadically between 1833 and 1875. The supporters of King

Carlos V stood for traditional monarchist values and a conservative Catholic church. They were pitted
against liberal government forces in this series of conflicts. For a discussion of these conflicts see
Vincent, Spain 1833-2002, 9-15.
1s Black, British and the Grand Tour, 24.
19
British possession of the southern Iberian peninsula of Gibraltar dates back to the early eighteenth
century and this colony continues to play a role in the development of Anglo-Spanish relations. During
the nineteenth century Britain invested heavily in Gibraltar and the peninsular was visited by many of
the British tourists who came to Spain. The colony has facilitated British access to the south of Spain,
particularly the region of Andalusia.
°Colmeiro, `Exorcising Exoticism,' 134.

23
In 1829 Washington Irving visited Granada and stayed for some months in the
Alhambra itself, accumulating much of the material for his book Tales of the
Alhambra. Irving was an American author, known for his satirical humour and his
interest in both history and folk tales. His works combine historical facts with myth
and creative storytelling, placing them in the Romantic tradition of historical novels 2'
Tales of the Alhambra brought Spain's Arab past, especially the city of Granada and
the Moorish palace the Alhambra, to the attention of an international audience.

Music is a central and recurring theme throughout Irving's book. He described the
natural musicality of Spaniards and depicted numerous social and festive occasions
where everyone participated either by clapping hands, playing castanets, strumming
the guitar, singing or dancing. The sounds of guitars resonate throughout these tales
and Irving provided numerous descriptions of musical life in Southern Spain.22 The
instrument is so prominent that he referred to "the all-pervading tinkling of the
guitar."23 He wrote of the Spanish guitar providing accompaniment to nocturnal
serenades, a recurring theme in later Spanish-themed ballets, opera and music hall
productions.24

21
Irving achieved considerable success on both sides of the Atlantic with stories such as Rip Van
Winkle and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Tales of the Alhambra was not Irving's first book on Spain,
although it was his most successful. He first ventured to Spain on the advice of his friend, the
American diplomat, Alexander Everett. While there he had access to the materials in the American
consul's library, much of which related to the discovery of the Americas. His interest in the journeys
of Columbus led to the publication of The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus in 1828 and the
success of this book led to a series of related publications. In 1829 he published The Chronicles of the
Conquest of Granada and a follow up, Voyages and Discoveries of the Companions of Columbus,
appeared in 1831. See Andrew Burstein, The Original Knickerbocker: The Life of Washington Irving
(New York: Basic Books, 2007).
22
A good example of Irving's style is his description of an after-dinner party in the Hall of
Ambassadors (Salon de Embajadores) within the Alhambra. Here he portrays a festive occasion where
everyone participates in singing and dancing, with the natural musicality of the Spanish people to the
fore. "The banquet ended, the company adjourned to the Hall of Ambassadors. Here every one
endeavoured to contribute to the general amusement, singing, improvising, telling wonderful tales, or
dancing popular dances to that all-pervading talisman of Spanish pleasure, the guitar." I rving, Tales of
the Alhambra, 351.
23
In reference to the famous gardens of the Generalife, Irving wrote: "While thus seated, the all-
pervading tinkling of the guitar and click of the castanets came stealing up from the valley of the Darro,
and half way down the mountain we descried a festive party under the trees enjoying themselves in true
Andalusian style, some lying on the grass, others dancing to the music." Irving, Tales of the Alhambra,
75.
24 The serenading Spaniard had a long history in music and literature, for example Rossini's Barber of
Seville and the story of Don Juan.

24
In Irving's stories the guitar is an instrument most Spaniards, particularly men, play to
some degree. He writes of it being "passed from hand to hand" at social gatherings,25
and highlights its central role as a rhythmic complement to Spanish dance.26 For
English readers in the nineteenth century, Spanish dance was a defining national
feature and the bolero and fandango are the two dances most often referred to by
Irving in The Alhambra.27

Irving projected a primitive view of Spanish society, reinforcing the idea that Spanish
culture and way of life had remained unchanged for centuries.28 This was an
attractive notion for English audiences living in a rapidly changing, industrialized
world.29 He also perpetuated popular stereotypes about Spanish character, including
the belief that Spaniards were lazy and indolent, tying this to the guitar, Irving wrote,
"Give a Spaniard the shade in summer, and the sun in winter; a little bread, garlic, oil,
and garbances, an old brown cloak and a guitar, and let the world roll on as it
pleases."30 These stereotypes about Spanish character have a long history in literature,
particularly travel writing. The Scottish traveller William Lithgow observed in 1632,
"the Spanish peasants' laziness was the result of natural instincts inherited from their
ancestors, the Moors."3 t

25
"While we were supping with our Drawcansir friend, we heard the notes of a guitar, and the click of
castanets, and presently a chorus of voices singing a popular air. In fact mine host had gathered
together the amateur singers and musicians, and the rustic belles of the neighborhood, and, on going
forth, the courtyard or patio of the inn presented a scene of true Spanish festivity. We took our seats
with mine host and hostess and the commander of the patrol, under an archway opening into the court;
the guitar passed from hand to hand, but a jovial shoemaker was the Orpheus of the place." Irving,
Tales of the Alhambra, 25.
26 I
rving wrote, "The soldier...had procured an old guitar also, and would sit by his window and sing
ballads and love-ditties to the delight of the women of the neighbourhood, who would assemble on the
esplanade in the evening and dance boleros to his music." Ibid., 344.
27
For example, "There lived once in a waste apartment of the Alhambra, a merry little fellow, named
Lope Sanchez ...he would sit on one of the stone benches of the esplanade, strum his guitar, and sing
long ditties about the Cid, and Bernardo del Carpio, and Fernando del Pulgar, and other Spanish heroes,
for the amusement of the old soldiers of the fortress, or would strike up a merrier tune, and set the girls
dancing boleros and fandangos." Ibid., 354.
28 Richard Ford wrote one of the most highly regarded guidebooks to Spain, published in 1845 and he
too emphasized the Western perception of Oriental Spain as an unchanged and ancient place and
related these concepts to music. For example Ford wrote, "the genuine airs and tunes are very Oriental,
of most remote antiquity, and a remnant of primitive airs, of which a want of the invention of musical
notation has deprived us." Ford, Hand-book for Travellers in Spain, 107.
29
For a discussion of this attraction see Alvarez Junco and Shubert, Spanish History Since 1808, 1-11.
39
Irving, Tales of the Alhambra, 73.
31 Maczak, Travel in Early Modern Europe, 284-5.

25
There are very few references to gypsies in Tales of the Alhambra and no examples of
gypsy protagonists or characters. The gypsy component of Spanish exoticism was
drawn into focus a few years later by George Borrow in his books The Zincali, an
account of the Gypsies of Spain and The Bible in Spain.32

The Bible in Spain (1843) was an account of Borrow's travels in the Iberian peninsula
between the years 1835 and 1840.33 This book was extraordinarily successful and
widely disseminated in multiple editions, making it perhaps the most influential work
from this period in portraying notions of Spanishness and Spanish culture. Borrow's
earlier book on the gypsies of Spain, The Zincali, an account of the Gypsies of Spain
was released in 1841 with only limited success. The Bible in Spain was published on
10 December 1842 and was instantly popular. The second edition was published in
January of the following year and subsequent editions came out in March, June and
July.34 The Athenaeum stated on 29 May 1843 that 30,000 copies of the book had
been sold in America.35 Borrow became a celebrity and the book remained in print
through many editions. The American writer Carl Van Vechten, whose seminal book
on Spanish music was published in 1920, wrote of Borrow's influence,

It is interesting enough to realize that "The Bible in Spain," in itself a masterpiece,

was the inspiration for another masterpiece, one of the great short stories of all
literature (Mérimée). Curiously enough still a third masterpiece emerged from the
activities of the British Bible Society, Carmen, the opera.36

As José Colmeiro notes, powerful myths about Spain converge in Carmen including
"the conflation of Gypsy, Andalusian, and Spanish identities as mutually
interchangeable signifiers."37 Through the success of The Bible in Spain and his

32 Borrow, Bible in Spain; and George Borrow, The Zincali, an Account of the Gypsies of Spain
(London: J Murray, 1946; originally published 1841).
33
Prior to his travels in Spain, Borrow worked as an agent for the British and Foreign Bible SocietY.
He spent two years in Russia from 1833 and during this time he met and observed Russian gypsies on
the outskirts of Moscow. This was the beginning of Borrow's fascination with the Romani people of
Europe. He had a keen in interest not only in the gypsy language of Spain but also in all of the
languages of the Iberian peninsula.
34
Herbert Jenkins, The Life of George Borrow (London: John Murray, 1912), 350. Accessed 10 Feb.
2012 at Project Gutenburg, http://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/3481/pg3481.html.
35
Ibid., 351.
36
Carl Van Vechten, The Music of Spain (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1920), 134.
37 Colmeiro, `Exorcising Exoticism: "Carmen",' 127-144.

26
influence on Mérimée, Borrow was a key influence on the creation and dissemination
of these mythologies.

The idea that Spanishness was synonymous with gypsy culture may be traced directly
to Borrow and most of the musical references in The Bible in Spain concern gypsies.
He makes fewer references to music than Irving but when he does discuss music or
dance, the main protagonists are gypsies who commonly play the guitar which
Borrow refers to as "the favourite musical instrument of the Spaniards."38 He even
presents the instrument in gypsy contexts using their idioms, as in the following
excerpt from The Bible in Spain, "Now,' said Antonio to the youngest female, `bring
me the pajandi [guitar], and I will sing a gachapla [song].' The girl brought the
guitar, which, with some difficulty, the Gypsy tuned, and then strumming it
vigorously, he sang."39

Ford's Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain, and Readers at Home, based on his travels
in Spain from 1830 to 1833, was published in 1845 by London publisher John
Murray.40 Ford travelled around the Iberian Peninsula with his wife and made
hundreds of drawings. He arrived back in England in 1834 and settled in Devon
where he spent the next ten years completing his Hand-Book. He first met Borrow in
1841 and was one of the first readers of The Bible in Spain.'" He enjoyed a close
friendship with Borrow and recommended that John Murray publish Borrow's The
Zincali. Although his books were not as widely disseminated as those by Irving or
Borrow, his work was highly regarded and influential.

The Hand-Book is often viewed as one of the most insightful books on Spain, praised
by Hispanist Ian Gibson as "the greatest guidebook on Spain ever written."42 Ford's
comments on music are astute and showed a superior level of musical understanding.
He highlighted the importance of the guitar to national identity and observed, "Spain
is still the land of the Fandango, the Bolero, and the guitar."43 He saw music-making

38 Borrow, Bible in Spain, 200.

39 Ibid., 85. Borrow's interest in the gypsy language was a key feature of his work.
49
Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain.
41 E. W. Gilbert, `Richard Ford and His Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain,' The Geographical Journal
106, no. 3/4 (1945): 148.
42
Ian Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca (London: Faber and Faber, 1989), 5.
43
Ford, Hand-Book for Travellers in Spain, 101.

27
in Spain as a communal experience and wrote, "There is always in every company of
Spaniards, whether soldiers, civilians or muleteers, someone who can play the guitar,
poco mas o menos."44

Ford wrote of the role of women in Spanish musical life and their lack of inhibition
and training, imagining that the abandon and fire necessary for a woman to play the
guitar "could not be risked by ladies of more northern climates and more tightly laced
zones."45 He observed, "To feel the full power of the guitar and Spanish song, the
performer should be a sprightly Andaluza, taught or untaught... she is good for
nothing when pinned down to a piano, on which few Spanish women play even
tolerably."46 Ford articulated the idea that recurs in later English writings and reviews
that only Spanish performers could perform Spanish music and dance with authority
and conviction.

A new level of detail was evident in Ford's musical description, as illustrated by the
following excerpt from the Hand-Book, which demonstrates his familiarity with the
Spanish terms for strumming and tapping on the guitar and his close observation of
Spanish guitar technique.

The performers, seldom scientific musicians, content themselves with striking the
chords, sweeping the whole hand over the strings, rasqueando [sic], or flourishing,
floreando, and tapping the guitar-board with the thumb, golpeando, at which they are
very expert. Occasionally in the towns there is a zapatero or a maestro of some kind,
who has attained more power over this ungrateful instrument; but the attempt is
generally a failure, for it responds coldly to Italian words and elaborate melody,
which never come home to Spanish ears or hearts...The multitude suit the guitar to
the song; both air and words are frequently extemporaneous."

Ford was writing at the end of the early nineteenth-century wave of European
guitarists such as Fernando Sor (1778-1839), A.T. Huerta (1804-1874) and Mauro

44
Ibid., 105.
45
Ibid., 107.
46
Ibid., 106.
47 Ibid., 106.

28
Giuliani (1781-1829) who had made such an impact in England and throughout
Europe.

The Spanish guitar in England in the nineteenth century

During the nineteenth century the Spanish guitar became the most prominent version
of the instrument in London and throughout Europe. 48 In England it displaced the
steel-strung English guitar or cittern that had reached a peak of popularity in the
second half of the eighteenth century.49 The profile of the Spanish guitar was
enhanced by the presence in London of Spanish emigrants who fled the Peninsular
War fought by the British, Spanish and Portuguese against France from 1808 to 1814.
These countries battled together to rid the Iberian peninsula of Napoleon and his
armed forces and in the process stronger ties were forged between the three allies.
This alliance had a marked effect on the popularity of the Spanish guitar in Britain, as
illustrated by a travellers' reminiscence of encountering the instrument in Spain
during the conflict.

Mixing, as did our warriors, with the people of Spain and Portugal; and domesticated
as many of them were, and are to this day, with the families of those countries, it was
only natural that they should have discovered the immense influence which the guitar
there possessed, and have felt themselves, the witching power of its
fascination...How delightful must be the associations connected with this instrument
to those who first heard its sound, and learnt its touch, amid the danger and terror of
warfare, now that they can recall to their memories those days of chivalry and
romance, by their own peaceful hearths in old England!50

This article appeared in The Giulianiad, a journal dedicated to the guitar and inspired
by the Italian guitarist Mauro Giuliani (1781-1829). First published in 1833 by the
London based guitar aficionados Ferdinand Pelzer (1801-1861) and Felix Horetzky
(1796-1870), it was the first publication of its kind devoted to the guitar.5'

48 Jeffrey,Fernando Sor Composer and Guitarist, 71. See also Button, Guitar in England, 22, 44-45.
49
James Tyler and Paul Sparks, The Guitar and its Music (New York: OUP, 2002), 239.
5°
Quoted in Tyler and Sparks, The Guitar and its Music, 241.
51 The writers had hoped to stimulate interest in compositions for the guitar but The Giulianiad ceased
publication in 1835 and the fortunes of the guitar in England declined for a period. See Button, Guitar
in England, 122-123. The only known source of this magazine are the thirteen issues held at the
British Library.

29
The Spanish guitarist Fernando Sor (1778-1839) had arrived in London in 1815,
staying until 1823. He was one of the many refugees from the persecution of Spanish
liberals under Fernando VII who began arriving in London after the Restoration of the
Spanish monarchy in 1813. The largest congregation of exiled Spaniards lived in
London between 1823 and 1830.52

Sor's first documented performance in England was on 24 April 1816 alongside some
of London's most well-known performers at a benefit concert featuring both
instrumental and vocal items.53 Shrewd when dealing with the aristocracy and
successfully cultivating contacts with wealthy patrons, Sor enjoyed considerable
success with the publication of his own compositions in London, particularly songs
for voice and guitar.54 He was also a popular performing guitarist and teacher in
London, although he chose to concentrate more on his composition activities after
1819.55 During his stay in London Sor published Italian arias, piano solos, duets,
guitar pieces and works based on operatic themes. The popularity of his vocal works
was highlighted in 1820 with the comment, "Mr. Sor's vocal compositions have
gained such favour among the higher order of musical dilettanti, that a new set of
ariettas from his pen causes almost as much sensation as the publication of a new
novel by the author of Waverley."56

Sor's influence was undeniable, but he was certainly not the first to introduce the
Spanish guitar in London.57 An examination of guitarists operating in London before
Sor shows significant activity and increasing interest in the instrument. Before

52
Vicente Llorens, Liberales y românticos. Una emigraci6n espaiiola en Inglaterra (1823-1834),
(Madrid: Castalia, 1968) quoted in Maria Encina Cortizo Rodriguez, `Arietas y duetos italianos de
Fernando Sor,' in Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis Gasser (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003), 314.
53
Button, Guitar in England, 24.
54
Ibid., 26.
55
Jeffrey, Fernando Sor: Composer and Guitarist, 53.
56
Rudolph Ackermann, Repository of Arts (London: March 1820) quoted in Jeffrey, Fernando Sor:
Composer and Guitarist, 49.
57 Sor is frequently cited as a major influence on the popularity of the guitar in England, however,
according to Stuart Button, his influence is often over-stated. See Button, Guitar in England, 22. An
example of an exaggeration of Sor's authority may be found in Bone, Guitar and Mandolin, 279'280.
Bone was an enthusiastic amateur mandolinist who wrote the most comprehensive survey of guitarists
and mandolinists active at the turn of the century, with a strong focus on musicians who had either
lived in or travelled to the U.K. Bone believed that Sor was responsible for bringing the Spanish guitar
to London and wrote, "his playing created a furore in London; the èlite of society greeted the new
instrument with unbounded enthusiasm... it is to this Spanish refugee that England owes its
introduction to this charming instrument," 279-280.

30
Spanish immigration to London as a result of the Peninsular War, the city was home
to Spanish and Italian guitarists performing and teaching the art of guitar playing,
particularly accompaniment. These foreign artists arrived in London at an opportune
time. In the late eighteenth century the patronage system for musicians was changing
and musicians were able to support themselves by working for a number of different
patrons without being tied to one employer only.58 London was quickly becoming
one of the most important musical centers in Europe with new concert halls being
built and the emergence of musical societies such as the Royal Philharmonic Society.

In this period the guitar was seen as an instrument that was understood more naturally
by natives of Spain or Italy. In the introduction to his book Instructions For the
Spanish Guitar (London, 1819), Charles Sola wrote, "Several of the natives both of
Spain and Italy, possess a natural talent for this instrument, and can sing Solos, Duets,
Trios, and accompany their voices with the guitar, without any instruction
whatever."59

In the period immediately after Sor left London there were regular visits by foreign
guitarists, including the Spaniard A.T. Huerta. Born in 1804, Huerta fought in the
Peninsular War and composed a well-known Spanish soldier's hymn, the Hymn of
Riego. He fled to Paris after the war and began to concertize as a guitarist, a career he
maintained from the 1820s until the end of his life in 1874, performing in England,
Spain, Europe and America.60 Huerta wrote numerous generic waltzes and
divertimentos for the guitar and also penned characteristic Spanish pieces such as A
Spanish National Cachucha, with Variations, Bolero and Souvenir of the Fair at
Mairena in Spain.61 Huerta lived permanently in London until 1830 and married the
daughter of instrument maker Louis Panormo. A correspondent in the English
women's magazine La Belle Assemblée wrote in 1827 of the growing popularity of
the guitar and the role of both Huerta and Sor in elevating the profile of the
instrument:

58 Cyril Ehrlich, The Music Profession in Britain Since the Eighteenth Century: A Social History,
(Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1985), 73.
59
Charles Sola, Instructions For the Spanish Guitar (London, 1819) quoted in Button, Guitar in
England, 30.
60 Javier Suarez-Pajares and Robert Coldwell, A.T. Huerta: Life and Works, (San Antonio: DGA
Editions, 2006).
61 These scores are published in Suarez-Pajares and Coldwell, A.T. Huerta, 88-162.

31
 This little instrument is daily becoming more and more fashionable. We formerly
considered it as a mere accompaniment, too trivial to be worth taking any pains
about; but since Huerta, Sor, and some of the continental performers have been over,
we begin to understand its capabilities, and to appreciate it accordingly.62

Interest in the guitar reached a high point with the publication of The Giulianiad in
the 1830s and by 1850 most of the foreign guitarists who had come to England had
left.63 There were other important guitarists who performed in London in the
following decades, including the Spanish virtuoso Julian Arcas (1832-1882). Arcas
was a vital figure in the history of the Spanish guitar who incorporated musical styles
from Spanish folk music into his compositions and established the foundation for
modern Spanish guitar technique. He composed and performed a large body of
characteristic Spanish pieces and, following the fashion of the time, wrote many
fantasies and variations on operatic themes. While he spent most of his career in
Spain, as his fame spread abroad he travelled to England where he performed a recital
at the Brighton Pavilion in 1862 before a distinguished audience that included
members of the Royal family.64 A very favourable review in the Brighton Guardian
highlighted the impression his music made on important members of the aristocracy:

Monday afternoon, the King's salons of the Pavilion were filled by a select crowd
that had been invited by a Gentlemen's commission to hear Mr. Arcas (Don Julian), a
new guitarist of extraordinary merit. This professor, quite a celebrity in Spain, has
enjoyed the protection of the upper aristocracy since his arrival in England. He gave
this conce rt under the protection of H.R.H. the Duchess of Cambridge and the
Princess Mary Adelaide, who honoured him with their presence. Their Highnesses,
accompanied by a distinguished entourage, arrived in the Salon at three o'clock, and
barely seated, Arcas came out to play. The guitarist's execution bordered on the
marvelous; even though he produces previously unknown effects with this instrument,
everything is in perfect agreement. We would not be exaggerating if we said that the
guitar, in the hands of Arcas, is a minature orchestra. He gets a variety of sounds,

62
La Belle Assemblée; or, Bell's Court and Fashionable Magazine, 1 Oct. 1827, 179.
63
Button, Guitar in England, 123.
64
Bone, Guitar and Mandolin, 11.

32
 fully imitative, out of its strings...His Royal protectors were quite pleased and
delighted, as could be said of all those present.65

In most writings on Arcas, this is the only English performance mentioned.66 An

examination of the English press reveals that he returned in 1863 and not only gave
further performances, but attempted to set up a base for his teaching and playing
activities. Arcas revisited the Brighton Pavilion on 4 February 1863 for a recital with
the singer Herr Reichardt.67 The clearest indication that Arcas intended an extended
stay in London comes from an advertisement in The Morning Post, placed on 31
March 1863.

Senor Julian Arcas begs to announce that he has arrived in town for the season, and is
open to engagements for public and private concerts. He will likewise give lessons
on the guitar and Spanish songs. All communication to be addressed to Senor Julian
Arcas, care of Mrs Pittman, 58 Queen Anne-Street, Cavendish Square, W.68

Areas participated in a morning recital on 30 April 1863 as reported in The Morning

Post. His ability as a guitarist impressed the critic who was less complimentary about
the guitar as a concert instrument referring to it as "that decidedly unsatisfactory
instrument."69

The most detailed and revealing review of Areas performing in London comes from
May 1863, in which The Era's critic mentioned the rarity of a hearing a solo guitar
performance in London and the excitement of hearing a real "Spanish minstrel."70
Arcas' programme featured a number of fantasies on operatic themes including
arrangements from Bellini's Il Pirata, Verdi's II Trovatore and his Fantasy on a
Theme from The Carnival of Venice. He also played some of his own pieces

65
Reprinted in Julian Arcas, Guitar Works: A new edition based on original editions, ed. Melchor
Rodriguez (Madrid: Soneto, 1993), 15-16.
66
For example there is no mention of any further English performances in Bone, Guitar and Mandolin
or Arcas, Guitar Works.
67 Morning Post, 2 Feb. 1863, 1. Arcas performed as one of the accompanists at this concert and was
not listed as a soloist in the advertising. A review of this concert in The Era praised his performance:
"Senor Arcas played some of his choicest efforts and received his share of applause." Era, 8 Feb. 1863.
68 Morning Post, 31 Mar. 1863, 1.
69
Morning Post, 30 Apr. 1863, 6.
7° `The Opera and Concerts,' Era, 3 May 1863.

33
including a Spanish bolero which was singled out for praise.71 The audience response
was reported to be overwhelmingly positive, although some wanted to hear more
Spanish music: "if Senor Arcas would give a concert exclusively devoted to Spanish
national music—and the store is rich and ample—he would meet with considerable
public patronage."72

The final notice of an upcoming guitar recital by Arcas comes from The Morning Post
in July 1863, advertising a concert to be held at the Duke of Wellington's Aspley
House in Piccadilly on 20 July with Arcas the featured soloist.73 It was still difficult
for a foreign musician to secure enough work to remain in London permanently and
Arcas returned to Spain shortly thereafter. Interest in the guitar as a concert
instrument in London fluctuated throughout the nineteenth-century. It was not until
the visits of the Estudiantinas in the late 1870s that a broader audience for the
instrument was developed.

Spanish dance in nineteenth-century London

Spanish dance was an important medium for the dissemination of Spanish stereotypes
in nineteenth-century London. In the Romantic ballet Spanish dances were
exceedingly popular, with the cachucha, bolero and fandango some of the dances
routinely inserted into ballet productions, irrespective of their location.74 In the
second half of the century Spanish dance became a regular feature of the music halls
as Spanish dance crossed over effortlessly from the formal context of high art ballet to
popular variety entertainment. Spanish character dances were featured in many
nineteenth-century classical ballets such as Swan Lake, Sleeping Beauty, The
Nutcracker and Coppélia.

Ballet in London during the nineteenth century endured peaks and troughs of
popularity. Until the last decades of the century it was considered an imported
artform and most of the stars were foreigners.75 One of the most popular ballet

71
"A bolero espanol, of the most genuine kind." `The Opera and Concerts,' Era, 3 May 1863.
72 Ibid.
73
Morning Post, 10 July 1863, 1.
74 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 121.
75
"lt [ballet] was also essentially foreign, an exotic import." Rupert Christiansen, The Victorian
Visitors: Culture Shock in Nineteenth Century Britain (London: Chatto and Windus, 2000), 200.

34
dancers in London in 1820s London was the Spaniard Maria Mercandotti (1807-1863)
who, like Sor and many other Spanish refugees, came to London as a direct result of
the Peninsular War. Mercandotti was brought to London by Scottish nobleman James
Duff, also known as Lord Fife, who had travelled to Spain in 1811 to fight with the
Spanish against the French occupation. There he met Mercandotti and her mother,
rumored to have become his mistress, and accompanied them to London, introducing
the young dancer to the local scene. She became known as the "Andalusian Venus"
and for a short time was the darling of the London dance world. In 1814 at the age of
thirteen Mercandotti danced a typical Spanish cachucha at the Kings Theatre with
great success.76 She then spent several years studying dance in Paris until she returned
to London for a successful season of performances in 1822. After an initially cool
reception due to claims of indecency, she was featured in the August Bournonville
ballet (1830) Les pages du duc de Vendôme which was set in Spain. Her performance
of the bolero and playing of the castanets captivated audiences.77

After her early success Mercandotti was offered the lead role of Cinderella in Sor's
ballet Cendrillon, and her performance attracted many positive reviews: "Cinderella
was represented by Mercandotti... [who] drew down the loudest plaudits by the
accuracy of her pantomimic expression, and the cadenced lightness and beauty of her
dancing.i78 Like Sor, she capitalized on the attention granted her by virtue of her
exotic Spanish nationality. In his memoir Seven Years of the King's Theatre the
theatre manager John Ebers remembered Mercandotti dancing a typical Spanish
bolero in Cendrillon.79

Mercandotti's achievements as a dancer were almost eclipsed by interest in her

private life, and her career ended after she eloped with the wealthy man-about-town
Edward Hughes Ball Hughes (known as Golden Ball). Their marriage was widely

76 Sandra Noll Hammond, `Sor and the Ballet of his Time,' in Estudios sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis
Gasser (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003), 192.
77 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 41.
78 `The King's Theatre,' Lady's Magazine 3, no. 4 (Apr. 1822), 222 quoted in Christoforidis and
Kertesz, `Cendrillon, Cinderella, and Spectacle: Insights into Sor's Most Successful Work' in Estudios
sobre Fernando Sor, ed. Luis Gasser (Madrid: ICCMU, 2003), 134-5.
79 "Mercandotti, too, was there with her inimitable bolero" from John Ebers, Seven Years of the King's
Theatre (London: William Harrison Ainsworth, 1828), 39 quoted in Christoforidis and Kertesz,
`Cendrillon', 134. As Christoforidis and Kertesz explain, Ebers was probably confused with
Mercandotti's performance of a bolero in Les Pages du Duc de Vendome at the King's Theatre during
the same season.

35
reported in the gossip pages, even as far afield as the USA, where one London
correspondent declared that her marriage to Mr Hughes Ball "made as much noise in
England as the war against Spain."80

Interest in ballet reached a peak in London during the 1830s and 40s, coinciding with
a period of popularity for Spanish dance, particularly the cachucha as danced by the
French dancer Pauline Duvernay (1812-1894) and the Austrian dance prodigy Fanny
Elssler (1810-1884).81 Elssler achieved fame in London in 1833 with La Cachucha, a
featured dance from the ballet Le diable boiteux. She did much to encourage a
fascination with Spanish dance in London and her success extended to continental
Europe and America.82 Her great rival was the Italian dancer Marie Taglioni (1804-
1884) who introduced the Spanish dance La Gitana into her repertoire in 1839.
Elssler returned to London in 1838, and again in 1843 for a benefit concert, and
London audiences still greeted her with enthusiasm.

In this period Spanish dance was most often seen in performances by non-Spanish
dancers with Romantic ballet training, however, newspaper critics and travel writers
began to express the desire to see and experience Spanish dance and music performed
by native Spaniards. When the young English explorer George Dennis published his
first travel book A Summer in Andalucia in 1839, he documented his first-hand
experience of Spanish dance and compared it with the cachucha as danced in London
by Duvernay. Dennis observed,

The cachucha, with which Duvernay has so delighted the British public, has little of
the spirit of the Spanish dance. It loses half its charms, and, from the very nature of
the dance, all its meaning, by being performed alone: and Duvernay again, with all
her elegance, wants Spanish fire; she is too soft and Italianized for this dance; her
movements are unquestionably very beautiful, but the fire, the soul of the genuine
cachucha, is lost in her excess of gentleness.83

80 Rhode-Island American and General Advertiser, 3 June 1823. The original and a transcript may be
viewed at ridance archive, accessed 11 July 2012, www.ridance.comJDANCEHISTORY/ria1823b.html
81 The cachucha is a Spanish dance in triple time, closely related to the bolero and it was one of the
most identifiable Spanish dances seen in London during the nineteenth century.
82
"Fanny Elssler [sic] indeed is most frequently seen pictured in Spanish costume, and the cachucha
was danced by her as often, I fancy, as Mme. Pavlova dances Le Cygne of Saint-Saëns." Van Vechte n,
Music of Spain, 44.
83 George Dennis, A Summer in Andalucia, vol. 1 (London: Richard Bentley, 1839), 74.

36
Dennis equated fire and passion with authentic Spanish dance, but most of all he
wanted to see real Spanish dancers on the London stage. English expectations of
Spanish dance were changing.

Some ambitious dancers invented false Spanish personas and tapped into popular
perceptions of Spanishness and Spanish dance. A young Irish woman, known in
London as Betty James (1821-1861), but best remembered by the pseudonym Lola
Montez, fancied herself as a Spanish dancer. For her debut London performance on 3
June 1843 Montez was hailed as a dancer from Seville's Teatro Rea1.84 In a preview
of her performance The Times described Montez as the culmination of a period of
interest in Spanish dance,

We have had many varieties of Spanish dance since Duvernay figured in the
Cachucha. The graceful Taglioni floated through the Gitana with the perfection of
elegance; the buoyant Cerito inherited the same Gitana, and infused a charming
playfulness into its stately movements; the artsitical [sic] Fanny Elssler brought us the
Saragossa, and gave it a peculiar feature of her bewitching hauteur and polished
coquetry; and the zealous Guy Stephan did wonders in the Boleros de Cadiz. But we
were not to stop here, we were to have not only a Spanish dance ornamented and
modified by the artists of France and Italy, but a Spanish dance by a Spaniard,
executed after the Spanish fashion. Accordingly Dona Lola Montez, from the Teatro
Reale, Seville, made her appearance on Saturday in the original Spanish Dance "El
Olano."85

The first reviewers of her dance believed she was Spanish, convinced by her olive
complexion and dark eyes. There are similarities in the type of language used to
describe Montez and Spanish dancers such as Carolina "La Belle" Otero (1868-1965)
later in the century, including mention of "a national reality" and "intensity."86
Another quality later associated with Spanish dancers was the total commitment to the

84 Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 123.

85
`Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 5 July 1843, 6.
86
Ibid.

37
performance. A critic in The Times wrote of Montez, "The whole soul of the artist
seems worked up to a stern purpose."87

Montez was playing on expectations of Spanish dance and the exotic overtones of
Spanishness, including pushing the boundaries of decency. As Bee Wilson wrote,

It was a clever stroke to adopt the persona of a Spaniard, for in this guise she could
make her act far more erotic than would have been tolerated had a more respectable
(i.e. English) woman been dancing; and yet she could still present herself as a victim,
a poor refugee from Seville, in desperate need of rich protectors.88

However, Montez did not just adopt a Spanish persona to mask an erotic routine, she
was clearly tapping into the fascination with Spanish dance and the general desire to
experience more authentic proponents of the genre. Her credibility in England was
destroyed when she was outed as an imposter shortly after her famous debut
performance and she swiftly left London to reprise her Spanish act throughout Europe,
America and Australia. The manager of Her Majesty's Theatre, Benjamin Lumley,
had suffered from the controversy that followed Montez's unmasking, but two years
later he presented the bona fide Spanish dancer Manuela Perea, better known as La
Nena Perea. She would become one of the strongest ambassadors for Spanish dance
in London in the 1850s.ß9

The English actor, dancer and theatrical producer Lydia Thompson (1838-1908) was
a pioneer of burlesque in London and in a number of her early roles concentrated on
Spanish and oriental dance. Her life and career shared some similarities with Montez:
both Thompson and Montez were Irish and changed their names to sound more exotic
or "southern." Thompson was born Eliza Hodges Thompson in 1838, while Montez
was christened Eliza Rosanna Gilbert in 1818. In 1854, at the young age of sixteen,
Thompson appeared as a solo dancer in the Grand Oriental Spectacle of Mr
Buckstone's Voyage Round the Globe. In this show she was featured in a ballet
sequence titled "Dance of the Bayadères" in the Asian part of the production. Later

87 Ibid.
88
Bee Wilson, "`Boudoir Politics", a Review of: Lola Montez: Her Life and Conquests by James
Mo rton,' London Review of Books 29, no. 11 (June 2007): 27-29.
89
Guest, Romantic Ballet in England, 126.

38
that year, she caused a minor sensation in Thomas Selby's The Spanish Dancers with
her imitation of La Nena Perea.90

There was a hiatus in Spanish dance in London and Paris from 1860 until 1880, as
stated by Gerhard Steingress in his book Y Carmen se fue a Paris.91 There were,
however, still some memorable Spanish dancers playing to London audiences during
this period, notably Signor Donato the one-legged dancer who was a great success in
the Grand Christmas Pantomime of 1864 at Covent Garden. Donato reportedly lost
his leg in the First Moroccan War of 1859-1860,92 and developed an act based on his
ability to dance on one leg. His act intrigued audiences and he presented himself as a
Spanish dancer in a toreador's costume, accompanying himself with castanets. He
was known for his Spanish cloak dance and the amazing combination of Spanish
dance and acrobatic skill on one leg. Donato's act combined fascination with the
exotic with grotesque novelty and he was the talk of London in late 1864 and early
1865.93

90
Kurt Glinzl, Lydia Thompson, Queen of Burlesque (New York: Routledge, 2002), 19-20.
91 Gerhard, Steingress, Y Carmen se fue a Paris (Cordoba: Almuzara, 2006).
92
Known in Spain as the African War.
93 `Music and the Drama,' Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 7 Jan. 1865, 3.

39
 Figure 1. An advertisement for Donato the one-legged Spanish dancer in matador's
costume and with castanets,94

WeitaMailifilinninattC4XMAWCZN:,:i ..z. ., -.:.r.

ROYAL ENGLISH OPER A I

00,:E114' '.T' C .,bi. Rap É .
>B}_i.A 0OMP\Ti1 f,t"MCi'k".71.

94 Edward H. Pask, Enter the Colonies Dancing: A History of Dancing in Australia 1835-1940,

(Melbourne: OUP, 1979), 67.

40
 One critic observed of Donato's success, "The young Spanish dancer Donato
continues to exhibit his extraordinary prowess on one leg. The danse avec manteau is
about as extraordinary a specimen of grace, agility and dexterity as has been
witnessed."95 The danse avec manteau or Spanish cloak dance was a particular
favourite with audiences and the magazine Punch made fun of Donato's extraordinary
act, "It is not generally known that Donato, the one legged dancer, has six toes. One
is at the end of his name, and with the other five he performs his graceful
evolutions."96 According to the Sporting Gazette, Donato died not long after his
successful series of London shows in July 1865.97 He was fondly remembered and
his act inspired many other one-legged dancers who appeared on London stages in the
ensuing years.

In both the ballet houses and the music halls, Spanish dance was fashionable
throughout most of the nineteenth century, at times approaching the level of a craze.
This activity set the scene for the popularity of Carmen which included a ballet and
dance scenes. Later Spanish dancers such as Carmencita (1868-1910) and "La Belle"
Otero rode the wave of popularity for Spanish dance created by the success of
Carmen and their impact on London audiences will be discussed in Chapter 4.

95
`Music and the Drama,' Bell's Life in London and Sporting Chronicle, 7 Jan. 1865, 3.
96 Punch, 14 Jan. 1865, 13.
97 "Donato died while on tour in France." Sporting Gazette, 15 July 1865, 546.

41
 Chapter 2:
Carmen and Victorian musico-theatrical notions of Spanishness

The Reception and Performance History of Bizet's Carmen in London

The success of Bizet's opera Carmen had a profound influence on perceptions of Spanish
music in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Carmen was premiered in London
at Her Majesty's Theatre on 22 June 1878 and, in spite of its French origins, Bizet's music
and the character of Carmen were seen as quintessentially Spanish. Over the ensuing decades
Carmen was performed almost continuously in the English capital and provided a backdrop
to the rising interest in Spanish music. In this chapter English reviews and writings on
Carmen will be examined to illustrate the important role played by the opera in defining
images of Spain for London audiences.

The first performance of Carmen in London was eagerly anticipated, and the work's ongoing
reception reveals valuable insights about English perceptions of Spanish music and culture.
The following examination of the critical response to Carmen, largely based on accounts in
contemporary newspapers, shows how reactions to the opera changed in the first decades
after the London premiere. Successful performers in the title role were in demand and had to
cope with close scrutiny of their renditions. They were expected not just to sing the role but
to act and embody the character of the volatile gypsy. There was a gradual evolution towards
performers who espoused a Spanish background and the incorporation of elements of Spanish
dance, staging and costume to project changing notions of Spanishness.

The 1875 Paris premiere of Carmen at the Opéra-Comique was received with a mixture of
hostility and indifference. Susan McClary, in her book on Carmen, identifies two main
reasons for this frosty reception: "moral propriety and musical style",' but argues that these
issues were less of a barrier for audiences outside of France.' In October 1875 the opera was
premiered in Vienna to great critical and popular acclaim. The musical style of the work was
less problematic for the Viennese who had no cultural claim to the genre of opéra comique.
In addition, the Wagnerian influence highlighted by some French critics was imperceptible to
a Germanic audience. The opera continued to gain popularity with performances in Brussels

Susan McClary, Georges Bizet, Carmen (Cambridge: CUP, 1992), 111.

2
Ibid., 111-115.

42
(February 1876), Budapest (October 1876), St. Petersburg (February 1878) and Stockholm
(March 1878). The London premiere was given in Italian and contained the recitatives
prepared by Ernest Guiraud for the first season in Vienna. These recitatives replaced the
spoken dialogue of the original French production.

The success of Carmen in London was immediate but tempered by some reservations about
the suitability of the libretto for an opera-going public. Initial misgivings centered on the
appropriateness of basing the opera on Prosper Mérimée's (1803-1870) story Carmen (1845)
and whether or not the novella's themes would be acceptable to English audiences. The
Times critic voiced these concerns directly after the premiere as follows:

What will be the English appreciation of Carmen —we refer particularly to the libretto—
remains to be seen. Whether the famous romance of Prosper Mérimée was a source to
explore for personages, incidents, and situations that could effectively be used for the
purposes of lyric drama is a question at least worth considering.3

As the opera became more familiar through repeated performances, the quality of the libretto
and Bizet's successful fusion of music and text were praised by writers.

Meilhac and Halévy have done so much to make the story of Carmen acceptable as a libretto,
how much more the composer has heightened the illusion and deepened the interest by aid of
music which must have come to him as spontaneously as the narrative would seem to have
flowed from the pen of a novelist.4

Earlier reservations about its suitability for a London audience were forgotten and after each
subsequent performance, the reviews became more effusive. On 13 July 1879 one critic
wrote, "Carmen...becomes more attractive at every repetition, and bids fair to prove one of
the most popular of modern operas.s5

In part, the long running success of Carmen was due to the broad audience attracted to the
opera, which in turn furthered the widespread dissemination of stereotypes of Spanish music
and dance. As early as December 1878 The Times critic observed,

3 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 24 June 1878, 8.

4 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 28 Apr. 1879, 12.
5 Unknown paper, 13 July 1878, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.

41
 Carmen may be said already to have taken a place in the repertory which has every chance of
becoming permanent...Its attraction now is as great as it was in the regular season, thus
showing the power to interest and satisfy two, in a large measure, distinct audiences. People
who go to the opera, in ordinary costume, for the sake of hearing the music, and with no other
object in view, appreciate it even more, perhaps than those who, as a majority, attend because
at a certain time of the year the opera is a "fashion.s6

Some critics even lamented the fact that Carmen had not been brought out in England earlier.
Consensus began to grow about the merits of the opera and public interest increased
exponentially. Through the opera Carmen, Spanish music and characters were before the
public on a regular basis and stereotypes associated with Spanish music evolved as the
audience demanded greater realism, particularly from performers in the title role.

The role of Carmen required a unique talent capable of both acting and singing. The
American soprano Minnie Hauk (1851-1929) was an instant success when in early 1878 she
played Carmen for the first time in Brussels.8 This experience in Brussels paved the way for
her subsequent success in London. Hauk explained in her autobiography that the stage
manager and cast of the Brussels production were determined to present a new type of
operatic performance with acting and scenic effects treated equally to the singing.9 Recalling
the London premiere Hauk claimed, "The audience were so taken aback by the innovations in
regard to the action in the first act, that they even forgot to applaud when the curtain was
lowered."10

6 `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 3 Dec. 1878, 6.

After the initial short run of six performances in 1878 came to an end The Times reviewer wrote, "This was the
sixth representation of the late Georges Bizet's opera, which, considering that it increases in attraction with each
successive performance, it is a pity not to have brought it out earlier. There seems to be but one opin ion as to its
merit, its continual flow of tune, its spontaneity, and bright local colouring. The production of such a work,
combined with so animated, dramatic and altogether charming an impersonation of the impetuous, wayward,
gipsy heroine as that of Miss Minnie Hauk, would alone have sufficed to make the somewhat brief s eason worth
remembering." `Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 16 July 1878, 4.
8 Minnie Hauk, Memories of a Singer (New York: Arno Press, 1977), 148-9.
9 Ibid., 163.
10 Ibid.

44
Figure 2. Minnie Hauk as Carmen.

I. 1 Itt VIIMPLIL
No. 22.4 —VOL. LX. SATURDAY. MAY t8, t.47R. Mr P. *0

_•••• --,••,•••■••••• .•••.• ^ ',a_ -

MULLS MtNNIE 11.%

Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 18 May 1878, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.

A4
For at least the next decade Minnie Hauk was celebrated in the English capital as the creator
of the role of Carmen and subsequent interpreters were measured against her groundbreaking
rendition. Critics admired her singing and acting but marveled most of all at her total
identification with the role. Zelia Trebelli (1838-1892) was the next singer to perform
Carmen in London and there were inevitable comparisons with Hauk. The Times critic
reflected on Trebelli's first London appearance in the role as follows:

The chief interest of the performance centred in the assumption of the title part by Madame
Trebelli. Bizet's heroine is in the memory of London audiences so thoroughly identified with
the admirable acting and singing of Mdlle. Minnie Hauk that a criticism of Madame
Trebelli's performance becomes almost impossible without some comparing side glances at
her gifted predecessor...it may be said that Madame Trebelli sings Carmen, while Mdlle.
Hauk is Carmen...Both ladies conceive the part in an intensely realistic spirit, the only
difference being, perhaps, that Madame Trebelli accentuates the healthy robust energy of the
girl, while Mdlle. Hauk dwells chiefly on her gracefully "Daemonic" characteristics.'2

The statement that Hauk is Carmen was repeated often in the pages of The Times during the
next ten years. Selina Dolaro (1849-1889) was the first to sing the role in English and her
acting abilities were widely recognized, whereas Trebelli was admired mainly for her voice.
In 1882 The Times summed up the field with the statement, "Madame Trebelli sings Carmen,
Madame Dolaro acts Carmen, and Mdlle. Minnie Hauk is Carmen."13 Minnie Hauk was
proud of this oft-repeated comment and quoted it in her autobiography.14

There were some early critics of Hauk's realistic interpretation of Carmen, as the highly-
charged nature of her performance offended the sensibilities of some writers, who preferred
Trebelli's more measured interpretation. French critics had been particularly scathing of the
portrayal of female sexuality in Carmen and English commentators expressed concern about
the realism of the opera and the questionable morality of the libretto.'S The particular
interpretation of the lead role could highlight or repress elements that were seen as
distasteful. In the following description of Trebelli, she is applauded for her restraint as
Carmen.

12
`Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 24 Oct. 1878, 6.
13 `Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 29 May 1882, 8.
14 Hauk, Memories of a Singer, 164.
is
McClary, Georges Bizet, Carmen, 111.

46
 In the first and second acts she realised the irrepressible gaiety and recklessness of the
character without bringing into prominence its shamelessness and immorality, and for this she
is entitled to the thanks of those who believe that the interests of the lyric drama are best
consulted by the repression of vulgarity and prurient suggestiveness...so do we prefer the
Carmen of Madame Trebelli to the eminently characteristic, but occasionally offensive,
representations which have been presented by other exponents of that role.16

The controversial nature of the opera's themes and the "realistic" interpretation of the
performers elicited this response from the same critic: "Realism must be kept within decent
limits, if operas with courtesans for their heroines are to be witnessed by our sisters and
daughters.s17 These concerns, held by a minority of critics, did not hamper the success and
wide-ranging appeal of Carmen. Bizet's opera reinforced some powerful myths about Spain
and exoticism and in the process brought together Andalusian and gypsy characteristics as
key signifiers of Spanish exoticism. The move towards greater realism in opera stemmed in
part from Carmen and the operatic verismo movement as typified by works by Mascagni and
Puccini.'$ The demonstrative and extrovert or realistic aspects of Carmen increased the
public fascination with the title role and the interest in all things Spanish.

English critics were quick to point out Bizet's evocation of Spanish themes and the musical
devices he used to signify Spain. As James Parakilas claims, "There are no examples of
exoticism in the Western musical tradition more famous than the `Gypsy' numbers in
Carmen: the Habanera and Seguidilla in act 1, the song of the three Gypsies and Carmen's
castanet dance for Don José in act 2."19 The term "local colour" was a common term used in
the English press to describe the scales and rhythms which evoked oriental music.

Bizet's Habanera, famously added during rehearsals for the first Paris season,20 was singled
out as a prime example of Spanish style music by the English press and it was recognized as

16 Sporting and Dramatic Times, no date, 1878, 15, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.
17 Ibid.
18 The term verismo signifies a trend toward realism in Italian literary works of the 1870s and Italian opera from
1890 until roughly 1920. Key works in the style are Pietro Mascagni's Cavalleria Rusticana, premiered in
1890, and the operas of Puccini. Realistic scenarios and themes were presented and the mythological subjects
of German Romanticism were largely rejected. Carmen has much in common with verismo opera and predates
the works of Mascagni and Puccini by several years.
18
James Parakilas, `The Soldier and the Exotic: Operatic Variations on a Theme of Racial Encounter Part 1,'
Opera Quarterly 10, no. 2 (1993): 33.
2° McClary, Georges Bizet, Carmen, 26.

47
a melody by Spanish composer Sebastian Iradier (1809-1865).21 The Times identified
important elements of local colour in the work:

That Bizet threw himself heart and soul into the task before him is evident. He admirably
caught what is termed "local colour"...Examples of this may be found in every one of the
four acts, spirited and characteristic examples moreover, beginning with the first and not least
charming—the "Havanaise" ("Avanera") "L'amour est un oiseau rebelle" ("Amor
misterioso," in the Italian version), borrowed if we remember well, from Iradier's Album des
Chansons Espagnoles.22

While local colour was a key factor in the attraction of the opera Carmen, Bizet's music was
also appreciated for its novelty and sophistication. A writer in the The Illustrated Sporting
and Dramatic Times observed, "Originality is the distinguishing feature of M. Bizet's music
in Carmen. He has adopted Spanish rhythms for the sake of the couleur locale, but the
melodies are fresh and original, and are embellished by orchestral accompaniments of the
utmost piquancy and grace." 23

Other critics noticed how the use of evocative Spanish phrases gave coherence to Bizet's
opera, as one writer explained, "The occasional touches of Spanish and gipsy character, and
the recurrence of distinctive musical phrases, give a general tone of consistency to the
work."24 Parakilas has described how this aspect of Carmen transcends local colour:

Musical exoticism in Carmen is a matter of dramatic structure, not simply of local color. Its
function is not to characterize Carmen and her fellow Gypsies so much as to map a change in
the relationship between Carmen and Don José. The silencing of the exotic music in the
middle of the opera marks the moment when Don José follows Carmen into her world and
discovers that he can neither force her to be the Carmen he has dreamed of nor escape from
his own world, from himself.25

For some English critics, however, the use of Spanish colour was seen as a defect. This was
not only related to Bizet's use of idiomatic Spanish devices in his music, but part of a

21 Bizet'sfamous Habanera, `L'amour est un oiseau rebelle,' based on the song El Arreglito by Sebastian Iradier
is featured in Act I of Carmen.
22
`Her Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 24 June 1878, 8.
23
Sporting and Dramatic Times, 29 June 1878.
24 Unknown paper, 29 June 1878, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.
25
Parakilas, `Soldier and the Exotic,' 33-56.

48
discussion about the suitability of folk music sources being used in concert music and opera.
The Times wrote,

Being left in the charge of José, she (Carmen) immediately resumes her work of temptation
by singing another song, this time a Seguedilla, again evidently founded on a popular air, and
again treated by the composer with consummate skill. But, in spite of this, one of the chief
defects of the opera becomes here apparent for the first time. It is the undue prevalence of the
national or local over the purely human element. A heroine whose deepest emotion finds
expression in a popular Spanish song cannot be said to fulfil the demands of high dramatic
26
art.

Another step in the acceptance of Carmen into the operatic canon was the first English
version produced by the Carl Rosa Opera Company at Her Majesty's Theatre on 5 February
1879. This rendition was prepared by Henry Hersee and was an adaptation rather than a
literal translation. Spoken dialogue was introduced in place of the recitatives employed in the
Italian version first performed in London, provoking a mixed critical reaction.27

The English singer Selina Dolaro was cast in the role of Carmen and praised for the realism
of her performance. Her acting skills were widely applauded, although her singing was
criticized.28 Dolaro was one of the first of many singers to invent or exaggerate Spanish
heritage in order to gain credibility as an authentic Carmen. Born into a Jewish family and
christened Selina Simmons, Dolaro married an Italian of Spanish descent,29 and achieved
success in light opera and burlesque. After success with the Carl Rosa production she played
the lead in the Carmen parody Carmen or Soldiers and Seville-fans by Frank Green and
Frank Musgrave on Broadway in 1880.30 Crossing over from opera to burlesque or parody
was common practice for performers in this period. Opera themes were parodied and adapted

26
`Carmen,' Times, 20 July 1878, 10.
27
The Times critic was not convinced by the use of spoken dialogue: "The third performance of Carmen, which
was given on Wednesday, was again witnessed by a large and enthusiastic audience, which bore testimony to
the popularity of Bizet's work, in spite of the tedious spoken dialogue which encumbers the plot and strangely
jars with the elevated character of the music. Our censure does not apply to the particular dialogue supplied by
Mr. Hersee, but to the fact of the spoken words having been needlessly reintroduced into Bizet's score." `Her
Majesty's Theatre,' Times, 13 Feb. 1879, 8.
28 "The character of Carmen, the fickle and volatile gipsy-girl, recently identified with the excellent
performances of Mdlle. Minnie Hauk and Madame Trebelli, was on this occasion sustained by Madame Dolaro,
who acted with great spirit, and was more successful in the demonstrative than in the musical aspect of the
character." Illustrated London News, 15 Feb. 1879, 162.
29
M ichele Siegel, 'Dolaro Selina,' Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia, Jewish
Women's Archive. 1 Mar. 2009, accessed 17 Feb. 2012. http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/dolaro-selina.
3° Gänzl, Encyclopedia of The Musical Theatre, 515.

49
in comic opera and Carmen was one of the most parodied of all operas. Theatrical
reconfigurations of Carmen are discussed later in this chapter.

Carmen was finally staged at Covent Garden, London's premiere opera venue in 1882, a
significant sign of the work's acceptance by the cultural elite. The title role on this occasion
was sung by Pauline Lucca and her performance was analysed and evaluated alongside the
other successful Carmens to have played in London. The name of Minnie Hauk, recognized
as the benchmark for Carmen performers, is well to the fore in the following discussion of
Carmen protagonists:

The great success of Carmen when produced at Her Majesty's Theatre four years ago is in
everybody's memory. The part of the fascinating gipsy was on that occasion "created" by
Mdlle. Minnie Hauk, who had realized the character in its musical as well as its dramatic
aspects with a degree of realistic power rarely seen on the operatic boards. Mdlle. Hauk was
succeeded by Madame Trebelli, who brought her fine artistic merit to bear upon a character
not altogether congenial to her, and whose singing of the famous "Avanera" and other songs
assigned to the wayward heroine could not well be surpassed. In an English version of
Carmen written by Mr. Hersee and produced by Mr. Carl Rosa, Madame Dolaro showed her
peculiar fitness for the dramatic requirements of the character, although her singing left much
to be desired...Madame Lucca holds a kind of intermediate position among the embodiments
of Bizet's heroine thus indicated. She has evidently studied the character in all its nuances
with great care, and she sings and acts in a style peculiarly her own.31

The popularity of Carmen meant that new versions of the work were much anticipated. In
November 1886 the original French version of Carmen was staged at Her Majesty's Theatre
with Célestine Galli-Marié (1840-1905) who had created the role at the Opéra Comique in
1875. Galli-Marié toured widely as Carmen, giving the Italian and Spanish premiere seasons.
She sang Carmen in Barcelona in 1881 and modified her initial interpretation of the role,
claiming a greater awareness of Spanish national traits and music as a result of her time spent
in Spain.32 This new production was a major event in the London musical calendar and an
opportunity to hear the opera with the singer who had worked with Bizet.

Italian Opera,' Times, 29 May 1882, 8.

31 `Royal
32
See Kertesz and Christoforidis, `Confronting "Carmen",' 79-110.

50
The exuberance of Galli-Marié's interpretation made a positive impression in London. The
closeness to the original French production was highlighted by the inclusion of the original
dialogue. She was praised for her whole-hearted portrayal of Carmen: "She made no attempt
to tone down the wayward Spanish gipsy's character, and every action and gesture of a most
finished performance made its mark...she won her high celebrity for general artistic
excellence."33

As the fascination with Carmen continued to grow, there were attempts to make productions
more authentically Spanish. On 31 May 1887 there were two performances of Carmen on
the same day, an afternoon performance in Italian with Minnie Hauk at Covent Garden and
Marie Roze's interpretation of Carmen in a staging of the opera in English at Drury Lane.
The latter incarnation of Bizet's opera was notable for the inclusion of crowd scenes and an
elaboration of the bullfight scene in the final act. These additions, particularly to the bullfight
scenario, were given added credibility by the fact that the theatre manager and member of the
production's creative team, Augustus Harris, had recently been to Madrid and observed a
bullfight first hand. A writer in The Times applauded the accuracy of the portrayal of a bull-
fight:

Many new effects in the grouping of crowds and the by-play of the minor characters have
been introduced, and the bull fight, or at least its preliminaries, in the last act have been made
the occasion for a most gorgeous and elaborate pageant, in which, as we understand, Mr.
Harris has turned the experiences of a recent visit to Madrid to excellent account. The pomp
and circumstance of the national pastime of Spain are set forth with an accuracy of detail, a
splendour of costume, and a blaze of colour almost too dazzling for the comparitively
insignificant part which the entire scene plays in the dramatic design and in the score of
Bizet,3a

Carmen was continuing to appeal to the Victorian fascination with exotic Spain and as
audiences became more knowledgeable and insisted upon greater authenticity, productions
evolved to meet this need. Travel to Spain was at a new height during this period, a demand
fed by the Carmen phenomenon.

33 Graphic, 13 Nov. 1886.

34
`The English Opera Season,' Times, 2 May 1887, 10.

51
By the mid 1880s Carmen was dominating the operatic landscape in London. The title role
was recognized as one that could change a career. Singers, both young and old, were eager to
take on the role of the gypsy including many of the famous singers of the day such as Adelina
Patti (1843-1919).35 Patti was one of the most celebrated and lauded singers in the world,
who had made her name singing roles from Italian operas by Bellini, Donizetti and Verdi.
When it was announced that Patti would sing Carmen, press reports indicated that
expectations were high. She sang the role in 1885 and by this time both the public and critics
were very discerning in their appreciation of Carmen singers. Her vocal performance was
unconvincing but more significantly, her acting skills were not suited to the demands of the
role. Patti was unable to project the total identification with the role which had characterized
Hauk's rendition of the part. The Times revisited an old theme when remarking on Patti's
Carmen, comparing her with Hauk's classic interpretation. The critic observed,

She [Hauk] did not, as we remarked at the time, sing Carmen or act Carmen, she was Carmen.
The same cannot as yet be said of Madame Patti...Carmen as presented appears to us to be
little more than a heartless fl i rt, delighted to inspire feelings in others which she does not
mean to reciprocate, or could not if she would."36

Carmen had ushered in a new style of opera performance, which did not suit a singer of
Patti's background or experience. The role required a dramatic projection of spirit and
emotion, and English critics were sensitive to which elements should be emphasized and
when a more balanced approach was needed. Patti over-emphasized peripheral aspects of
Carmen's character and was unable to present the more demonstrative or passionate side of
the character when required. The Times critic outlined the faults in her interpretation:

Her by-play was a great deal too elaborate, too lively, without showing much reference to the
essential features of the character. She did some extremely pretty and graceful
things...Unfortunately, she did not reserve her force for the salient points belonging to

33
Patti was born in Madrid to Italian parents and spoke Spanish fluently. Carmen is a role she had looked
forward to playing. Klein reported that Patti said of her upcoming performance Carmen, "Yes, Carmen! I have
been longing to sing it for years, and I am going to do so at last. I adore the opera. Ah, poor Bizet, how I wish he
were still alive to hear me! I love the story, I love the music, I love the Spanish scenes and types...You will see
me dance; you will hear how I play the castanets. I have never longed so impatiently for anything in my life.
Herman Klein, The Reign of Patti (New York: Century Co., 1920), 225-6.
36
'Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 16 July 1885, 8.

52
 Carmen as a distinct individuality, and when the aforesaid "daemonic" influences came into
play her resources were exhausted.37

Her performance also missed the mark simply because she misunderstood the dramatic vocal
style required. In the context of a generally favourable review The Times critic remarked,
"Moreover, the brilliancy of Madame Patti's vocalization finds no scope in this music. Bizet
employs the voice as a means of dramatic expression; the meaningless fireworks of the
Italian school he despises."38 Patti did not return to Carmen and her performance of the role
was described by Herman Klein as the single failure in a glittering career.39

As discussed in Chapter 1, Spanish dance was a key element of the British experience of
Spanish music and helped define Spanish culture for many. A range of dance elements were
incorporated into Carmen as early as 1875 and commentators were divided about the merits
of an added ballet interlude wedged into the already satisfying structure of the opera. The
history of an added ballet in Carmen may be traced to the Vienna production of 1875 when a
ballet was inserted at the beginning of the fourth act. Most London critics protested that there
was no place for extraneous elements in Bizet's work, especially as music for these ballets
was often not by Bizet. A ballet item was inserted into a new London production of Carmen
in 1887 with music by Anton Rubinstein added as an accompaniment to a featured Pas
Espagnol. The Times declared this an "act of barbarism" and wrote in protest, "Carmen is a
work of continuous and well-balanced design, to interfere with which shows signal want of
artistic conscience.s40 Part of the problem was that the ballet items were not always well
rehearsed and these dance items added very little to the opera in terms of Spanish content,4t
however, ballet, Spanish dance and Carmen were to become inextricably linked in the
decades to follow.

37Ibid.
38 Ibid.
39 Klein wrote: "Then her essay as Carmen was to culminate in the one decisive disappointment of her career: an
artistic failure!" Klein, Reign of Patti, 221. Interestingly, four months later, a report by a Parisian
correspondent for The Times spoke of a performance of Spanish guitarists and mandolinists in the French
capital. After describing the scene and relating some clichés about Spaniards, the report went on to describe a
Spanish dancer predictably named Carmen and the appearance of Adelina Patti in the audience. Could she have
been researching the "daemonic "influences on Bizet's Carmen in anticipation of another attempt at the role?
`The "Figaro" Soiree,' Times, 16 Nov. 1885, 4.
4° `Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 25 Mar. 1887, 10.
41 "The ballet, like those of the preceding evenings, showed signs of insufficient rehearsals." `Royal Italian
Opera,' Times, 13 Apr. 1891, 12. "In strange contrast to last night the house was crowded from floor to ceiling
by a very enthusiastic audience, who did not seem to admire the ballet in the last act of Carmen." `Covent
Garden Opera,' Times, 9 Oct. 1897, 12.

53
By 1881, the music of Carmen was so familiar to London audiences that music with a
Spanish flavour was instantly compared with Bizet's opera. One of the great Spanish violin
showpieces, Eduard Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole, was written in 1874 for the Spanish
virtuoso Pablo Sarasate (1844-1908). In a review of the work from a London concert given
by French conductor Charles Lamoureux and his orchestra in March 1881, The Times
reviewer reached for Carmen as the nearest comparison and wrote,

More individual in character, however, was the Symphonie Espagnole (op. 21) for violin and
orchestra by M. Edouard Lalo...The Symphonie Espagnole is full of the Spanish rhythms and
melodies familiarised by Carmen. In addition to this it is charmingly scored and very brilliant
in the solo part, which we believe was originally destined for M. Sarasate 42

Sarasate was one of the most active Spanish musicians in the English capital at this time. He
took advantage of the vogue for Spanish music through his own Spanish works and his
virtuosic violin showpiece the Carmen Fantasy (1883). His experiences as a Spanish
musician in London will be discussed in Chapter 3.

The pervasive influence of Carmen as a measure of Spanishness even marked instrumental

music. An 1884 review of piano Serenades in The Times celebrated the influence of different
folksong styles on the various national styles represented in the collection. In reviewing the
book the writer turned to a discussion of nationalism in music:

An original and a very pretty idea has been carried out in the collection of pianoforte pieces
for four hands before us. Music, the universal language of the world, has of late been
frequently made the medium of national expression. The folksongs and popular dances of all
countries, from Norway to the far south and east, have been turned to artistic account, and
many reputations have been made in this manner. The example of Liszt in his "Hungarian
Rhapsodies" has been followed to an extent which will leave its permanent mark on the
history of music in the latter half of the 19th century...Dvorak the Bohemian, Tschaikowski
the Russian, and many others have in the same manner become the international interpreters

42 `M. Lamoureux's Concerts,' Times, 17 Mar. 1881, 6.

54
 of their respective countries, and Bizet's Carmen owes much of its charm to the Spanish dress
in which the highly-gifted composer has clothed his genuine inspiration.43

This coincided with one of many calls for the establishment of an English school of opera, as
English composers were being encouraged to write new works in their native tongue. Julian
Edwards (1855-1910), perhaps cashing in on the popularity of Carmen and all things
Spanish, wrote a four-act opera entitled Victorian, based on Longfellow's 1843 tragedy, The
Spanish Student.44 Edwards mimiced Bizet's use of local colour with unsuccessful results.
Of the first performance on 21 January 1884, The Times reviewer wrote:

The subject dealing with Spaniards, and more especially with Spanish gipsies, it need not be
added that the couleur locale we refer to is accomplished by the same rhythmical and melodic
means which Bizet has employed in his Carmen...The appearance of his opera while the
melodies of Bizet's masterpiece are still in everyone's memory is Mr. Edward's misfortune,
not his fault 45

The next generation of Carmen performers built on the established traditions of the role while
adding their own unique slant on the interpretation of Spanishness. By 1891 when American
soprano Zélie de Lussan (1861-1949) played Carmen in London, critics were able to write of
the "recognised traditions of the part."46 Lussan's success as a Carmen for the 1890s was
enhanced by her Southern European heritage. To be successful a new Carmen needed to
bring something unique to the role and anything that drew the audience closer to the source
was valued highly. Lussan's combined French and Spanish background gave her a direct
connection to Carmen: "Her Southern type of countenance and an attractive face...are
decidedly in favour of the new Carmen.s47

For a late nineteeth-century English audience Spain and Spanish music became increasingly
synonomous with gypsy culture. There had been a strong interest in gypsies in Britain since
43
'A Book of Serenades,' Times, 23 Feb. 1884, 3. The reviewer went on to discuss the Eastern musical
influences in some of the works from the collection, pointing to the Arab influence in Félicien David's
orchestral work Le Désert. On this topic he observed, "apart from this, Rubenstein, Bizet, in Carmen, Liszt, and
others have made frequent use of certain augmented intervals (the second and fourth of our scale) which are
common to all Eastern nations, including the gipsies."
44
The Spanish Student: A Play in Three Acts, by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807-1882) was first published
in 1843.
45 `Mr. Edwards's "Victorian,"' Times, 21 Jan. 1884, 10.
46
'Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 18 May 1891, 3.
47 'Royal Italian Opera,' Times, 9 July 1888, 8.

55
the travels of Borrow, and Carmen was seen as the quintessential gypsy. In 1891 a critic of a
Covent Garden Carmen production commented on the familiarity of audiences with gypsy
traits,

Mme. Deschamps-Jebin made a conspicuous success in the pa rt of the heroine... If she failed
at times to bring out the full force of the conception, it must be remembered that some of the
greatest representatives of the part have not escaped the same reproach; and now that every
educated person is aware of the true character of the gipsy, it is a comfort to find a new
Carmen who does not view the part as a vehicle for mere horseplay.s48

In this period discussion of the opera become more sophisticated but also more confused.
Many words were written about the true nature and character of the gypsy Carmen.
From the 1890s over-exaggerated performances of Bizet's heroine were warned against, for
example, Giulia Ravogli was praised for her restraint and the focused passion of her Covent
Garden performance: "the Italian artist does not allow a crowd of superfluous coquetries to
obscure the general impression she intends to produce, that namely, of intense passion. The
note of animalism, which is undoubtably present, is never exaggerated, as it has been by
some notable representatives of the part."49

The singer who became most closely identified with Carmen in the late 1890s and early
twentieth century was the French opera diva Emma Calvé (1858-1942). She first played
Carmen in Paris in December 1892 and embodied that role for a new generation of opera-
goers. Herman Klein admired Calvé's Carmen of which he wrote,

It had the calm, easy assurance, the calculated, dominating power of Galli-Marié's; it had the
strong sensual suggestion and defiant resolution of Minnie Hauk's; it had the pantherlike
quality, the grace, the fatalism, the dangerous, impudent coquetry of Pauline Lucca's; it had
the sparkle, the vim, the Spanish insousiance and piquancy of Zélie de Lussan's.5°

Calvé was born in the French Pyrenees and spent part of her childhood in northern Spain.
She played up her Spanish ancestry to promote her connection to Carmen and enhance her
claim to the role. Looking back to her youth in 1922 she reflected,

48 `
Opera At Covent Garden,' Times, 26 Oct. 1891, 4.
49
'Covent Garden Opera,' Times, 12 Dec. 1892, 8.
5o Nicholas John, ed., Carmen, George Bizet (London: John Calder, 1982), 14.

56
 Although I often saw my friends, the gypsies, in the marketplace, I did not again attempt to
join them. From the safe distance of my doorstep, I admired their dances and listened to their
songs, many of which I learned to sing myself. Was it because of this that, when I came to
act Carmen, I never needed to be taught the dances and gestures of the Spanish gypsies? Was
it because of these early years in Spain that I seemed to know by instinct how to carry the
shawl, how to walk and move and dance, when I found myself impersonating the lawless
gitana of Bizet's famous opera?51

Calvé travelled to Spain to conduct research for her approach to Carmen. Naturally she
visited Seville and also Granada. At this time Granada had acquired deep significance as the
cradle of gypsy and therefore exotic Spain. The 1889 Universal Exposition in Paris had a
number of Spanish exhibits centering on Granada, emphasizing its Moorish past and cave-
dwelling gypsy inhabitants.52 One of the trademarks Calvé adopted from these trips was the
manton de Manilla, a Spanish shawl she wore in place of the traditional bolero dress worn by
earlier Carmens. Years later Calvé wrote of her visit to Granada,

I had been to Grenada and I had visited the district of the Albaycin, where the gypsy bands
lived in mysterious caves and grottos. I had watched them in their daily life. I had seen them
dance and sing, and had studied their gestures and movements. I had learned how the women
dressed, and had bought from them the very shawls they were wearing.53

Calvé first played Carmen in London in 1893 and by 1895 her ownership of the role was
clear. Her return to Carmen was announced as "The reappearance of Mme. Calvé in the title
part, with which she has so completely identified herself in the eyes of the present generation
of opera-goers."54 Calvé was a particularly dominant Carmen in America, responsible for
elevating the popularity of the opera to new levels. According to Van Vechten, "It was not
until Emma Calvé appeared at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1893-4 that Carmen became
a fetish."55

5I
Emma Calvé, My Life, trans. Rosamond Gilder (New York, London: D. Appleton, 1922), 13.
52
Annegret Fauser, Musical Encounters at the 1889 Paris World's Fair (Rochester: University of Rochester
Press, 2005), 263-4.
53 Calve, My Life, 81.
54
'Royal Opera,' Times, 11 July 1895, 7.
55
Van Vechten, Music of Spain, 152-153.

57
A later Carmen, the Scottish singer Mary Garden (1874-1967), had success in the title role,
especially in America. In an interview for an American newspaper she made fun of the trend
for Carmen singers, such as Calvé, who talked up their travels to Spain, writing, "No I didn't
go to Spain for the atmosphere of Carmen, nor to Babylon for Salome."56

The English press also had a long love affair with Calvé, especially her interpretation of
Carmen which was to be the defining role of her career. By 1903 The Times commented that
"she has long established herself as the ideal representative of the part."57 Her singing came
in for some criticism but her performance was considered "lifelike" and the "Carmen of
Mérimée.s58 The characteristics of Calvé's Carmen that made her claims of Spanish heritage
and research believable were the demonstrative aspects of the character and her mastery of
both acting and singing. Calvé projected some of the mercurial, magical qualities associated
with gypsies. She was praised by The Times for bringing out "the witchery of the earlier
scenes and the savage power of the two last acts."59 Her commitment to and realization of
6°
the part was routinely applauded in the press.

Unlike previous Carmen interpreters, Calvé was commended for the rhythmic flexibility and
inventiveness of her performances. To some this meant she often deviated too far from
Bizet's score, for others these qualities reinforced the wild, untamed and unpredictable
qualities of the Spanish gypsy:

Some one has said that Mme. Calvé recreates for herself every part she undertakes. This is
perfectly true of her Carmen. She goes even farther. She recreates the part each time she
sings it, for never is it twice precisely the same. In the little changes of stage "business"
Mme. Calvé's rendering is kaleidoscopic.°

56
Milwaukee Journal, 28 Dec. 1911, 30.
57 `Royal Opera,' Times, 27 June 1903, 8.
58 "As time goes on, she departs further and further from the rhythmic outline of the phrases as laid down by the
composer; but in spite of this license in regard to the time of her notes her realization of the part is so complete
that she must be admitted to be by far the most lifelike and enthralling Carmen before the public at the present
day." `Royal Opera,' Times, 24 June 1901, 9. Also from The Times, "though the singer is rather the Carmen of
Mérimée than the more refined heroine of Bizet's work, her performance is in the very front rank of artistic
excellence." 'Royal Opera,' Times, 21 May 1900, 14.
59 Ibid.
60 "Her realization of the part is so complete that she must be admitted to be by far the most lifelike and
enthralling Carmen before the public at the present day." 'Royal Opera,' Times, 24 June 1901, 9. "It is one of
the most remarkable impersonations to be seen on the lyric stage...The subtlety, the humanness, the immense
vitality and the actuality of it are absolutely convincing, and it is well-nigh impossible to decide which to place
highest, the fine singing or the intensity of the dramatic action." 'The Royal Opera,' Times, 23 June 1902, 7.
61 'The Royal Opera,' Times, 23 June 1902, 7.

58
Calvé's career intersected with the emergence of the film and recording industries as
powerful players in the music world. Although it would be another Carmen, Geraldine
Farrar, who reached the widest audience so far through the media of film and recording,
Calvé created the definitive Carmen for the early twentieth century.62 Her performance was
compared to the emergence of new technology: "in her portrayal of Bizet's heroine there is
more of the cinematograph than of the ordinary photograph—that she is, in a sense, a quick-
change artist.s63 She continued to play Carmen well into the 1900s, recording items from the
opera in 1902. While she felt limited by the success of her Carmen, she continued her
association with Spanish music, recording a traditional Spanish song, Copias Andaluz, in
1920 for Pathé in Paris.64

The Catalan soprano Maria Gay (1879-1943) inherited the mantle of the greatest Carmen
from Calvé, and her Spanish nationality gave her added authority. As had been the case with
Calvé, her singing was widely praised and she was said to embody the Carmen of both
Mérimée and Bizet. Gay combined superior vocal technique with a forceful dramatic
approach to the role. According to The Times, "In her hands the wild animalism of the
dramatic performance is united with phrasing that is as flawless as that of an accomplished
violinist."65 Her conviction in the part was applauded and for a period she was the most
popular Carmen in England.66 Gay had her detractors too and was criticized for being too
coarse and realistic in some of her stage mannerisms. She was known to eat an orange and
spit out the seeds before singing the Habanera and perceptions of her Carmen as unrefined
led to a truncated career in the role. In the words of Van Vechten, "Maria Gay, the Spanish
Carmen, attempted realistic touches such as expectoration; a well-sung, well-thought-out
consistent performance, but lacking in glamour."67

62
Geraldine Farrar starred in Cecil B. de Mille's 1915 silent movie based on Carmen.
63
'Royal Opera,' Times, 27 June 1904, 5.
64
Victor Girard, `Emma Calvé,' Marston Records webpage, accessed 21 Feb. 2012,
www.marstonrecords.com/Calvé/Calvé liner.htm.
65
`Royal Opera,' Times, 4 Nov. 1907, 9.
66
From The Times, "The impersonation of the principal part is so excellent in a musical sense that even if Mme.
Gay were a second rate actress her singing would ensure her success. Since, as everybody knows, she acts the
part with matchless vigour and conviction, she stands easily above all who have made it their own since it was
written. Here is the Carmen of whom Mérimée and Bizet dreamed, and the oftener it is seen the more heartily it
must be admired. Every time she does it she puts in some new detail of business and perpetrates some new and
delightful impertinence. Let us hope this is not a sign that she will ever allow an incomparable performance to
suffer from exaggeration." `Royal Opera,' Times, 3 July 1908, 14.
67 Van Vechten, Music of Spain, 155.

59
Bizet's Carmen defined stereotypes of Spanish music for English audiences from the
premiere London performance in 1878 until well into the twentieth century. Even as late as
1920 Van Vechten's monograph on The Music of Spain concludes with a long chapter on
Carmen and protagonists in the title role.68 In his preface to this book, Pedro Morales, a
prominent Spanish writer and musician resident in London, indicated that he was
simultaneously encouraged by the rise of interest in new Spanish music in England, and
frustrated by out-dated attitudes that remained closely tied to images of Carmen. He wrote:
"What was a dead wall, and could not lead anywhere, was the old-fashioned attitude, with all
its natural consequences, of considering Carmen the quintessence of everything Spanish."69
Only with the English acceptance of the new Spanish national school in the aftermath of
World War I did Carmen stop being the measure for Spanish music.

Carmen burlesques and adaptations

The success of Bizet's Carmen in London provided the impetus for a plethora of theatrical
reconfigurations of Mérimée's story and Bizet's music on the English stage in the late
nineteenth century: from short exotic turns to full-length ballets, plays and parodies,
including the hugely popular burlesque Carmen up-to-data (1890). An examination of a
selection of the many adaptations of Carmen illustrates the popularization of the Hispanic in
this period, as the focus of Spanish music in London shifted from high art to popular forms of
entertainment.

The practice of making theatrical burlesques of current operas was common in the nineteenth
century and Verdi's operas were regular topics for such parodies.70 Theatrical
reconfigurations of Carmen began to appear in England as early as 1879, a mere six months
after the opera's premiere in London. The first was the burlesque Carmen, or Sold for a
Song!, written by Robert Reece, which premiered at the Folly Theatre on 25 January 1879.
The role of Carmen in this show was played with success in both Britain and America by
Lydia Thompson, a star of the London stage who excelled in comedy and burlesque. In his
book Lydia Thompson, Queen of Burlesque, Kurt Gänzl describes her as "one of the most
technically skilled and effective dancers of her generation, a dazzling comedienne... and the

68 The chapter is titled 'From George Borrow to Mary Garden: Histoire sommaire de Carmen,' Van Vechten,
Music of Spain, 127-159.
69 Morales, preface to Music of Spain by Van Vechten, xv.
70 See' Roberta Montemorra Marvin, 'Verdian Opera Burlesqued: A Glimpse into Mid-Victorian Theatrical
Culture,' Cambridge Opera Journal 15, no. 1 (2003): 33-66. Marvin discusses burlesques of the Verdi operas
Ernani, ll Trovatore and La Traviata and their reception in nineteenth-century London.

60
possessor of both a pretty, if unambitious soprano, and of a deliciously winning way with a
popular song of the comic, piquant, or merry kind."71 Thompson's Carmen is described by
Gänzel as a "flirty young person, engaged in twisting cigarettes and also lovers round her
fingers.s72 Thompson danced a Spanish `Madrilena' and the music included snippets from
Bizet alongside known melodies and topical songs.73 The show was a success but due to the
sale of the theatre and the subsequent break up of the company, Carmen, or Sold for a Song!
ended its London season in March 1879.

Cruel Carmen, or the Demented Dragoon and the Terrible Toreador (1880) by J. Wilton
Jones was premiered in Manchester's Princes Theatre in 1880. Puns on Spanish names were
also common in burlesque titles, for example Carmen, or Soldiers and Seville-fans by Frank
Green and Frank Musgrave played in the same year, moving to Broadway with Selina Dolaro
as Carmen. As already noted, Dolaro had been the first to sing Carmen in English at Her
Majesty's Theatre in early 1879, and her career is a prime example of the cross-over that
occurred between the opera and popular forms of theatre such as burlesque.

The success of Bizet's opera was such that some Carmen burlesques were rushed into
production with little preparation. An example of this is the burlesque Little Carmen by
Alfred Murray that was first staged at London's Globe Theatre on 7 February 1884. The
Times gave this new work a positive review, however this is partly due to the respect shown
for the appearance of society lady and part-time actor Bella Howard in the title role:

A new burlesque of Carmen, by Mr. Alfred Murray, was produced tentatively at the Globe
Theatre yesterday afternoon with somewhat more success than usually attends such fugitive
experiments. As the Spanish gipsy, Miss Bella Howard, in whose name the matinée was
given, played and danced with a degree of intelligence which only required to be
supplemented with a little more vivacity of manner in order to be thoroughly pleasing; and in
Miss Susie Vaughan as the amorous brigadier Don Jose, she found a coadjutor well skilled in
the rendering of burlesque. The piece, though presented under unfavourable circumstances,
was bright and lively, and its topical songs and puns were of a superior order.74

'1 Gänzl, Lydia Thompson, 2.

72
Ibid., 193.
73 Ibid., 194.
74
`The Theatres. Globe,' Times, 8 Feb. 1884, 10.

61
Even though this was clearly a parody, the believability of the gypsy character was important.
She needed to be realistic and vivacious to be credible and these qualities were desirable in
any portrayal of Carmen, whether in a popular or high-art context. A writer for The
Sporting Times declared that Little Carmen failed in both requirements of a new burlesque:
wit and topicality.

That a lady so universally respected as Miss Bella Howard was about to embark in theatrical
management, if only for a few hours, naturally attracts a distinguished audience to the Globe
Theatre on Thursday afternoon. Numerically, perhaps, they were not strong, but
aristocratically considered, nothing choicer could have been procured...All the choristers
smoke cigarettes, so do the principals, throughout the progress of the soul-inspiring
entertainment...Yet the play is of smoke, smoky dim and dirty...Had the burlesque by Alfred
Murray been produced a couple of centuries ago the topical songs could no doubt have been
much appreciated. Even now they are received with such applause as they merit. The silliest
port ions of Little Dr. Faust, Blue Beard, and Fra Diavolo have been extracted and presented
to Miss Bella Howard, in the form of a new three-act burlesque.75

In 1890 the burlesque Captivating Carmen by Martin Byam and Byam Wyke was staged at
the Folkstone Pier, although it does not appear to have toured or made a significant impact.
Later that year the most successful of all Carmen parodies was produced at the Gaiety
Theatre, Carmen Up to Data. This work was premiered at the Liverpool Shakespeare
Theatre on 22 September 1890, in preparation for its London opening at the Gaiety Theatre
on 4 October 1890. The piece was a burlesque in three acts by George R. Sims and HenrY
Pettitt with music by Meyer Lutz, the same creative team responsible for other Gaiety
burlesques, including the successful parody of Gounod, Faust Up to Date (1888). Carmen
Up to Data was one of the most successful shows of this period and ran for 248 performances
in London followed by numerous provincial performances.76 The work also had an
international reach and in 1892 toured to Germany, Austria, Hungary and Australia. In each
country topical references, puns and jokes were added for the local audience.
Figure 3. Advertisement for the sheet music for songs from Carmen up to Data, featuring
Letty Lind as Mercedes 77

75 SportingTimes, 9 Feb. 1884, 2.

76
Kurt Gänzl, Encyclopedia of the Musical Theatre, 317.
77
London: Theatre Museum, Gaiety Theatre Archive Box.

62
 t 4;0•' tt;
. • t

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Iron tke,
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63
Carmen Up To Data was a success from the first performance. The combination of interest
in Bizet's opera and the reputation of the Gaiety team had heightened expectations. The
performers were applauded vigorously at the conclusion of each song, and many items were
repeated by popular demand. There were some difficulties with the final thirty minutes of the
show and adjustments were made early in the season, but critics predicted that this would be
a long running show. Under the headline `Rapturous reception,' the Daily Chronicle reporter
wrote, "there is no reason why the new burlesque, Carmen Up to Data, should not occupy the
Gaiety stage as long as Faust Up to Data or Ruy Blas.s78

The work differed from other burlesques in that it stayed close to the original plot of the
opera, a fact noted by many critics, "The authors, Messrs. Sims and Pettitt, have written a
parallel rather than a burlesque of Bizet's opera and Merimée's story."79 Prior to this it was
not essential for a burlesque to make more than superficial references to the plot or the
structure of the parent work. Musical parody and the lampooning of key characters were the
most important ways of connecting with the original model. Balancing the vital ingredients
of humour and light entertainment with this adherence to the operatic story, presented "an
intelligible and dramatic story—of course treated in comic fashion."80 This signalled a new
approach to burlesque and a blurring of the boundaries between music hall, operetta, opera
and music theatre. One writer summed it up:

The authors have taken the plot of Bizet's opera for the foundation of their play, and instead
of distorting it until not the least resemblance is left as is usual with burlesque writers, they
have kept very closely to the original, though naturally treating the incidents in a humorous
fashion, and introducing good jokes, merry songs, and pretty dances to any extent s'

Burlesque was a genre in transition during the early 1890s and writers were experimenting
with a greater variety of songs, topical references and set pieces. The Times critic observed
that Carmen Up to Data was a superior example of this new type of entertainment, indeed "a
78 Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890. Also from the same review, "Mr. Meyer Lutz has composed music that, by
turns vivacious and sentimental, is always effective and melodious. Little wonder then, that, except at the
termination, "Carmen up to Data" was on Saturday night rapturously received, nearly all the solo vocal pieces
and some of the dances being followed by demands for repetition so unanimous and decisive as to leave the
performers no option but concession, whilst in two or three instances double encores were insisted upon. Until
half-an-hour before the curtain finally descended no burlesque could have gone better with a Gaiety audience,
some of whom had assembled at the pit and gallery entrances four or five hours prior to Mr. Meyer Lutz taking
his place in the orchestra to conduct the overture."
79 Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 1 Nov. 1890, 6.
80 Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890.
8i
Unknown paper, 4 Oct. 1890, London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box.

64
very good specimen...Burlesque, like pantomime, becomes more and more a variety
entertainment, supplemented by bright costumes and catching music."82

The use of topical references was an important part of this show and the Daily Chronicle
review of the London premiere observed: "There are many happy references to current
topics in the text.s83 As the season progressed new items were added to retain a topical
flavour and to prolong interest. Towards the end of its run in May 1891 new songs and
dances were added in an attempt to keep it current and to entice audiences who had seen the
original version to return to the show.84

The composer Meyer Lutz (1829-1903) was restricted by copyright from quoting passages of
any significant length from Bizet, and was required to write his own music to some of the
opera's most famous scenes. The Observer's critic recognized the difficulty of this
undertaking, "The numerous lyrics have been set to music by Mr. Meyer Lutz, who had an
onerous task; being called upon to illustrate, musically, a number of scenes in which Bizet
has been heard at his best."85 With the rights to Bizet's music tightly controlled, Lutz was
ingenious in his suggestion of aspects of the original score.

Mr Lutz has produced for the occasion quite a solid volume of music, including choruses,
songs, duets, and dances, wherein a sort of haunting suggestion, even at times a bar or so, of
Bizet's music is cunningly designed to mark the theme without invading the composer's
jealously guarded rights.86

Lutz was largely successful in furnishing the burlesque with music that was recognized by
the English audiences of 1890 as identifiably Spanish. It is informative to note the
seriousness with which the issue of Spanish character was discussed in relation to Carmen up
to Data. A writer in the Observer analyzed the Spanish features of Lutz' music and made
comparisons with similar passages in Carmen,

82
`The Theatres in 1890,' Times, 10 Jan. 1891, 3.
83 Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890.
84
The Times commented on this injection of new material, "Hedda Gabler is shortly to be withdrawn from the
Vaudeville, so that the interest manifested in Ibsen by the general public has not been great. It is instructive to
note by the side of this failure that the Gaiety burlesque, Carmen Up to Data, has just taken a new lease of life,
having been provided with a fresh assortment of songs and dances." `The Theatres,' Times, 25 May 1891, 6.
85
Observer, 5 Oct. 1890, 6.
86
Daily News, 6 Oct. 1890, 6.

65
 Many of the best numbers, the "Fandango" for instance, and the chorus of cigarette girls, are as
distinctly Spanish in character as anything that can be found in Bizet's opera, and this characteristic is
to be found in almost all the ballet music. For Miss Florence St. John (Carmen) a capital substitute for
Bizet's "Habanera" was furnished in the song "Ask me to marry," and a still more characteristic and
piquant specimen of music after Spanish patterns was the "Calasera"...Her sentimental songs were less
original, and less in harmony with the character of Carmen.87

The following excerpts (Ex. 1) from Carmen's song in Act 1 of Carmen Up to Data illustrate
the closeness of the parody to the original. The song opens with an instrumental introduction
based on the habanera rhythm Bizet borrowed from Iradier.

Example la. The introduction to Carmen's song "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!", from
Carmen Up to Data, act 1, no. 5, ms.1-8.88

5
8"`
,.
Er-
vmamalma l•■ m____,r■ '.
. --- .
3
-- 3 —M . S
3 3

..a.
Y EMU.Jg■ -

Carmen's vocal line in "Ask Me to Marry" refers directly to the melody adapted by Bizet
from Iradier's El Arreglito. The comparison is most obvious in the chromatic descending
melody of bars 28 and 29 (Ex. lb).

87
Observer, 5 Oct. 1890, 6.
as
Meyer Lutz, George Robert Sims, Henry Petit, Carmen Up to Data, Piano-vocal score (London: E.
Ascherberg, 1890), 36.

66
Example lb. Excerpt from "Ask Me to Marry, I Laugh Ha! Ha!," from Carmen Up to Data,
act 1, no. 5, ms.24-31.89

3
Car-men knows how to flirt a - few Don't you know it? yes you

18
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Lutz successfully manipulated the expectations of audiences who were very familiar with the
music and story of Carmen. The closeness of the plot of Carmen Up to Data to the opera
served to enhance the musical parody and a critic in the Daily Telegraph explained the
success of Lutz' score,

They have so led up to well-known musical points in Bizet's opera that the audience seemed to wait for
the familiar music. But here came in the wonderful skill of Herr Lutz. He was deliberately forced into
a contest with Bizet on his own ground. How admirably the musician came out of the struggle we need
not say. The music like Bizet's, had all the brightness and sparkle and abandon of the Spanish
character. But with all that, the greatest adorers of Bizet will not fail to be delighted with Lutz.9°

89
Meyer Lutz, George Robert Sims, Henry Petit, Carmen Up to Data, Piano-vocal score (London: E.
Ascherberg, 1890), 37-8.
90 Daily Telegraph, 6 Oct. 1890.

67
As composer, musical director and conductor, Lutz was the driving force behind Carmen Up
to Data. A writer in The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News summed up his influence
on the show by stating, "Carmen Up to Data might perhaps be more properly called Meyer
Lutz up to everything. The talented musical director of the Gaiety appears to me to be the
moving spirit of the whole performance. His eye and his baton give impulse to the show and
sustain it."9 t

In addition to the music, the costumes and staging played a pivotal role in portraying Spanish
colour. The Daily News critic was impressed by the exotic locations and staging and wrote,
"The scenery was exceptionally picturesque, Mr. Hann's Square in Seville, Courtyard of the
Gipsy Club, and Rocky Retreat on the the seacoast being particularly noteworthy."92

The closeness of the burlesque and operatic genres is demonstrated by the way many singers
crossed between these genres, as has already been noted in the case of Dolaro. It is
noteworthy that the performance of Florence St. John as Carmen in Carmen Up to Data was
critiqued with almost as much seriousness as a performance of the operatic role. The Daily
Chronicle wrote:

Vocally Miss St. John is as excellent as ever. Four solo airs are at present alloted her. In place of the
"habanera" of the opera stands a lightsome morceau, "Ask me to marry, I laugh, ha, ha!" a tender air in
F, "One who is life to me," a calasera (thoroughly Spanish in character), whilst beguiling José to
remain in the inn instead of responding to the bugle summons to rejoin his regiment...A more
fascinating and persuasive Carmen has not been seen on the metropolitan stage.93

In the Daily Telegraph review, Miss St. John's performance was seen as evidence of her
ability to sing the operatic Carmen, "Miss St. John might be a very delightful Carmen on the
serious stage. She has all the temperament for the character. She would have done for the
part what Selina Dolaro did for it."94

This quest for more variations on the Carmen character and above all a more authentically
Spanish Carmen led naturally to dramatic versions of Mérimée's novella. A dramatic
production of Carmen adapted by the playwright Henry Hamilton had some success in

91 Illustrated
Sporting and Dramatic News, 1 Nov. 1890, 6.
92
Daily News, 6 Oct. 1890, 6.
93
Daily Chronicle, 6 Oct. 1890.
" Daily Telegraph, 6 Oct. 1890.

68
America before being presented in London at the Gaiety Theatre on June 6 1896. The
English actress and theatre manager Olga Nethersole (1867-1951) played Carmen in this
presentation. She was already well known in theatre circles as manager of the Royal Court
Theatre in London and as a director of her own plays and scenarios. Nethersole pioneered a
realistic approach to acting and was an important figure in the evolution of a modern style of
drama in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She aimed to bring this realistic
style to Carmen, an extension of what had already been happening on the operatic stage in
the work of Calvé. In preparation for her turn as Carmen, Nethersole drew on her first-hand
experience of travel to Spain in an attempt to put an authentic stamp on her dramatic Carmen
interpretation. In response to negative commentary about the play, Nethersole's biographer
Archie Bell wrote, "who of these critics has spent hours and days of study upon the real soul
of the girl Carmen, as she lives in Spain to-day? Miss Nethersole has made the true
representation of Carmen one of the artistic ideals of her life."95

The play caused a stir, most notably the lengthy kiss between Carmen and Don Jose which
became known as the "Nethersole kiss," however, reviews in London were not favourable.96
Perceptions of Spanish music and the Carmen story were so closely united to the musical
context that for many a purely dramatic setting did not have the ring of truth. The Times's
critic pointed out the difficulties London audiences found in appreciating a Carmen devoid of
operatic artifice and music:

The story of Carmen is so entirely wedded to the music of Bizet that Miss Olga Nethersole is
necessarily handicapped to some extent in appearing in a purely dramatic version of the loves and
infidelities of Prosper Merimée's heroine. That is one reason, doubtless, why the efforts of this clever
young actress were not so cordially appreciated at the Gaiety on Saturday night as they might have
been 97

Music was not totally absent from this production and selections from Bizet's score and some
original music were included in between the dramatic movements of the show. In the
opinion of a number of critics Nethersole's performance did not live up to the lofty standards
of expression and realism set by the opera stars Hauk and Calvé. A dramatic portrayal was
95
Archie Bell, Olga Nethersole (Paris: Herbert Clarke, 1907), 7.
96
"In her performance of Carmen, Nethersole had become famous for what became known as 'the Nethersole
kiss'—a kiss on the lips that lasted so long that stagehands were rumored to lay bets on its duration each
evening." Katie N. Johnson, Sisters in Sin: Brothel Drama in America, 1900-1920 (Cambridge: CUP, 2006),
45.
97
'Gaiety Theatre,' Times, 8 June 1896, 13.

69
deemed too realistic to be plausible. The Times was quite adamant on this point and wrote,
"The truth is—and Miss Nethersole will do well to lay it to heart—that there is no more room
on the stage for a realistic Carmen than there is for a Jeanne d'Arc who should be merely a
cow-girl of Lorraine, too familiar with the officers of the French army."98

Nethersole added Spanish colour to her performance with the inclusion of a Spanish dance
routine with castanets, however, it was deemed unconvincing and the writer in The Times
commented that "she does well not to try too much the nerves of a public called upon to
accept a Carmen who does not sing, and who attempts, without much success, a dance with
the castanets."99

Arthur Sullivan and Spanish music

A number of English composers wrote Spanish music as part of music hall revues or
theatrical works that evoked Spain. One of the most notable nineteenth-century English
composers to write Spanish music for the theatre was Arthur Sullivan (1842-1900).
Sullivan was probably the most successful English composer of the Victorian era, known for
the light operas and burlesques he composed to libretti by his partner William Gilbert.
Sullivan's grandfather had taken part in the Peninsular War, serving at Vittoria, Salamanca
and Badajoz, and Spanish themes and characters feature in several of his theatrical works.100
One of his earliest, The Contrabandista, or The Law of the Ladrones, is set in Spain and stars
thieves, bandits, Spanish dancers and musicians. The Contrabandista predated his
partnership with Gilbert and opened at St George's Hall in London on 18 December 1867.
The piece was an important stepping-stone for the young composer, even though it played to
mixed reviews and remains a rarely performed work.10' This was his first work in more than
one act and was written at a time when when a distinctly British form of musical theatre was
emerging. La Contrabandista marked Sullivan's second collaboration with the writer F.C.
102
Burnand who worked for Punch magazine and was experienced in the field of burlesque.
Even though the script for The Contrabandista is comical, it attempted to conjure up images

98 Ibid.
99 Ibid.
1°° Arthur Lawrence, Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life Story, Letters and Reminiscences (1899; New York: Haskell
House, 1973), 253.
1°1 The Contrabandista
was performed occasionally in England and the USA until 1880 and not again until the
Sir Arthur Sullivan Society revived it in a concert version in 2002. A recording of the work was issued in 2004
on the Hyperion label. Soloists, The New London Orchestra, The London Chorus, Ronald Corp cond., Arthur
Sullivan: The Contrabandista — The Foresters, Hyperion Records, CDA67486, 2004.
1°2 Their collaboration had already produced the successful one-act comic opera Cox and Box (1866)•

70
of Spain and provided Sullivan with the opportunity to incorporate sections of Spanish
colour. To suggest the Spanish context Sullivan utilized typical Spanish dance forms such as
the bolero and the cachucha, which were common markers of theatrical Spanish music and
dance in the mid-nineteenth century.

The story, playing on the familiar stereotype of the Spanish bandit, is set in mountainous
terrain in the area between Compostello and Seville. A group of bandits capture an English
woman, who is engaged to marry a Spanish Count. As retribution, the Count kills the leader
of the bandits and they are forced to choose a new leader. According to the "Law of the
Ladrones," the first stranger to pass by will be named their new chief and a hapless
Englishman named Aldolphus Cimabue Grigg is the first stranger to pass. Copied below is a
stretch of dialogue from this scene at the end of Act 1 where two of the robbers, José and
Sancho have confronted Mr Grigg (Fig. 4). The scene ends in a bolero, featuring castanets.

71
 Figure 4. Arthur Sullivan and F.C. Burnand, La Contrabandista, dialogue from the
end of act 1.103

Both [José and Sancho]: We're members of a robber band,

We offer you, as Captain, the command.
Mr. Grigg: Upon my word, I do not understand,
In fact I'd rather not.
Both: Our Captain you must be!
Refuse! Then choose, be Captain or be shot!
Mr. Grigg: What?
Both: Shot!
Mr Grigg: Not—
Both: Shot!
Mr. Grigg: What?
Both: Shot!
Mr. Grigg: For what?
Both: Yes, shot!
Mr. Grigg: Well, agreed!
Both: `Tis agreed!
Dance the bolero! Dance the bolero!
Mr Grigg: Mad! `Tis my belief.
Both: Wild tarantellas will welcome our Chief.
Dance the bolero!
Mr Grigg: Why the bolero?
Both: Bolero! Bolero! The robber's pet,
We'll dance to the pipe and the gay castanet.
Mr Grigg: Bolero! Bolero! A dreadful set!
I wish that I'd never these gentlemen met.
All: Bolero! Bolero!...
We'll dance to the sound of the pipe...

The following excerpt (Ex. 2) of the piano score of this trio shows some of the musical
devices Sullivan used to suggest the Spanish setting. The trio is in a sprightly triple meter
and is marked `Allegro, tempo de cachucha.' The rhythmic inflections setting of the word
"bolero" mimic the rhythm of the dance, and the harmonic movement from D major to E flat

103 Art
hur Sullivan and F.C. Burnand, La Contrabandista, (London: Boosey, 1867), 30-36.

72
major (over a D pedal) in bars 242-245 is a reference to the distinctively Spanish sounding
Phrygian mode.

Example 2. Arthur Sullivan, `Hullo! What's That?,' La Contrabandista, act 1, no. 6, ms.234-
249.104
234
cre.sc.
# .
Tenor
tli •b
I wish that rd ne - ver These gen - tle - men met,— These gen

Bass h h
.) a a

Bo le ro! We'll dance to the

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toa Sullivan and Burnand, La Contrabandista, 34.

73
Sullivan followed this trio with a Spanish dance marked "tempo di Bolero." Here (Ex. 3) the
staccato articulation in the bass clef (bars 1-4), cascading triplet figures (bars 3-4), dotted
rhythms (bars 1-2), use of the Phrygian mode (bars 3-4) and the typical guitar key of A
minor, are some of the means by which Sullivan creates a Spanish dance pastiche (Example
3).

Example 3. Sullivan, Dance, La Contrabandista, act 1, no. 7, ms.1-14. 05

—'ANIC)—
E.
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Sullivan's biographer, Arthur Jacobs, argued that in this early work Sullivan's use of dances
to suggest the Spanish setting was not always handled smoothly. He writes that the dances
were introduced "effectively as music, but with a clumsy interruption to the action, which
106
Sullivan would avoid when reintroducing such dances in The Gondoliers."

105 Sullivan and Burnand, La Contrabandista, 37

'06 A
rthur Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan: A Victorian Musician (Oxford: OUP, 1984) 52.

74
By the time of The Gondoliers, the writing partnership of Gilbert and Sullivan was at its
zenith. First produced at the Savoy Theatre in 1889, The Gondoliers was an instant success
and one of their most enduring works. The story moves between Venice and Barataria, the
imaginary island given to Sancho Panza in Cervante's Don Quijote. Character names such as
"The Duke of Plaza-Toro" and "Don Alhambra del Bolero" indicate the play on Spanish
themes in this work. The most famous Spanish number in The Gondoliers is the Chorus and
Dance, "Dance a Cachucha." Sullivan was writing for an audience already familiar with the
Spanish stereotypes promoted by Carmen and its manifold spin offs. The effortless comedy
of The Gondoliers played on expectations of the lighter side of the Spanish or "southern"
temperament. A reviewer in The Telegraph wrote, "The `Gondoliers' conveys an impression
of having been written con amore. It is as spontaneous as the light-hearted laughter of the
sunny south and as luminous as an Italian summer sky.s107

Twenty-seven years after the premiere of The Contrabandista, and in the aftermath of the
success of Carmen, Burnand and Sullivan joined forces again to resurrect and rework the
piece under a new title, The Chieftan. The music was substantially re-written, particularly the
second act.108 The Chieftan was first put on at the Savoy Theatre on 12 December 1894 and,
after a strong opening, attendances declined. Sullivan made a last ditch effort to save the
show by amplifying the use of Spanish colour. He wanted to replace Inez's song from act 1
with a new habanera but had difficulty setting Burnand's words. Sullivan wrote to Burnand
about the problems he was having setting the new words to a habanera rhythm:

I have tried hard [with Burnand's new words] but cannot get it into shape. The metre is against my
setting it in a Spanish, dancing rhythm, and it is disjointed in form, which wouldn't matter except that
in this particular place I want a strongly marked, catchy rhythmical [sic] number, like the quintet in 2"d
act...Here are nonsense words and music which give an idea of a characteristic Spanish rhythm [sic].
Two or three verses of this, with words which will admit of a 'la la la' in the chorus, and I could make
a bright, lively opening number.109

107 Quoted in Lawrence, Sir Arthur Sullivan: Life Story, 183.

108 Jacobs, Arthur Sullivan, 352.
1°8 Ibid., 353.

75
Sullivan later sent Burnand examples of the rhyming scheme he wanted and in the new
edition of the vocal score Inez's song is marked `Allegro molto alla habanera'."° In the end
it was to no avail and The Chieftan only lasted for 96 performances, a failure for someone
with Arthur Sullivan's track record." Florence St John, who had such success in Carmen up
to Data, was in the cast of The Chieftan, playing the role of Rita.

Throughout the 1880s, the 1890s and into the new century, London audiences had developed
their own, much discussed, multiple understandings of Spanishness through the opera
Carmen, its various English adaptations, and Spanish-themed theatre works. Performers and
productions had to be convincing and realistic but could only push the boundaries so far. At
the same time, Spanish musicians performing in London were frustrated with stereotypes
derived from Carmen. The following chapter is a discussion of the fortunes and impact of
two renowned Spanish musicians active in late-nineteenth century London, Pablo Sarasate
and Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909).

11° Ibid.
"I The Gondoliers ran for 554 performances.

76
 Chapter 3:
Pablo Sarasate and Isaac Albéniz: Prominent Spanish performer-
composers in late Victorian London

In their book Musical Visitors to Britain, David and Peter Gordon discuss the reasons
why Britain has attracted a steady stream of foreign musicians since the sixteenth
century.' They identify a distinct increase in the number of musical visitors to
London in the nineteenth century when tours by foreign musicians in Britain were
more viable than ever before due to the increased possibilities of travel and a larger
and more educated musical public.2 The early nineteenth century also marked the rise
of celebrity conductors and performers and music festivals where foreign artists were
showcased. The emergence of the musical entrepreneur and bodies such as the
Philharmonic Society of London facilitated concerts and tours for foreign performers
and composers. London in particular was a place where money could be made, not
only through performing but also teaching. The strong culture of amateur music
making in Britain ensured successful musicians could make a living from a
combination of activities.

The two most significant Spanish musicians to appear on the London scene in the
final decades of the nineteenth century were the violinist Pablo Sarasate and pianist
and composer Isaac Albéniz. They were both prominent Spanish musical
ambassadors who spent significant periods of time in London and in this chapter their
significance to musical perceptions of Spain in London is examined via a survey of
published reviews and writings focused on their activities in the English capital.

Pablo Sarasate in London

Sarasate's brilliance as a violinist transcended national boundaries, however, his
Spanish or "Southern" nature was often a topic for critics. His rise to prominence
coincided with the first wave of popularity of the opera Carmen and the subsequent
interest in Spanish music and dance. Sarasate's Fantasia on themes from Carmen
and his own Spanish compositions were responses to this trend and in turn helped to

David Gordon and Peter Gordon, Musical Visitors to Britain, (London and New York: Routledge,
2005).
2
Ib id., 5-9.

77
generate interest in Spanish instrumental music. Sarasate was one of Spain's most
famous musical exports and an important figure in cultivating perceptions of Spanish
music in London. The level of success and popularity he attained was unprecedented
for a Spanish instrumentalist and he paved the way for later Spanish performers,
especially Albéniz.

Sarasate was born in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona in 1844 and from an early
age learnt the violin from his father. In 1854 he went to Madrid for lessons and
within two years gave his first concert at the Teatro Real and played for the Spanish
King and Queen.3 According to the recollections of his mother he played
instrumental fantasies on themes from the operas Norma, Rigoletto and Macbeth for
the royal couple.4 In 1856 Sarasate and his mother set out for Paris with a letter of
introduction to the renowned pedagogue Delphin Alard whose violin method had
been translated into Spanish, German and Italian.5 Tragically, Sarasate's mother died
suddenly of cholera during the journey but Sarasate continued on to Paris with the
help of a Spanish businessman who arranged for his studies with Alard to proceed.
He showed his talent by winning the Paris Conservatoire prize for violin in 1857,
followed by a prize for harmony the following year. Alard had a reputation for
"purity of style and execution,"6 qualities Sarasate was also famous for, but Sarasate
later remarked that all he learnt from Alard was posture.? After graduating from the
Conservatoire Sarasate's reputation grew steadily and he attracted the attention of
Rossini who famously remarked that he was "a giant in talent whose modesty doubles
his charm."8

Sarasate's activities in the 1860s are not well documented. He made his first visit to
London as a teenager in 1861 for concerts at the Crystal Palace in London organized
by the American impresario Bernard Ullman. Newspaper coverage of these concerts
was limited and in press previews he was referred to as Neapolitan.9 The Standard

3 Pedro Garcia Morales, `Sarasate y Navascués, Pablo de,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and
Musicians, ed. A. Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 436.
4 According to the nineteenth-century virtuoso tradition exemplified by Liszt.
S Iberni, Pablo Sarasate, 35.
6 Milsom, Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance, 24.
Ibemi, Pablo Sarasate, 38.
8 Morales, `Sarasate y Navascués,' 436.
Morning Chronicle, 17 May 1861.

78
published a brief review, indicating that the repertoire was confined to fantasies and
arrangements of operatic items, and not even mentioning Sarasate's Spanish
nationality.10

After 1861 Sarasate focused his energies on performing in America and continental
Europe. He reappeared in London in 1874, when he played the Conce rto in F written
for him by his close friend the French composer Edouard Lalo (1823-1892). Born
and bred in France, Lalo's family background was actually Spanish and his second
violin concerto, the Symphonie espagnole (1874) is his best known composition."
Sarasate probably met Lalo in Paris during his years at the Conservatoire and knew
Lalo's chamber works featuring violin.12 On 29 November 1873 three of the most
important names who would be associated with Spanish music combined when
Sarasate played Lalo's Violin Sonata with Bizet at the piano.13 The 1874 London
premiere of Lalo's Concerto in F was advertised as Sarasate's first visit to England,14
and reviews noted Sarasate's tone and technical mastery, with the Morning Chronicle
describing him as "Senor Sarasate, whose execution is facile and whose tone is pure,
lucid, sweet, and true."15 His regular visits to London date from this time and he
continued to visit England frequently until his final years.16

A measure of Sarasate's popularity in late Victorian London is the fact that he was
presented as a favourite violinist of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's famous detective
Sherlock Holmes. In the Conan Doyle story The Adventure of the Red-Headed
League," Holmes invites Watson to St. James's Hall to hear Sarasate perform, noting
that, "there is a good deal of German music on the programme, which is rather more
to my taste than Italian or French. It is introspective and I want to introspect.s18
Watson relates the effect of Sarasate's concert on Holmes' mood,

10 Standard, 18 May 1861, 6.

11 Elaine Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope, 1870-1925 (New York: George Braziller, 1987).
12 Iberni, Pablo Sarasate, 50.
13 Ibid., 50.

14 Standard, 11 May 1874, 1.

15
Morning Post, 21 May 1874, 6.
16 Iberni, Pable Sarasate, 39.
17
First published in The Strand Magazine in August 1891.
15
Sir A rt hur Conan Doyle, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (Ware: Wordsworth Editions, 1992),
139-140.

79
 All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently
waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and
languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes, the sleuth-hound Holmes, the
relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent as it was possible to conceive.19

An examination of critical responses to Sarasate's performances illustrates not only

his impact on perceptions of Spanish music in London but also provides invaluable
information on Sarasate's performance style, perhaps more so than the recordings he
made towards the end of his life.20 The entry on Sarasate in the 1899 edition of
Grove's Dictionary of Music described the salient features of his playing, suggesting
Sarasate did not bring to the fore qualities generally expected of a Spanish musician:

Sarasate's distinguishing characteristics are not so much fire, force and passion,
though of these he has an ample store, as purity of style, charm, flexibility, and
extraordinary facility. He sings on the instrument with taste and expression, and
without that exaggeration or affectation of sentiment which disfigures the playing of
many violinists.21

George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) noted the difference between Sarasate's

personality and public expectations of him. "He is always alert, swift, clear, refined,
certain, scrupulously attentive and quite unaffected. This last adjective will surprise
people who see him as a black-haired romantic young Spaniard, full of fascinating
tricks and mannerisms."22 Features of his musical style mentioned time and again in
reviews include technical brilliance, accurate intonation, consistency of tone and
tasteful or civilized playing. These features could conceivably describe dull music-
making, however, Sarasate's performances were far from lacklustre. He had the air of
a showman about him. The wife of violinist Fritz Kreisler remembered him as:

19 Ibi d., 140.

20
Davi d M i lsom in Theory and Practice in Late Nineteenth-Century Violin Performance compares
performances by prominent nineteenth-century violinists through an analysis of their recordings. The
results are problematic given the age of the performers and the constraints of recording technology in
the early twentieth century. Sarasate's recordings date from 1904 when he was in the twilight of his
professional career. For more on Pablo Sarasate's 1904 recordings see Rodriguez, `De la manière des
zigeuner.'
21
Christopher Fifield, Max Bruch: His Life and Works (London: Victor Gollancz, 1988), 149.
22
Star, 24 May 1889, 132.

80
 the greatest grand seigneur in musical history. He looked like a grand duke. He has
a mass of grey hair, but his moustache was dyed pitch black. He played with the
greatest nonchalance. When he had already placed his violin under his chin and
everybody thought he was about to start, he would drop it again, clamp a monocle
into his eye and survey his audience. He had a way of seeming to drop his fiddle that
would take the audience's breath away. That is, he would let it slide down his slender
figure, only to catch it by the scroll of the neck just in time. It was a regular
showman's trick of his.23

In his book Thirty Years of Musical Life in London (1903), the critic Herman Klein
(1856-1934) recalled the impression Sarasate made at an early concert in 1877,24

Senor Sarasate had just turned thirty when he made his first appearance before a
London audience. Three years later (October 13, 1877) his rendering of
Mendelssohn's violin concerto at the Crystal Palace fairly took the town by storm,
and he repeated his triumph at the Philharmonic in the following spring. After 1885
he became an almost annual visitor to England, and he also toured several years with
unvarying success in the United States.25

Klein was right about Sarasate's success but his memory of the repertoire was faulty.
According to press reports Sarasate played Max Bruch's (1838-1920) Violin Concerto
No. 1, in G minor (1866), at the Crystal Palace on 13 October 1877, and local critics
were well aware of his growing reputation in Europe:

Herr Bruch...was lucky in such an interpreter as Senior Sarasate, a Spanish virtuoso,

who, but little known in England, has nevertheless of recent years been winning
golden opinions on the Continent, and not infrequently through the medium of the
same concerto.26

Sarasate forged close musical allegiances with a number of composers including the
German Bruch. They first met in 1877 at performances of the Violin Concerto no. 1,

23
Fifield, Max Bruch, 149-150.
24
Klein dated Sarasate's debut in London to 1874. The earlier tour of 1861 seemed to have been
erased
25
from the public memory.
Hermann Klein, Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, 1870-1900 (London: William Heinemann,
1903), 96.
26
`Crystal Palace Concerts,' Times, 15 Oct. 1877, 11.

81
originally written for Joseph Joachim (1831-1907), in Frankfurt and Wiesbaden.27
Bruch was fascinated with Sarasate's playing and subsequently dedicated his Violin
Concerto no. 2, in D minor (1878), to him.

Joachim and Sarasate enjoyed an active rivalry, not only of personalities but between
rival schools of violin playing. Joachim represented the more cerebral, academic
German school, 28 while Sarasate was aligned with the French school. As The Times
critic explained, "the French school of violinists, using that term in the wider
sense...refers to style and training rather than to birth. Vieuxtemps and Sarasate, the
first a Belgian, the second a Spaniard... [both belong] by `elective affinity' to the
school just referred to."29

In many ways Sarasate was a unique artist who transcended the limits of any school.
No less an authority than Carl Flesch wrote in his memoirs that "from him, in fact,
dates the modern striving after technical precision and reliability."30

Joachim was seen as the more cerebral of the two violinists and this perception
extended to repertoire choices. Shaw mused in print on a number of occasions about
their relative merits, reflecting in 1890 on what he considered the hypocrisy of
Joachim's conservative repertoire choices:

Joachim is famous for the austerity of his repertoire. He will play nothing
meretricious: he stands inflexibly by the classics; and will [play] none of your
Sarasate dance tunes and national airs...I cannot, for the life of me, see that Joachim
has any valid standard of criticism. It seems to me that if he is prepared to tolerate
second-hand Moza rt, faked by Spohr, and mechanical padding by Sgambati, he is
hardly in a position to turn up his nose at the free and original compositions of
Sarasate and Wieniawski3l

27 Fifield, Max Bruch, 149.

28 Maciej Jablonski and Danuta Jasinska, Henryk Wieniaski and the 19'1'-Century Violin Schools
(Poznan: The Henryk Wieniawski Musical Society, 2006), 105.
29 `Crystal Palace,' Times, 13 Dec. 1881, 4.
30 Carl Flesch, Memoirs (Harlow: Bois de Bologne, 1973), 38.
31 Star, 21 Mar. 1890, 350.

82
While Sarasate was renowned for the accuracy of his intonation, Joachim was less
technically exact, but evidently consistent in his own way. Shaw wrote of his desire
to hear a violinist who combined Sarasate's technique and Joachim's interpretative
powers after hearing Joachim's performance of the Bach Chaconne in D minor at a
concert in 1893:

If the intonation had only had the exquisite natural justice of Sarasate's, instead of the
austerity of that particular scale which may be called the Joachim mode, and which is
tempered according to Joachim's temperament and not according to the sunny
South...But the thought that the miracle of miracles might arrive in the shape of a
violinist with Sarasate's intonation and Joachim's style made me forbear.32

After the premiere in London of Carmen in 1878 Sarasate was characterized more
prominently as a Spanish musician, and writers and critics dwelt on aspects of
Spanish character and temperament in his performances. Critics repeatedly
characterized Sarasate's playing as fiery and passionate, particularly in comparison
with Joachim's interpretations. Inevitably, these traits were attributed to his Spanish
or "southern" heritage. The repertoire did not have to be by southern European
composers for these comparisons to be made. A performance of Mendelssohn's
Violin Concerto led The Times reviewer to write: "The peculiar fire which the
Southern artist imparts to the German composer's thoughtful conception...
distinguishes his reading from that of Joachim."33 The same critic described
Sarasate's performance of Beethoven's Violin Concerto as "played...with the fire and
energy peculiar to his southern nature, and differing from, although by no means
inferior to, the so-called `classical style' in which that masterpiece is generally
rendered."34 Here Sarasate's nationality is referred to in a positive light and his
Spanishness became the defining feature of his performance.

In his own compositions, Sarasate also furthered the racially oriented expectations of
style. On the cover of the 1878 edition of Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Airs) Sarasate
wrote that it should be played "in the style of the gypsy people" ("de la manière des
zigeuner"). The conflation of gypsy and Spanish identities, particularly in the wake

32 World, 29 Mar. 1893, 276.

33
'Senor Sarasate's Conce rt,' Times, 23 Apr. 1883, 4.
34
`Senor Sarasate's Conce rts,' Times, 4 May 1885, 6.

83
of Carmen, meant that Sarasate's take on gypsy melodies, largely based on Eastern
European violin styles, reinforced the exotic allure of his persona. Sarasate's score
for Zigeunerweisen has detailed markings to convey his approach his ideas of tempo
and rubato. In his 1904 recording of Zigeunerweisen Sarasate stays closer to the
marked indications of the score than most modern interpreters.35 In his analysis of
this recording, Rodriguez makes a comparison with a recorded performance by Itzak
Perlman (1945-) and observes, "this nineteenth-century precision of Sarasate manages
to give a feeling of improvisation or flexibility that Perlman's twentieth-century
precision does not have."36

Lalo's Symphonie espagnole, written for Sarasate in 1874 became a signature work
for the violinist and one of the most popular Spanish-themed works performed in
London before Carmen. According to James Parakilas, "Lalo can be said to have
invented Sarasate in this work—to have invented for Sarasate the style on which he
would build his career.i37 It is an exaggeration to claim that Lalo "invented" Sarasate
in this work given he was well known for his precocious talents and virtuosity from
an early age, and that these attributes had already inspired composers such as Camille
Saint Saëns (1835-1921) to write for him virtuosic works exhibiting elements of
Spanish or gypsy musical style.38

Parakilas also discusses the difficulties Sarasate faced in conforming to preconceived

ideas of Spanish musical personality. He writes,

To fulfill international expectations of the Spanish "type," his music and playing had
to be passionate; to match the manners of the concert hall, they could not be too
passionate. His music settles for elegant lyricism. The more successfully he
cultivated the role of the Spanish fiddler, the more he played into condescension
abroad when he insisted on breaking out of that role, as when he performed
Beethoven in Berlin.39

"Rodriguez, 'De la manière des zigeuner,' 149-151.

36
Ibid., 151.
37 Parakilas `How Spain Got a Soul,' 162.
"For example the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso (1863, revised 1870) mentioned later in this
chapter.
39 Parakilas, 'How Spain Got a Soul,' 162-3.

84
Reviews of Sarasate's performances in London do not necessarily support these
assumptions. It is difficult to imagine a performer of such prodigious talents as
Sarasate, who was successfully performing a wide range of works in both Europe and
America, adapting his performance style to meet expectations of Spanish type.
Negative reactions to his playing of Beethoven in Berlin probably had as much to do
with local support for the German style represented by Joachim, as they did with
Sarasate's own performance. As has been seen in a number of the reviews quoted
earlier, English critics enjoyed hearing Sarasate play a wide range of music. After his
success with the Lalo Symphonie Espagnole, Sarasate wrote and performed more of
his own Spanish pieces. Rather than being viewed solely as a concession to public
expectations, this was an opportunity to present original Spanish-themed works in
concert, often as encore pieces or at the end of a recital. These pieces were popular
character works, akin to the lighter salon pieces that many performers included in
their programmes.

Before 1874 Sarasate had written numerous fantasies and variations on operatic
themes but after the Lalo success he began to write almost exclusively Spanish pieces.
As a performer, however, Sarasate refused to be locked into playing Spanish works.
His musical interest extended to northern European folk music and he encouraged
composers to use these themes in works written for him. Lalo wrote the Fantasie
norvégienne (1878) for him to play and the Scottish composer Alexander Mackenzie
composed a suite for violin and orchestra based on Scottish themes (Pibroch, 1889)
dedicated to Sarasate. These choices baffled some commentators including The
Times music critic who wrote:

M. Sarasate gave Mendelssohn's concerto for the violin, with the verve and technical
mastery for which the Spanish artist is justly famous. In addition to this, he produced
one of the novelties of the evening, a "Fantaisie Norvégienne," for violin, by Edouard
Lalo, the well-known composer and violinist. Why an artist of Southern origin who
lives in France and acquired his reputation by a "Symphonie Espagnole" should have
chosen a Norwegian theme for his subject may seem surprising at first sight 4°

a°
'Fifth Philharmonic Concert,' Times, 2 May 1879, 8.

85
Another composer close to Sarasate was the distinguished French composer Saint-
Saëns. Sarasate asked him to write a concerto for the violin at their first meeting
resulting in the Violin Concerto, in A major (1872), Saint-Saën's first violin concerto,
and a perfect match for Sarasate's playing style. James Harding has observed of this
work,

It was tailor-made for Sarasate's bewitchingly elegant style, all silver sheen and ice-
cold sweetness, a style achieved without practising scales or exercises, and nurtured
by sight-reading classics and new works which gave him opportunities to develop his
remarkable facility for understanding and immediately overcoming the most
complicated problems4'

Among the other works Saint-Saëns wrote for Sarasate were the Introduction and
Rondo Capriccioso and the Violin Concerto No. 3, in B minor, premiered by Sarasate
in 1880. The first of these pays homage to Spanish music especially in the
accompaniment figures in the Rondo section which recall the guitar.42 The virtuosic
writing of this work, particularly in the finale, suited Sarasate and it was one of his
favourite works to perform. Bizet prepared the arrangement of this piece for violin
and piano 43

Perhaps, rather than Lalo inventing Sarasate with his Symphonie espagnole, it might
be more accurate to suggest that Sarasate was an important inspiration for both Lalo
and Bizet. Luis Iberni speculates that Sarasate was actually a key inspiration for his
friend Bizet in his writing of the opera Carmen.44

By 1881, the music of Carmen was so familiar to London audiences that music with a
Spanish flavour was instantly compared with Bizet's opera and Lalo's Symphonie
espagnole was described as being, "full of the Spanish rhythms and melodies
familiarised by Carmen.s45 Sarasate's own Carmen Fantasy (1883) took some of the
most recognisable themes from the opera and arranged them into a virtuosic violin

41 James Harding, Saint-Saëns and his Circle (London: Chapman and Hall, 1965), 78.
42
Brian Rees, Camille Saint-Saëns:A Life (London: Chatto and Windus, 1999), 116.
43 lbemi, Sarasate, 41.
44
Ibid., 53.
45
The work was conducted by Charles Lamoureux at St. James's Hall. Times, 17 Mar. 1881, 6.

86
showpiece, becoming one of his most popular works. An 1884 Times review of
Sarasate's performance of his Carmen Fantasy, not only praised his playing, but
celebrated Bizet's music for its authenticity: "In the fantasia on airs from Carmen
Senor Sarasate played the national airs of his country, which Bizet has embodied in
his opera, with a fire and piquancy of rhythm unattainable by anyone not to the
manner born."46

As the most successful Spanish musician of his generation, championing the music of
other composers and performing his own works, Sarasate placed Spanish-themed
instrumental music before the English public on a regular basis during the 1870s and
1880s. In his book Thirty Years of Musical Life in London, Klein highlighted
Sarasate's role in educating London audiences about Spanish music:

How amazingly clever they sounded, how tender and exciting by turns, how well
written for the instrument! Above all, how exquisitely Sarasate played them!—the
"Jota Aragonese," the "Zapateado," the "Sevillana," and the "Habaflera." We were at
last beginning to learn something about Spanish music. Then in 1889 came Isaac
Albéniz.47

Isaac Albéniz in London

Albéniz is generally considered to be the father of Spanish nationalist music as it
developed in the twentieth century. Pedro Morales wrote of Albéniz in 1924,

With him came into existence the "new Spanish school," and his name as piano
composer has now extended to all countries...He revealed to the world the artistic
significance of Spanish music, and awoke musical Spain to the reality of a modern
sensibility 48

Albéniz's compositions, particularly the piano suite Iberia (1905-1909), had a

profound influence on the next generation of Spanish composers, especially Manuel
46 `
47
Senor Sarasate,' Times, 12 May 1884, 12.
Klein, Musical Life, 252-4.
48
Pedro Garcia Morales, `Albéniz, Isaac,' in A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A.
Eaglefield-Hull (London: J.M. Dent, 1924), 9-10. Albéniz's status and influence is still widely
recognised. Walter Aaron Clark wrote in 1999, "If we consider Falla as the central point towards and
from which we measure the progress of Spanish nationalism in music, Albéniz is Falla's most
important predecessor." Clark, Albéniz, 284.

87
de Falla (1876-1946) and Joaquin Turina (1882-1949).49 Iberia is considered a major
work in the development of a modern aesthetic for the piano and some of its famous
admirers include Claude Debussy (1862-1918), Percy Grainger (1882-1961) and
Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992).5°

Albéniz was based in London for a crucial phase of his career, spanning the years
1889-1893. During this time he developed key relationships with entrepreneurs and
other musicians, while successfully cultivating an audience for his pianism and for
new Spanish music. In the English capital he was able to develop all the aspects of
his creative personality: performing, concert organization, composing and his love for
the theatre. This was an eventful period in his evolution as a composer. Albéniz
arrived in London at a time when interest in Spanish music was high, however, he had
to deal with frequent comparisons to the music of Bizet and Sarasate. He played
many of his own compositions in London and also promoted the works of other
Spanish composers. Reviews of concerts Albéniz presented in 1889 and 1890,
introducing the English public to new Spanish music, provide further insights into the
English engagement with Spanish music in the late nineteenth century. The last part
of Albéniz's time in London was devoted to the composition of new works for the
stage and commentators continued to evaluate Albéniz with reference to Spanish
music and his Spanish nationality.

Albéniz gave his first piano recitals in London in 1889 and his impact was immediate.
The music critic in the weekly society magazine Vanity Fair wrote:

Last week I had the pleasure of hearing a really remarkable new pianist. His name is
Senor Albéniz, and he hails from the land that has given us Sarasate and has been
immortalised on the lyric stage by Bizet. In addition to technical ability of the first
order, he possesses that rare gift, the art of charming.51

These comparisons were common and English critics were quick to point out the
similarities between Albéniz and Sarasate. Although Albéniz's playing was marked
by restraint and subtlety, his instrumental virtuosity was widely recognised. In this

49 Joaquin Turina observed "Our father Albéniz showed us the road we had to follow." Ibid., 284.
5° Ibid., 5.
51
Vanity Fair, 25 June 1889, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 2. Biblioteca de Catalufla, Barcelona

88
aspect of the art of performance, Sarasate and Albéniz were alike. The Dramatic
Review published an eloquent comparison of the two performers:

Never overmuch inclined to the thunder and lightning style of the pianists of the day,
Mr. Albéniz has now played his rivals a remarkable trick; for abandoning altogether
the style in which they most excel, he now moves his audience not by astonishing
them but by charming them. There is much in the sty le of this Spanish pianist which
reminds one of our incomparable Spanish violinist; the same dazzling brightness, the
same exquisite delicacy, that mark the playing of Sarasate distinguish also that of
Albéniz.52

According to English reviewers, both performers displayed brilliant tone and

technique and a delicate expressiveness without resorting to a more demonstrative
style favoured by some contemporary performers. Both Sarasate and Albéniz gained,
somewhat unfairly, a reputation for specializing in lightweight repertoire. This was
partly due to specific repertoire choices, including their own Spanish works, but also
the result of national stereotypes. Spanish music was widely considered to be light
and undemanding, and this view extended to Spanish musicians. In 1890 Shaw
referred to Albéniz as "the most distinguished and original of the pianists who confine
themselves to the rose-gathering department of music",53 in reference to the
supposedly frivolous nature of some of the repertoire he presented.54 An examination
of Albéniz's concert programmes from this time belies this, revealing that alongside
shorter works he played many substantial works from the German piano repertoire,
often earning high praise for his interpretations. Beethoven Sonatas and arrangements
of Wagner for the piano were regularly included in his programmes, and like Sarasate,
he encountered in London the prejudice that Spanish, Latin or Southern European
musicians could not satisfactorily interpret Germanic music. Albéniz continued to
present diverse programmes to the London public although the weight of commentary
continued to fall on his own Spanish pieces and so-called "light" repertoire.

52
Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28.
53
George Bernard Shaw, World, 9 July 1890, 33-34.
54
Clark explains that here Shaw was "presumably alluding to his [Albéniz's] penchant for playing
popular and accessible pieces." Clark, Albéniz, 77.

89
Albéniz's exotic appeal as a Spanish performer was heightened by comparisons with
Bizet and London's continuing fascination with Carmen. In an article titled "Albéniz
and Bizet" a London writer compares the composers' "Spanishness":

Albéniz, Bizet, "Carmen"—here is a beautiful example of the alphabet of music.

There is an obvious connection between the popular and pretty pianist who gave
another conce rt yesterday afternoon, and the opera [Carmen] which Mr. Harris kindly
gave us in the evening at Covent Garden. Both are Spanish; the opera a great deal
more so than the pianist. Both are good in their very different ways.55

This report illustrates the double bind Albéniz encountered in London: an intense
interest in Spanish music from a public reluctant to change dearly held stereotypes.

Reviews and critical writings from this time show that public expectations of Spanish
music were not always matched by the reality of Albéniz's style. Like Sarasate,
Albéniz satisfied the audience craving for Spanish music with his own works. In
London Albéniz wrote a number of his most popular and well-loved piano works,
including the Deux Morceaux Caractéristiques (1889), Serenata espan"ola (1889),
Zambra Granadina (1889) and the six piano pieces published under the title Espana
(1890),56 pieces that displayed the influence of guitar music and the sound of
flamenco. Albéniz identified himself with the Moorish history of Spain and claimed
at times he was a descendant of the Moors.57

Albéniz's piano compositions were warmly received by London audiences, and were
perceived as being superior to the works of Sarasate. Some critics appreciated the
sophistication of his Spanish works and applauded the avoidance of cliché in his
compositions:

Almost everything he writes has a Spanish flavour; though he has but rarely recourse
to certain too familiar rhythms which have somehow got to be looked upon as
thorough Spanish, though in many instances they are not Spanish at all. It is

ss Albéniz and Bizet,' Star, 10 Apr. 1891, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 63.
56
See Torres, Catdlogo.
" Clark, Albéniz, 17.

90
 interesting to hear Spanish music played by one who is "to the manner born," and
58
doubly so when the music is the composition of the player himself.

Albéniz's performances of the keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757)

were regularly singled out for praise in the London press. Scarlatti lived in Spain and
Portugal in the service of the royal families for much of his professional life and many
of his more than 500 sonatas for the keyboard bear the strong imprint of Spanish
music. They exerted a key influence on a number of late nineteenth-century and early
twentieth-century Spanish composers, most notably the music of Granados and
Falla.59 During the late nineteenth century there was also a revival of interest in the
music of Scarlatti in England.

Albéniz played Scarlatti on the keyboard in his student years in Brussels where he
entered the Royal Conservatoire in 1876.60 The influence of Scarlatti's works is
heard throughout Albéniz's piano music, in the adaptation of guitaristic figurations
and chords onto the keyboard. The use of pedal points, repeated note figures and the
imitation of guitar strumming effects point to the influence of Scarlatti. Because of
his nationality, Albéniz's playing of Scarlatti was watched closely by English critics:
he was considered to be "one of the few who can play Scarlatti as he ought to be
played."61 Even when presented in the context of a "long and varied programme",
Albeniz's performances of Scarlatti stood out, as works "in the rendering of which he
especially excels."62 His playing of Scarlatti, drew a backhanded compliment from
Shaw: "His playing of harpsichord music is prodigiously swift and dainty; but it gives
no gauge of his capacity for serious playing."63 Shaw's comment indicates lingering
reservations about Albeniz's ability to tackle larger, more substantial works. Perhaps

" Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28. The phrase "to the manner born"
has a long history and appears in Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act 1 Scene iv. It was popular amongst
Victorian writers and was used to refer to someone well suited to something, in this case Spanish music,
by virtue of their upbringing or the culture they were born into. This phrase is used regularly in the
press to describe Albéniz's performances. His impact as an authentic Spanish musician was magnified
when he played his own Spanish-themed works.
S9 On Granados and the influence of Scarlatti in his works see Maria-Alexandra Francou-Desrouchers,
`Resituating Scarlatti in a Nationalist Context: Spanish Identity in the Goyescas of Granados,' PhD
diss., Schulich School of Music, McGill University, Montréal, Canada, 2009 and Clark, Enrique
Granados, 114-115.
60 Clark, Albéniz, 37, 39.
61 Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28.
62
Daily Graphic, 9 June, 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 6.
63 Shaw, London Music in 1888-89, 221

91
because of this and the ease and brilliance with which he played his own pieces and
the keyboard Sonatas of Scarlatti, he was typecast as lacking the depth to tackle the
major works from the mainly Germanic nineteenth-century piano repertoire. A
review of his performance of Beethoven's so-called Moonlight Sonata op. 27 no. 2
pointed out what were generally believed to be his strengths and weaknesses:

He is not heard at his best in works which require much interpretative power. In a
short piece by Scarlatti (which he played as an encore), and in two of his own
graceful compositions, which came at the end of the programme, Senor Albéniz's
delicate and refined style was heard to far greater advantage.TM

Two of the features of Albéniz's playing most commented upon were his tone and his
ability to play softly, traits not necessarily expected of a Spanish performer. A writer
in Bazaar observed,

His great excellence lies in the power to play softly—a capacity which is often wanting
in executants nowadays...The sensational effects of the Liszt-Rubinstein School he
never indulges in, being content with the cultivation of symmetrical execution and
superlative beauty of tone 65

Shortly after he arrived in London, Albéniz looked to expand his performance

opportunities and to tap into the general interest in Spanish music. To this end he
organized a series of concerts in 1889 and 1890 showcasing his own compositions
and music written by Spanish colleagues. In organizing these activities Albéniz went
further than Sarasate or any other musician of this period in his promotion of Spanish
music in London. This was a bold venture and the concerts were only moderately
successful. A survey of reviews shows that there was a significant disparity between
the current English expectations of Spanish music and some of the compositions
chosen by Albéniz for these concerts.

In June 1889 the London press announced that Albéniz was planning to introduce
Spanish music, old and new, at concerts in the capital. Reports that he had consulted

64
Saturday Review, 21 Feb, 1891, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 24.
65
Bazaar, 16 Feb 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 33.

92
rare manuscripts from the vaults of El Escorial added to the authenticity of the
exercise. Along with a number of writers, the music critic for The Morning Post
demonstrated an eagerness to hear:

A special programme of Spanish music which [Albéniz] will introduce to the public
early in the new year. It will include works representing both ancient and modern
masters. Mr. Albéniz has received permission from the Spanish government to copy,
for the purpose of this concert, several important manuscripts in the library of the
Escorial. Considering how little is know here of Spanish composers, this should be
an interesting and instructive entertainment.66

At a concert given in July 1889 Albéniz played his own Sonata and the Rapsodia
Espanola (1886) for two pianos.67 Spanish pieces by Albéniz's friend, the violinist
Enrique Fernandez Arb6s (1863-1939), were also on the programme.68 Vanity Fair
reviewed the concert and foreshadowed the introduction of works by Ruperto Chapi
(1851-1909) and Tomas Breton (1850-1923) in future concerts. Albéniz was
beginning to focus on promoting contemporary Spanish composers:

Spanish music of a higher order is to us almost an unknown quantity, and Senor

Albéniz's recital on Wednesday was of the greatest interest, as the programme
included several examples of the music of the Peninsula. The concert-giver was
represented by a most interesting and cleverly written Sonata and an admirable
Rhapsody for two pianos...The national element predominates in the latter
composition, and the effect of melodies alternately sad and gay, interwoven in a
masterly manner, is irresistible. The above remarks apply to the three Spanish pieces
by Yermandos [sic] Arb6s for piano, violin, or `cello. These eminently characteristic
compositions which are written in classical form, gain additional charm from the
piquancy of the Spanish rhythms. Senor Arb6s, who is a favourite pupil of Joachim,
and professor of the violin at the Madrid Conservatoire, is a composer of remarkable
ability. When Senor Albéniz returns here, I hope he will introduce us to more works
of Senor Arb6s, as well as of his compatriots Chapi and Bret6n.69

66
Morning Post, 25 June 1889, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 2.
67 The Rapsodia Espanola was originally written for piano and orchestra. See Torres, Catâlogo, 320-
322.
69
Vanity Fair, 13 July 1889, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 2.
Ibid.

93
Albéniz would introduce works by both Chapi and Breton at concerts in November of
the following year. As a preview to this venture, he presented a concert focused on
his own works at the Steinway Hall in June 1890. Initially this was to have been an
all-Albéniz programme, but due to difficulties in finding enough orchestral players,
the promised Suite Espagnole was replaced by a selection of Sonatas by Scarlatti and
some violin solos.70 Two of Albéniz's own works for piano and orchestra were very
well received: the Concerto for piano and orchestra no. 1, in A minor (1887), and the
Rapsodia Espan"ola. The Concerto was described as, "a work of some beauty and
originality, orchestrated with much knowledge of effect, and calculated to display the
soloist's best characteristics in a favourable light."71 The Rapsodia was deemed to be
a more typically Spanish-sounding piece. The Times critic commented on "an
abundance of local colour" in this work, 72 while it was described in Country
Gentleman as, "a composition very characteristic of the national music, with the
occasional introduction of tambourines and castanets."73 To some who had come to
admire Albéniz's pianism and short Spanish compositions, it was a revelation to hear
these more ambitious works. Vanity Fair placed him "amongst the leading composers
of the day" and stated that he had "proved that Spain is a country which will have to
be reckoned with musically."74 Albéniz's piano solos remained highlights of the
programme and were described as "a suite of compositions for piano alone by Albéniz
himself; brilliant works indeed—some of them so sparkling as to be almost
intoxicating."75

Shortly after this triumph, Albéniz and the publicist N. Vert set about organizing two
orchestral concerts. Vert, full name Narciso Vertigliano, was a well known artist
manager who had represented Sarasate in the 1880s and helped organize some of

70 The Times reported, "Considerable variety was given to the recital of Seftor Albéniz at Steinway Hall
on Tuesday afternoon by the employment of an orchestra of moderate size. The programme was to
have consisted exclusively of compositions by the concert giver, but it was found impossible to obtain
a sufficient number of players for the purely orchestral work announced, a "suite Espagnole," and
accordingly the place this would have occupied was filled by a group of pieces by Scarlatti, played
with all Sefior Albéniz's usual skill, and by violin solos played by M. Nachez." `Recent Concerts,'
Times, 27 June 1890, 13.
71 `Recent Concerts,' Times, 27 June 1890, 13.
72 Ibid.
n Country Gentleman, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28.
74
Vanity Fair, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 26.
75
Dramatic Review, 28 June 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 28.

94
Albéniz's first appearances in London.76 The concerts were planned for 7 and 21
November 1890 at St. James' Hall and would showcase his own music and works by
his countrymen Chapi and Breton. Organised and promoted on a much larger scale,
orchestral players were carefully selected and Breton was engaged to conduct in his
first London appearance. 77 Albéniz's enterprise enjoyed considerable support and
numerous articles appeared in the press, often accompanied by lengthy biographies
and portraits. It was widely advertised that this would be a chance to hear authentic
Spanish music by some of Spain's most important composers. The programme for
the event is reproduced in Figure 5:

76 Christopher Fifield, Ibbs and Tillet: The Rise and Fall of a Musical Empire (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2005), 203. Vert also helped organize the first visits to London of Grieg and Busoni.
77 The Daily Telegraph wrote of Breton, "Mr. Breton comes to London expressly for this engagement,
and will, it is understood, introduce examples of the Spanish school of music not known in this
count ry. This should be very interesting." Daily Telegraph, 17 Oct. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M.
987.1, 58.1. From the Daily News, "The orchestral concerts to be given by Senor Albéniz at St.
James's Hall on 7 and 21 November promise to be of exceptional interest," Daily News, 31 Oct. 1890,
Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 60.

95
Figure 5. Programme for Albéniz's first London concert of Spanish Music. St.
James's Hall, 7 November 1890.78
Programme
Ruperto Chapl Moorish Fantasia "La Corte de Granada"
I. Granada (March to the Tournament)
II. Reverie
III. Serenade
IV. Finale

Mozart Piano Concerto no. 26 in D (Coronation)

Schumann Piano Concerto in A

Tomas Breton Prelude to "Guzman el Bueno"

En la Alhambra
Symphony in Eb

Franz Liszt Hungarian Fantasia (piano and orchestra)

Isaac Albéniz Scherzo

Rhapsodie Cubaine

Felipe Pedrell Cantique from the "Feast of Tibullus"

Triumphal March

The concert ended with two pieces by Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922), a key figure in late
nineteenth century Spanish musical nationalism and mentor to Albéniz, Falla and
Enrique Granados (1867-1916).79 Unfortunately for Albéniz the concert was not a
great success. Audience numbers were lower than expected and some of the Spanish

78
Morning Post, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 78.
79 Harper, Manuel de Falla, 28.

96
works received a lukewarm reception. Added to this the programme was overly long,
starting at Bpm and not finishing until 11.15pm.S0

Critical responses to the concert varied, but most writers agreed that there was a
desire and a need to hear more Spanish music written by Spanish composers. The
Daily News summed up the goodwill felt towards Albéniz and his enterprise:

Music by living Spanish masters was made a special feature of the programme, and
thus the Spanish pianist not only paid a suitable compliment to his own count ry,
where he rightly enjoys high popularity, but also permitted London amateurs to gain
some experience of a school which has been hitherto been more or less neglected here.
81

Much of the negative commentary focused on Breton's Symphony in El). Breton and
Albéniz had been friends since their student days in Madrid. The Symphony in Eb
did not pretend to have any folk music influence or references to Spanish local colour
and was composed when Breton was a student as an exercise in imitation of
Beethoven's symphonic style, with particular reference to the Eroica Symphony. In
press previews for the concert, Breton's work was described as a Spanish symphony
and considered something of a novelty:

Spanish music in its most exalted form will present itself to London amateurs at the
Albéniz conce rt, in St. James's Hall, this evening. Spanish Dances are familiar
enough, but not often is the chance of hearing a Spanish Symphony presented. Mr.
Breton's work of that class might have been written by a composer of any other
count ry, but the programme contains a good deal of music essentially characteristic
of the land where the Moors held sway.82

Albéniz had put together a programme showcasing the breadth of Spanish

composition but also showcasing his pianistic virtuoso abilities as a performer of
Mozart, Schumann and Liszt. Most English critics were mystified by the inclusion of
Breton's symphony and Shaw was particularly savage:

8° St James' Gazette, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 80.

S1 Daily News, Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 62.
82
Daily Telegraph, 7 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 66.

97
 Unfortunately the programme was insanely long, containing practically three
conce rtos, six orchestral movements, and a symphony by the conductor—an
ingeniously horrible work, lasting forty-five minutes, full of what the
programme...called syncopations, but which were in fact Procrustean torturings of
two-four themes into three-four time.83

Surely the inclusion of such a work for an audience hungry for "authentic" Spanish
music was a miscalculation? Perhaps it was, but just as Albéniz and Sarasate before
him had resisted popular wisdom about Spanish performers, it seems that Albéniz was
trying to establish Breton's credentials as a composer and to present a wide variety of
Spanish compositional styles. The Daily News correspondent expressed some of the
confusion surrounding the work:

His Symphony in E fl at has nothing whatever of the Spanish element about it, and the
audience—who were not let into the secret by any explanation of this matter in the
official programme—must have felt some astonishment that almost from first to last
it appeared to be a plain imitation of Beethoven and (particularly as to the first
movement) of the "Eroica" symphony. We are, however, credibly informed that the
resemblance was perfectly intentional. It seems that while still studying at Rome
Senor Breton wrote, merely as "exercises," two symphonies, one in the sty le of
Moza rt and the other of early Beethoven. The fact being avowed, no charge of
plagarism can of course even be suggested...It is, however, a pity that such a work
was introduced into a programme more or less Spanish.84

Pedro Morales, writing over thirty years later in A Dictionary of Modern Music and
Musicians, noted that Breton's contributions to Spanish music through works for the
concert hall, zarzuela and opera, were unequalled.85 He also mentioned the reaction
to the Symphony in Eb from the 1890 concert and reported: "one of the leading critics
advised him to abandon the imitation of the classics and devote his talents to the
music of his country. Breton took the hint in the right spirit."86

ß3 World, 12 Nov. 1890, 74.

ß4 Daily News, Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 62.
85
Pedro Garcia Morales, `Breton, Tomas,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A.
Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 60.
86
Ibid.

98
Two works on the programme, Breton's En la Alhambra (1888) and Chapi's Moorish
fantasy Los gnomos de la Alhambra (1889), were representative of the Spanish
Alhambrist movement.ß7 In Spain this movement was characterised by nostalgic
representations of the Alhambra and Moorish themes.

Breton's En la Alhambra and the Prelude to his opera Guzman el Bueno (1876) were
more favourably received than the Symphony in E1 :

It is a fact that Senor Breton's talents as a composer were displayed to infinitely

better advantage in two less pretentious pieces—the one a delicious and quite
characteristic little serenade entitled "En la Alhambra," and the other a prelude which
commences some of the principal melodies in his opera "Guzman el Bueno.sS8

First performed in Madrid in 1888, En la Alhambra is one of the most attractive

pieces to come out of the Alhambrist movement in Spain, and London critics
celebrated the hints of Spanish colour to be found in the piece. The work is clearly
influenced by Breton's study of French composers, particularly the orchestration of
Emmanuel Chabrier's (1841-1894) Espana (1883). This piece came closer to
matching the expectations generated by the publicity for this concert, leading one
critic to claim he heard echoes of the Moors in it: "Far better was a serenade, In the
Alhambra (the Alhambra of Granada, and not, of course, that of Leicester Square), in
which the characteristics of Moorish music were strongly apparent."89

Breton's conducting ability was universally praised. The orchestra is reported to have
played well despite the large programme and a number of critics wrote of their hope
that he would soon return to London as a conductor. However, stereotypes based on
national characteristics persisted as seen in the Daily Graphic's assessment that

S7 According to Ramon Sobrino, "The most representative work [of Spanish Alhambrism] is...En la
Alhambra, serenata by Breton." Ramon Sobrino, `Introduction,' Mûsica Sinf6nica Alhambrista
(Madrid: ICCMU, 1992), xvi. In his discussion of the Alhambrist movement Sobrino writes, "More
than a fully-developed stylistic entity, Alhambrismo in nineteenth-century music was a fashion, a type
of `sound' which can be linked with a pictorialist tendency and the recreation of the mood of Spanish
music of the first half of the nineteenth century", Sobrino, Mûsica Slnfonica Alhambrista, xv.
88 Daily News, Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 62.
89 Figaro, 8 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 68.

99
Breton's conducting lacked the "animation and impetuosity one associates with a
Southerner."90

Of all the works on this programme, Chapi's Los gnomos de la Alhambra in four
movements elicited the most polarised views. Referred to in the English press as a
Moorish Fantasy or symphony, the colourful and vibrant orchestration was
acknowledged, however, the work was judged by some to be a mere novelty piece,
unworthy of the concert platform. While The St. James' Gazette reported, "The
Moorish Symphony by Senor Chapi, which stood first in the programme, is full of
Spanish and Oriental colour",91 more numerous were the voices mocking the vulgar
and showy orchestration and extrovert nature of Chapi's score. The Figaro
correspondent observed,

In regard to Mr. Chapi, his Moorish fantasia, the "Court of Granada," contains a
barbaric march, a long-drawn-out "Reverie," a flimsy serenade, which for some
reason was repeated, and a finale. The fantasia partakes, to a ce rtain extent, of the
character of Eastern music, but it is wholly unsuited for a classical programme at St.
James's Ha11.92

The audience were no doubt feeling generous at the beginning of the concert, which
may account for the encore of the Serenade movement. Most reviewers were not so
enthusiastic, particularly the writer for The Pall Mall Gazette who recognised the
piece as a curio but could find no redeeming features in this music:

The novelty of the evening came first on the programme—a "Moorish Fantasia" by
Ruperto Chapi...The composer devoted himself at an early age, as an executant, to
the cornet-a-pistons...the entire composition bears the taint of this blatant
instrument...It is cheap, trashy noise, hardly worthy of the sacred name of music.93

90 Daily Graphic, 10 Nov.1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 74.

91 St. James' Gazette, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 80.
92
Figaro, 8 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 68.
93
Pall Mall Gazette, 8 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 70.

100
Likeminded critics criticised the "sheer tea-garden blatancy" of the finale, or
compared it to "circus music."94 Some writers looked in vain for Moorish elements
in these works and blamed their inability to find any on a lack of familiarity with the
style: "The whole is supposed to be written in the Moorish style, but the knowledge of
that style among English hearers is more limited than the acquaintance with Spanish
music, and much must be taken on faith."95

The programme for this concert provoked varied reactions from disappointment, to
interest, to reflections on the state of contemporary Spanish music. Thwarted in his
anticipation of a piece that evoked the sound world of Carmen or Chabrier's Espana,
the Daily Graphic's critic was dismissive:

Those who looked forward to a feast of national music, rich in piquant rhythms and
characteristic melody, must have been sorely disappointed. After all, national music
is not always created by native musicians. The best exponents of Hungarian music
are the gypsies, and similarly Bizet...has given us a truer musical picture of the life of
the Peninsula than any of the composers represented last night.96

His colleague at the Morning Post concurred, declaring that the Spanish programme
provided evidence that "now, as in times past, there is no distinguishing school of
Spanish music."97 The critic of the Daily Telegraph was much more supportive of the
whole venture, although he too referred to Bizet's Carmen as the standard by which
Spanish music was measured. He admitted that English audiences needed to be
educated about Spanish music:

Acquaintance with Spanish music, apart from dance measures, is practically limited,
indeed, to a few works introduced by Mr. Sarasate and to the admirable imitations of
it found in "Carmen." The Albéniz concerts are certain to amend this state of things
somewhat, and, it may be, prove that the present development of music in Spain
deserves to be taken into account as a distinct feature connected with European art.98

94
Daily Graphic, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 74; Referee, Nov. 9 1890, Albéniz
Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 72.
95
Morning Post, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 78.
96 Daily Graphic, 10 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 74.
97
98
Morning Post, 10 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 78.
Daily Telegraph, 10 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 76.

101
Other critics pondered on whether Spanish musicians had learnt how to integrate the
characteristic features of Spanish music into the recognised classical forms such as
the concerto or symphony. Albéniz and Breton must have hoped that the Symphony
in Eb would be an interesting companion piece to Breton's other, more
characteristically Spanish, works in the programme and would illustrate Breton's
credentials as a serious composer. The result, however, was a misunderstanding
about the nature of Spanish music. In the Athenaeum, a writer asked whether,

Native composers have yet appeared capable of engrafting the characteristics of

Spanish music on to the higher forms of composition—a process the equivalent of
which has been accomplished successfully by musicians of genius in Poland,
Hungary, and Bohemia. The concert of Friday last week left this question
unanswered, for the works by composers of the Iberian peninsula were least
characteristic where they were most entitled to consideration as abstract music.99

Questions were asked about the motivations of Vert, the promoter of this concert.
Some critics felt that he was exploiting Albéniz:

I don't think Senor Albéniz is likely to be very successful in his endeavour to

popularise Spanish instrumental music. It is said that the clever pianist is being
exploited by an enthusiastic capitalist, and the statement is credible, for no ordinary
conce rt agent would waste hundreds of pounds in advertisements, and also smother St.
James's Hall with programmes.10°

Lessons were learnt from this first concert and the second, on 21 November was
shorter and the music more accessible, including works by Scarlatti, Chopin and
Weber in addition to Spanish works by Albéniz and Breton. Curiously, the concert
opened with a Wagnerian style Dramatic Overture penned by the young English
composer Arthur Hervey (1855-1922) who conducted the orchestra for this concert.
The programme is reproduced in Figure 6:

99Athenaeum, 15 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 86.

w° Modern Society, 15 Nov. 1890. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 94.

102
Figure 6. Programme for Albéniz's second London concert of Spanish Music.
St. James's Hall, 21 Nov 1890. 1°1

Programme

Part 1
Arthur Hervey Dramatic overture for orchestra

Isaac Albéniz Concerto Fantastique (piano and orch.)

Isaac Albéniz Piano solos: Pavane—Scherzino

"Reves"—Champagne Valse

Isaac Albéniz Orchestra: Idyll, Serenade—

Rhapsodie Cubaine

Part 2
Tomas Breton Orchestra: prelude from the Opera,
Gli Amanti di Teruel
Scherzo from Trio

Scarlatti Piano solos: Toccata—Sonata

Weber-Tausig Invitation a la Valse

Chopin Andante Spianato et Grand Polonaise

(piano and orchestra)

Breton Zapateado (Spanish Dance)

The audience for this concert was larger and more enthusiastic than for the concert
two weeks earlier and the critical reception focused more on Albéniz's own pieces

1°t `Serfor Albéniz's Second Grand Orchestral Concert,' Musical Star, 29 Nov. 1890, Albéniz
Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 120.

103
and his talent as a performer than his compositional skill. Albéniz was clearly the
main protagonist and his playing was applauded, however, the level of orchestral
playing was of a lower standard:

Senor Breton and a scratch orchestra somewhat distract the attention from that which
is edifying in the pianist to that which is ambitiously unsuccessful in the orchestra.
We must confess also to a feeling that Senor Albéniz is more successful as an
interpreter than as a composer, the works from his pen last night being less acceptable
than his work on the pianoforte. His compositions are no more inspired than his
pianism, but they are less technically skilled.102

Elsewhere Albéniz's compositions were praised for their Spanish character.

Particularly well received were his piano works:

Some of the chief characteristics of Spanish music are introduced in these works,
which met with a very enthusiastic reception from the audience. Three solos for the
pianoforte, composed and played by Senor Albéniz, proved specially attractive,
graceful in style, and containing much that is original and artistic. These pieces gave
the audience great pleasure, and the pianist was enthusiastically encored.'°3

The critic in The Era was also taken with Breton's works and praised their "freshness
and novelty."'"

However, there was far from universal admiration for these works. The Musical
Star's critic wrote that Albéniz's concerto was an "agreeable, if not a forcible work",
and that his solos were "too much in the drawing-room style for a concert-room."1°5
Curiously, in the same review, the Rapsodia Cubana (1881) was said to have "failed
to satisfy strict connoisseurs.s106 As Clark has noted, it is hard to imagine how many
English connoisseurs of Cuban Rhapsodies there were in London at that time.107 This
reviewer did find more to admire in Breton's works and stated that his works had

102 Pall Mall Gazette, 22 Nov. 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 100.
103 Era, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 138.
1°4 Ibid.
'°5 Musical Star, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 120.
'°6 lbid.
107 Clark, Albéniz, 81, fn 29.

104
"unquestionable merit in the modern sense."108 In this instance Breton had
contributed an operatic overture and a Zapateado which came closer to the audience's
expectation of rhythmic and colourful dance-inspired Spanish music.

The readership of the Pictorial World were used to having their concert reviews
mixed with snippets of gossip and comedy, and the review of Albéniz's second
concert lived up to this formula. In a biting twist, the writer compared Spanish
musical culture with a fictional character from the novels of Charles Dickens:

There is no distinctive school of musical art belonging to the [Spanish] nation,

and...its music is but a pale reflection of French a rt or German thought. Even the
rising English school of art, which is now assuming definite form and shape, has
more individuality of style than so-called Spanish music. It has gone out of use—if it
ever was to the fore—with Cordovan leather and liquorice, or Baracco juice. Spain
has been called the Mrs. Harris of nations, and, as far as its artistic music is
concerned, it may be said, with Mrs. Gamp, "we don't believe there ain't never no
such thing.s109

Sarah Gamp was a popular character from Dicken's novel The Life and Adventures of
Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844). A hopeless alcoholic, she was often heard in
extended conversations with her imaginary friend Mrs Harris. At this time, English
composers, like their Spanish counterparts, were grappling with issues of identity and
national style.

By contrast, the Daily Chronicle reviewer was at least interested in hearing more
Spanish works, however, the tone was not overly enthusiastic,

For several generations Spain is supposed to have been in the back ground in the
matter of high-class music, but after what we have heard of late at St. James's Hall
through the medium of Mr. N. Vert, we begin to be doubtful respecting the truth of
the imputation. It is quite possible that other nations have been wilfully blind as well

108 Musical Star, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 120.

109 Pictorial World, 22 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 138.

105
 as deaf to the labours of Spanish musicians. At all events Senor Albéniz's concerts
have demonstrated that it would be judicious to extend inquiries in this direction."°

The conductor Hervey, whose Dramatic Overture opened the concert, took the
unusual step of writing a review of the concert for Vanity Fair. It was clearly partisan
and overwhelmingly positive in relation to Albéniz, without any of the uncertainty or
disappointment present in the other reviews,

The largeness of the audience...is a proof of the hold that this artist has been gradually
acquiring over the public. This is all the more flattering, considering the
comparatively short time in which it has been accomplished...Senor Albéniz may
well inscribe upon his escutcheon the words, "Veni, vidi, vici"; and I am sure that
everyone will be glad to hear that he has elected to make London his own. His two
orchestral concerts have been interesting in many ways, and have the means of
directing public attention to the present school of Spanish composers. It is of the
highest degree of importance for the progress of art in this country that we should be
kept au courant with the musical doings of other nations. "'

Hervey declared that Albéniz's Concierto Fantéstico for piano and orchestra "should
undoubtedly find a permanent place in the repertoire of pianists" and he responded to
the exotic elements of the score, "Listen to the Rhapsodie Cubaine, with its peculiar
Southern colouring, and visions of a land where flourish the platanes, where love-
birds make the air alive with their melodious chirpings, and beautiful creoles
languidly recline in their hammocks, will unfailingly come to your mind."112

By 1891 Albéniz was clearly an established and respected presence on the London
scene and he maintained a busy performing schedule, as indicated in the society
magazine Queen:

Few instrumentalists have been more prominently before the public latterly than
Senor Albéniz, whose portrait we give, for scarcely a week passes without

11°Daily Chronicle, 22 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 98.

IllVanity Fair, 29 Nov 1890, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 128.
12 lbid. Torres notes that the Concierto Fantâstico is the same work as the Concerto for piano and
orchestra No. 1, in A minor (1887). Torres, Catâlogo, 175.

106
 opportunity offering itself of hearing the artist at some one of our many London
concerts, where his efforts are invariably received with favour and appreciation.'13

After 1891 Albéniz's concerts in London would be less frequent, as composition for
the theatre became his first priority, beginning with the light opera The Magic Opal
written in 1892 to a libretto by Arthur Law. According to Morales, Albéniz had
originally agreed to co-write the music for The Magic Opal with his friend Arbos,
who shortly thereafter withdrew from the project.114 The Magic Opal ran from 19
January 1893 until 4 March at the Lyric Theatre resulting in forty-four
performances.115 The work was presented in two acts: an Overture and twelve
numbers followed by an intermezzo and eleven items. Spanish colour was included in
the second act with a Ballet scene which featured the Spanish dancer Candida. Three
significant musical items in The Magic Opal were pre-existing Albéniz compositions:
the Overture is the same as "En la Aldea", the first of Albéniz's Escenas Sinfônicas
for orchestra, premiered under the baton of Breton in Madrid in March 1889. The
Intermezzo came from the earlier Serenata Arabe, written between 1884-1885, and
the music for the Ballet from the Rapsodia Cubana, premiered in Cuba.116 All three
of these pre-existing works were highly evocative Spanish character pieces and lent
the work a distinctly Spanish flavour.

The story of The Magic Opal is set in Greece, with exotic themes and characters,
including bandits, woven into the story. The Spanish colouring of some of Albéniz's
music conveyed a generic Mediterranean atmosphere to the English audience. The
plot concerns an opal ring which gives the wearer magical powers, so that the first
person of the opposite sex to touch the wearer of the ring falls deeply in love with
them. The remainder of the story is a complicated mixture of plotlines featuring the
cunning and humorous manipulation of the ring and its powers.117

1t3 Queen, 11 Apr. 1891, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 65.

114
See Morales, `Albéniz.' Arbbs claimed that he had a hand in writing two numbers. See Torres,
Catâlogo, 110.
115
Torres, Cathlogo, 102.
116 Ibid., 103.
117
See Clark, Albéniz, 85-92, for a summary of the plot.

107
The Spanish elements of Albéniz' music for The Magic Opal,' 1 s particularly in the
Overture, Intermezzo and Ballet sections, evinced the almost obligatory comparisons
with Bizet's Carmen: "The name of Bizet will also arise to the mind, and several
pages of the present work could well have been signed by the composer of
`Carmen' ""9

The initial reviews for The Magic Opal were largely positive. Albéniz was at the
height of his popularity and a successful run was widely predicted, however, Law's
libretto was widely criticised. The central theme was already very familiar to
audiences and The Star's critic lamented, "Are we not heartily tired of the love charm
which gets administered to the wrong people?"12° Most critics judged that the music
was far more successful than the libretto,

Were the libretto supplied by Mr. A rthur Law as good as it might well have been, this
new production would rank as one of the most successful of comic operas heard
within recent years. There is much originality in its music, and a freshness of
treatment that is very acceptable is apparent throughout the score...Even in its present
shape, the opera bids fair for a long and prosperous run—a fate it well deserves.
thanks to the delightful art of Senor Albéniz, for whose music there can be nothing
but recommendation.121

Some commentators wondered why a celebrated concert performer and composer of

piano pieces would write such a work. The critic of The Musical Times lamented the
fact that Albéniz was working in lower forms of music theatre and observed, "The
gifted Spanish pianist can write strains of a higher class than shop ballads and dance
tunes."22 However, the crossing of genres was not uncommon in London at this

118
Rhythms based on Spanish folk styles, typical syncopations and the use of modes associated with
southern Spanish music.
19 Morning Post, 28 Feb 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 122.1.
120 Star, 20 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 202.1.
121 Stage London, 26 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 186.1.
122
The Musical Times review continued, "His melodies, if not invariably original, are certainly always
refined; his part-writing and orchestration show the hand of a true musician; and the pleasant Spanish
colouring in many of the numbers is not found incongruous, though the scene of the opera is laid in
Greece. We hope in due course to welcome Mr. Albéniz in the ranks of those who contribute to the
more enduring forms of lyric drama—ranks by no means too well filled at present." `Lyric Theatre,'
Musical Times and Singing Class Circular 34, no. 600 (1 Feb. 1893): 91.

108
time,123 and Albéniz's musical ideas and orchestration were recognised as being a cut
above the usual quality of comic opera.'24

The lyrics to the love-duet "Little Bird" (act 2, no. 19) from The Magic Opal illustrate
the mismatch between Albéniz's music and Law's lightweight libretto. The
protagonists of this duet were Carambollas and Olympia, played by two favourites of
the London stage, Harry Monkhouse and Susie Vaughan. The character of
Carambollas is the pompous mayor of the Geek town of Karakatol and Olympia is an
elderly spinster, who successfully pursues the magic ring. This duet was one of the
most successful items of the opera.125 The lyrics were reproduced in a review in
Paddock Life because it was an "excellent skit on the love-duet of serious opera."126

Olympia:
Dicky bird, dicky bird, twitter your lay!-
Carambollas:
Come, then, sweet birdie, come hither I pray.
Olympia:
Sing it, oh sing it to poor little me.
Carambollas:
This is the song I would warble to thee:-
Ducky-darling, sweety-meaty, kissy-missy-me,
Nicey-picey, periwinkle, tickle-ickle-ee,
Lovey-dovey, rosey-posy, oh kernoodle do,
Popsy-wopsy, kicksy-wicksy, winky-pinky-pool 127

123
From the Bazaar, "Comic opera seems to offer increasing attractions to all classes of composers.
Not only the writers of professedly light music, such as Planquette and others, but even musicians
whom one is accustomed to associate with the severer walks of the art, appear with one accord to be
essaying it. Senor Albéniz, who is best known to the London public as a very admirable pianist and the
exponent of classical compositions on his favourite instrument, has for a while deserted Beethoven and
Mozart and come forward as a composer for the comic-opera stage." Bazaar, 25 Jan. 1893, Albéniz
Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 194.2.
'24
Bazaar noted, "The music from Senor Albéniz's pen is of an essentially superior style. Replete with
pure and graceful melody, it does not leave any frothy impression on the mind, but satisfies the musical
sense almost as completely as the light works of the Italian lyric stage. Part of this unusual
impressiveness is certainly due to the able manner in which the piece is scored. In this respect Senor
Albéniz has set an example which deserves to be followed. He scores his work as carefully and as
elaborately as if it were some serious composition intended for Covent Garden rather than the Lyric."
Ibid.
125 Torres, Carcilogo, 100. Torres lists it as number 19 of the opera's 24 numbers.
126
Paddock Life, 14 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 94.1.
'z7 Ibid.

109
Little wonder that Albéniz had some trouble setting the English text!128 The actors
played this duet as a spoof, adding in comic touches of their own,

"Little bird" was given in so exquisitely droll a manner by Mr. Monkhouse and Miss
Vaughan, that the audience insisted upon its repetition, and we shall not be surprised
to learn that it has become one of the great features in the opera. The fairy-like dance
and toe-solo indulged in by Mr. Monkhouse at its conclusion convulsed the audience.
In this Miss Vaughan also did work of a most amusing nature.129

The forms of comic opera and burlesque were in flux at this time as the popularity of
comic opera was declining and writers were desperately trying to breathe life into a
tired form.13° The libretto for The Magic Opal combines elements of burlesque and
light comic opera, whilst Albéniz's music moves between light opera, comic opera
and even grand opera style. A critic in the Lady questioned whether this mix could
ever work successfully:

Comic opera like most things just now, appears to be in a transitive state, one of
complete uncertainty, and this is exemplified by "The Magic Opal." It is called, with
equal justness, either light opera or comic opera. As a matter of fact, the composer
has chosen to attempt a compromise between both styles, and, moreover, has made
several departures into the field of grand opera. Whether such a course is exactly a
wise one is doubtful.131

Changing tastes were partly responsible for the decline in popularity of comic opera,
but increasing costs were also a factor. As the following extract from the Truth
illustrates, it was no longer possible to let a work run for three months at a loss while
it built up and audience,

128
"You are reminded here and there that he is not an Englishman, and has therefore handled an
occasional line awkwardly, and he is much more at home with the orchestra than which the chorus."
Star, 20 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 202.1.
129 Stage, 26 Jan. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 186.1.
130 The English manager of the Gaiety Theatre George Edwardes led the move away from burlesque
and comic opera to musical comedy. Richard Traubner notes the effect of the new musical comedies
such as The Shop Girl (1894), "Edwardes had effected a change that hit much of Europe in the 1890s,
when the public clamoured more for modern-dress stories than for satiric or burlesque plots." Richard
Traubner, Operetta: A Theatrical History (New York: Routledge, 2003), 198. See also Jeffrey
Richards, Imperialism and Music: Britain 1876-1953 (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001),
261-2.
131
Lady, 3 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 62.

110
 When a pretty and artistic work like Senor Albéniz' "Magic Opal," despite tasteful
mounting and a capital cast, cannot attain to a career of more than seven weeks, and
when almost every light opera theatre in London is preparing for a change of bill, it is
obvious that something is wrong. It may, of course, be that the making fashionable of
the music halls has done most of the mischief...Or it may be that the cost of
producing and casting a "comic" opera is so high that nothing but a succession of
nearly full houses will pay a manager...I am authoritatively informed that the
expenses of "The Magic Opal" exceed £720 a week. The theatre, if every seat were
occupied (which even at the best houses they never are), would hold about £1,800 a
week, so that there should at any rate be an ample margin for profit, if the audience
only half filled the house every night...Indeed the expenses are now so heavy that no
comic opera manager could afford, as Henderson more than once did in the old days,
to run a piece at a loss, hoping that two or three months later the business could be
worked up. Henderson did not pay a third of the salaries for which entrepreneurs are
now called upon.132

In the 1890s the inclusion of dance or ballet scenes was commonplace in both high
and low forms of opera and a Spanish dancer named Candida was engaged to perform
a ballet scene in The Magic Opal. This will be discussed further in the section on
Spanish dance in Chapter 4.

After its initial London season ended, The Magic Opal was revised and retitled as The
Magic Ring. Albéniz wrote three new pieces to replace existing items and some
numbers were deleted.133 The story was modified, and a new writer, Brandon
Thomas, was brought in to revise the libretto. Albéniz conducted the revised version
at the Prince of Wales Theatre for the first time on 11 April 1893. The Magic Ring
was less successful than its predecessor and ran for only thirty-seven performances,
ending on 19 May. The changes made by Albéniz and Thomas were unable to
disguise the weaknesses of the original:

The incongruities which marred the piece on its first production are as glaring as
ever; the two low-comedy merchants treat it a la burlesque, and although the action

12 Truth, 23 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 182.2.

133
See Torres, Cattilogo, 110-112 for details of the changes made by Albéniz.

111
 takes place in Greece, introduces all kinds of Cockney wheezes. The music of "The
Magic Ring" is much too characteristic and serious to be wedded to these
meaningless gags.'34

Shortly after the demise of The Magic Ring, Albéniz was involved in London
performances of a musical comedy called Poor Jonathon. This was a German
musical comedy with music by Karl Millöcker (1842-1899). For London
performances in June 1893 the work was adapted by Charles Brookfield with the
addition of songs and instrumental pieces by Albéniz, who also conducted the
performances.

As we have seen in the example of The Magic Opal, the 1890s was a period of swift
transition for genres such as burlesque and comic opera. Poor Jonathon was a prime
illustration of the emerging genre of musical comedy. The Standard's critic explained
the effect of these changes:

A short time since comic opera of a conventional pattern was to be heard in all
directions; but the thing was apparently overdone. That taste died out, and for the
present has been supplanted by what is called "musical comedy;" the bright att ire of
the recognised type of comic opera is done away with in favour of unpicturesque
modern dress, and the plays approach mainly to what are known as "variety
entertainments." Of this new fashion Poor Jonathon is an example.'35

Burlesque and musical comedy shared a fondness for topical references. The Era's
review listed some of the themes that were "worked over" in Poor Jonathon:

In regard to being "up to date," a consideration highly prized in these light pieces,
Poor Jonathon may claim to be not an hour behind in discussing the latest topics,
Ibsen, bogus companies, divorce, speculation, the latest scandal, and the chit-chat of
the clubs, fashions, the opera, woman's rights, and female colleges are among the
subjects gaily satirised in music, speech, or humorous stage business.'36

James' Gazette, 14 Apr. 1893. Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 178.

134 St.
135 Standard,16 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 71.
►36
Era, 17 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 202.1.

112
While viewed as a variety entertainment of dubious artistic merit, The Standard did
not preclude its success,

The result [is] apparently quite to the taste of audiences, if that of last night is to be
accepted as fairly representative. That there is anything very brilliant or witty about
Poor Jonathan cannot be said. Mr. Brookfield has clearly done his best with a
somewhat unpromising theme; for at least one moment a species of sentimental love
interest is suggested, and at another preposterous farce is put forward; but there are
some amusing sketches of character, some tuneful music, and some capital dancing,
and, as two or three somewhat similar pieces have been successful of late, the same
prospect should attend this.137

Albéniz was still a favourite of the critics. As with The Magic Opal, his music was
regularly singled out for praise:

Senor Albéniz's music, for instance, is nearly always delightfully charming and
graceful, and more than once he gives us some real comedy in his orchestration;
indeed, his share always stands well the test of comparison with Millöcker, who is
answerable for the remainder.138

This work was even further removed from serious music than The Magic Opal and
again questions were raised about Albéniz' involvement. He must have seemed oddly
out of place and the Daily Graphic expressed some sympathy for him,

After witnessing a performance of this "musical comedy," however, we are inclined

to think that Senor Albéniz, and not Herr Millocker, is the more to be pittied. The
additions to the score for which which the Spanish composer is responsible are in
nearly every instance superior in construction, charm, and elegance to the work of the
original composer.139

The question of competing musical styles was also raised by the Morning Post,

17 Standard, 16 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 71.

138 Morning Leader, 16 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 71.
139 Daily Graphic, 19 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 170.

113
 Senor Albéniz, who conducted the piece, has added to the music of Millocker some
graceful compositions of his own beautifully scored for the orchestra and full of
charming effects. These were, it must be confessed, almost too artistic in style and
idea for the somewhat flimsy plot and eccentric situations.14°

Poor Jonathon was performed in this version fourteen times between June 15 and 30
1893.141

Albéniz left London for Spain in 1893 but maintained the contacts he had made
during his time in London. 142 He had attracted the attention of the wealthy
businessman Francis Money-Coutts who became his patron and commissioned
Albéniz to write a series of operas for which he would supply the libretti.143 The first
of these was the opera Henry Clifford, on which Albéniz started work in London in
1893 and continued to compose in Barcelona and Paris where the work was
completed in 1895.144 The work followed the fortunes of a soldier during the War of
the Roses. Henry Clifford received only five performances in Barcelona in 1895 and
was not performed again in Albéniz's lifetime. Money-Coutts and Albéniz also
collaborated on the opera Pepita Jiménez (1896), based on Juan Valera's 1874 novel
of the same name,145 and Merlin (1902), part of a projected Arthurian trilogy.146
Neither opera was a success and there were no English performances in Albéniz's
lifetime.147 His lasting fame and influence on Spanish and French music can be
attributed to the success of his piano suite Iberia; and the introduction of these works
to London audiences by John Singer Sargent (1856-1925) and Percy Grainger will be
discussed in Chapter 5.

Sarasate and Albéniz were two of the most significant Spanish musicians active in
Europe in the last two decades of the nineteenth century. They were both multi-
14° Morning Post, 19 June 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.1, 194.1.
'41 Tones, Catdlogo, 115.
'42
According to Clark Albéniz decided to leave London in the autumn of 1893 and eventually settled
in Paris sometime before August 1894. Clark, Albéniz, 109.
143
Clark provides a detailed discussion of the relationship between Money-Coutts and Albéniz. Ibid.,
102-108.
144
Ibid., 109 and 125.
145 Ibid., 136-177.
146
The three operas were to be Merlin, Launcelot and Guenevere, based on the fifteenth century
romance written by Sir Thomas Malory. Clark examines the influence of Wagner on Albéniz in the
writing of Merlin. Ibid., 178-189.
147 The first performance of Merlin was in Barcelona in December 1950. Ibid., 269.

114
dimensional figures who, in some respects, were considered quintessential Spanish
musicians, yet in other ways challenged and expanded the English appreciation of
Spanish music. Through a range of activities, Sarasate and Albeniz helped to loosen
the shackles that had previously tied Spanish music to early nineteenth century exotic
clichés.

115
 Chapter 4:
Estudiantinas and Spanish dancers as popular entertainment in
fin-de-siècle London

Chapters 2 and 3 of this thesis focused on the reception of Spanish music and dance in
opera, ballet and the concert hall. Equally important for the dissemination of Spanish
stereotypes were forms of entertainment popular in Victorian London, as featured in
the increasingly fashionable music halls. Variety theatres and music halls reached a
peak of popularity in the 1880s and several new theatres were opened or upgraded.'
This expansion coincided with a new wave of Spanish musicians and dancers who
arrived in London and performed in a variety of popular entertainments. Among the
most successful visitors to England during this period were the Estudiantinas, or
Spanish students, and their unique brand of Spanish music featuring plucked string
instruments. The Estudiantinas introduced a new type of Spanish music, which was
closely linked to the subsequent proliferation of the guitar as both a folk and concert
instrument.

In the realm of dance, a new style performed by Spaniards and incorporating elements
of flamenco began to make a mark in London in the 1890s. Spanish dancers were
regularly accompanied by Estudiantinas as they performed in the music halls and
theatres of London. La Belle Otero was the main exponent of this new dance style in
London at the same time as her inspiration Carmencita impressed audiences in New
York, and both dancers were considered to be the epitome of the Carmen character.2
The links between Spanish dance and Carmen were maintained into the Edwardian
era with the presentation of Carmen as a very successful ballet.

1 J. S. Bratton, Music Hall: Performance & Style (Milton Keynes: Open University Press, 1986) x. The
Empire of Leicester Square opened its doors in April 1884, the London Pavillion was rebuilt in 1885
and the Alhambra reopened as a theatre in 1883 after a fire that gutted the building in 1882. See also
Alexandra Carter, Dance and Dancers in the Victorian and Edwardian Music Hall Ballet (Aldershot:
Ashgate, 2005) 1-28.
2 Carmencita (1868-1899) was born Carmen Dauset Moreno in Almeria, Spain. For information on her
life and career, see Navarro Garcia and Navarro, Carmencita Dauset. Otero's full name was Augustina
Carolina Otero (1868-1965) and she was born in the village of Valga in Galicia.

116
Estudiantinas and spectacle in Victorian London
A performing troupe of Spanish students, known as an Estudiantina, arrived in Paris
in March 1878 for the annual Carnival. They played in the streets to great acclaim
and news of their success was widely reported abroad.3 The Estudiantina revived the
vogue for Spain, with its exotic Renaissance student costumes and distinctly Iberian
ensemble predominantly featuring plucked strings. After further success at the Paris
Exposition Universelle in 1878, professional Estudiantinas formed and toured
extensively throughout Europe and the Americas into the early twentieth century.
The first Estudiantinas reached London in the summer of 1879 where they had an
enduring impact on perceptions of Spanish music and dance.

There were two key historical precedents for the Estudiantina revival of 1878: the
centuries old tradition of Spanish university student groups and the folk-based
Spanish plucked string ensembles known as rondallas.4 The modern Estudiantina
movement borrowed heavily from these two models. When the Spanish students first
played in Paris they performed mainly outdoors and en masse (around 50 performers),
reinforcing commonly held stereotypes about Spanish musicians performing outdoor
serenades.

The musical instruments featured in these groups were the Spanish steel string
instruments the bandurria and the laud, s Played with plectra, these instruments are
similar in range and sound to the mandolin and the mandola, although tuned in fourths
and with a flat-backed construction. Guitars were an integral element of these groups
and provided chordal accompaniment, bass lines and inner voices. Violin and
percussion completed the ensemble, including at times massed singing by the
instrumentalists.

3 The Daily News reported from Paris, "The Spanish students, whose appearance in the streets in the
costume of Salamanca collegians of the 16t century is the great event of this Carnaval." Daily News, 4
Mar. 1878.
4 For background to the history of the Estudiantinas and Rondallas in Spain see Felix M° Martin
Martinez and José M° Ovies Alonso, `Estudiantina [rondalla, tuna)' in Diccionario de la Mzisica
Espanola e Hispanoamericana, ed. Emilio Casares (Madrid: SGAE, 1999).
s Pepe Rey, `Bandurria,' Diccionario de la Musica Espanola e Hispanoamericana, ed. Emilio Casares
(Madrid: SGAE, 1999) and Pepe Rey, `Laùd,' Ibid.

117
Figure 7. The Spanish Estudiantina in Paris, 1878.6

Many nineteenth-century Spanish zarzuela composers evoked the sound of the

Estudiantina in their works.? The "Jota de los Estudiantes" from the zarzuela El
Barberillo de Lavapiés (1874) by Spanish composer Francisco Barbieri (1823-1894)
interpolates the traditional Estudiantina ensemble into a typical zarzuela orchestra and
provides an aural snapshot of these groups in Spain in the 1870s. Barbieri played an
important role in the zarzuela revival of the 1850s and 1860s and had begun his
musical life as a folk musician and skilled performer on the bandurria.8 In the "Jota
de los Estudiantes" he utilized the traditional Estudiantina line up of laird, bandurria
and guitar to great effect (see Example 4).

6
Le Monde Illustré, 16 Mar. 1878.
For example, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri in Pan y Toros, A. Vives in Dona Francisquita and F.
Alonso in La Linda tapada. Martin Martinez and Ovies Alonso, `Estudiantina [rondalla, tuna],' 837.
8 Paul Sparks, The Classical Mandolin, 24.

118
Example 4. Francisco Barbieri, bandurria, laud and guitar parts, "Jota de los
Estudiantes," El Barberillo de Lavapiés, act 1, no. 6, ms.23-29.9

When the Spanish students first performed in London during the summer of 1879,
they appeared in a range of venues, from the rose show at the Crystal Palace to a
season of twelve performances at the Alhambra Theatre. The timing of their arrival
was fortuitous as the London premiere of Carmen the year before had been the
catalyst for a growing interest in Spanish music. Throughout the ensuing period the
guitar and plucked string instruments became even more strongly associated with
Spanish music.

An 1879 article entitled "Spanish Minstrels at the Alhambra", published in The Era,
described the Spanish students sitting in three rows with legs crossed wearing all
black costumes and caps decorated with the image of a spoon. They are portrayed as
exhibiting "extreme Spanish gravity."10 A commentator in The Guardian remarked
on the distinctly Spanish nature of the outfits, and commented that "the black doublet
and breeches, the sombre cloak, the hat adorned with the significant silver spoon, are
more Spanish than Spain itself."11 The spoon was a symbol of the shared student
experience of communal dining.

Many of the touring Estudiantina performers were not students at all, leading a writer
in The Guardian to muse,

9 Franciso Asenjo Barbieri, El Barberillo de Lavapiés: zarzuela en tres actos, edited by Ma. Encina
Cortizo and Ramon Sobrino (Madrid: ICCMU, 1994), 4.
1° `The Spanish Minstrels at the Alhambra,' Era, 27 July 1879.
Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7.

119
 It was something of a shock to their admirers to find that they were not students at all,
but only accomplished guitarists, who might originally have been mere barbers (the
Spanish shaver has been since Quevedo's day, a renowned practitioner on the guitar,
and a guitar is even now part of the furniture of his shop, where it does the function
filled amongst us by the morning paper), and had nothing of the scholar about them
but the traditional costume.12

The professionalization of the Estudiantinas from their student origins did not affect
their success and according to The Era, "the audience received them with so much
enthusiasm that the applause continued long after the curtain fell...the Spanish
Students could not have wished for a more favourable reception."13

While the Estudiantina was perceived as an exotic spectacle, the musicianship of the
performers was widely appreciated. The strong attack and rapid decay of plucked
strings make larger ensembles hard to coordinate and precise ensemble playing is not
easily achieved. The Estudiantinas were very well rehearsed and drew praise for their
superior sense of timing and ensemble. As a correspondent in The Era wrote, "At the
signal of the conductor the chords were struck and the rapid passages executed with
the precision of clockwork, or rather with still greater exactness, for sometimes clocks
do not keep time."14

Estudiantinas also cultivated a broad audience because of their diverse repertoire,

which featured Spanish songs and dances alongside generic waltzes and mazurkas.
Their Spanish pieces ranged from flamenco-based examples such as the malaguena to
popular dances like the jota. They also arranged well-known numbers from the vast
zarzuela repertoire, particularly the new genre of revista or reviews that emerged in
Spain in the 1880s. The most successful of these reviews was La gran via (1886)
with music by Federico Chueca (1846-1908) and his collaborator Joaquin Valverde
(1846-1910). Items from these reviews were played by Estudiantina groups alongside
arrangements of overtures, arias and movements from the light classical repertoire,
and especially composed works by composers such as Dionisio Granados, one of the
first leaders of the renowned Estudiantina Figaro.

12 Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7.

13
Era, 27 July 1879.
14 Era, 27 July 1879.

120
The Estudiantinas varied their repertoire according to the type of performance and
venue. Printed below is a list of repertoire performed by Estudiantina Figaro in
Vienna in late 1878, after their success in Paris but prior to the performances in
England. Between October and December 1878 they gave 56 performances in the
Josefstadt Theatre, playing in the interlude between short theatrical works. The
majority of the pieces are popular Spanish dances or songs, many written and
arranged by Granados. Well-known instrumental pieces from the opera repertoire by
Giuseppe Verdi, Friedrich von Flotow and Luigi Arditti complete the program along
with an arrangement of a Jota by Chueca.

121
Figure 8. Repertoire from the Estudiantina Figaro's Viennese tour October-December
1878.15

El Turia (Waltz)
Potpourri of Spanish Songs
Madrid (Waltz)
Hamburg (Mazurka)
El' Paraiso (Waltz)
Malaga (Polka)
La Crux, Roja (March)
Emmy, Bremen, Cavara and Primavera (Polkas) Dionisio Granados
Granadina (Mazurka) Caro and Dionisio
Granados
La Mandolinata Paladille
Overture, Martha Flotow
Giralda Adam
Stiffelio and Aroldo Verdi
In Genua (Gavotte) Arditti
Los Cadetes (Pasodoble) Metra
Granado (Polka) Mora
Marie (Jota Espagnol) Chueca

Some English commentators expressed a desire to hear these groups play more
Spanish repertoire: "unfortunately, they do not confine themselves to the
interpretation of Spanish music; on the contrary, they affect the stuff that is European,
base, common, and popular."16 There was a sense of frustration that the Estudiantina
was not playing enough music deemed to be quintessentially Spanish. What sort of
music would fulfil those expectations? The Guardian correspondent imagined
Spanish music to be, "romantic and peculiar" or "national and curious."17 Elusive and

15
Repertoire list from Franz Fellner, "'Verfall" und Wiederentdecking der Mandoline in Wien. Zur
Kultur-und Sozialgeschichte eines Instruments im 19. Jahrhundert,' in Wiener Geschichtsblätter,
Jahrgang 1996, 81.
16 Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7. Earlier in the same article the reviewer admired the national
character of the costumes, describing them as "more Spanish than Spain itself' and commented on their
authentic "look" and the prominence of the national instrument the guitar.
"Manchester Guardian, 26 July 1879, 7.

122
vague descriptors that evoked images of Spain were drawn from nineteenth-century
travel writers, novelists and artists, and their obsession with exotic stereotypes.

Similar ensembles began to tour throughout Europe and America from the late 1870s,
and the most famous was the Estudiantina Figaro, a touring company of ten to twenty
artists, more manageable and economically viable than the initial Estudiantina groups.
These groups performed in a wide range of venues from the music hall to high society
balls and became the standard accompanying ensembles for Spanish dance in London.
Figure 9 gives an incomplete list of countries visited between 1878 and 1884,
demonstrating the extent of Estudiantina Figaro's itinerary.

123
Figure 9. A list of countries visited by Estudiantina Figaro between 1878 and 1884.18
USA (574 concerts)
Spain (232 concerts)
Austria (134 concerts)
Mexico (133 concerts)
Cuba (114 concerts)
France (35 concerts)
Russia (including 10 private concerts in the private palace of the Tsar)
England (including 10 private performances for the Prince of Wales)
Belgium
Canada
Costa Rica
Ecuador
El Salvador
Guatemala
Italy
Peru
Portugal
Puerto Rico
Rumania

In late nineteenth-century London, Estudiantinas remained an accessible touchstone

for Spanishness, especially when compared with less diatonic and instrumentally
polished Spanish folk music and flamenco encountered in Spain. In 1887 the Pall
Mall Gazette printed one Englishman's travel notes featuring his impressions of two
contrasting musical performances. He wrote,

We were a day and a half at Seville, and duly saw the sights, the evenings being
occupied by the performances of the so-called gipsy dancing girls and the
"Estudiantina." Of the dancing, and the music that accompanies it, both at Seville

1B
`Tunos.com,'accessed 6 July 2012, www.tunos.com/historico/lofiversion/index.php/t1666.html.
"Tras una exitosa trayectoria artistica en Europa, dando conciertos en los teatros de las principales
ciudades de Espana (232 conciertos), Portugal, Francia (35 conciertos), Italia, Austria (134 conciertos),
Rumania, Rusia (10 funciones privadas en el palacio del Zar), Bélgica, Inglaterra (10 funciones
privadas en los salones del Principe de Gales) y Holanda, emprendib rumbo a América en 1879,
presentando su espectaculo en Canada, Cuba (114 conciertos), EE.UU (574 conciertos), Puerto Rico,
México (133 conciertos), Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Ecuador y Perû."

124
 and at Granada, all that need be said is that it is as vulgar and degraded as ever...The
"Estudiantina," however, or Students' Musical Society, which has greatly advanced
in recent years, is a first rate institution...I strongly recommend all travellers in Spain
to spend their money on obtaining, if they can, the services of these excellent and
picturesque young musicians in place of the gipsies.19

After a break of a few years, Spanish Estudiantinas returned to England in 1889, the
same year Albéniz arrived in London and a Spanish Exhibition opened at Earls
Court,20 the third in a series of shows that had previously featured North America and
Italy. Commentators engaged with these increasingly visible Spanish events with
greater knowledge and sophistication. From a Spanish point of view, the exhibition
was an opportunity to promote Spain abroad with a view to enhancing commercial
and industrial ties with Britain.21 The exhibition was also designed to immerse
patrons in Spanish culture, history and landscape while a variety of oil paintings,
"enable[d] the visitor to glean impressions of various phases of Spanish history and
life."22 There were gardens where military bands performed, and in which there were
representations of famous Spanish monuments or scenes. Views of the Alhambra
and its surrounds, and a Spanish market place were chosen as authentic
representations of Spain. The Paris Exhibition of 1889 also featured scenes of
Granada and gypsy musical performers, and events such as this gradually positioned
Granada as the spiritual home of flamenco in Andalusia.23

Nineteenth century technology was also on show through a diorama and cosmorama.
The diorama was a theatrical experience offering audiences a changing panorama of
images and light and the Spanish Exhibition featured a diorama of a bullfight, that in
the words of one commentator, "enables the spectator to assist at a gory bullfight

19 Pall Mall Gazette, 4 Nov. 1887

20 The English scholar Kirsty Hooper has researched the Spanish Exhibition of 1889 and some of her
findings are detailed in the working paper presented at the `Contact and Connection' symposium,
University of Warwick Institute of Advanced Study, 27 June 2013. The paper is titled "`Moorish
Splendour' in the British Provinces, 1886-1906: The Spanish Bazaar, from Dundee to Southampton",
available online at www.kirstyhooper.net/2013-06_PAPER_Bazaars.pdf
21
"La Exposici6n Espanola de Londres esta destinada â levanter la reputaci6n de Espana en
elextranjero y A extender su comercio, y de consiguiente su industria." "London's Spanish Exhibition
will elevate the status of Spain abroad and this will extend to Spain's commercial and industrial
sectors." La Dinastia, 12 June 1889, 2.
22
`The Spanish Exhibition,' Times, 3 June 1889, 6.
23
See Fauser, Paris World's Fair.

125
without any prickings of conscience or nervous tremors."24 The cosmorama or
perspective pictures with many lenses offered views of various Spanish monuments
and landscapes. Examples of Spanish handicrafts were exhibited and a wine vault
displaying barrels of a range of Spanish wines was among the highlights. Music
featured prominently in the gardens at the Spanish Exhibition, with items including a
troupe of Spanish Serenaders (singing, dancing and playing), vocalist José Rio who
performed the Toreador song from Carmen, a guitarist by the name of Antonie
Espade and "dancing by Senoritas Carmencita, Garcia, Lola and Prados [who] proved
to be extremely graceful and enjoyable."25

While the Spanish exhibition was not an overwhelming success,26 the number and
variety of London shows featuring Spanish music and dance grew exponentially. The
Era reported in May 1889, "We are greatly in want of a craze this season, and there
seems to be no reason why a Spanish boom should not be worked very successfully in
London this year."27 In 1889 Spanish music and dance was reaching a more
sophisticated audience and The Era predicted success for the Estudiantinas in this
year: "They ought to be a perfect God send to society hostesses on the look out for
some new thing; and what with private engagements and public success they should
return to their country well satisfied with the results of their visit."28

The Estudiantina set the stage for the popularity of mandolin and guitar orchestras
throughout Europe and America. With the establishment of guitar and mandolin
groups in England, they became social meeting places, before the bicycle clubs
assumed this role. In America, corresponding ensembles formed part of the
burgeoning Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar or BMG movement, which was clearly
linked to the popularity of the Estudiantinas. A critic in The Times commented in
1889,

Amateurs of the instruments played by the Estudiantina, as well as those who prefer
the mandoline or banjo, will be especially interested in the concerts, and many of

24 `The Spanish Exhibition,' Times, 3 June 1889, 6.

25 Era, 26 Oct. 1889.
26
See Hooper, www.kirstyhooper.net/2013-06_PAPER_Bazaars.pdf, 4.
27 `The Spanish Students,' Era, 25 May 1889.
28
Ibid.

126
 them might profitably follow the example of the Spanish players in the matter of
expression and precision. The band should be welcome in fashionable ball-rooms.29

As the Estudiantinas continued touring and the 1889 Spanish Exhibition tried to
capitalize on the interest in Spain, Spanish dance was viewed with renewed interest.
Critics began to discuss styles of Spanish music with greater authority, for example,
"Two Andalusians...did some Spanish dances; a jota and a Flamenco dance. The
former is the most characteristic of all the North Spanish national dances."30 The
writer had some reservations about the success these dances would have with an
English audience and continued, "There are other Spanish dances, however, which are
more consonant with British notions of Terpsichorean excitement, and we advise the
introduction of certain of these."3 ' Extrovert and demonstrative Spanish dances were
the most likely to satisfy audience expectations. At this time a new wave of Spanish
dancers were refining their acts in Paris and New York and would soon make an
impact in 1890s London.

Spanish dance in late Victorian and Edwardian London

The Spanish dancer Carmen Dauset Morena (1868-1910), better known as
Carmencita, came to prominence at the 1889 Exposition Universelle in Paris and later
performed in New York to considerable acclaim. She was a key figure in the
popularization of Spanish dance in the USA and Europe in the late 1880s and early
1890s. In London she was best known as the subject of a portrait painted by the
American artist John Singer Sargent, who was fascinated by Spanish painters, in
particular Velasquez, and travelled to Spain for the first time in 1879. Sargent was
particularly struck by the south of the country and the music and dance of flamenco
inspired his famous painting of a flamenco dance spectacular El Jaleo (1882).32
Sargent lived in London from 1884 and was an influential figure on the London scene,
promoting Spanish music and organising concerts of Spanish music. His portrait of
Carmencita was first shown in London at the Royal Academy of Art in 1891 and

29 'Span ish Concerts,' Times, 20 May 1889, 11.

3° 'The Spanish Students,' Era, 25 May 1889.
31 Ibid.
32
M ichael Jacobs, 'Colour and Light: From Sargent to Bomberg,' The Discovery of Spain, ed. David
Howarth (Edinburgh: National Galleries of Scotland, 2009) 119.

127
introduced the exotic dancer to London.33 The Times' critic described the picture as,
"a full length of La Carmencita, who, for two or three years past has been turning the
heads of New York society."34 The painting was reported to portray "an
extraordinary sense of vitality...it is the living being itself and when the music strikes
up she will bound away in the dance."35 In a later article printed in The Times,
Sargent's painting of Carmencita was described as the, "all but life-size semblance of
a young Spanish woman born with the genius of the dance." 36 It was important to
readers that she was a native Spaniard with an inherited affinity for Spanish dance.

The success of Carmencita motivated the American impresario Ernest André Jürgens
to travel to Paris in an effort to source talented acts, especially Spanish dancers. He
discovered Carolina Otero and was responsible for refining her act and introducing
her to New York audiences in 1890.37 She was billed as a competitor to Carmencita
and made her London debut in 1892. A poem from the weekly newspaper the
Clarion highlighted the captivating charm and allure of the dancer now known as "La
Belle" Otero (1868-1965),

Figure 10. Poem from the Clarion in praise of Otero.38

Ne'er a sweeter
Senorita
Than D'Otero you can see.
Her Spanish fling
Is quite the thing—
And she's the girl for me.
Woe is me Alhambra!

Otero's first visit to London in 1892 was promoted with little fanfare but highly
anticipated by dance enthusiasts. Otero drew on imagery and themes from the opera
Carmen in her portrayal of Spanish dance and she even invented a Carmenesque

33
Carmencita was also painted by other North American artists including James Carroll Beckwith and
William Merritt Chase.
34
'The Royal Academy,' Times, 2 May 1891, 14.
35
Ibid.
36
`The Champ-De-Mars Salon,' Times, 14 May 1892, 17.
37 Otero's relationship with Jürgens is discussed in Lewis, La Belle Otero, 28-43.
38 Clarion, 15 Oct. 1892.

128
backstory to her life, claiming that she was born in Andalusia and of gypsy blood.
The reality is that she was from the north-western Spanish region of Galicia.

Otero had a long and successful career and visited London numerous times between
1892 and 1913,39 and often employed Estudiantina-style ensembles as her backing
groups. Spanish dance existed comfortably in both high art and popular contexts.
Otero played her first London shows at the Empire Theatre, squeezed in between two
comedians.4° This was fairly typical of the music halls where everything that did not
play in the serious theatre was represented, however, it was not uncommon for
performers to move between the music halls and more high-brow forms of
entertainment:"

For English aficionados of Spanish dance, the first visit of Otero to Britain was highly
anticipated:

I have often wondered that managers of English music halls have done so little in the
way of bringing over Spanish dancers, and I was therefore enchanted to find, the
other day, that the famous and beautiful Otero, whom I had seen two years ago at
Paris, was appearing at the Empire.42

Otero's dance was immediately identified as something new to London. Her exotic
looks and unique routine captivated critics who were quick to comment on the novelty
in her dancing. Otero tapped into long held notions of Spanishness and added a
perceived authenticity that only a true Spaniard could portray. Drawing on
knowledge of Spain, increasingly common to English travellers, the Sunday Sun
wrote of Otero, "It is dancing of a kind that, as far as I know, London has not seen

39
After her performances at the Empire in 1892, Otero returned in 1898 for a season at the Alhambra
Theatre. Later visits came in May 1899, July 1902 and 1913 when she performed at the London Opera
House in the musical Come Over Here. See Jane Pritchard, "More Natural than Nature, More
Artificial than Art": The Dance Criticism of Arthur Symons.' Dance Research: The Journal of the
Society for Dance Research 21, no. 2 (2003): 45.
40 ',
Sandwiched between the tedious antics of a `peculiar American Comedian' and the cockney
humour of Miss Marie Lloyd, the exquisite performance of the Spanish dancer meets with a cold
approval." `Otero,' National Observer, 29 Oct. 1892.
4 Carter, Dancers in the Victorian and Edwardian Music Hall Ballet, 1.
42 `
Otero: The Spanish Dancer who Skims over the Empire Stage,' Star, 24 Sept. 1892.

129
before. Everyone who has been to Spain—and everyone has been in Spain, because
everyone has been everywhere nowadays—knows something of Spanish dancing."43

For her first performances Otero danced and sang songs in both French and Spanish
but as the Pall Mall Gazette wrote, "the dance, however, is the thing."44 To some
critics, Otero's dance was most notable for what it was not. There was, in the words
of Pall Mall Gazette, "no jumping about, no mighty rushes from the loins, no suave
simply curving lines."45 The dance featured more dramatic, less familiar movements
such as, "staccato movements, sudden tossings of the head and stampings of the feet,
like a fresh horse suddenly pulled up. Upward movements of the legs, rather fierce
and angular, and bendings of the body that seem dangerous to the bodice."46

One of the most erudite dance critics of this period was Arthur Symons (1865-1945).
He had a particular fondness for Spanish dance and wrote reviews of Otero that were
reprinted in several London newspapers.47 For Symons, and a number of other critics,
Otero's distinctly Spanish physique was an integral part of her appeal. His review of
Otero at the Empire described the features that distinguished her dance from the other
Spanish dancers seen in London up to that time:

Otero is doing a new dance at the Empire, and the occasion seems a fit one for
attempting an appreciation of so admirable a representative of the curious and subtle
art of Spanish dancing. "Spanish dances," as was pointed out in an art icle on a
Spanish music-hall, published in the Fortnightly for May, "have a certain
resemblance with the dances of the East. One's idea of a dance in England is
something in which all the movement is due to the legs. In Japan, in Egypt, the legs
have very little to do with the dance...Spanish dancing, which, no doubt, derives its
Eastern colour from the Moors, is almost equally a dance of the whole body, and its
particular characteristic—the action of the hips—is due to a physical peculiarity of
the Spaniards, whose spines have a special and unique curve of their own." The
dances that one sees in Spain are not always possible to be seen in England. They are
much too definitely erotic for the English taste—too suggestive, as it is called. But

43 `Theatre and Music: Senorita Otero at the Empire,' Sunday Sun, 25 Sept. 1892.
44
Nina de Otero at the Empire,' Pall Mall Gazette, 22 Sept. 1892.
45
Ibid.
46
Ibld.
47 Jane Pritchard, `Criticism of Arthur Symons,' 37.

130
 such dances as those which Otero is giving at the Empire, though somewhat toned
down to suit a colder public, are quite characteristically Spanish, and should certainly
be seen by those who are interested in "the various poetry of vital motion" and its
varying national qualities. 48

Symons believed he was observing a real Spanish gypsy of southern heritage who
synthesized the centuries old traditions of the Moors and the Spanish characteristics
of Carmen. He ends his review with the statement, "Of Otero herself it need but be
said that she realizes Carmen."49

Numerous writers believed the dances of Otero were linked to Spain's ancient past
and uncorrupted traditions. The Sunday Sun referenced the writings of Richard Ford
in making the following glowing remarks about Otero:

Ce rtain of the Spanish dances are, according to Ford, the remnant of the ancient
dances of the Gades which delighted the Romans and scandalised the fathers of the
Church...
Scholars have expounded at great length upon the dances of antiquity which have
been preserved in their integrity in Spain. The wise who visit the Empire and watch
the movements of Senorita Otero may share for once in the amusements that
delighted Horace, that delighted Martial.5°

Otero's exotic appeal carried over to her daily life and she was famous for her liaisons
with notable political and royal figures.st

Later in the same article, Symons referred to stereotypes reinforced by the opera
Carmen of Spanish women as tempestuous and violent. He claimed that Otero
expressed,

The Spanish temper, its fury of love and hate, as perfectly as the English temper is
rendered in the calm circle of the English skirt-dancer. She can be tigrish and

48
Arthur Symons, `Otero at the Empire,' St. James Gazette, 21 Oct. 1892.
49 Ibid.
50
'Theatre and Music: Senorita Otero at the Empire,' Sunday Sun, 25 Sept. 1892.
SI Robert Greene in his book The Art of Seduction discusses Otero's legendary sexual prowess. Robert
Greene, The Art of Seduction (New York: Penguin, 2003) 395-396.

131
 languishing; she enchants, appeals, rejects—is scornful and enticing...the dance
becomes vivid with meaning, accentuated as it is by sudden almost singular leaps and
a calculated and expressive abruptness in pause. It is by this gesture in dancing, this
dramatic quality, this new cunningly broken rhythm, that the dancing of Otero, that
Spanish dancing, is so wonderful. It has not the classic qualities; it was decadent
before that term was invented; but for London, certainly, it is a new sensation.52

The initial reception of music hall audiences to Otero was lukewarm, perhaps due to
the incongruous performance context. According to the newspaper The News of the
World, the audience, "stared vacantly, waiting for some development in the manner of
Miss Lottie Collins, and finally grumbled out a little disappointed applause."53

According to some writers it was the structure of the dance that felt new and fresh,
"utterly unlike anything that has gone before."54 The Lady's Pictorial observed,
"There is no climax, no last astonishing pirouette, no pretty wave of tiny, dashing feet
and dainty flounces."55

Otero's looks and physique were often commented upon and her appeal was closely
linked to her exotic appearance. The dark colouring of her skin and eyes and her
distinctive posture and walk were characterized as distinctively Spanish.56 The Star
wrote of Otero, "Tall, slender, with the Spanish pallor, the Spanish depth of darkness
in hair and eyes, Otero glides onto the stage with that curious catlike motion which
gives such indescribable grace to the walk of Spanish women."57 She went on to star
in the ballet Round the Town at the Empire, leading the critic of the Evening Citizen to
declare that "No lover of dancing in its highest form should miss seeing the senorita
as an exponent of poetry in motion.s58

52
Arthur Symons, `Otero at the Empire,' St. James Gazette, 21 Oct. 1892. A brief film of Otero
dancing was made in 1898. The original clip has no sound but it is possible to observe a guitarist
dressed in a toreador's costume and two Spaniards playing the castanets accompanying Otero. She is
wearing an ornate costume topped with a broad brimmed hat, gesticulating enthusiastically and
demonstrating her twists and rapid feet movement. The clip may be seen on YouTube. `Film of La
Belle Otéro,' accessed 10 July 2012, www.youtube.com/watch?v=aVi8Pfls_eU.
53
World, 19 Oct. 1892.
54 `Senorita Otero at the Empire,' Lady's Pictorial, 1 Oct. 1892.
55
Ibid.
56
`Otero: The Spanish Dancer who Skims over the Empire Stage,' Star, 24 Sept. 1892.
S7 Ibid.
S8 Evening Citizen, 10 Oct. 1892. The Evening Citizen described Otero's style as "piquant, easy, and
confident, and is perhaps best expressed in her dancing. This is eminently characteristic and the body

132
In the same season the Spanish dancer Candida was featured in a ballet scene in
Albeniz's The Magic Opal. After the lukewarm reception given to Otero in 1892,
audiences were still not ready to appreciate a subtle, less demonstrative style of
Spanish dancing and critical reaction to the ballet scene was mixed. The Sketch
bemoaned the disinterested reception of Candida's performance,

The comparative failure of Signora Candida, the new Spanish dancer, who appears in
"The Magic Opal," brings out sadly the public's inability to appreciate subtle beauty;
of this there was also proof in the cold greeting of Otero at the Empire last summer.
Both of them are not merely lovely women, but dance with marvellous ability in a
finely-restrained, original style; yet because their characteristics are novel and not
59
blatant, the public is indifferent, and the critics are nearly silent.

The Sketch also published an evocative description of Candida's dance:

Candida's dance in the second act of the new comic opera has a strange flavour of
mystery. One sees a tall woman, with dark-brown hair streaming down her back,
clad in a rather barbaric dress, which consists of a fawn-coloured silk jersey, closely
moulding the figure, surmounted by some heavy spangled gold and brown cloth, cut
so as to show a finely-sculptured neck and bust; below it a sash of similar material,
and then long, dark electric-blue silk gauze skirts. She steals onto the stage and
moves about in rhythm with the music, holding her arms above her head and clicking
her fingers and thumbs with a sound suggesting castanets. Hardly does she raise her
feet, save in a few steps where she beats time sharply in a staccato way. In every
movement there is a fine supple beauty: each muscle seems called into play without
effort, and to be obedient to the music. One thinks of some mystic enchantress
making mute incantations. The end is characteristic: the almost snake-like
movements grow slower and slower, the music becomes fainter and fainter, till she
sinks back into the arms of a man, her hands still raised heavenwards. Grace of
60
movement is hers to absolute perfection.

is brought into play almost as much as the feet. Rapid and rhythmic stamps of the feet, swift jerks and
twists of the body, quick movements of the head, and occasionally agile and graceful aerial flights of
the leg, all enter into a style of dancing not seen too often in this country."
59
Sketch, 8 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 70/2)
60
Ibid.

133
Many critics appreciated the novelty of this dance, and saw it as a more authentic type
of Spanish dancing. Music Trader Review, for example, expressed this view,

The second act likewise introduces Mlle. Candida, who has been specially engaged
from Madrid, and for the first time in England gives us an idea of a genuine national
Spanish dance. It is of an entirely novel character, and is accompanied by an
imitation of the castanets executed by the dancer herself, who snaps her fingers in
61
time to the measure. Her poses are most graceful.

When The Magic Opal was reworked as The Magic Ring a new Spanish dancer was
engaged, perhaps in an attempt to make the dancing more accessible for London
audiences. The Dispatch noted that her dancing lacked the novelty of Candida's work,
"Mdlle. Rosa dances capitally, though with less originality than Mdlle. Candida, in
62
the second act."

The fascination with Spanish dancers continued in 1890s London, including

Carmencita's much-anticipated visit to London in 1895. Carmencita did not live up
to the expectations of Symons who admitted that he "came to the Palace last night
with expectations which were no doubt utterly exaggerated and unreasonable."63
Otero returned to London and the Empire for successful seasons in 1898 and 1899
and the Andalusian dancer La Tortajada made her London debut in 1893, returning
for regular visits between 1897 and 1902.64 The rising star of Spanish dance, Rosario
Guerrero appeared in London for the first time in 1899 and along with Tortajada
spearheaded a new wave of Spanish dance. Major Fitzroy Gardner, writing about the
London theatre in the fin de siècle period remembered, "Tortajada and Guerrero

61
Music Trader Review, 20 Feb. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 68/2
62
Dispatch, 16 Apr. 1893, Albéniz Scrapbook, M. 987.2, 88/2
63 'Carmencita at the Palace. Some Attitudes of Last Night,' Star, 26 Feb. 1895, Quoted in Pritchard
`Criticism of Arthur Symons,' 71. Symons admired Carmencita's expressive movement of her arms
but complained that "in the pirouettes. And in some of the steps which she introduced in her dances, we
get, not quite the genuine thing, but a more civilised modification of what is undoubtedly, in its essence,
barbaric, oriental, animal."
64 Pritchard, `Criticism of Arthur Symons,' 72.

134
created a vogue for Spanish dancing."65

The Carmen ballet

Queen Victoria died in January 1901 just as a new era in English political and cultural
life was commencing. The Edwardian era saw the introduction of a new generation of
Spanish artists, including flamenco performers, to English audiences.

The Spanish dancer who defined Spanish dance in Edwardian London was Rosario
Guerrero. The details of Guerrero's early life are sketchy, however, she claimed to
have been born in Seville and reminisced about playing on the banks of the
Guadalquivir river as a child. In a 1905 interview with The Illustrated Sporting and
Dramatic News Guerrero remembered, "When I was five years old, and that's just
twenty years ago...I used to play on the banks of the Guadalquivir, the sweetest river
in all Spain, and dance to the castanets of the shepherd-boys."66

She first danced in London in 1899 and was immediately hailed as a successor to
Otero.67 The writer Symons was among her admirers and wrote in a letter to his
future wife, "I have gone wild over a new Spanish dancer—La belle Guerrero. She is
quite a splendid creature: I go see her every night I am free."68

Guerrero returned to London to dance at the Alhambra Theatre in September 1902,

however, it was with her scenic portrayals of Carmen in 1903 that she truly made her
mark and revolutionized representations of the gypsy. In that year Guerrero was
contracted to appear in a one-act ballet-pantomime version of Carmen at the
Alhambra Theatre in Leicester Square. This work made use of an adaptation of
Bizet's score by musical director and composer George Byng (1861-1932), with the
addition of two original pieces of his own. With this ballet Carmen was presented to
English audiences in yet another dramatic shape. The emphasis of the production was
on spectacle and dramatic realism and it ran for close to a year in London before
moving to New York and a tour of the United States in the following year.
65
Fitzroy Gardner, More Reminiscences of an Old Bohemian (London: Hutchinson, 1926), 147.
66
'A chat with La Guerrero,' Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 22 Apr. 1905.
67 "It is quite true that she has less jewels but more talent than La Belle Otero." Country Gentleman, 22
July 1899, 902.
68 Karl Beckson and John M. Munro eds., Arthur Symons: Selected Letters, 1880-1935 (Basingstoke:
Macmillan, 1889), 132.

135
Guerrero's performances introduced elements of flamenco dance to a broad audience.
Like Otero, she was praised for her realization of Carmen and considered by some as
an "ideal Carmen."69

Figure 11. Carmen as played by a real Spaniard. Signorina Guerrero at the Alhambra.
July 1903.7°
1..1K711'7Si !IAN K1) 1{1 A 1t P:A11 aI"AN1Aft. I)
1tftiWi'tr%," t mer n.t+i 1I10 AIIia>1r9140

.r. ..i,
. û„ .â. :.....: ..,: .e ,...:.

Critics were fascinated to see a real Spaniard play the part of Carmen, even if the
forum was the ballet and not opera. The ballet was seen as an ideal medium for
69
`The Alhambra,' Times, 8 May 1903, 7.
70Unknown paper, July 1903. London: Theatre Museum, Carmen Archive Box. The caption at the
bottom of the page reads, "Signorina Guerrero has made a great success of the part of Carmen in the
ballet at the Alhambra which has been extracted from Bizet's work. She is extraordinarily vivid. Here
she is seen with the young soldier whom she enthralls. He is acted with grim reality by M. Volbert.

136
Carmen and Olga Nethersole's failed dramatic reinterpretation of the role was still
fresh in the memory.'' Ballet scenes had been interpolated into operatic Carmen
productions for many years and these interludes had begun to incorporate elements of
Spanish dance.72 The authenticity of the performance was discussed in the press with
the same scrutiny as the performances of singers like Calvé in the operatic role. The
Carmen of Merimée's novella was recognized as the real source of the character and
Guerrero was often said to embody the pre-Bizet conception of the Spanish gypsy.
One critic made this point vividly, writing,

With a Carmen available of the right nationality, it was a happy idea of the Alhambra
management to turn the opera to which Merimée's heroine gives her name into a
ballet, or really a strenuous play in pantomime. The more so as Guerrero, the artist in
question, realizes [sic] most vividly the Carmen of the author's imagining—a
splendid, treacherous, ruthless, passionate anima1.73

Guerrero was celebrated for her Spanish physique and temperament. According to
The Daily Telegraph, "as a dancer Senorita Guerrero possesses all the grace and
suppleness of the Southern Spaniard."74 Her beauty was described as uniquely
Spanish and a large part of her attraction.75

Byng composed music for additional dances in the show and while his original
numbers were not considered distinctly Spanish in style, his music drew praise for
highlighting qualities of the dance.76 Bizet's music was also featured and reinforced

71 "Prosper Merimée's story of Carmen lends itself admirably to stage treatment. It has already done
splendid service in more than one dramatic shape...Carmen, too has inspired more than one
playwright, and it is but a year or two ago that Miss Olga Nethersole essayed at the Gaiety the
character of the fascinating Spaniard." `Alhambra,' Daily Telegraph, 8 May 1903, 10.
72
Of a production of Carmen starring Zelie de Lussan in July 1899 one writer observed, "the whole
performance was enlivened by the real castanet dance in the second act, instead of the usual
conventional ballet." Country Gentleman, 22 July 1899, 902.
73 `The "Carmen" Ballet at the Alhambra'. Unknown paper, 1 May 1903. London: Theatre Museum,
Carmen Archive Box.
74 `Alhambra,' Daily Telegraph, 8 May 1903, 10.
73
The Sketch critic proclaimed, " she has been most generously dowered by nature with that beauty for
which the women of Spain or Spanish birth are famous." Sketch, 3 Sept. 1902.
76
"For the music of the various interpolated dances he [George W. Byng] is himself responsible, and,
although his numbers are hardly to be described as characteristically Spanish, they have a swing and
strenuous quality essentially fitted to the requirements of the occasion." Daily Telegraph, 8 May 1903,
10.

137
the relationship to the opera. In the words of a writer in The Times, "we had Bizet's
music, very respectfully treated, with a few exceptions."77

In all it was the combination of the exotic location, costumes, music and dance that
made the production such a success, as The Times reported,

The action is simple, the interest human and passionate—moreover, the story is well
known. The languorous Spanish scenes, the Southern atmosphere, the gorgeous
dresses, the rhythmic Spanish dances, the haunting music by Bizet—all unite to make
a piece of great sensuous charm.78

The Carmen ballet ran with success into the early part of 1904,79 and the role of
Carmen was played by other dancers after Guerrero left for New York in October
1903, most notably Maria La Bella.80

The Spanish guitar in London from Francisco Târrega to Angel Barrios

The popularity of the Estudiantinas and the subsequent growth of the amateur BMG
movement in the 1880s provided an audience for and impetus to the dissemination
and popularity of the Spanish guitar in late Victorian and Edwardian London.81 In
this same period there were sporadic tours by Spanish guitar soloists and the most
notable Spanish guitarist to visit London in this period was the virtuoso performer,
arranger and composer for the guitar, Francisco Târrega (1852-1909).

Through his arrangements, compositions and teachings Târrega provided the technical
framework and much of the repertoire for the twentieth century renaissance of the
classical guitar in the hands of Spanish guitarists such as Miguel Llobet (1878-1938),

77
`The Alhambra,' Times, 8 May 1903, 7.
78 `The Alhambra,' Times, 28 Dec. 1903, 10.
79 A commentator for The Times reported on January 22 1904, "The ballet of Carmen is still performed
nightly." `The Alhambra Theatre,' Times, 22 Jan. 1904, 4.
80
Maria La Bella was also credited with returning the story to Merimée's original vision, "Senora
Maria La Bella, who is at present playing the title-role, pictures forth a Carmen such as Prosper
Merimée himself imagined." `The Alhambra,' Times, 28 Dec. 1903, 10.
81 The amateur BMG (Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar) movement came to prominence in England and
North America after the first successful tours by Estudiantinas in the 1880s. The repertoire played by
these amateur groups included orchestral and chamber music arranged for plucked strings, alongside
more popular salon-style works. The peak period of activity of the BMG movement was from the
1880s until 1920 and coincided with the publication of numerous dedicated periodicals in both Britain
and the USA. See Noonan, The Guitar in America: Victorian Era to Jazz Age, 21-40.

138
Emilio Pujol (1886-1980) and Andres Segovia (1893-1987). Tarrega's transcriptions
of Spanish piano music and his arrangements of works written for piano by Chopin,
Albéniz, Granados and others, created the mould for the classical guitar repertoire
well into the twentieth century.82

Tdrrega toured extensively in the years from 1885 to 1903, including visits to London
in 1880 and the early 1890s.83 Clark writes of Tarrega's visit in the early 1880s, "He
next travelled to London, where his reputation had preceded him and he was warmly
received as the leading guitar virtuoso of the day. He would travel to London again in
the early 1890s."84 Tdrrega had other connections to England in the form of wealthy
patrons. The Englishman Dr. Walter James Leckie had lessons with Tdrrega,
supported him financially, and often accompanied him on tour. One of the most
important collections of Tarrega's work is the two-volume set of manuscripts known
as the Leckie Collection, containing pieces, exercises and studies written out by
Tdrrega for his student Leckie.

In spite of Arcas' earlier tours and Tarrega's visits to London, the influence of foreign
guitarists in England after the middle of the century was limited. Two English
guitarists, Catherina Peltzer (1821-1895), better known after her marriage in 1854 as
Madame Sidney Pratten, and Ernest Shand (1868-1924) were active performers and
teachers in the second half of the nineteenth century and through their teaching,
compositions and performances they were the main local practitioners of a declining
instrument. Stuart Button puts the issue into context thus:

From around 1850 the influence of foreign guitarists began to cease, and a new
generation of English players began to emerge, but they were never able to raise the
guitar to its previous popularity. They were handicapped in the sense that in England
there had never been a tradition of guitarist-composers. Music and guitars were in

82 Walter Aaron Clark writes of Tdrrega's contribution to the guitar repertoire, "Tarrega's output, then,
includes not only original compositions but also many transcriptions of works by famous composers of
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. To be sure, he was not the first guitarist in history to transcribe
works from other media to his own. This had been going on since the sixteenth century. But he did so
more extensively and influentially than any of his predecessors, and he thus established a practice
continued by virtually every guitarist since his time." Walter Aaron Clark, `Francisco Tarrega, Isaac
Albéniz, and the Modern Guitar', Soundboard Magazine: The Journal of the Guitar Foundation of
America 36, no. 1 (2010): 5.
83 Frederick M. Noad, The Romantic Guitar (New York: Amsco Publications, 1986), 13.
sa
Clark, `Francisco Tdrrega,' 8.

139
 short supply, and there began a rise of interest in related instruments, particularly the
banjo and mandolin.85

Pratten was the daughter of the notable German guitarist Ferdinand Peltzer, who, in
addition to publishing the Giulianiad in 1833, was very active as a guitar teacher and
music educator.86 Early in her career she sought to re-establish the guitar as a serious
concert instrument in Britain, utilizing the works and teachings of Sor as a model. As
the following excerpt shows, she became focused on teaching the nobility,
particularly young ladies. Pratten wrote, "The guitar is a charming and graceful
instrument, capable of much execution, intense pathos and a variety of effects
peculiarly its own, and is admirably adapted as an accompaniment to the voice."87
She composed some works for the guitar but neither her repertoire nor her own
compositions demonstrate any overt Spanish influences.

According to Button, Ernest Shand was a pivotal figure for the guitar in England.88
He came at a time when interest in the guitar had declined and he was able to revive it
to some extent through his compositions, performing and technical excellence. Shand
was oblivious to the technical developments in Spanish guitar playing in the late
nineteenth century and his musical style comes out of the Victorian music hall
tradition. His guitar playing was more closely linked to popular song and light music.
There are no obvious Spanish titles or stylistic touches in a recently published
collection of his guitar music.89

The typical Estudiantina instrumentation of laiid, bandurria and guitar was well suited
to smaller trios and quartets playing more elevated salon music and concert repertoire.
The Trio Iberia was founded by the Grenadine guitarist Angel Barrios (1882-1964)
and featured Ricardo Devalque playing bandurria and Candido Bezunatea on the laid.
Barrios grew up in Granada, surrounded by Andalusian folk music, especially
flamenco. His father, known as "El Polinario", was a well-known Grenadine singer
and local identity. Barrios played flamenco guitar and was also involved in arranging

85
Button, Guitar in England, 202.
B6 Stuart Button, `The Teaching of the Guitar in England during the 19t1 Century,' European Guitar
Teachers Association (1992), accessed 21 Feb. 2012. www.egta.co.uk/content/england.
S7 Madame Sidney Pratten, `How to Play the Guitar,' The Girl's Own Paper, 26 Feb. 1881, 349.
B8 Button, Guitar in England, 152.
89 Stanley Yates, Ernest Shand: 23 Guitar Solos from Victorian England (Pacific, MO: Mel Bay, 2000).

140
and composing for the Trio Iberia, which enjoyed success in Paris in the early years
of the twentieth century, where Barrios met and became friends with Albéniz and
Falla. 9° The trio travelled to London in 1908 and 1909 where they performed for
King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, an enthusiastic amateur musician who
played the mandolin. The Trio Iberia's repertoire consisted of transcriptions of
Spanish music, with a special focus on the works of Albéniz. A program from a
concert at the Stationers' Hall in London in July 1908 includes three arrangements of
Albéniz piano works, two pieces from Carmen, works by Albéniz's close friend, the
composer Breton, and two items by Barrios himself, most notably the tribute to his
home town, Recuerdo de Granada.91

The popularity of guitar and mandolin groups reinforced the image of the guitar as a
Spanish instrument and paved the way for the ensuing presence of these instruments
on the concert stage. Guitarists such as Llobet and Pujol, both of whom were students
of Tdrrega, were pioneers in developing a new repertoire for guitar and performing
internationally. When the Spanish guitarist Segovia first performed in London in
1926 he played to an enthusiastic public prepared by decades of exposure to Spanish
music.

As I have demonstrated in this chapter, it is essential to consider the popular, or "low-

art" manifestations of Spanish music and dance in order to understand changing.
attitudes and performances in London. The most prominent Spanish visitors of the
late Victorian era included touring Estudiantinas which introduced a new plucked
string sonority and a fresh representation of musical Spain. These groups were
extremely important for the ensuing popularity of the Spanish guitar through the
consequent Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar movement.

Away from the operatic stage, Carmen continued to influence notions of Spanishness
in the late Victorian and early Edwardian eras as Spanish dancers such as Otero
engaged with the Carmen myth while simultaneously introducing elements of
flamenco in their routines. These dancers often performed with Estudiantina

90
M i chael Christoforidis, `Angel Barrios,' Diccionario de la Mûsica Espanola e Hispanoamericana
(Madrid: SGAE, 1999). See also Ismael Ramos, Trio Iberia (Granada: Centro de Documentacibn
Musical de Andalucia, 2003), 17-18.
91
Ramos, Trio Iberia, 22.

141
ensembles and together they cultivated the audiences that supported the twentieth
century manifestations of Spanish music and dance.

142
 Chapter 5:
English fin-de-siècle literary and musical evocations of Spanish music

The fin-de-siècle was a time of transition for the relationship between England and
Spain. Railways began to be developed in Spain in 1848, and with the major lines
finished by the 1870s, the country became much more accessible and tourist numbers
increased dramatically.' Politically, England and Spain were becoming more closely
aligned and the evolution of this alliance is discussed in Chapter 6. The images of
Spain promoted by Carmen, music hall parodies, Spanish dance troupes and
musicians, had became part of the popular English imagination and a new generation
of English travel writers stamped their authority on perceptions of Spain in the
twentieth century.

In this chapter a snapshot of English evocations of Spanish music and dance is

provided through an examination of three travel writers, specific works by Edward
Elgar (1857-1934) and the performances of Percy Grainger.

Three Edwardian travel writers on Spain

The first book discussed in this chapter is Spanish Life in Town and Country by L.
Higgin (1837-1913), published in 1902 as part of the series entitled Our European
Neighbours edited by William Harbutt Dawson.2 The second book is by Havelock
Ellis (1859-1939), perhaps better known for his writings on sex and eugenics, and
titled The Soul of Spain (1908).3 Ellis had the highest profile of the three authors
discussed in this chapter and this volume is widely quoted and cited in later literature
on Spain. Charles Bogue Luffman's (1862-1920) Quiet Days in Spain of 1910 is the
third travel book considered for insights into English perceptions of Spain in the
Edwardian period.4

In her book Spanish Life in Town and Country Higgin drew attention to the recent

I Kamen writes, "The first line to be built in the peninsula was a short link from Barcelona to Matar6 in
1848, and government legislation in the 1850s facilitated further foreign investment in railways, with
the main network being completed by the 1870s." Henry Kamen, The Disinherited: The Exiles Who
Created Spanish Culture (London: Allen Lane, 2007), 216.
2 L. Higgin, Spanish Life in Town and Country (London: George Newnes, 1902).
3 Havelock Ellis. The Soul of Spain (1908; Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1937).
a
C. Bogue Luffman, Quiet Days in Spain (London: John Murray, 1910).

143
increase of travellers to Spain. The Spanish-American war of 1898 caused a hiccup in
tourism but Higgin reported that, "To-day, however, everyone is going to Spain."5
She recognized that many of the old stereotypes that had gained currency in the mid-
nineteenth century no longer applied and the writings of Ford and Borrow were in
many ways out-moded:

Ford is answerable for many of the fixed ideas about Spain which it seems quite
impossible to remove. Much that may have been true in the long ago, when he wrote
his incomparable Guide Book, has now passed away with the all-conquering years;
but still all that he ever said is repeated in each new book with unfailing certainty.6

Higgin aimed to give an even-handed survey of Spain and Portugal, with due respect
given to each region, thereby avoiding an overemphasis on the south. She
documented the regional varieties of music and dance and took great care to
emphasize the contrasts between provinces.

Writing enthusiastically on Spanish music and dance, Higgin emphasised the need to
seek out the more authentic forms of gypsy dance in an age of tourism:

So much has been written about the Spanish national dances that an absurd idea
prevails in England that they are all very shocking and indecent. It is necessary,
however, to go very much out of one's way, and to pay a good round sum, to witness
those gypsy dances which have come down unchanged from the remotest ages.

As in the writings of Irving, the guitar and castanets provided a constant counterpoint
to the dances Higgin documented. She described men and women of lower classes
engaging in spontaneous music and dance in their leisure time.8 In a clear departure
from earlier travelogues, Higgin noted that the musical aspirations of Spaniards were
changing as the country was modernizing. She noted,

S
Higgins wrote, "Only in comparatively late years has the Iberian Continent been added to the happy
hunting-grounds of the ordinary British and American tourist, and somewhat of a check arose after the
outbreak of the war with America." Higgin, Spanish Life, 1.
6 Ibid., 49.
'Ibid., 105.
B "Wherever two or three men and women of the lower classes are to be seen together in Spain during
their play-time, there is a guitar, with singing and dancing. The verses sung are innumerable short
stanzas by unknown authors; many, perhaps, improvised at the moment." Ibid., 106.

144
 The guitar is, of course, the national instrument, and the songs never have the same
charm with any other accompaniment; but the Spanish women of to-day are prouder
of being able to play the piano or violin than of excelling in the instrument which
suits them so much better. The Spaniard is nervously anxious not to appear, or to be,
behind any other European nation in what we call "modernity," a word that signifies
that to be "up-to-date" is of paramount importance, leaving wholly out of the question
whether the change be for the better or infinitely towards the lower end of the scale .9

Unlike many of her contemporaries, Higgin engaged with a broad range of Spanish
music, from the Renaissance masters Cristobal de Morales, Francisco Guerrero and
Tomas Luis de Victoria, to the zarzuela, which she claimed "appears to have been the
forerunner and origin of all musical farce and `opera comique,' only naturalised in our
country during the present generation."10 She also explored folk music traditions
outside of Andalusia, including those from the Basque region, Galicia and other
northern provinces.

At this time both Spanish and English composers were working to create a national
style of music and native folksong was an important source of inspiration. In England
composers and folksong collectors active in this field included Cecil Sharp (1859-
1924), Grainger, and Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958), and their Spanish
counterparts were composers such as Pedrell, Granados and Albéniz. Higgin also
noted the importance of Renaissance music and a variety of national folksongs to this
new generation of composers.) t

Like Higgin, the English writer Ellis was concerned with correcting false stereotypes
about Spain and Spanish culture. His book The Soul of Spain was first published in
1908 and is referenced by later important writers on Spain such as Van Vechten and

9 Ibid., 215.
I° Ibid., 108.
Higgin wrote, "To the end of the seventeenth century a galaxy of brilliant names carried on the
national history of Spanish music, both on religious and secular lines; and though in the eighteenth and
part of the nineteenth centuries there was a passing invasion of French and Italian fashion, the true and
characteristic native music has never died out, and at the present time there is a notable musical
renaissance in touch with the spirit and natural genius of the people." Ibid., 106.

145
J.B. Trend (1887-1958).12 Ellis wanted to direct the reader away from the common
clichés propagated by the opera Carmen towards a more subtle and well-informed
appreciation of Spain and its people.

Writing on flamenco, Ellis described a dance scene in some detail, categorizing it as

"the most primitive and African of all Spanish dances."13 Ellis' description of the
intense "bacchante-like fury of dancing" and deeply personal nature of the individual
performance styles is much more detailed than similar passages in Ford or Borrow.
He called attention to the difference between this dance and some of the exponents of
Spanish dance seen in London by emphasising that, "there is no high kicking, yet
every normal movement of the body is harmoniously displayed in the course of the
dance."14

Ellis devoted a chapter of his book to Spanish women and attacked the lazy
stereotypes disseminated by Carmen. He complained that,

In foreign representations the Spanish woman is usually a brilliant and reckless

creature, passionate but cruel, peculiarly adapted to occupy a place in novels and
pictures, but on the reverse side, ignorant, bigoted, lazy, and dirty. Mérimée's and
Bizet's Carmen...crystallizes into a whole the more picturesque elements of this
conception, and is doubtless largely responsible for its wide dissemination."

He also lamented the changing nature of Spain and expressed concern about the effect
new inventions were having on the traditions of Spanish music:

It is a little depressing to find a cinematographic show set up in the market-place of

even the remotest cities, to hear the squeak of the gramophone where one has once
heard the haunting wail of the malaguena, or to have to admit that the barrel-organ is
taking the place of the guitar.16

12
See Van Vechten, Music of Spain, 39, and J.B. Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain: Men and Music
(London: Constable, 1921), 3. Trend's writings on Spanish music will be discussed in detail in
Chapters 7 and 8.
13
Ellis, Soul of Spain, 184.
14 Ibid.
15 Ibid., 87-88.
16 Ibid., 9-10.

146
According to Ellis, Spaniards were sick of the ignorance of tourists who "seem to see
the population of Spain symbolized in gypsies who dance or tell fortunes and beggar
boys who lie in the sun eating oranges."17 He quoted the Galician author Emilia
Pardo Bazân who declared that Spain "is not merely the land of the gipsy with his
guitar.s18 Ellis wrote perceptively on music and was concerned that many Spanish
traditions were being lost. Luffman was equally impressed by the spirit of musical
performance in Spain and like Ellis sought to educate his readers on the nature of the
true Spain.

Born in England in 1862, Luffman worked in the agricultural trade in Italy, France
and in 1893 he travelled through Spain, publishing an account of his wanderings in A
Vagabond in Spain (1895). Luffman migrated to Australia in 1895 where he
successfully pursued a career in horticulture.19 He returned to Iberia in 1908 and
1909 and his experiences formed the basis of the book Quiet Days in Spain, published
in 1910. Out of the 49 provinces that existed in Spain at that time, he visited 42 and
covered more than 7,000 miles in his travels.20 Like Higgin and Ellis, Luffmann
wanted to present an accurate picture of Spain, correcting the wrongs perpetrated by
earlier writers. He took Borrow to task, writing that while "no British writer has
written more entertainingly of Spain than George Borrow...no man has created a
more erroneous impression.s21 Borrow was charged with the crime of exaggeration in
the name of a good story.

Luffman was not especially interested in music but focused mostly on provincial
differences and Spain's natural resources. He did, however, provide some detailed
thoughts on the topic of Spanish song. Music was clearly an important part of
everyday life in the Spain encountered by Luffmann, who wrote of the "soul for
music" in Spain, which he described as, "a sense of feeling, power, and interpretation
which is most rare elsewhere."22 The spirit of musical participation in Spain
fascinated English writers who saw this lacking in their own culture. In the process of
industrialization in Britain many traditions had been lost, whereas Spain was still poor

17 Ibid., 38-39.
18
Ibid.
19 Luffman wrote the landmark work, The Principles of Gardening for Australia (Melbourne, 1903).
20 Luffman, Quiet Days, v.
21 Ibid., vi.
22
Ibid., 64.

147
 23
and under-developed, and many traditional musical practices remained intact.

Luffman did not view Spanish folk music in primitive terms. He praised the music
for its "refinement of emotion" and when writing of Spanish singing described voices
"most full of expression and delicacy of sound."24 However, he noted that Spanish
song was an acquired taste and the structure was "not easily apprehended." 25 To help
inform the English public of the refinement of Spanish song forms he quoted
examples of Andalusian and gypsy couplets with detailed explanations.26 Quiet Days
in Spain was widely read and was reviewed favourably in the Daily Mail by the
prominent novelist and author of Heart of Darkness, Joseph Conrad.27

For Higgin, Ellis and Luffman, increased tourism to Spain meant that greater
awareness of the "real" Spain was possible and the English could now strive for a
more sophisticated understanding of Spanish music and culture. They were
concerned about the challenges facing the traditional way of life in Spain and
endeavoured to provide correct and up to date information on the country for an
English readership.

Edward Elgar and Spanish Music

To most music lovers, the name Elgar does not conjure up images of Spain, however,
like Sullivan, he had a penchant for Spanish music. In his introduction to Van
Vechten's book The Music of Spain (1919), the Spanish critic Pedro Morales added
Elgar's Piano Quintet (1918) to Van Vechten's list of "Spanish" works by composers
of other nationalities.28 There are passages in the first movement of Elgar's Piano

23
On this note Luffman wrote, "The town (Pontevedra) has a population of nine thousand, and though
it is old-fashioned and quiet it provides more solid entertainment than most British communities with
ten times the number of people." Ibid., 270.
24
Ibid., 64.
25
Ibid., 64-66.
26
Ibid.
27
Joseph Conrad, `A Happy Wanderer,' Daily Mail, 23 July 2010, 8.
28 Morales, preface to Music of Spain by Van Vechten, xxii. He wrote, "In the domain of Chamber
Music, of all works, Elgar's Piano Quintet and E. Goosen junior's Spanish Nocturne for Cello."
Morales was a composer, conductor and writer on Spanish music and art. Born in Huelva in 1879 he
studied first at Seville University and later at the Royal College of Music in London. Morales
established himself as an important presence in the London music scene. He began organizing concerts
of contemporary Spanish music in 1918 and continued these activities as conductor, performer and
composer for a number of years. His role in the promotion of Spanish music in London will be
discussed further in Chapters 7 and 8.

148
Quintet where a Spanish influence is apparent and it is just one of a number of
compositions where his predilection for Spanish music may be heard. In his first
"Spanish" pieces the sonority of the Estudiantinas is a perceptible influence, an added
element to the musical style of "Spanish" music written by earlier English composers
such as Sullivan.

Elgar's first "Spanish" composition was the Intermezzo Moresque, premiered in

Worcestershire on 4 April 1883. It later reappeared in Elgar's Three Characteristic
Pieces op. 10 (1899) as the middle piece with the title "Serénade mauresque" and is
the longest and most significant of the three pieces.29 Robert Anderson describes the
piece as "an early example of Elgar's penchant for "Spanish" inflections, with exotic
intervals and pattering pizzicato."30 In Example 5 a descending pizzicato scale in the
second violin is doubled by the oboe and bassoon in staccato articulation, while the
first violins play guitar-like triplet semi-quavers. This imitation of plucked strings
suggests the early influence of the Estudiantinas on Elgar's "Spanish" music.

29 In an example of exotic confusion, the Moorish quality of the piece was described as `Slavonic' by a
critic in 1888. Anderson, Elgar, 363.
30 Ibid.

149
Example 5. Edward Elgar, Sérénade Mauresque, op. 10, no. 2, ms.5-6.31

Oboe

Clarinet in Bb

Bassoon

Violin I

Violin 11

Cello

dim.

Elgar achieved his first London performance with his Sevillana op. 7 for orchestra in
1884.32 He called the piece "an attempt to portray, in the compass of a few bars, the
humours of a Spanish fete,"33 and described the opening as "an imitation of a Spanish
folk-song, played by the violins on the fourth string."34 According to Julian Rushton,
Elgar's "exoticism is based on conventional evocative signs rather than fieldwork,
and much of Sevillana is frankly a Viennese waltz; in Spanish vein."35 However, this
was typical of many projections of Spanishness in salon instrumental music, for
example in the waltzes of Émile Waldteufe1,36 and Moritz Moszkowski,37 which were

31 Edward Elgar, Sérénade Mauresque (London: Novello, 1899), 2.

32
"Like the Intermezzo moresque, Sevillana revealed a fascination with the music of Spain, a country
he never visited." Anderson, Elgar, 363.
33
Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35
Julian Rushton, `In Search of the Symphony: Orchestral Music to 1908,' in The Cambridge
Companion to Elgar, eds. Daniel M. Grimley and Julian Rushton (Cambridge: CUP, 2004), 140.
36
The French waltz composer Waldteufel was well known for his Estudiantina waltz (1883), an
arrangement of a melody composed by Paul Lancome. He was the author of the popular dance Espana
(1886) after the work of the same name by Chabrier. See Andrew Lamb, 'Waldteufel, Emile.' in
Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online, accessed 30 Jan. 2013,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/29819.
37 Moszkowski wrote three groups of Spanish Dances for piano published as op. 12, op. 21 and op. 65.
Other Spanish themed works were Caprice Espagnol op. 37 and Guitarre op. 45 no. 2. He completed
an opera based on the legend of Boabdil and the expulsion of the Moors from Granada titled Boabdil
der letze Maurenkönig op. 49. See Martin Eastick, `Moszkowski, Moritz,' in Grove Music Online.
Oxford Music Online, accessed 30 Jan. 30, 2013,

150
also performed by Estudiantina ensembles.

Elgar's next Spanish work was the part-song Spanish Serenade op. 23 written in May
and June of 1892. The work is scored for voices with orchestral accompaniment and
the text comes from Act 1 of The Spanish Student, a play by the American writer
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow originally published in 1843. Elgar imagined a
Spanish scene for the work and on the manuscript score he wrote an imaginary stage
direction: "A street in Madrid. Enter Chispa followed by musicians with a bagpipe,
guitars and other instruments."38 Originally scored for two violins and piano, Elgar
subsequently made a version for voices accompanied by muted strings and
tambourine, an allusion to the sound of an Estudiantina. These works were written
early in Elgar's career and it was not until 1918 that Elgar would return to a Spanish
theme in his music.

The Piano Quintet is Elgar's most substantial chamber work and incorporates Spanish
allusions in a more abstracted manner. Written in the summer of 1918 it was first
performed on 21 May 1919 by a group that included Elgar's close friends the
violinists Willie Reed and Albert Salmonds and the Australian pianist William
Murdoch. Elgar wrote the Piano Quintet while staying at his peaceful country retreat
Brinkwells in the Sussex countryside. The rural landscape and in particular a group
of gnarled trees sparked Elgar's imagination. The novelist Algernon Blackwood
came to stay and may have had a part in associating these emaciated trees with a
community of Spanish monks who had lived in the area. Robert Anderson wrote that
the monks "were supposed to have been struck dead while celebrating impious rites"
and "the trees are their withered forms."39 As commented on by Morales and other
writers, the Spanish section, depicting the trees, begins at bar 78 of the first movement
of the Piano Quintet,40 and forms the second subject of the first movement.41 The
Spanish quality is achieved through a suggestion of the Phrygian mode, articulation in
the strings that suggests Spanish folksong and melodic phrasing across the bar.

www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezp.lib.unimelb.edu.au/subscriber/article/grove/music/19207.
38 Quoted in Anderson, Elgar, 274.
39 Robert Anderson and Jerrold Northrop Moore, foreward to Elgar Complete Edition, Vol. 38,
Chamber Music, ed. Robert Anderson (London: Novello, 1988), vii.
4o Ibid.
41
Anderson, Elgar, 386-8.

151
Example 6. Elgar, Movement 1, Moderato-Allegro, Piano Quintet in Amin. op.
84, ms.78-92.42

78

Ped. 07 Ped.
simile •
85

MOW

raw; 04.. .._

PPC
x \ . . a
. ------------------- —
. .TI•
yAIMONIM. T<• .1116■ S\INI•

In his last years Elgar considered writing an opera to a libretto adapted from Ben
Jonson's play The Devil is an Ass from 1616. Elgar produced the libretto with his
friend Barry Jackson and they renamed the opera The Spanish Lady. The project
struck a number of difficulties and remained unfinished, however, there are Spanish
pieces among the extant sketches. Willy Reed, the leader of the London Symphony
Orchestra and a friend of Elgar's, remembered playing through sections of The
Spanish Lady with Elgar and although he remained confused about Elgar's
intentions,43 he clearly recalled the Spanish-themed music Elgar had written: "We

42
Edward Elgar, `Piano Quintet' in Elgar Complete Edition, Vol. 38, Chamber Music, ed. Robert
Anderson (London: Novello, 1988), 67.
43 Reed said of The Spanish Lady: "If I am ever asked what it was all about, I shall have to confess that
I have not the faintest idea." Quoted in Anderson, Elgar, 274.

152
began playing through a lot of it [The Spanish Lady] on my violin and his piano.
There was a Spanish dance, a country dance, a bolero, and a sarabande."44 The music
assembled for the opera was an eclectic mix of styles. Elgar raided his sketchbook for
musical material and planned a number of Spanish-themed pieces. The only item that
was partially scored was a "Bolero", based on a Polonaise for violin and piano written
in 1879.45 The work references seventeenth-century Spanish and English music, in
accord with the neoclassical tendencies of the time. However, Elgar's musical take
on Spain remained firmly based in the nineteenth century, as evidenced by the amount
of material taken from earlier sketches. The blending of contemporary and early
music sources evident in the neoclassical music of Manuel de Falla and other Spanish
nationalist composers did not influence his musical approach in this piece. Elgar
worked on The Spanish Lady until 5 February 1933 when poor health intervened and
he died just over a year later.

Elgar never published a work for the guitar but he did compose a small sketch for the
instrument in combination with violin and mandolin in January 1907. The sketch
shows that he was familiar with the Spanish guitar and its serenading and Estudiantina
associations. The fragment was written in Italy and inspired by a trip to the
barbershop. A letter from Elgar's wife to Mrs. Nicholas Kilburn described the
musical encounter, "This morning E. went over to the Barber's to have his hair cut,
the Barber was always playing the Mandolin, so E. took up a Violin & they performed
a Duet, then a Guitarist arrived & they performed a Trio brilliantly to a delighted
audience! E. so gay and amused."46 Elgar's writing demonstrates a degree of
understanding of the guitar and typical chords and figuration.

The guitar remained popular in Edwardian London through the BMG movement, and
this is attested to by the publication in 1914 of Phillip J Bone's book The Guitar and
Mandolin, a milestone for the instrument.47 Containing entries on hundreds of players,
composers and enthusiasts, Bone dedicated his book to "the noble band of enthusiasts,

44
Percy M. Young, foreward to Elgar Complete Edition, Vol. 41, The Spanish Lady, ed. Robert
Anderson (London: Novello, 1991), ix.
45
Anderson, Elgar, 273.
46
Anderson and Moore, foreward to Elgar Complete Edition, vi. The musical fragment is reproduced
on pages 164-5.
47 Bone, Guitar and Mandolin.

153
of all nationalities, who are ever striving for the advancement of their beloved
instruments—the guitar and mandolin."48 He acknowledged the strong folk music
associations held by these instruments when he observed, "the guitar and mandolin
are seldom studied seriously, or even heard to advantage, in this country."49

The ability of the guitar to cross social and genre boundaries is exemplified in the life
and work of the Spanish guitarist and teacher Alberto Obregon (1872-1922) who was
inspired by hearing Târrega in concert in Barcelona and subsequently had lessons
with the maestro.50 Obregon settled in London where he wrote light pieces for the
guitar, conducted a mandolin and guitar group and performed several times for King
Edward and Queen Alexandra who, according to Bone, "evinced sincere interest in
the artist and his instrument."51

Percy Grainger and Spanish Music

The Australian pianist and composer Grainger admired the Estudiantina settings of
mandolin and guitar and included these instruments in some of his compositions and
arrangements. Grainger is not normally associated with the Hispanic world, yet as a
pianist he was recognised for his early performances of Spanish music in Britain and
America. An active performer and promoter of the piano music of the modem
Spanish school, most notably Albéniz's piano suite Iberia, Grainger's ideas relating to
Spanish music would even have an impact on his compositions.

Grainger's interest in Spanish music was cultivated through his francophile

connections in Edwardian London, and especially through his close ties with Sargent.
The piano music of the modem Spanish school had predominantly developed in fin-
de-siècle Paris, and was closely aligned to various currents of new French music.
Albéniz, with his close ties to the Schola Cantorum and the Conservatoire, was at the
vanguard of this movement, and his magnum opus Iberia was published in four books
between 1904-1909, and considered a groundbreaking work of Spanish and French
pianism.

48 Ibid., 4.
48 Ibid., 5.
so
Ibid., 260-1.
si
Ibid., 261.

154
Grainger's respect and admiration for Sargent extended to his musical taste and
shaping of musical fashion in London. In his memoir of Sargent, written shortly after
the artist's death in 1925, Grainger wrote, "John Singer Sargent was one of the most
outstanding musicians I have ever met; for although his musical technic [sic] was not
as developed as his painting technic, he had the rarest of all esthetic gifts—
individualistic, balanced, critical judgement."52 Grainger not only admired Sargent as
a visual artist and for his musical taste, but was also taken by the naturalness of his
pianism and wrote, "To hear Sargent play the piano was indeed a treat, for his pianism
had the manliness and richness of his painting, though, naturally, it lacks that polished
skillfullness that comes only with many-hourly daily practice, spread over many
years.s53 Grainger confirmed the artist's predilection for French and Spanish music,
declaring: "He delighted especially in playing his favourite, Fauré, and in struggling
with the fantastic difficulties of Albéniz's Iberia, which later he had mastered to the
point of making it a musical joy to listen to at his hands; a task that might stagger
many a well-equipped concert pianist."54 For Sargent, Albéniz's music was a modern
pianistic incarnation of the flamenco music and guitar playing that had fired his
imagination. He was also very familiar with some of the principal flamenco dancers
and guitarists of the period, having befriended Angel Barrios and his father, "El
Polinario" during his travels in Granada.

Grainger appreciated and embraced amateur guitar and mandolin ensembles and
included guitars in numerous pieces and arrangements. Through the use of open
tunings and plectrum-style strumming, Grainger was an early advocate of massed
guitars in the concert hall. In keeping with the role of the guitar in Estudiantinas and
mandolin and guitar groups, Grainger used the guitar primarily as a rhythmic and
harmonic instrument. Notable examples include, Random Round (1912-15), which is
an early exploration of aleatoric principles, an orchestration of Shallow Brown (scored
1910) with parts for 4 guitars, the use of multiple guitars in his arrangements of
Father and Daughter (1908-09),55 and Scotch Strathspey and Reel (1901-39).

52
Percy Grainger, 'Sargent's Contribution to Music (1927),' in Grainger on Music, eds., Malcolm
Gillies, and Bruce Clunies Ross (Oxford: OUP, 1999), 169.
53 Ibid.
sa
Ibid.
ss
Ded i cated to John Singer Sargent.

155
It may be that Grainger's fascination with the guitar, and his extensive use of it in his
ensemble music of the early twentieth century, was in part indebted to Sargent's
contacts with the instrument. However, according to Grainger's later reflections,
Sargent was not so taken with Grainger's inclusion of guitars in his arrangements:

As long as my compositions were not publicly performed Rathbone and Sargent

seemed to take a keen interest in them. Between 1904 and 1912 (1913-1914?) they
were always engaging me to play (and shout out the prominent voices) such things as
English Dance, Green Bushes, Father and Daughter to their friends, at their `at
homes', etc. There was always lively speculation as to how the orchestration, the
guitars, etc., would sound.56

Grainger speculated that, "Perhaps they felt that my `special instruments' (guitars in
`Father and Daughter', xylophone and guitars in `Scotch Strathspey and Reel') were a
bit foolish in actual concerts. But the guitars in `F and D' surely must be said to have
made their mark."57

Albéniz's premature death in 1909 brought his music to greater notice, although it
took a number of years for Iberia to be considered a ground-breaking modern classic
outside of Paris. Grainger was indeed a pioneer in this area outside of France and
Spain, practising and performing some of the works from Iberia at least as early as
1909. In letters from January of this year to his partner Karen Holton and to his
mother he mentions practising two pieces by Albéniz. In August of that year he
performed them in Copenhagen and reported to his mother Rose on 30 August 1909,
"The Albéniz's make a remarkably great impression on Scandinavians, so I must do
them over here all I can."58 On 1 December of the same year The Times reported
Grainger's performance of two of Albéniz's pieces which were played with
"marvellous clearness and dexterity."59 One of these pieces was probably Triana,
included by Grainger in a programme for a concert in Yorkshire on 20 February
1910.60 He had the utmost respect for Albéniz's piano writing and in the words of the

56
Gillies, Pear, and Carroll, eds., Self-Portrait of Percy Grainger, 193.
57 Ibid., 194.
S8 Dreyfus, ed., The Farthest North of Humanness, 351.
59
`Music, Mr Percy Grainger's Recital,' Times, 1 Dec. 1909, 14.
68
Letter to Rose dated 20 Feb. 1910 from Copenhagen. Reproduced in Dreyfus, The Farthest North of
Humanness, 359.

156
critic D.C. Parker in a promotional booklet from 1918, "[Grainger] pays an eloquent
tribute to Albéniz, whom he describes as `in several ways the greatest pianistic advent
since Chopin'.s61 Grainger continued to play Albéniz's works for the rest of his
performance career.62

There are a number of Albéniz's piano scores with annotations by Grainger in the
Grainger Museum Collection at the University of Melbourne.63 The markings on
these works illuminate some of the features that attracted Grainger to this music, most
notably: cross-rhythms, the novel use of alternating right and left hands and very
specific use of the pedals.

One of the pieces Grainger performed repeatedly was "El Puerto", from the first book
of Iberia. His score is full of markings detailing the length of time notes need to be
held with the sustain pedal and also where notes should be damped. On page 1 he
wrote, "Study in cross-rhythms and the use of damper pedal for purely rhythmic
effects (while sustain ped. holds down pedal-notes)."64 Grainger highlighted the
rhythmic function of the pedals and Albéniz was also known for his disinclination to
over-pedal, particularly when clarity of texture might be compromised.65 Grainger
also marked the 2 against 3 rhythmic effects, a feature of many genres of Spanish
music and an integral part of this piece. He indicates that these passages should be
kept strictly in time.

Another of the annotated Albéniz scores in Grainger's library is "Almeria" from the
second book of Iberia. In this piece Albéniz notated the cross rhythms by juxtaposing
4/4 and 6/8 (3/4) time signatures. Again Grainger writes that the 2 against 3 rhythm
should be kept strict. Albéniz would have approved of Grainger's emphasis on
rhythmic precision as he himself was known for exactness and restraint in his piano
playing.66 As had been the case with Albéniz, English critics sometimes described

61 Gillies and Pear, Portrait of Percy Grainger, 92.

62 Itis unfortunate that there are no available recordings of Grainger performing the music of Albéniz,
given the high regard he had for the genius of this Spanish composer and his pianism.
The works with the most markings are Triana, El Puerto and Almeria.
64
Grainger Museum, MG C1/ALB-2.
65
"Beethoven's intentions were realised' when Albéniz played the first movement of the `Moonlight'
Sonata without making use of the pedals,' which resulted in an appropriate absence of `blurred
sound'." Vanity Fair, 21 Feb. 1891. See also Clark, Albéniz, 82.
66
See Clark, Albéniz, 80.

157
Grainger as a performer of precision but lacking in Romantic flair and expression.67
Grainger's promotion of Albéniz's Iberia and some pieces by Granados, alongside
pieces from the modern French school, particularly Debussy and Ravel, added to his
reputation as a specialist of modern piano repertoire.68

In his article on piano music from 1915 Grainger also wrote a paragraph on `The
Influence of Spanish Gipsy Music.' Here he shows his interest in the guitar and
mandolin effects apparent in Spanish and Spanish-influenced piano music. Grainger
wrote, "It is highly interesting to trace the influence of guitars, mandolins, etc., in
pieces such as Debussy's La Soirée dans Grenade and Minstrels, Ravel's Alborada de
Gracioso, and Albéniz's Iberia."69 He continued by praising the piano writing of
Albéniz and hinting at the influence of Sargent's keen interest in Spanish Renaissance
and eighteenth-century painters, most notaby El Greco and Goya:

Albéniz developed the `two-hand' technique perhaps more than anyone else. His
piano style might also be nicknamed a `concertina' style, so much does it consist of
`right, left, right, left' devices. Albéniz seems to me to give us a volume of sonority,
a dashing intensity and glowing brilliancy that we have been lacking in composers for
the piano since Liszt and Balakirev, and without which we should be very much the
poorer. At other times the vibrating gloom of his music suggests old Spanish pictures.
But in all his phases he appears to me a real genius, occupying a wholly unique and
precious niche amongst the greatest pianistic composers of all time.70

Grainger continued to play Albéniz in his English concerts until his departure for
America in 1914.

67
These comments on Grainger's piano playing and temperament come from The Times, "In some
ways it was a pity that Mr. Grainger had chosen Schumann's concerto, for although elaborate
polyphonic writing suits the player's clean, analytical style, he does not succeed in convincing us that
he is by temperament really in sympathy with such warm, full-blooded stuff as Schumann is here
giving us." `Concerts,' Times, 14 Mar. 1907, 11.
b8 From The Times in May 1912, "Another encore was insisted upon ...which was made up of
interesting works of the utmost "modemity"—Albeniz's "Almeria," one of Granados's Spanish dances,
and Debussy's "Toccata." All were most brilliantly given, and full sympathy was manifested with the
music of all the various schools." `Mr Percy Grainger's Recital,' Times, 31 May 1911, 12.
69
Percy Grainger, `A Blossom Time in Pianoforte Literature,' in Grainger on Music, eds. Malcolm
Gillies and Bruce Clunies Ross (Oxford: OUP, 1999), 75.
70 Ibid.

158
In Edwardian England some writers, performers and composers sought to modernize
the image and sound of Spain. Ellis and Grainger engaged with the emerging Spanish
nationalist movement, whilst others such as Elgar continued to write "Spanish" music
informed by late nineteenth-century styles. As we shall see in the following chapter,
modern Spanish musical nationalism began to be accepted and promoted in England,
largely through its association with the new French school.

159
 Chapter 6:
Changing Political Alliances and Spanish Music: From the Entente
Cordiale (1904) to the death of Granados (1916)

The loss of empire experienced by Spain in the late nineteenth century, and the threats
being posed to English global influence at the same time, resulted in both countries
cultivating new political alliances. The French invasions of the early nineteenth
century left Spain a divided country and political instability marked the remainder of
the century.1 The Spanish-American War of 1898 saw Spain lose sovereignty over
Cuba, the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam,2 and this loss of colonial power
provided further impetus to the artists and thinkers of the Spanish Generation of 1898
who were already grappling with issues of Spanish national identity.3 For much of
the nineteenth century England had been the most powerful country in the world but
found its authority in Africa threatened by the events of the Second Boer War (1899-
1902). This encouraged a belief amongst other nations, notably Germany, that the era
of English domination was coming to an end. England looked abroad for allies and
signed agreements with Japan, France and Russia.4

As the era of imperialism drew to a close, the political relationship between England
and Spain grew closer with the signing of the Entente Cordiale in 1904,5 and the 1906
marriage of Spain's King Alfonso XIII to Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess
Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg.6 In this chapter I will highlight the important
influence that new political alliances had on the reception of Spanish music in London
in the early twentieth century. A significant catalyst for this evolution was the
infl uence of French critics who saw Spanish music as a subset of French music. Two

I See Enrique Moradiellos, `Spain in the World: from Great Empire to Minor European Power,' in
Spanish History Since 1808, eds. José Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), 110-
121.
2 Enric Ucelay Da Cal discusses the rise of nationalism in Spain and other European countries in `The
Restoration Monarchy and the Competition of Nationalisms,' in Spanish History Since 1808, eds. José
Alvarez Junco and Adrian Shubert (London: Arnold, 2000), especially 124-127.
3 Vincent, Spain 1833-2002, 79.
4 Anglo-Japanese Alliance (1902), Entente Cordiale (1904), Anglo-Russian Entente (1907).
5 The Entente Cordiale was an agreement between England and France with specific reference to
Spain. For a discussion of the importance of the Entente Cordiale to Spanish interests in Morocco and
the vital role played by Britain in the agreement see Moradiellos, `Spain in the World,' 118.
6 For background to the marriage between Alfonso XIII and Victoria Eugenie see William D. Phillips
and Carla Rahn Phillips, A Concise History of Spain (Cambridge: CUP, 2010), 234-5.

160
such writers with close connections to Spanish music were Henri Collet (1885-1951)
and Raoul Laparra (1876-1943). They were part of a wider group of writers on
French music, including London-based critics Edwin Evans (1849-1921) and Georges
Jean-Aubry (1882-1950), who engaged with Spanish music. Although Collet and
Laparra were most active in France, Laparra's opera La Habanera (1908) was
performed at Covent Garden and introduced a new type of "realistic" Spanish music
to London audiences. Their writings and the French movement to engage with and
promote Spanish music as part of a broader Latin alliance influenced developments in
England after World War I.

Manuel de Falla visited London for a concert of Spanish music facilitated by Jean-
Aubry in 1911, however, the recital attracted little attention in the press. This was in
marked contrast to the wave of enthusiasm that greeted the new Spanish ballet with
music by Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat, in London after the war. What had
changed? The catalyst for a new wave of promotion of Spanish composers in Britain
was the death of the Spanish composer Enrique Granados aboard a civilian steamer in
the English Channel in 1916. After this tragedy, Spanish music began to receive
more performances and was discussed with greater seriousness than previously in the
English musical press. Although Spain was neutral during World War I,7 it retained
strong ties with England and nationalist sentiment was partly responsible for the re-
evaluation of Spanish music. The music of other Spanish composers such as Albéniz,
Turina, and most notably Falla benefited from this wave of interest.

Throughout this period Spanish music was ever-present in popular entertainments in

London, such as the reconstituted English version of the Spanish review La Gran Via,
visiting flamenco dance troupes, and the fashion for the tango, which, although
Argentine in origin, formed part of London's Hispanic musical milieu. All of this
activity informed the reappraisal of Granados' music after his death and prepared the
way for the London premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat in 1919 (see Chapter 7).

7The neutral stance of Spain during World War I and the benefits and problems it caused for Spain are
highlighted in Ibid., 236.

161
The Entente Cordiale and Spanish music in Edwardian London
Prior to the signing of the Entente Cordiale, France, Britain and Spain had been
engaged in secret negotiations over the partitioning of Morocco, reaching agreement
in 1904. The following extract from Article 8 of the Entente Cordiale between the
United Kingdom and France outlines the special role of Spain in this agreement and
illustrates the political balancing act achieved in this document.

The two Governments, inspired by their feeling of sincere friendship for Spain, take
into special consideration the interests which that country derives from her
geographical position and from her territorial possessions on the Moorish coast of the
Mediterranean. In regard to these interests the French Government will come to an
understanding with the Spanish Government. The agreement which may be come to
on the subject between France and Spain shall be communicated to His Britannic
Majesty's Government.8

The British presence at Gibraltar was a decisive factor in the discussions between
France and Spain on the subject of Morocco. France and Spain agreed to divide
Morocco into two zones and to work together to further their colonial interests. With
Morocco divided between France and Spain and safe from German influence, Britain
effectively maintained control of the Straits of Gibraltar.9

The 1906 marriage of King Alfonso XIII to Princess Victoria Eugenie had a political
dimension, reinforcing the Entente Cordiale, and maintaining the hegemony of
European royal families. A writer in The London Morning Penny Post commented on
this after the engagement was announced:

The authoritative announcement made by the Standard correspondent at Madrid of

the engagement of the King of Spain to Princess Ena of Battenburg marks the end of
a long campaign of domestic plotting on the Continent in which politics have also
played a part.10

s Quoted in Melvin E Page and Penny M Sonnenburg, Colonialism: An International Social, Cultural,
and Political Encyclopedia (Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2003), 1000.
9 See Moradiellos, `Spain in the World,' 118-119.
1° London Morning Penny Post, 9 Dec. 1905, 3.

162
The vogue for all things Spanish in high society reached a peak at the time of the
Royal wedding in 1906 and the British theatre musician Ernest Irving (1878-1953)
highlighted this fashion in his autobiography as he remembered a tour to Spain in
1907. He was the musical director of a light opera company that presented musical
comedies such as The Geisha, A Greek Slave, The Circus Girl and numerous others
for seasons in Madrid. In response to being offered the chance to visit Spain, Irving
wrote,

Spanish affairs were making the headlines then in the English papers, as Princess Ena
of Battenberg had just been married to the King of Spain, and if everybody in
England was not studying Spanish, everybody in Spain was learning English. I leapt
at the chance of visiting Madrid, and proceeded as rapidly as possible to assimilate
Hugo 's Teach Yourself Spanish»

This interest in Spain led to performances of Castles in Spain, an English re-working

of the zarzuela La Gran Via in London in 1906-07. As mentioned in Chapter 4, La
Gran Via had great success in Spain and musical items from the work became
standard pieces in the Estudiantina repertoire. La Gran Via toured successfully to
Paris, Vienna, Prague, and repeatedly in Italy and Latin American countries, however
the productions of Castles in Spain in London and New York were less popular. Van
Vechten argued that a reason for this lack of success was that "the zarzuela, to be
fully enjoyed, in fact, must be seen in Spain. Like Spanish dancing it requires a
special audience to bring out its best points."i2 Morales laid the blame for the poor
reception with English theatrical managers. He reasoned that, "the English theatrical
manager's customary treatment robs the continental importations of their character.
Chueca's music was introduced in a show arranged ad hoc, entitled Castles in Spain.
It was neither English nor Spanish."13 English writers Cosmo Hamilton and Eustace
Ponsonby wrote new lyrics for the show and the music hall singer Henry Fragson
added extra musical numbers. The new material was presented alongside the main
numbers originally written by Chueca and Valverde for La Gran Via. A writer in The

11 Ernest Irving, Cue For Music (London: Dobson, 1959), 41.

12 Van Vechten, Music in Spain, 78.
13 Pedro Garcia Morales, 'Chueca, Federico,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians. ed.
Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 94.

163
Manchester Guardian commented on some positive aspects of the work but remained
unimpressed with the way the original Spanish material was treated:

The mixture is not altogether happy, if only because Mr. Fragson suffers so much by
comparison with the Spanish composers, whose music has an abundance of vigour
and colour. True, it bears a great family likeness to a deal of other Spanish music we
know, but it has a distinct character, whereas Mr. Fragson's own music is an
undistinguishable mixture of everyday French and English idioms.14

In the pre-war years Spanish music maintained a regular presence on the London
stage in popular forms of entertainment, however, music by Spanish composers was
rarely heard in the concert hall. Indeed, there had been something of a hiatus in
performances of Spanish concert music since Albéniz left London in the early 1890s.

The situation was very different in Paris where Spanish music continued to be an
integral part of the music scene. Most ambitious Spanish composers and musicians
spent formative years in the French capital. Albéniz had given successful recitals in
Paris in the 1880s and returned there in 1894, staying until his death in 1909. His
works stimulated the French interest in Spanish music and his piano suite Iberia was
lauded as a masterpiece in France.15 Albéniz was highly regarded as a composer by
Debussy and Ravel, and some scholars have suggested that Albéniz influenced
Debussy's Spanish pieces.16

14
`Comic Opera in London,' Manchester Guardian, 19 April 1906, 7.
15
See Clark, Albéniz, 220-67.
16
See Michael Christoforidis, 'Invasion of the Barbarians:" Spanish Composers and Challenges to
Exoticism in Belle-Epoque Paris,' Context: Journal of Music Research 29/30 (2005): 113; Jacqueline
Kalfa, `Isaac Albéniz à Paris: Une Patrie Retrouvée (1893-1909),' Revue Internationale de Musique
Française 26 (1988): 19-36. Debussy and Maurice Ravel (1875-1937) both wrote Spanish-themed
works. Debussy's Lindaraja (1901) for two pianos is based on the habanera rhythm also used by Ravel
in his two-piano piece Habanera (1895), later orchestrated as part of the suite Rapsodie Espagnole
(orch. 1907-08). The title Lindaraja refers to a garden room at the Alhambra in Granada and
foreshadows another piece inspired by Granada (a place Debussy never visited) and the habanera
rhythm, "La soirée dans Grenade" from Estampes (1903). Debussy also composed an orchestral
homage to Spain, the suite Ibéria (1905-08). Ravel's contributions to the list of Spanish works include
the four-movement Rapsodie Espagnole and the one-act opera L'heure Espagnole (The Spanish Hour)
(1907-9). His piano suite Miroirs (1905) was first performed by the Catalan pianist Ricardo Vigies in
1906 and includes the "Alborada del Gracioso," a work with Spanish style themes and rhythms. Other
significant Spanish works by French composers from the late nineteenth century include Chabrier's
Espana (1883) and the sixth movement, "Pas Espagnol" from Gabriel Faure's Dolly Suite op. 56
(1884-87).

164
Granados went to Paris to study in 1887, staying for two years and sharing a room
with his compatriot Ricardo Vines (1875-1943), who would become one of the most
in demand interpreters of new French and Spanish music.17 Of the younger
generation of Spanish composers, Turina arrived in Paris in 1905 and helped his
friend Falla find a place to stay when he came to the French capital in 1907. Both left
France before the onset of war in 1914.

During the early twentieth century there was a change in how French intellectuals
viewed their relationship with Spain.'8 Responding to concerns about German
military and cultural influence, a group of French writers on music advocated a Latin
coalition of nations and promoted Spanish works as part of an anti-German musical
alliance. Their influence was crucial in the gradual development of awareness of
new Spanish music in London. Falla came to London in 1911 for a concert of
Spanish and French works expedited by the London based French writer Jean-Aubry.
Although this concert was not a huge success, it marked the beginning of a
determined effort to bring Spanish concert music to the London public before World
War I.

Spanish music and French music in London

Two of the leading French writers on Spanish music were Collet and Laparra who
both influenced the critical debate in London and maintained close ties with Evans
and Jean-Aubry. With his opera La Habanera, Laparra aimed to present a more
realistic portrayal of Spain than familiar works such as Carmen. London audiences
and critics were not attuned to his interpretation of Spain which they found too far
removed from familiar tropes of Spanishness. The work was performed in London in
1910 but failed to attract significant interest or repeat performances.

'7 Morales wrote of Vines in 1924, "The prominence of his name in the history of modern music
cannot be sufficiently emphasised...He was one of the first to understand, and make others understand,
the new French school, through his wonderful exposition of its pianoforte works which for a long
period he monopolised. The new school of Spain and, to a great extent, that of Russia, owe him a
similar
ie
debt." Morales, `Vines, Ricardo,' Dictionary, ed. Eaglefield-Hull, 513-514.
Llano, Whose Spain?, 3.

165
One of the French writers on music who championed the cause of Spanish music, was
Collet.19 Collet composed "Spanish" music throughout his life, including ballets,
symphonic and chamber works and even a zarzuela. In Paris, he became friends with
Falla with whom he shared an interest in Spanish music from the Renaissance and
Baroque periods. In 1913 Collet penned an influential study on Spanish musical
mysticism.20 He was a prime mover in the promotion of Spanish music in France and
called for the emergence of a vibrant school of Spanish composition, independent of
the prejudices and clichés that had come to characterize Spanish music. He saw Spain
as a key ally of France in the fight against German cultural imperialism. The anti-
German rhetoric of writers such as Charles Maurras exerted a strong influence on
Collet, who in his 1909 obituary of Albéniz gave expression to these ideas.21 In
writing of Albéniz's brief time spent studying in Leipzig in 1876, Collet wanted to
show that Albéniz was immune to German influences in his music: "In those German
milieux...Albéniz acquired enough mastery to begin confronting high composition,
while preserving that freedom of attitude, that charming negligence and that
spontaneity by which Spain remains impervious to Teutonic pedantry."22 In the
partnership between French and Spanish music Collet clearly thought of France as the
dominant partner. According to Collet, Albéniz's success would not have been
possible without his success in France: "Albéniz is therefore ours, despite his apparent
exoticism...Albéniz's impressionism often sounds like Debussy or Fauré rather than
Spanish."23

Like Collet, the French critic and composer Laparra expressed his fascination with
Spain in his own compositions and writings. He met Collet during a visit to Spain in
1902, however, his views on Spanish music differed substantially from those of
Collet: he did not view Spain as part of a union against Germany, rather, he urged the

19 See Llano, Whose Spain? for a fascinating discussion of Collet's writings on Spanish music,
particularly Chapter 1 "`Spanish Music" as Allied Propaganda,' 3-48.
° Henri Collet, Le mysticisme musical espagnol au XVI Siecle (Paris: Librairie Felix Alcan, 1913)
referenced in Michael Christoforidis, `From Folksong to Plainchant: Musical Borrowings and the
Transformation of Manuel de Falla's Musical Nationalism in the 1920's,' in Manuel de Falla: His Life
and Music, ed. Nancy Lee Harper (Lanham: Scarecrow Press, 2005), 216.
21
Llano, Whose Spain?, 8-15.
22
Ibid., 11.
23
Ibid., 12.

166
preservation of Spanish musical integrity without hybridization.24

Laparra's first opera, La habanera was first performed at the Opéra Comique in 1908
and in 1910 at Covent Garden. He aimed to dispense with familiar stereotypes of
Spanish music and culture and according to Samuel Llano, this work "constitutes the
first [French] large-scale work entirely focused on Castile with the purpose of
dislodging, from the popular imaginary, representations of Spain solely based on
stereotypes from the southern region of Andalusia."25 Although the work is set in
Castile, Laparra did include some Andalusian elements and mixed cultural material in
an eclectic manner.26

After the London premiere, comparisons with Carmen, still the benchmark for new
Spanish productions, appeared in the London press. A critic in The Times judged the
realism of La habanera as unsuccessful:

The single novelty offered by the management of Covent Garden this year may be
best described as being everything that Carmen is not. In the first place, it is
genuinely Spanish in character, representing not the gay, sunny, southern atmosphere,
but the true Spain that is so much less effective for stage purposes.27

By "the true Spain" the reviewer may have been referring to the violence of Laparra's
libretto.28 The story concerns two brothers who are in love with the same girl. The
elder brother decides to commit suicide but ends up killing his brother. He is haunted
by the ghost of his brother (who appears playing a guitar at one point) and more
tragedy ensues.

There are common elements shared by La habanera and Carmen, namely the dual
themes of murder and jealousy and the habanera rhythm, although in Laparra's work
the habanera is used as a recurring theme. It may have been Laparra's desire to move

24
Samuel Llano, 'Hispanic Traditions in a Cross-Cultural Perspective: Raoul Laparra's La habanera
(1908) and French Critics,' Journal of the Royal Musical Association 136, no. 1 (2011): 97-98.
25 Llano, Whose Spain?, 74.
266
Llano, 'Hispanic Traditions,' 98.
27 'Royal Opera, "La Habanera",' Times, 19 Jul. 1910, 12.
28 Llano discusses the violence of Laparra's libretto in Llano, 'Hispanic Traditions,' 130-131.

167
beyond Carmen stereotypes, towards a more realistic style of Spanish opera, however,
by comparison with Bizet's opera, La habanera was deemed to be lacking in
originality and compositional ski11.29

Paris was an important centre for Spanish composers and musicians in the years
before Falla's arrival in 1907. Exchanges between French and Spanish musicians in
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries played a crucial role in the
development of Spanish nationalist music.30 In Paris Falla met the composers Paul
Dukas (1865-1935) and Debussy who were impressed with his opera La vida breve,
completed in 1905.31 Among the Spanish musicians Falla encountered in the French
capital were Vines, Albéniz, and the guitarists Llobet and Barrios. During this time
Falla attended meetings with a group known as the Apaches, comprised of influential
French musicians, poets and artists, and a number of Spaniards.32

Falla found the artistic climate necessary for his career to advance in Paris, and he
later wrote of the importance of the move from Madrid:

Without Paris, I would have remained buried in Madrid, done for and forgotten,
laboriously leading an obscure existence, living miserably...To be published in Spain
33
is worse than [not] being published at all. It's like throwing the music into a we11.

There were close connections between the critics and musicians who supported Falla
in Paris and the network of friends and supporters he developed in London. Falla's
first visit to London in 1911 was for a concert of Spanish music at the Aoelian Hall
where he performed with pianist Franz Liebich and the singer Suzanne Berchut on 24
May.34 In the words of Chris Collins, the cosmopolitan Liebich was "British by birth,
German by training, French by musical sensibility."35 He was an advocate for the

29 "He has a strong poetic imagination. But this is not the same thing as being a skilful stage-
craftsman, or an original or successful composer." `Royal Opera,' Times, 19 Jul. 1910, 12.
3° See Llano, Whose Spain?; Bergadà, Les Pianistes catalans à Paris.
31 La vida breve was first performed in Nice in April 1913 and later that year in Paris.
32 Arbie Orenstein, introduction to A Ravel Reader: Correspondence, Articles, Interviews, ed. Arbie
Orenstein (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989), 3.
33
Brody, Paris: The Musical Kaleidoscope, 188. See also Chris Collins, `Falla in Europe: Relations
with His Contemporaries' in Manuel de Falla: His Life and Works, ed. Nancy Lee Harper (Lanham:
Scarecrow Press, 2005), 247-284.
34
Chris Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 35.
35 Ibid., 35.

168
music of Debussy and his wife wrote an early biography of Debussy, published in
1908.36 Liebich and his wife became friends with Falla and firm supporters of his
music. The Aoelian Hall programme included Falla's Pièces espagnoles and Trois
mélodies, a two piano arrangement of Debussy's Ibéria and pieces by Turina and
Antonio de Cabezôn. The concert received little critical attention, perhaps due to Sir
Edward Elgar conducting the premiere of his Second Symphony on the same night.37
Falla's friend Jean-Aubry had a hand in organising this concert and bringing Falla to
London.

Jean-Aubry championed modern Spanish, Italian, English and French music and was
an ardent supporter of Falla. His zealous promotion of Spanish music was tied to the
anti-German sentiments espoused by Collet and others who thought of Spanish music
as a colonial offshoot of French music. Jean-Aubry was closely connected to the
English music scene and lived in London after 1915, working for the music publisher
Chester and editing the in-house music journal The Chesterian. Through his articles
in the Musical Times, Jean-Aubry helped to focus attention on the renaissance in
Spanish music and played a key role in organising Falla's subsequent visits to
London.38 They collaborated on the work Psyché (1924) in which Falla set one of
Jean-Aubry's poems for mezzo-soprano, harp, violin, viola, cello and flute. His
writings on Spanish music will be discussed in Chapter 7.

While efforts were underway to promote the new Spanish school of composers in
London, Spanish music and dance continued to thrive in popular entertainment.
Spanish dancers inspired by the Ballets Russes developed idiosyncratic and
increasingly modern styles of Spanish dance. At the same time flamenco groups
begin to appear in the tradition of touring Andalusian dance troupes. All of this
activity continued to be informed by stereotypes and myths derived from Carmen, as
demonstrated by the successful revival and reworking of the Alhambra Theatre's
Carmen ballet in 1912.

36
Mrs Franz Liebich, Claude-Achille Debussy (London: J. Lane, 1908).
37 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 35.
38
Ibid., 34.

169
In 1908 the Spanish dancer Tortola Valencia (1882-1955) featured in the Gaiety
Theatre production Havana. Valencia was dressed in a costume modelled on
Sargent's painting of Carmencita.39 She went on to develop a distinctly personal style
of Spanish dance and was influenced by the new and exotic dance styles of the Ballets
Russes and Isadora Duncan.40 Iris Garland notes that while it is likely Valencia was
raised by a foster family in London, she followed the example of earlier Spanish
dancers and invented a romantic history for herself. In the words of Garland,
"Valencia, who was notorious for self-invention and imaginative stories to the press,
claimed her mother was a gypsy and her father was a Spanish nobleman."41 The
London press were confused about her identity in November 1908 when she was
described as "a Moorish dancer...an Algerian by birth who dances in the costumes of
her country."42 The following month, with her nationality now firmly established as
Spanish, a London writer described the novelty of her dance:

Dancing was represented by Tortola Valencia, a Spanish lady attired in a wonderful

flame-coloured skirt, which she whirls round her in serpentine convolutions. Some of
her arm action is rather suggestive of the overhand stroke affected by certain of the
Channel swimmers 43

Flamenco dance groups began to visit with greater frequency in this period, most
notably the Sevillian flamenco dance master José Otero who came to London with "a
troupe of Spanish Dancers and a quintet of bandurria players in 1911.'44 The Carmen
ballet was revived in January 1912 and touted as a new production of the show first
seen in London in 1903. A troupe of Spanish dancers were brought from Madrid to
support the stars of the ballet, among them La Malagueflita and La Andujar, who were
promoted in The Times as "two famous Spanish dancers."45 Staged at The Alhambra
Theatre with George Byng's musical adaptations of Bizet, these dancers provided an
up-to-date model of Spanish dance. The Times declared, "the Spanish ladies swagger

39 Iris Garland, 'Early Modern Dance in Spain: Tortola Valencia, Dancer of the Historical Intuition,'
Dance Research Journal 29, no. 2 (1997): 6.
4o Iris Garland, 'Tortola Valencia' in International Dictionary of Modern Dance, ed. Taryn Benbow-
Pfalzgraf and Glynis Benbow-Niemier (Detroit: St. James Press, 1998), 791.
41 Ibid., 791.
42
'Theatrical Arrangements,' Times, 30 Nov. 1908, 13.
43
'Palace Theatre,' Times, 9 Dec. 1908, 8.
44 '
The Variety Theatres,' Times, 29 May 1911, 8.
45
'The Variety Theatres,' Times, 15 Jan. 1912, 10.

170
and fascinate and strut in the true Spanish style," and La Maleguenita drew the notice
of critics who described how "her castanets purr and talk and scream."46 The coarser
and less refined nature of the dance, which had greater flamenco influence than the
original 1903 production, drew notice as The Times commented, "it would be
ungracious to complain that none of the dancing is supremely good, because none of
it is of the kind that can achieve supreme beauty."47

All of this activity constituted a revival of the fashion for Spanish dance:

In the matter of dancing the mode of the moment seems to be the Spanish school.
Only a few weeks ago at the Palace we saw Estrellita, a powerful and passionate
danseuse, while we have now simultaneously at the Alhambra Miss Réjane who is
pretty, Maria la Bella, who is inspiring, and Maleguenita, who is amazing. This week
it is once again the turn of the Palace, where Tortola Valencia is exhibiting a series of
hieratic and Oriental dances 48

The fashion for the tango in London of the early 1910s is demonstrated by the
popularity of "Tango teas," social gatherings where the new Hispanic dance was
featured as a social entertainment. Although Argentine in origin, the tango was
appreciated as a broadly Hispanic style, particularly due to its similarity to the
habanera rhythm that had distinguished Spanish instrumental music in the wake of
Bizet's famous "Habanera" from Carmen. The popularity of the tango opened the
way for other South American dances. A tango revue at the Palladium in November
1913 showcased the Argentine dance alongside dances from Brazil, Chile and
Venezuela 49 A critic in The Times commented on the popularity of the tango and
observed that "the appetite of the public for Tango teas continues unsatiated."5°
Spanish dancers such as La Belle Otero performed at these events and Otero was
reported to dance the "real Argentine Tango."51

46
`New Ballet at the Alhambra,'Times, 25 Jan. 1912, 8.
47 Ibid.
as
49 ,`Oriental Dancing at the Palace,' Times, 21 Mar. 1912, 9.
Tango Revue at the Palladium,' Times, 25 Nov. 1913, 10.
so Ibid.
S' `The Theatrical Season,' Times, 27 Oct. 1913, 12.

171
At the Alhambra Theatre in 1914, a young Argentine-born Spanish dancer, La
Argentina (Antonia Mercé y Luque, 1890-1936), was featured in a Spanish
entertainment titled El Embrujo de Sevilla that had been playing in Paris. In this
show she performed with celebrated gypsy performers and deepened her knowledge
of flamenco dance.52 After World War I La Argentina would become one of the most
53
prominent and influential exponents of Spanish dance and collaborated with Falla.

Another Spanish singer and dancer associated with Falla was La Argentinita
(Encarnacion Lopez Jûlvez, 1898-1945). She was involved in the Cante Jondo
Competition of 1922 and performed in London with the English dancer Anton Dolin.
La Argentinita was a close friend of Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) and was the
dedicatee of his Llanto por Ignacio Sanchez Mejlas (1935).54

In the pre-war years the new school of Spanish composers had not yet achieved
significant recognition in England. The most successful Spanish entertainers were
working in the popular theatres such as the Gaiety and the Palace, presenting new and
varied representations of Spanish music and dance. It was the death of Granados in
1916 that triggered greater awareness of the modern Spanish school of composition in
England and facilitated the success of Spanish composers after the war.

The Death of Enrique Granados, Anglo-Spanish relations and Spanish

music in London

The man who made modern Spanish music known to the rest of Europe was Enrique
Granados...(He) seemed to bring something that was new into pianofo rt e music, and
his fame was definitely established when it became known that he had lost his life in
th e Sussex, torpedoed in the English Channel in 1916.
55

The cross-channel steamer Sussex was torpedoed in the English Channel by a German
submarine, the UB-29, on 24 March 1916. Passengers on board included Granados

52 Ninotchka Bennahum, Antonia Mercé, "La Argentina": Flamenco and the Spanish Avant Garde
(Hanover: Wesleyan University Press, 1999), 49.
53 According to Bennahum, La Argentina probably first met Falla in 1914. They worked together on
the choreography for Falla's El Amor Brujo. Ibid., 94.
54
See Caroline Rae, The Music of Maurice Ohana, (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), 10.
55
Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music, 32-33.

172
and his wife Amparo who both drowned after the attack as did a number of
Americans. This incident was part of a series of similar attacks that drew strong
criticism, especially from the USA, Spain and England. The following discussion
will explore the impact of the torpedoing of the Sussex on relations between Spain
and England, and the repercussions it had on the dissemination of Spanish music in
London. The circumstances surrounding Granados' death are often incorrectly
reported and have acquired almost legendary status in histories of Spanish music.56

Prior to his death, Granados' reputation in England rested primarily on a few of his
Spanish Dances, only a handful of which were performed regularly. Even as late as
1924, Cecil Gray assessed the contributions of Falla, Albéniz and Granados in the
following terms, "Spanish national music has so far produced no Borodin or
Moussorgky, but only three Rimsky-Korsakovs—which is three too many."57 In
March 1916 Granados was returning to Europe after a successful tour to the United
States where his opera Goyescas had been performed in New York to mixed
reviews.58 Although the music was generally well received, the dramatic structure of
the work was questioned by a number of critics as was the effectiveness of the
relationship between music and dramatic action. Furthermore, three scene changes
and elaborate sets meant that Goyescas, at little more than an hour in length, was
expensive to stage.59 Other opportunities followed and Granados was invited to
perform in a number of concerts, most notably at the White House in front of
President Woodrow Wilson. Granados rearranged his travel plans to perform at the
White House's "musicale series", both as a soloist and accompanist to the Dutch
singer Julia Culp.60 After the concert Granados and his wife wished to sail directly to
Spain, but were unable to cancel their previous booking so they returned to New York
and sailed for England on 11 March where they would spend a few days before
catching the S.S. Sussex across the Channel to France.61

56
For a brief account of the circumstances surrounding the torpedoing of the Sussex see David Walton,
The Last Journey of Enrique Granados (Knockholt: Iberian and Latin American Music Society, 2007).
57
Cecil Gray, A Survey of Contemporary Music (London: OUP, 1924), 244.
SB
Clark, Enrique Granados, 155.
59 Hess, Enrique Granados; a Bio-Bibliography, 30-31.
60 Clark, Enrique Granados, 163. He performed a selection of Sonatas by Scarlatti, a Chopin Nocturne
and some of his own piano works.
61 The Sussex was a 1,353 ton steamer built in Dumbarton in 1896. It was owned by the French State
Railways and consequently sailed under the French flag with a predominantly French crew. It was

173
Whilst in London Granados and his wife Amparo stayed with the Catalan sculptor
62
Ismael Smith with whom they discussed a possible London premiere of Goyescas.
The couple boarded the steamer Sussex on the morning of 24 March 1916. During
the previous two days the 5,000-ton steamer Englishman had been sunk and two other
steamers, the Kelvinbank and the Norwegian König were torpedoed in the Channel
without warning.63 The Germans had recently increased their attacks on civilian and
other non-military vessels from both enemy and neutral countries.64

The Sussex left Folkstone at 1.25pm with about 380 passengers, including Granados
and his wife, and 50 crew, bound for Dieppe. The vessel was also carrying Indian,
Colonial and French mails. According to the Times approximately 270 of those on
board were women and children, representing almost a dozen nations.65 At 4.30pm
distress signals were received and various English and French vessels went to assist.
The captain of the Sussex and other eyewitnesses reported seeing a torpedo approach
from about 100 yards away. An attempt was made to avoid the torpedo but it
exploded in the engine room killing several of the crew and occupants of an adjoining
cabin.66

There have been many varied and incorrect assertions about the details of Granados'
death.67 Some writers maintain that Granados went down with the ship and a number
of accounts say that the Sussex sank 68 The Sussex stayed afloat and most of the
survivors either stayed on board or returned to the steamer in their lifeboats. Most of

managed by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway Company and had recently been used on
the service between Folkstone and Dieppe.
62
Clark, Enrique Granados, 164.
63 `Dominion Liner Sunk,' Times, 25 Mar. 1916, 8.
64 The most famous sinking of a passenger ship by a U-boat was the assault on the British ocean liner
the Lusitania in May 1915 with the loss of over 1000 lives. This tactic was initiated in February 1915
when Germany, attempting to cripple Britain's ability to trade, declared a war zone around the British
Isles in retaliation for the British blockade of Germany.
65
`Channel Boat Torpedoed,' Times, 25 Mar. 1916, 8.
66
`The Torpedoed Sussex,' Times, 27 Mar. 1916, 9.
67 Walton, Last Journey, 30-42, outlines the various myths, theories and conspiracy theories
surrounding the death of Granados.
68 For example, the notes to EMI Classics recording: De Falla and Granados (Manuel Barrueco
guitar). The author of the notes to this recording, Matthias Henke, writes: "As Granados was returning
to Spain, his ship was the object of a murderous torpedo attack by a German submarine. The ship sank,
sucking Granados to his death with it." Matthias Henke, notes to De Falla and Granados, Manuel
Barrueco guitar, EMI, 7544562, 1993.

174
the fatalities were caused by drowning as people leapt into the water or crammed into
already overloaded lifeboats which then capsized. It is not known exactly how
Granados and his wife Amparo perished. According to his good friend Pablo Casals,
"Granados had an almost morbid fear of travelling—especially by sea—and for years
he adamantly refused to cross the Atlantic."69

The sinking of the Sussex and other civilian boats by the Germans around the same
time had political ramifications in both Spain and America. There was widespread
condemnation of the attack and it was a catalyst for much discussion in both countries
about the wisdom of appearing to maintain friendly relations with Germany. The
Spanish stance of neutrality was being seriously debated in early 1916. Spain
remained neutral in the war but certain sections of society began to move toward
support for the Allies at this time.70 The newly elected Prime Minister Conde de
Romanones was much more involved in the conflict than his predecessor. In 1914 he
had expressed sympathies for the Allied powers and a desire to collaborate more
closely with France and Britain, however, he had to temper these remarks
significantly in order to gain political power, finally realizing his goal in December
1915.71 After the death of Granados, Romanones took a stronger stance and
proposed taking official action against Germany.72

Germany had important economic interests in the Iberian Peninsula, with 70,000
nationals living there and over 40 vessels sheltering in Spanish ports.73 Both the
Allies and the Central Powers subsidised newspapers, giving many of them a
distinctly german6filo or aliad6ftlo bias.74 In broad terms the pro-Allied side was led
by Liberal and progressive intellectuals and the upper middle classes, while the
clerical world, the army and the reactionary politicians were, on the whole, pro-
German.75 The Germans were more aggressive in their funding of the press whereas
the British only half-heartedly wanted Spain to abandon its neutrality and enter the

69
Pablo Casals, Joys and Sorrows (London: MacDonald, 1965), 148.
7° Francisco J. Romero Salvadc , Spain 1914-1918: Between War and Revolution (London: Routledge,
1999), 60.
71 Ibid., 60-61.
72
Hess, Manuel de Falla, 63.
Salvadb, Spain 1914-1918, 61.
74 Hess, Manuel de Falla, 63.
75
Madariaga, Spain, 393-4.

175
war on the Allied side. The fear was that the Spanish would want concessions on, fo
example, the question of Gibraltar. Militarily Spain was only a minor player on the
world scene. It was involved in an intractable dispute in Morocco and had not
recovered fully from the disastrous war in Cuba in 1898.

Reports from Spain express indignation at the continued German attacks on neutral
vessels. Two weeks after the torpedo attack on the Sussex, The Times' Spanish
correspondent wrote:

The torpedoing of the Spanish steamer Vigo by a German submarine, following so

closely the death of the great Spanish composer Senor Granados in the Sussex, has
profoundly moved public opinion here. While the Germanophile Press has
maintained an embarrassed silence the more independent papers openly express
surprise that the German navy, while carefully avoiding meeting with the British
fleet, should devote itself to sinking harmless merchant vessels.76

The English press reported the increase in pro-Allied sentiment in Spain with gusto.
A "Declaration of Faith" in the justice of the Allies' cause was signed by hundreds of
Spanish intellectuals and artists in early April 1916. An English response in the form
of an "address of acknowledgement" was signed by eminent British and Irish
people.77 An article in The Times on April 14, with the heading "Our Friendship with
Spain," records a speech written by Lord Northcliffe given at a luncheon hosted by
the Newspaper Proprietors Association for three eminent Spanish journalists visiting
the United Kingdom. The speaker, Lord Burnham, emphasised the deep-rooted and
widespread commercial ties and the traditional friendship between the two countries.
He apologised for not addressing the Spaniards in their own tongue and suggested that
Spanish language and literature should be taught more widely in English schools and
institutions.78

The attack also caused a new outburst of resentment against Germany in the United
States. The French newspaper Le Temps reported that other neutral countries were
waiting for a lead from the United States as to how they should respond to the Sussex

76 `Neutrals and German Barbarities,' Times, 7 Apr. 1916, 7.

77 ` •
im
News i n Br ief,' Tes, 13 Apr. 1916, 7.
78 `Our Friendship with Spain,' Times, 14 Apr. 1916, 7.

176
incident.79 On 19 April President Wilson wrote a letter to the German government in
protest at submarine war and made it clear that the United States would not tolerate
such attacks.80

The Germans denied responsibility for the attack for weeks after the incident,
claiming that a mine had been responsible. After remnants of a torpedo were
discovered in the damaged hull Germany caved into international pressure to pay
reparations to some of the families affected, including the Granados family. The
Granados orphans received 666,000 pesetas from the German government and in
January 1917 an official apology for the death of Granados was offered by Foreign
Minister von Jagow.8

Due to the tense political situation and the desire to proclaim Granados as a martyr to
the Allied cause, some writers exaggerated his influence in the articles and obituaries
written in his memory. In the June 1916 issue of The Monthly Musical Record,
Joshua Barnard proclaimed:

No one has done more to spread the gospel of Spanish music than Enrique Granados
y Campina...this most truly representative of Spanish composers is dead—"dead ere
his prime." He went under with the Sussex—"a victim of German frightfulness...his
unclouded inspiration may be surprised [sic] on every page, and it is such that lives
forever in the memories of men."82

Sir Thomas Beecham conducted a benefit concert for the Granados orphans at the
Aldwych Theatre on 24 July 1916 and in attendance were diplomats, politicians and
prominent musicians such as Hubert Parry, Charles Villiers Stanford, Léo Delibes and
Granville Bantock.83 They wrote messages of sympathy in a book of condolences,
many expressing outrage at the barbaric German approach to warfare.84 In the printed

"'Sussex Outrage,' Times, 10 Apr. 1916, 7.

a° Hess, Enrique Granados, a Bio-Bibliography, 32.
a' Ibid., 33.
82
84
Joshua Barnard, 'Enrique Granados: 1868-1916,' Monthly Musical Record (June 1916): 162.
Clark, Enrique Granados, 167-168.
as
Ib i d., 167.

177
program for the concert Granados was acclaimed as "the greatest of modern
composers".85

In the December 1916 issue of The Musical Times, the French writer Jean-Aubry
published an insightful and more balanced article. He cautioned against over-stating
the importance of Granados' legacy, instead drawing a picture of him as a composer
interested in "traditional aesthetics and the forms favoured by Chopin and Liszt".86
Jean-Aubry argued that Granados' name deserved to live on because of a selection of
piano works from the collections of Spanish Dances and his two books of Goyescas.
He reasoned that,

A certain haste and some exaggeration in the homage paid to Granados since he died
ran the risk of injuring his reputation...By trying to magnify unduly the role of
Granados and his achievements, we may well be doing him injustice. Both he and his
work must be kept in their proper place; a place which indeed, is quite glorious
enough, being so personal and pecul iar.87

Of Granados' Spanish Dances Jean-Aubry wrote, "I feel that they are not quite free
from the defect which is apparent in many of Granados' works: the too numerous
repetitions of a theme."88 The Spanish Dances are not over-burdened with expressive
markings or dynamics and it is left to the performer to interpret the work so that the
repetitions do not become tedious. Granados' own playing exhibits the subtlety and
nuance which brings these pieces alive.89 Jean-Aubry followed up his article on
Granados with full-length articles on the life and music of Albéniz and Falla in
1917.90

This newfound interest in Spanish music and Granados in particular is evident in an

article by the normally pro-Germanic music critic Ernest Newman (1868-1959).
Newman's essay entitled "The Granados of the Goyescas" argues that Granados' set

85
Ibid.
86
Georges Jean-Aubry, `Enrique Granados,' Musical Times 57 (1 Dec. 1916): 535-537.
87 Ibid.
88 Ibid.
89 Granados can be heard playing his Spanish Dances no.s 7 and 10 on Composers in Person:
Granados, Falla, Mompou, Nin. EMI CD Classics CD 7548362
90 Georges Jean-Aubry, `Manuel de Falla,' Musical Times 58 (1 Apr. 1917): 151-154; Georges Jean-
Aubry, `Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909),' Musical Times 58 (1 Dec. 1917): 535-538.

178
of Goyescas were by far his best works and proposed that Granados needed the
inspiration of Goya's paintings to realise his best work.91 In his inimitable style,
Newman wrote, "There was a certain amount of good music in him that had to come
out. It was brought out of him by Goya, as it has been brought out of other composers
by a woman."92 Newman went on to emphasise the important role of the piano in
Granados' musical thinking and discussed the transformation of the Goyescas from
the piano to the stage. Newman, was deeply impressed by Granados' ability to
compose for the piano and wrote, "The basis of the technique is Chopin; but the style
has the polyphonic quality that is too often lacking in Chopin."93

Many critics and musicians agreed that Granados was a superb pianist and compared
his style to that of Chopin. Casals declared that, "He made me think of Chopin.
Chopin as I imagined he was; nervy, delicate, listless, ailing, not a great worker but a
born pianist. He could tackle any of the big works written for the piano, and would
improvise passages to avoid working at them, without the slightest compunction."94
A recording of an improvisation based on his piano piece "El pelele", a late addition
to the Goyescas, is evidence of his skills as an improviser.95 Falla also singled out
Granados' skill as a pianist in his tribute to his compatriot.96

Henry Wood (1869-1944) was one of the influential English musicians to champion
Spanish music, in particular Granados' orchestral works. On 28 October 1916 Wood
conducted a performance of Granados' symphonic poem Dante in the Queen's Hall
symphony concert series. Wood had been sent the piece in 1914 by the American
pianist Ernest Schelling,97 and remembered in his autobiography that Dante "made a
deep impression."98 The work is a symphonic poem in two movements for mezzo-
soprano and orchestra inspired by a painting by English painter Dante Gabriel
Rossetti. An early version of Dante was performed in Barcelona in 1908 and after

91 Ernest Newman, `The Granados of the "Goyescas",' Musical Times 58 (1 Aug. 1917): 343-347.
92 Ibid., 343.
93
Ibid., 347.
94
Casals, Joys and Sorrows, 150.
95
This improvisation can be heard on Composers in Person: Granados, Falla, Mompou, Nin. EMI CD
Classics CD 7548362
96 Manuel de Falla, Writings on Music and Musicians, trans. by John Thomson and David Urman
(London: Marion Boyars, 1978), 92.
97 Schelling met Granados in 1912 and gave the London premiere of Goyescas at the Queen's Hall on 9
December 1913.
98 Hen ry Wood, My Life of Music (London: V. Gollancz, 1949), 302.

179
Wood performed the work with the Queen's Hall Orchestra on 9 September 1914,
Granados revised the score before publication in 1915. In his analysis of the work,
Clark draws attention to the influence of Richard Strauss in the orchestration and an
overtly Wagnerian style of chromaticism in the music.99 The piece received mixed
reviews, partly because it was not written in an obviously Spanish style, although
Ernest Newman wrote that Dante was the only work by Granados comparable to the
Goyescas. On the other hand, Jean-Aubry believed it was an immature piece which
did not represent current developments in Spanish music.100 An anonymous critic in
The Musical Times complained that it could have been written by a non-Spanish
composer, lamenting that, "the music displays no definite idiom that could be
characterised as specially Spanish. It displays cosmopolitan influences, and might
have been written by an accomplished musician of any nationality.' lol

At another concert in this series on 11 November Wood conducted an orchestral

symphonic poem by Turina, La Procesion del Rocio.102 Unlike Dante, this work was
deemed to incorporate features of Spanish music which attracted the same reviewer,

Joaquin Turina is one of the most distinguished of the band of Iberian composers that
has, by force of ability, recently asserted its right to a hearing...Unlike Granados'
Dante, Turina's music has the colour and glow that are generally associated with
Spanish music. lo3

The following year Wood conducted his own orchestrations of five of Granados'
Spanish Dances with great success.1o4 The Musical Times critic remarked
enthusiastically, "The immediate appeal they made to every musical sensibility brings
with it fresh pangs of regret that the composer was the victim of a vile German
outrage on humanity. Such music should be in the repertoire of every good
los
orchestra."

99 Clark, Granados, 148-150.

loo Jean-Aubry, `Enrique Granados,' 535-537.
101'Queen's Hall Symphony Concerts,' Musical Times 57 (1 Dec. 1916): 553
102 An Andalusian procession or pilgrimage.
103 `Queen's Hall Symphony Concerts,' Musical Times 57, 553
104 In 1938 Wood wrote of Granados, "His was indeed a Castilian temperament which is evident in all
his works. I orchestrated five of his original piano dances and have played them for many years here
[England], on the Continent, and in America." Wood, My Life of Music, 302.
05 Queen's Hall Promenade Concerts' Musical Times 58 (1 Oct. 1917): 465.

180
In spite of the efforts of Wood and others, the continued success of Granados' music
was obstructed by the lack of major orchestral works in his oeuvre, especially those
which displayed the overtly Spanish characteristics heard in some of the Spanish
Dances. An unresolved financial dispute between Granados' son Eduardo and the
publisher Schirmer also made some of his published work unavailable.1o6

The culmination of the increased interest in Spanish composers was the enormous
critical and popular success of Falla's music for the Ballets Russes' production of The
Three-Cornered Hat, premiered in London in 1919. While Falla's music showed the
influence of modem trends, especially Stravinsky's music, Granados was seen as a
product of the previous century. However, as some critics pointed out, the success of
The Three-Cornered Hat, to be discussed in Chapter 7, could not have been achieved
without London audiences' increased exposure to Spanish music after Granados'
death.

106
Clark, Enrique Granados, 175.

181
 Chapter 7:
Falla, The Three-Cornered Hat and Flamencos

After the devastation of World War I, new political and cultural alliances were
developed, including closer political ties between England and Spain. These new
relationships were mirrored in the artistic domain where English writers such as
Edward Dent and Arthur Eaglefield-Hull (1876-1928) endorsed a cosmopolitan
pantheon of musical nations and Spain was one of the countries promoted with
newfound zeal 2 The Ballets Russes' production of The Three-Cornered Hat (1919),
with music by Manuel de Falla, was first performed in London in this context and the
work brought a modern style of Spanish music, dance and painting to the attention of
London audiences and critics. Other ballet companies, inspired by The Three-
Cornered Hat, brought Spanish dance productions to London in the 1920s, with
varying degrees of success. Musical societies and associations such as the
International Society for Contemporary Music (ISCM), founded in 1922, endorsed the
new cosmopolitanism of the post war period. A notable example of the English
engagement with Spanish music in this period is the major orchestral work Fantaisie
Espagnole (1919) by Lord Berners (1883-1950), who was influenced by the evolving
panorama of Spanish music and dance in the 1910s.

The 1919 premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat at the Alhambra Theatre introduced a
new type of Spanish entertainment to London. Critics praised Falla's music, Pablo
Picasso's sets and Léonide Massine's choreography. Most importantly, for the cash-
strapped Ballets Russes, audiences flocked to see The Three-Cornered Hat, making it
one of the most popular works in their repertoire. The ballet owed its genesis to the
close connections between the Ballets Russes and Spain that were shaped during
World War I when the company spent prolonged periods in Spain at the invitation of
King Alfonso XIII. During this time the bonds were formed that unified the creative

I I am indebted to my supervisor Michael Christoforidis for his work on the reception of The Three-
Cornered Hat in London, particularly the article `Issues in the English Critical Reception of The Three-
Cornered Hat,' Context 19 (Spring 2000): 87-94.
2 Eaglefield-Hull was a prolific English writer, composer and organist. He edited the Monthly Music
Record, Dent's International Library of Books on Music series and was the general editor of the
Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (1924). The cosmopolitan nature of this dictionary and the
space given to entries on Spanish musicians will be considered in Chapter 8.

182
team of the ballet.3 Massine in particular was taken with Spain and its people,
especially the region of Andalusia.4 The close connections between the Ballets
Russes and Spain influenced the work and helped to create the perception of it as an
authentically Spanish production. London audiences and critics had been prepared
for the work by the upsurge of interest in Spanish music since Granados' death in
1916 and the success of The Three-Cornered Hat was due to the confluence of a
number of factors: the return of the Ballets Russes to London after World War I,
changing tastes and audiences, greater interest in Spanish music and the success of
modernist aspects of the work.

In the years before World War I Diaghilev's Ballets Russes performed opera and
ballet at Drury Lane and Covent Garden for audiences which included royalty,
politicians and the cream of London's aristocracy.5 From 1911-1914 the Ballets
Russes graced these venues as part of regular opera seasons and cultivated an elite
audience, although a closer look reveals a mixture of high society, serious music-
lovers and people on modest incomes.6 As a producer of opera, Diaghilev introduced
London audiences to Russian works such as Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and
Borodin's Prince Igor, and the success of these three operas in 1913 focused
Diaghilev's efforts on more operatic production. The English discovery of Spanish
music by Falla, Granados, Turina and Albéniz in the years from 1916 to 1919 echoed
the enthusiasm for Russian works in the pre-war years. In both cases the interest of
London critics and audiences was encouraged and fostered by closer political ties,
firstly with Russia and later with Spain. The advent of World War I and Revolution
in Russia in 1917 dried up the financial resources the Ballets Russes had relied on in
the years before 1914. Diaghilev set about reinventing the company and focused on
tours to countries without an active involvement in the war, especially the United
States, South America, Spain and Italy.

Diaghilev and Stravinsky both identified strongly with the folk culture of Spain in
which they recognised elements of Russian popular music and dance. In 1916 the

Christoforidis, `English Critical Reception of The Three-Cornered Hat,' 88.

4 Vicente Garcia-Marquez, Massine, 68.
6
Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 300-306.
Ibid., 301.
Christoforidis, `Igor Stravinsky,' 88.

183
company was invited to perform in Madrid by the Spanish king Alfonso XIII and they
opened their first Spanish season on 26 May with the Spanish King and Queen, Prime
Minister Conde de Romanones and other diplomats and politicians in attendance. The
season was a huge success, paving the way for a number of short tours to Spain
during the remaining war years.8

The company rehearsed two Spanish works in Rome in 1916, although they were
never publicly produced: Espana with music by Ravel and Triana, to music by
Albéniz.9 Both ballets were choreographed by Falla's collaborator for The Three-
Cornered Hat, Massine. In June 1916 Diaghilev journeyed to Granada with Falla and
Massine for a performance of Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain and Diaghilev
toyed with the idea of turning this work into a ballet.10 Newspaper reports in El
Defensor de Granada stated that Diaghilev and Falla were thinking of collaborating
on a ballet." The first Spanish-themed ballet produced by Diaghilev was Las
Meninas (1916), inspired by the Velazquez painting and featuring costumes by the
Catalan artist José-Maria Sert (1874-1945) and music by Fauré.12 The premiere was
given in San Sebastian on 21 August 1916 with members of the Spanish royal family
in attendance.

Diaghilev wanted a Spanish work for a performance in Rome in January 1917 but
Falla was busy working on the music for the pantomime El corregidor y la molinera,
a collaboration with the librettist Gregorio Martinez Sierra (1881-1947) based on
Pedro Alarcôn's (1833-1891) novel El sombrero de tres picos (The Three-Cornered
Hat, 1874).13 After the premiere of El corregidor y la molinera in Madrid, Falla,
Martinez Sierra and Massine began work on the development of a new ballet based on

s
The smaller populations of Madrid and Barcelona could not sustain the longer ballet seasons of
London, Paris or the big American cities, and the longest season in the larger Spanish cities was two
weeks, forcing the company to travel in search of new audiences. A more extended tour of provincial
theatres was undertaken in 1918. See John K. Walsh, `Espana y los Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev.
Contexto hist6rico: Espana durante la Primera Guerra Mundial,' in Los Ballets Russes de Diaghilev y
Espana, ed. Yvan Nommick and Antonio Alvarez Canibano (Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla,
Centro de Documentaciön de Mûsica y Danza, 2000), 27.
9 Christoforidis, `The Three-Cornered Hat,' 87 fn 2.
10 Ibid.
11 Walsh, 'Espana y los Ballets Russes de Serge Diaghilev,' 28.
12 Las Meninas was first performed in London for the visit of King Alfonso XIII on 2 July 1928.
13 A number of the works attributed to Gregorio Martinez Sierra, including El corregidor y la molinera
have been found to have been largely written by his wife Maria Lejârraga. See Hess, Sacred Passions,
74-75.

184
the work.14 In 1917 Falla, Diaghilev and Massine travelled through Spain collecting
ideas and inspiration for extending and transforming the work and Falla's score was
expanded to include more flamenco elements and full-scale dance numbers which
enabled the exploration of the dance styles Massine had observed during his time in
Spain.15 The result of this collaboration was the ballet The Three-Cornered Hat.

The English critical reception of The Three-Cornered Hat

Falla arrived in London a month before the premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat to
help supervise rehearsals. As for his previous trip to London, the French music critic
Jean-Aubry helped to organise the composer's journey and accommodation.16 Falla
was not fluent in English and was aided by several Spaniards resident in London,
including the writer Salvador de Madariaga (1886-1978) and the poet and composer
Pedro Morales, who represented the Sociedad de Autores Espafioles (Society of
Spanish Authors) in London and as such acted as Falla's agent in Britain.17

Just a few hours before the London premiere of The Three-Cornered Hat on 22 July
1919, Falla had to return to Spain, missing the performance. News had reached him
of his mother's serious illness and she died on the same day, although Falla was
unaware of her death until he reached Spain a few days later.

Two things emerge very strongly in the press reception for The Three-Cornered Hat:
the enthusiasm and excitement that greeted each new work by the Ballets Russes and
the great sense of anticipation for a major Spanish orchestral work. The story was
summarized as follows by the theatre critic of The Stage:

There is little, if any, originality about this tale set in eighteenth-century Spain. It is the
familiar story of the husband, the wife, and the lover, the characters in this instance
being a miller and his spouse and an amorous and elderly Corregidor—in other words,
the governor of the province—the said corregidor being sadly fooled at the finish... [in]

14 Andrew Budwig, `The Evolution of Manuel de Falla's The Three-Cornered Hat (1916-1920),'
Journal of Musicological Research 5 (1984): 191-212.
15
Garafola, Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, 85-86.
16 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 33-48. Jean-Aubry's influence as a critic and promoter of Spanish music
will be discussed later in this chapter.
17 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 34.

185
 an invigorating mix-up finale... [which] takes the form of a lively Jota.18

The excitement of the first performance is described in this excerpt from The Sporting
Times,

Another great night at the Russian ballet! I have never seen the Alhambra
(theatre) looking more brilliant, or filled with a more enthusiastic audience
than at the premiere of `The Three-Cornered Hat' on Tuesday. The uniform scheme
of Peace decorations...enhanced the nobility of one of the finest auditoriums in
Europe. As for the enthusiasm—it defies description. It was tremendous. There is
no other word.19

The popular press made jokes on Falla's name and singled out the "jota" for particular
attention. In the espagnolades which had been staged in London's music halls over
the previous century, the "jota" was seen as the quintessential Spanish dance 20

To-night there will be much excitement among the ultra-artistic set and lovers of the
Russian ballet generally. For a new ballet will be produced by the wonderful
Massine...This is `The Three-Cornered Hat,' with music by Manuel de Falla, the
Spanish composer (who is a very clever falla indeed)21

This was the end of the Ballets Russes' first post-war season and comparisons were
being made between the new school of Spanish music and the revival of English
music, echoing closer ties between the two countries. An anonymous writer in The
Daily Mail observed,

There seem to be several analogies between the present state of Spanish music and of
English music. Both schools produced noble and distinguished work in Renaissance
music. Both were in rather low water in the greater part of the 18th and 19th
centuries. Both countries now seem on the verge of a great musical revival.22

18 Stage, 24 July 1919.

19 `See Them Dance the Jota,' Sporting Times, 26 July 1919.
"For example the headline `Alhambra Dance Sensation: Spectators Electrified by the Jota. The Super
Romp,' Daily Express, 23 July 1919.
21
`Mr Gossip: Echoes of the Town,' Daily Sketch, 22 July 1919, 5.
22
`Music Notes,' Daily Mail, 19 July 1919, 2. Quoted in Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 33.

186
Due to political ties that were forged during World War I composers from Latin and
Slavic countries were promoted with a new-found zea1,23 and the beginnings of this
phenomenon can be seen in the reaction to Granados' death, as discussed in Chapter 6.
The musical public had been prepared for Falla's music by performances of works by
Granados, Albéniz and Turina, as well as those of Stravinsky and other contemporary
composers.

Falla's harmonic language separated his music from Albéniz and Granados. His
orchestration was more sophisticated and his use of folk sources less literal.24 The
critic Dent who was to become a close friend and supporter of Falla during his next
visit to London in 1921,25 highlighted the difference between Falla and his Spanish
predecessors,

Albéniz and Granados were both largely under German influences, like most
nineteenth-century composers, and their German idiom, while on the one hand it serves
to make their ideas clearer to musicians who have never crossed the Pyrenees, relegates
them on the other hand so completely to the past that modern audiences are inclined to
26
find them somewhat tediously conventional.

This quotation shows Dent distancing Falla from his precursors in order to underline
the innovations of the new work. In an interview given to the Daily Mail in the lead
up to the first performance of The Three-Cornered Hat, Falla distanced himself from
the German classical tradition, claiming, "Most nineteenth-century music is to be
mistrusted, and as regards the classical symphonies and sonatas, the teacher's one
duty is to utter warnings against them."27 His music was often compared with the
music of Stravinsky and a critic in The Russian underlined the connection,

Falla's music is that of a composer altogether new to London...The value of the most
modem harmonic devices is also perfectly understood by him, and he has something of

23
Christoforidis, `The Three-Cornered Hat,' 88.
24
Ibid., 90.
Zs
Collins, 'Falla in Britain,' 36.
26
Dent, 'Spanish Ballet,' 691.
27 'To the Young Composer: Senor Manuel de Falla and German Formalism,' Daily Mail, 18 July
1919.

187
 Stravinsky's complexity of texture...however, this must on no account be mistaken for
weakness. The fine way in which he occasionally suggests local colour is enough to
prove it. But, of course, there is also a good deal of castanet noises which seems to be
inseparable from Spanish music 28

The impact of The Three-Cornered Hat extended beyond the ballet theatre and
concert hall to encourage a new interest in Spain:

With its music by Manuel de Falla, choreography by Massine and designs by Picasso,
the ballet was a sensation. Once again London became entranced by all things
Spanish. Soon there were Spanish dancing schools, a wave of enthusiasm for Spanish
literature, history, music and architecture, and an exodus of tourists to Spain to see
the bullfights and the art of Madrid and Barcelona.29

In spite of the ballet's success and the amount of press coverage it received, some
specialist critics believed English audiences were not capable of appreciating
authentic Spanish music. Writing in 1920, Morales noted the recent increase in
interest, and emphasized the lack of insight shown by many writers,

More newspaper articles on the subject of Spanish music and folk-lore have appeared
during the last five years in all Europe, than during the previous fifty or sixty years
together. Yet the general public is still very far from being enlightened on this subject,
as the value of the said writings...is not always in keeping with their profusion.3o

The Three-Cornered Hat proved to be a turning point in Falla's career and remained
his most performed work in Britain. It helped him to gain the support of influential
critics in England and made his name familiar to the concert-going public. The ballet
continued to be performed throughout the next decades and in some respects replaced
Carmen as the touchstone for Spanishness on the London stage. As a consequence
Falla became known as the premier Spanish composer of his time and secured a
lucrative contract with London publisher Chester, a deal facilitated by his friendship
with Jean-Aubry.

28 `The Russian Ballet's New Triumph,' Russian, 31 July 1919, 12.

29
Jessica Douglas-Home, Violet: The Lives and Loves of Violet Gordon Woodhouse (London: Harvil
Press, 1996), 181.
30
Morales, preface to Music of Spain by Van Vechten, xi-xii.

188
The Ballets Suédois and Cuadro Flamenco
Encouraged by the success of The Three-Cornered Hat, other ballet groups
introduced Spanish-themed ballets to London, most notably the Ballets Suédois with
two productions that portrayed both traditional and modern visions of Spain and
dance. The Ballets Russes also continued their representations of Spanish music and
dance with Cuadro Flamenco (1921), a relatively unmediated flamenco performance
presented in a ballet theatre.

Formed in 1920 as an alternative to the Ballets Russes, the Ballets Suédois or Swedish
Ballet aspired to the ideals of artistic collaboration and innovation.31 Based in Paris,
they performed ballets to music by composers such as Debussy, Ravel, Satie and Cole
Porter. Among the pioneering modern works created and produced by the Ballet
Suédois in Paris were Les mariés de la tour Eiffel (1921), La creation du monde
(1923), Within the Quota (1923) and Relâche (1924). The choreographer Jean Börlin
(1883-1930) and the director Rolf de Maré (1888-1964) were the artistic team behind
the Ballets Suédois which gave its first English performances in November 1920.
One of the pieces they programmed for this season was entitled El Greco, based on
paintings by the Spanish Renaissance artist Doménikos Theotokôpoulos (1541-1614),
better known as El Greco. Set in a market place in. Toledo, it was not a conventional
ballet but a series of gestures and poses derived from El Greco's paintings, set to
music written by the French composer Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht (1880-1965), a
former student of Debussy.32 Börlin described the ballet as "mimed scenes,"33 and
like The Three-Cornered Hat, El Greco had a strong focus on visual design and
modernism.

El Greco was a major influence on twentieth century modernist painters who

rediscovered his work in the 1910s.34 The London National Gallery exhibited a
newly purchased El Greco painting in 1919 and in the following year the noted art

31
Bengt Hager, Ballets Suédois (The Swedish Ballet) (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1990), 7.
32
The correspondence between Debussy and Inghelbrecht is reproduced in Debussy's Letters to
Inghelbrecht: The Story of a Musical Friendship, annotated by Margaret G. Cobb (Rochester:
University of Rochester Press, 2005).
33 Hager, Ballets Suédois, 18.
34
See Beat Wismer and Michael Scholz-Hansel, eds., El Greco and Modernism (Ostfildern: Hatje
Canz Verlag, 2012).

189
critic Roger Fry wrote that the Director of the National Gallery had "given the British
public an electric shock. People gather in crowds in front of it, they argue and discuss
and lose their tempers.s35 In reference to the painters who came to see the El Greco
painting Fry wrote, "That the artists are excited—never more so—is no wonder, for
here is an old master who is not merely modern, but actually appears a good many
steps ahead of us, turning back to show us the way."36 Börlin's modern approach to
the choreography of this ballet tapped into the public fascination with El Greco's
work, and according to a writer in The Manchester Guardian, "It is a most
extraordinary reconstruction of the art of the apocalyptic genius whose works have
become the passion of the day."37

Some writers complained that El Greco was not a ballet at a11,38 but more damning
was the implication that dancing did not come naturally to the Swedes. Ernest
Newman reported, "The Swedish Ballet has been a disappointment to most of us...we
had to admit reluctantly that the Swedish Ballet has no claim to be judged by the same
standards as the Russians".39 Two years later The Observer's critic concurred,
remarking that, "Ballet dancing seems particularly to be a gift to the Russians and the
Spaniards."4°

On their return to London in 1922, the Ballets Suédois included in their programme a
more explicitly Spanish ballet, Iberia, set to the music of Albéniz. The music was
arranged by Inghelbrecht who provided ornate orchestrations of the following
movements from Albéniz's piano suite Iberia: "El Puerto", "El Albaicin" and "El
Corpus Christi en Sevilla".41 Given the revival of interest in Spanish composers such
as Albéniz and Granados and the recent success of The Three-Cornered Hat, the
Swedish company might have expected success with a ballet based on the music of
Albéniz, but responses to the work were largely negative. There are clear reasons

35 Roger Fry, Vision and Design (London: Chatto and Windus, 1920), 134.
36 Ibid., 134.
37 `The Swedish Ballet,' Manchester Guardian, 9 Dec. 1920.
38
"They repeat the performance of `El Greco,' which is not a ballet at all, but a series of poses or living
pictures." `The Swedish Ballet,' Observer, 29 Oct. 1922.
9 Ernest Newman, `The Week in Music,' Manchester Guardian, 16 Dec. 1920.
40
'The Swedish Ballet,' Observer, 29 Oct. 1922.
41 At the premiere in Paris on 25 October 1920 the orchestra played two movements from Debussy's
Iberia in between the two acts of the ballet. Hager, Ballets Suédois, 78.

190
why audiences and critics did not connect with the ballet.42 Börlin did not include
any traditional Spanish dances or references to flamenco in his choreography. In his
book on the Swedish Ballet, Bengt Hager described Börlin's intentions in Iberia,

With Iberia, Börlin aimed at a synthesis of Spanish daily life and the atmosphere of
Spain in a festive mood. The choreography, rather than comprising well known
popular dances, or flamenco, was based on Spaniards' natural movements, reflecting
a human behaviour and body language that is characteristically Iberian.43

The costumes and sets by the artist Théophile Steinlen (1870-1923) drew on images
understood as traditionally Spanish but were realised with the aesthetic awareness of
modern art and colour 44 The interpretation of Spanish dance in Iberia was esoteric
and unconnected to familiar tropes of Spanish dance, furthermore, inadequate
rehearsal and the difficulty of the orchestral writing compounded the problems of the
production.45 As with El Greco, there was a perception that only the Russians and
Spaniards knew how to convey the essence of Spanish music and dance, and
audiences who had been won over by the modern, but still picturesque, image of
Spain projected in The Three-Cornered Hat, did not fully appreciate the more abstract
interpretations of Spanishness offered by the Ballets Suédois.

In between El Greco and Iberia, another ballet company brought a Spanish-themed

work to London. The Danish Ballet, formed in 1771, was one of the oldest in Europe
and its most influential choreographer was August Bournonville (1805-1879) who led
the company for over half a century from 1828 until 1879. A number of the works he
created in this period have stayed in the repertoire of the Danish Ballet until the early
twenty first century. When the Danish Ballet made their London debut in 1921, they
chose to perform one of Bournonville's ballets with a Spanish theme, a one-act work
called La Ventana (The Window), which was originally created in 1854. In his
autobiography My Theatre Life, Bournonville indicated that in La Ventana he aimed

42
Ibid., 15.
43 Ibid.
44 See Ibid., 76-87, for reproductions of drawings of the costumes and sets by Steinlen.
45
A critic in The Times wrote of the performance of Inghelbrecht's Albéniz orchestrations "the players
only half knew it, and the audience in the stalls did their best to drown it with conversation." `Swedish
Ballet,' Times, 7 Nov. 1922, 10.

191
 46
to combine the grace and charm of classical dance with subtle Spanish influences.
The story is inspired by the characteristic Romantic scene of a man with a guitar
serenading a young lady at her window. Needless to say, what passed for Spanish
local colour in the Romantic ballet tradition of 1854 was vastly different to what was
expected by London audiences nearly sixty years later. This archaic style would have
been familiar to 1850s Londoners through the profusion of the Bolero school and
Spanish items included in the Romantic ballet, but for 1920s audiences the costumes
evoking the majos and majas of early nineteenth-century Spain, and the Romantic
ballet's stylized postures of love, lacked any hint of passion and failed to attract the
interest of the new London balletomanes. In The Observer the Danish dancers were
criticised for not capturing, "the Spanish gravity and fire, wildness and spite, that
made such a marvel of `The Three-Cornered Hat'.s47 These observations also point
to the fact that at this time English audiences were being increasingly exposed to
flamenco dance troupes and flamenco-inspired music, which became the new
benchmarks of Spanishness. These styles contrasted sharply with the Romantic ballet
depictions of Spain based on the so-called escuela bolera or what had passed as a
Spanish turn in the pre-war music halls.

In 1921 the Ballets Russes presented Cuadro Flamenco, a bold attempt to feature
authentic Spanish music and dance in the theatre. The stage was set for a flamenco
performance and this "ballet" was vastly different to any other production presented
by the Ballets Russes. Writing in the Manchester Guardian, Ernest Newman set the
scene:

The one novelty so far produced—"Cuadro Flamenco"—is not a ballet but a

reproduction of a scene of Andalusian song and dance of the popular sort by twelve
Spaniards, two of whom are guitarists. The performance is given on a raised platform
on the stage, the artists sitting in a loop and stepping forward one by one or two by
two as their turn comes. The performances are ethnologically interesting, and one or
two of the dances have charm: but I doubt whether this part of the show will keep its
attraction very long...Evidently the performances are very true to Spanish popular
life; and for this reason...no one should miss them.48

46
August Bournonville, My Theatre Life (1847; London: A. and C. Black, 1979).
47 Observer, 15 May 1921, 9.
48 Ernest Newman, `Cuadro Flamenco,' Manchester Guardian, 2 June 1921.

192
 The atmosphere was informal and relaxed and most critics enjoyed the exotic
snapshot of Spanish folk music it provided. The Times reviewer wrote:

For all the notice they appear to take of the audience, as they sit tuning and
strumming upon their guitars, smoothing their skirts or exchanging jests from side to
side, they might be shut up in the four walls of a country inn-room...you get the
novel zest of seeming to peep through a window at an unacted scene of folk-life 70
years old.49

While the exotic nature of Cuadro Flamenco was appreciated, critics were undecided
about the merits of basing an entire ballet production around the art of flamenco.
Were audiences more interested in authentic folk music and dance or the mediated
and modernized forms pioneered by the Ballets Russes in earlier productions? One of
the telling reviews was entitled, "The Ideal and the `Real' Thing", and presented a
comparison of back-to-back performances of The Three-Cornered Hat and Cuadro
Flamenco.50 The critic acknowledged the value of hearing folk music of the sort that
inspired Falla, however, preferred its presentation through the prism of modernist
dance, orchestral music, costumes and scenic design:

It is the "real-thing" undoubtably—but who cares, at the Russian Ballet of all places,
for the "real thing"—for its own sake! In Spain...the dances could be counted "racy
of the soil," the very apotheosis of "local colour,"...But at the Princes Theatre they
did not fit. The Russian Ballet, after all, gets our money on the pretext of being the
last, most exquisite flower of an effete civilisation.5'

In the following year extensive reporting of the Conte Jondo Competition in Granada
provided the English public with further insights into flamenco. This flamenco
festival, organised by Falla, aimed to uncover the "pure, unadulterated" origins of the
style. Several writers emphasised the progression from The Three-Cornered Hat to
Cuadro Flamenco and then the authentic musical source of these works, capte jondo.

49
`The Russian Ballet: Andalusian Dances,' Times, 1 June 1921, 8.
50 `
The Ideal and the 'Real Thing",' Observer, 5 June 1921.
51
Ibid.

193
Falla and images of flamenco
The Concurso de Cante Jondo (Cante Jondo Competition) was held in Granada on 13
and 14 June 1922. This event played a crucial role, both within Spain and abroad, in
drawing attention to traditional Andalusian music or capte jondo. Along with
Federico Garcia Lorca (1898-1936) and Lorca's friend Miguel Cer6n Rubio, Falla
helped to organize the competition. Falla laid out his aims in an essay printed in the
local paper El Defensor de Granada on 21 March 1922 where he protested against the
corruption of the traditional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic aspects of capte jondo.52
The competition also marked the point in time when Spanish intellectuals and artists
such as Falla, Lorca, Santiago Rusiflol, Fernando de los Rios and Juan Ramon
Jiménez declared their support for this music. The involvement of international
critics and musicians increased the prominence of the competition and ensured that
the events were reported widely. The desire for greater authenticity in the
performance of Spanish music, at home and abroad, made this event the ultimate
experience of Andalusian music, in the ideal setting. Some of those involved,
including Falla, were reportedly unhappy with the outcomes of the competition,53
however, in terms of perceptions of Spanish music in Britain and the responses of key
critics, this event led to the increased awareness of both modern and traditional
Spanish music.

By the 1920s Granada seemed the logical choice for a festival of capte jondo or
traditional flamenco music. Ever since he first visited the city in 1915, Falla wanted
to spend more time in Granada and finally moved there with the help of Angel Barrios
in 1920. Barrios was a native "Granadino" whose father El Polinario was a well
known flamenco performer. As discussed in Chapter 1, early nineteenth-century
Romantic writers such as Irving, Borrow and Ford celebrated the Moorish legacy of
Southern Spain and the Alhambra in particular. French authors, namely François René
Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Théophile Gaultier also depicted Granada as the last
bastion of Arab culture in Europe and the large gypsy population of Granada were

52
Manuel de Falla, `La proposiciôn del Cante Jondo,' El Defensor de Granada, 21 Mar. 1922, cited in
Manuel de Falla, Manuel de Falla y la Alhambra (Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla, 2005), 78.
53
Falla was upset about the ensuing arguments regarding the money earned from the competition. See
Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 115. Falla was also tired of the administrative work and the apathy of
many Spaniards towards conte jondo. See Hess, Sacred Passions, 131.

194
thought of as living inheritors to this Arab history.54 Granada was promoted for its
Moorish history and the exotic cave-dwelling gypsies of the Sacromonte and rose to
prominence as a centre for flamenco history and culture. The fascination with gypsies
and Granada was aligned to notions of Primitivism that were prominent in Parisian
arts discourse, especially among artists associated with the Ballets Russes.

To open the competition an event was organized at the Alhambra Palace Hotel on 7
June 1922.55 Lorca read from his Poema del Cante Jondo at this event and the
classical guitarist Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) reportedly played some guitar pieces
in a flamenco style.56 Segovia's international career was just beginning and he was
yet to fully distance himself from traditional flamenco guitar music.

Trend wrote a lengthy and well-informed article on the Concurso, simply labelled
`From a Correspondent'. Although the author is not mentioned there is no mistaking
Trend's insights and turn of phrase and the writing is indicative of his desire not only
to report the events but to elucidate the nature of authentic Spanish music. Trend
begins by describing Granada as a "place of pilgrimage for musicians from all the
world."57 He clearly identified Falla as the lynchpin for the competition: "Falla has
always been an earnest student of Southern Spanish folk-song, and his use of its forms,
rhythms, and harmonic effects as a basis for cultivated music will be remembered by
everyone who witnessed the ballet of The Three-Cornered Hat. s58

Trend also pointed to Falla's move to Granada as the catalyst for his increased interest
in authentic Andalusian song or the "real thing." Trend was at pains to differentiate
between authentic capte jondo and the more recently popularized forms of cante
flamenco, characterizing capte jondo as the style of "traditional purity" and cante

34
See Michael Christoforidis, `Manuel de Falla, Flamenco and Spanish Identity,' in Western Music
and Race, ed. Julie Brown (Cambridge: CUP, 2007), 231-232. On Falla's fascination with Spain
Christoforidis writes: "He (Falla) began to read the seminal French texts by François René
Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo and Théophile Gautier which disseminated the nostalgic vision of the
Andalusian town of Granada, and by extension Spain, as the last European refuge of Arab culture and
presented its gypsy dwellers as their progeny or exotic substitutes." Ibid., 231.
S
Built in the first decade of the twentieth century, the Alhambra Palace Hotel was situated alongside
the Alhambra with magnificent views overlooking the town of Granada and the surrounding plains, just
a sho rt walk from Falla's carmen. It provided luxury accommodation and boasted an ornate Moorish
style theatre. See Hess, Sacred Passions, 130.
56 Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 115.
57 [J. B. Trend], 'Spanish Folk-Song: A Musical Festival at Granada,' Times, 24 June 1922, 12.
ss
Ibid.

195
flamenco as tainted by "an affectation of gipsy manners."59 These thoughts are
clearly aligned with Falla's vision:

We would not have gone to the trouble of organizing this competition for the sake of
fl amenco songs now in vogue... What we propose is to bring about a renaissance of
an admirable Andalusian folk art that was about to disappear for ever, victim of the
couplet and modern flamenco songs, which are about as Andalusian as I am
Chinese.60

In the Concurso only the singers with links to the traditional, "pure" style would be
rewarded, however, in an ironic twist, professional gypsy singers such as Nina de los
Peines acted as judges.

The purity and authenticity Falla and his circle of friends and admirers were searching
for was mirrored by the desire of British audiences to discover and experience
authentic Spanish music and dance. Trend was preaching to a public used to
discussions of what was and was not authentically Spanish when he wrote,

The object of the competition which has just been held at Granada was to attract all
those singers who could sing the real, primitive melodies, so that they should be
heard before all memory of them was lost under the additions and distortions of the
61
flamenco manner—to show, in fact, native Andalusian song in its classical purity.

In his account of the Concurso, Trend made reference to the connection with Cuadro
Flamenco recently presented in London by the Ballets Russes: "The singing was,
superficially at any rate, of the same kind as that with which London audiences
became acquainted in the Quadro [sic] flamenco imported by M. Diaghilef but how
different it sounded!"62 Trend insisted that the singers at the competition were on
another level and the experience was enriched by the location. He wrote, "Several of
the voices would have been considered good anywhere; here one had the traditional
native singing in its own surroundings, with every accessory which Nature and Art

59
Ibid.
6o Christoforidis, `Manuel de Falla,' 236.
61 [Trend], `Spanish Folk-Song: A Musical Festival at Granada,' Times, 24 June 1922, 12.
62
Ibid.

196
could provide."63 He ended his report by declaring the competition contained
moments that were "the complete and perfect expression of the place and its
tradition."64

During Falla's stay in London for the preparation and premiere of The Three-
Cornered Hat, he met several of the English critics who became friends and
advocates for his work, among them Leigh Henry (1889-1958).65 Henry attended the
cante jondo competition and brought with him the English soprano Ursula Greville
(1894-1991). Editor of the magazine The Sackbut, Greville was married to the
conductor and writer on music Kurt Schindler who was also present in Granada.66 In
recognition of a shared musical vision, a concert of English music performed by
Greville was organized at the Alhambra Palace Hotel shortly after the Concurso.
Leigh Henry introduced the concert with a talk on folksong use by English composers
and the list of composers represented on the program contains few names familiar to
twenty-first century audiences: Martin Shaw, Maurice Besly, Edgar Bainton and
Leigh Henry.67 Greville was accompanied by Kurt Schindler for the most part,
although Falla fulfilled this role in folk song arrangements by Maurice Jacobson.68
Henry, Greville and Schindler each contributed a short article on the competition for
the local paper El Noticiero Granadino. 69

The aims of the Concurso included the desire to gain both local and international
exposure for traditional Andalusian song forms. The attendance and participation of
international dignitaries was important to Falla and visitors such as Henry and
Greville were treated as honoured guests.70 This event helped pave the way for the

63 Ibid.
64
Ibid.
65
As Chris Collins points out in his article 'Falla in Britain,' Henry was a useful contact for Falla.
Henry was very impressed by Falla's music for the The Three-Cornered Hat and wrote favourably of
the work in an article in two parts for The Musical Times titled "The New Direction in Spanish Music",
published in August and September 1919. Their relationship led to Henry commissioning Falla to write
a piece for the first edition of a magazine he was publishing. Falla's Fanfare pour une fete was
published in the first issue of the new Fanfare magazine in October 1921 and was conducted for the
first time by Eugene Goosens shortly thereafter. See Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 36-7.
66
Hess, Sacred Passions, 130.
67 Collins, 'Falla in Britain,' 38.
68
Ibid.
69
Jorge de Persia et al., 1 Concurs° de capte jondo:: ed. Conmemorativa 1922-1992: una reflexion
critica. (Granada: Archivo Manuel de Falla, 1992), 61, fn 43.
70 Collins, `Falla in Britain,' 38. Falla also wanted to invite Stravinsky and Ravel. See Gibson,

Federico Garcia Lorca, 114.

197
recognition of Spanish nationalist music in England, and informed the English
reception of Falla's neoclassical works.

Critics writing on Spain: Georges Jean-Aubry and J.B. Trend

Specialist critics promoted a new vision of modern Spanish music in the post-war era.
The French writer Jean-Aubry was an influential presence in the London music scene
and as a critic promoted closer ties between modern French, Spanish and English
music. English writers began to endorse contemporary ideas about Spanish music and
none more successfully than Trend.

Jean-Aubry first visited London around 1909 and maintained a strong presence in the
English musical scene,71 cultivating friendships with important French, Spanish and
English composers.72 His most influential book was La musique française
d'aujourd'hui (French Music of Today), published in 1915 with a foreword by Fauré.
It was translated into English by Evans and published in London in 1919, while the
Spanish translation contained a preface written by Falla.

One of Jean-Aubry's stated aims was to situate French music at the centre of
European musical development. He fought against German influence in music and
promoted the French principles of moderation, restraint and concision. In opposition
to the German trend for ever-larger musical forces Jean-Aubry was an advocate for
smaller orchestras. In The Musical Times article titled "A Plea for the Small
Orchestra", he noted, "It is high time we came back to saner ideas, and returned to
traditions of moderation and proportion from which the German mind has
departed."73

71
In an article for The Musical Quarterly, Jean-Aubry wrote, "about 10 years ago when I first came to
England I attempted to form an opinion of the musical resources of this country." Georges Jean-Aubry,
'British Music Through French Eyes,' The Musical Quarterly 5, no. 2 (Apr. 1919): 192-212.
72 Jean-Aubry was a close friend and supporter of Debussy. In his activities to promote French music

in London, and through his contacts with the German-born pianist Franz Leibich and Edwin Evans, he
organized and facilitated concerts of Debussy's music. In 1908 he helped to bring Debussy to England
and was trying to organize another visit when Debussy died. Jean-Aubry wrote in 1918, "The last
time I went to see Debussy we spoke at great length of his coming to England." Quote taken from
Georges Jean-Aubry, 'Some Recollections of Debussy,' Musical Times 59 (1 May 1918): 203-209
73 Georges Jean-Aubry, 'A Plea for the Small Orchestra,' Musical Times 59 (1 Sept. 1918): 421-422

198
In April 1918 The Musical Times printed an article about Jean-Aubry, authored by an
English acquaintance named Robert Mouren.74 Written before the end of the war, this
piece espouses the anti-German sentiment so common at this time and Mouren makes
special mention of Jean-Aubry's work to promote Spanish composers, stating,

Thus while fighting in behalf of French art wherever he could, he undertook to

defend Spanish music, whose riches and expectations he had learnt to appreciate.
And here we must recall that it was due to his influence that the first concert wholly
devoted to modern Spanish music ever given in any country—including Spain
itself—took place at Havre in December 1910. His personal acquaintance with the
most original among Spanish composers, Albéniz, Granados, Manuel de Falla, Turina,
made him wish to pay homage to their merits.75

Sadly, Mouren was killed in France fighting against the Germans before the article
was published, making the following words about Jean-Aubry especially poignant:
"I-le had grown incensed to exasperation at finding that Germany was looked upon as
the sole realm of music, and that, misled by this false notion, people should be
indifferent to the glorious part played by France, Italy, Spain and Great Britain."76

Jean-Aubry met many Spanish musicians in Paris, including the aforementioned

composers and the pianist Ricardo Vifies,77 and encouraged a closer relationship
between French and Spanish music, although he saw French music as the more
developed and well-established partner.78 The parallels between English and Spanish
music in the early twentieth century were of interest to Jean-Aubry and he believed
the nations were brought together through their opposition to the German musical
hegemony of the nineteenth century.79 In an informative article written for the

74 Robert Mouren, 'Jean-Aubry,' Musical Times 59 (1 Apr. 1918): 153-154.

75
Ibid., 154.
76 Ibid.
77
Writing about Vicies and his repertoire Jean-Aubry commented: `One wondered how he even had
time to read all the music he actually played from memory'. Quoted in Brody, Paris: The Musical
Kaleidoscope, 169.
78 In highlighting the importance of Paris to the musical evolution of Spanish composers, Jean-Aubry
wrote, "Following the example of his elders, Albéniz and Granados, de Falla had already looked
towards France. He was one of the first to spread in Spain a curiosity and taste for modern French
music, including in his concerts the latest French musical productions". Georges Jean-Aubry, `Manuel
de Falla,' Musical Times 58 (1 Apr. 1917): 151.
79 Jean-Aubry made a comparison between the eccentric English composer Joseph Holbrooke, and one
of the more established Spanish composers, Conrado del Campo, writing, "There is perhaps, at this

199
American journal Musical Quarterly in 1919, entitled `British Music Through French
Eyes,'80 Jean-Aubry detailed his hope that England "may soon resume the
magnificent place she formerly held in European music."81 In the same way that
Spanish music had been lacking in a distinctive national school, he claimed that, "For
more than a century and a half England has been devoid of genuinely national
music."82

Jean-Aubry also referred to the crucial role played by critics in promoting an

awareness of new music and made special mention of Dent and Newman as important
advocates for English composers.83 Folksong was important to this rebirth in both
England and Spain and amongst British composers, Jean-Aubry singled out Ralph
Vaughan Williams (1872-1858) as "one of the first Englishmen to understand the real
value of folk-song and the use to which it could be put...he has so far entered into the
spirit as to do for English folk-song what masters like Chopin and Albéniz did for
Poland and Spain."84

Jean-Aubry furthered the cause of new English and Spanish music in The Chesterian,
a music periodical issued by the Chester publishing house in London between 1915
and 1961, which he edited between 1919 and 1923.85 The journal promoted a
cosmopolitan, post-war vision of music with an impressive list of contributors, among
them composers at the vanguard of new nationalist musical styles such as Turina and
Falla.86

J.B. (John Brande) Trend was one of the first English critics to take up the challenge
of writing about Spanish music, partly due to the influence of his mentor Dent. The

moment (with the exception of M. Conrado del Campo in Spain) no young composer more prolific and
more unequal." Jean-Aubry, `British Music Through French Eyes,' 202.
80 Ibid.,192-212.
81 Ibid., 192.
82
Ibid.
83 Jean-Aubry described both Dent and Newman as being "studious but venturesome and gifted with
great breadth of vision and intellectual avidity." Ibid., 201.
84
Ibid., 203.
85
Llano, Whose Spain?, 20-21.
86
Joaquin Turina, `Manuel de Falla,' Chesterian (May 1920): 193-196; Manuel de Falla, `Letter to the
editor,' Chesterian (July 1920): 49. Other contributors included Edwin Evans, `The Three-Cornered
Hat,' Chesterian (May 1921): 453-456; and `Master Peter's Puppet Show,' Chesterian (Nov. 1924):
53-55. Jean-Aubry also wrote for Chesterian, see Georges Jean-Aubry, `The Glory of Manuel de
Falla,' Chesterian (June 1928): 214-218.

200
two met in 1908 when Trend was a student at Christ's College Cambridge, where
Dent had been elected a Fellow in 1902.87 According to the hispanist Edgard. M.
Wilson, "Dent taught him the techniques of musical analysis and criticism and
encouraged his enthusiasm."88 He lived in Spain for a year in 1919 while working as
a correspondent for the Athenaeum. An intrepid traveller, Trend was not afraid to
explore remote corners of the country and he had a great admiration for Ford and
Borrow.89 He wrote of these pioneers, "It was precisely their difficulties which made
their knowledge so complete.i90 In Trend's mind, any decent writer on Spain had to
spend time in Spain, travel widely and experience life amongst the Spanish people.
Becoming fluent in Spanish through his travels and studies, Trend wrote on politics,
literature and art, but music was the aspect of Spanish culture he was most drawn to.

During his stint in Spain for the Athenaeum Trend met Falla and the two became close
friends and cultural allies. In A Picture of Modern Spain: Men and Music, published
in 1921, Trend provides the following account of his first meeting with Falla:

The first time I met Don Manuel de Falla was on a blustering September evening at
the "Villa Carmona" on the Alhambra Hill. It was the first suggestion of autumn.
The tops of the Duke of Wellington's elm trees swayed in a high wind, and the
pomegranate under which we were dining dropped pips in luscious, sticky envelopes
on to the tablecloth. Suddenly there was a burst of rain, and every man seized his
bread, plate and glass and ran for the house; I never realized the possibilities of a
romantic situation so thoroughly as when I trod on a rotten quince which was lying
on the garden path. Sr. de Falla described the whole episode as a mixture of "La
Soirée dans Grenade" and "Jardins sous la pluie"; but the setting was, he added, more
thoroughly Spanish than Debussy could have known, for his acquaintance with
Granada was derived from books and picture postcards of the Alhambra which Sr. de
Falla had shown him.91

"Dent was Professor of Music from 1923-41 at Cambridge where Trend joined the staff as the first
Professor of Spanish in 1933. Trend was the executor to Dent's will, and helped establish the Dent
Archive at King's College, Cambridge.
88
Quoted in Buesa. `La recepcibn de la mûsica espafiola de The Criterion,' 155.
89
Trend was a strong advocate for Ford's book Gatherings from Spain, writing, "The excellence and
reasonableness of Ford's `Gatherings' have been forgotten in the poetry and humour of Gautier's
`Voyage' and the romantic nonsense of Alexandre Dumas." Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 54-55.
90 J.B. Trend, Alfonso the Sage and Other Spanish Essays (London: Constable, 1926). Quoted in
Dennis, ed., Manuel de Falla-John B. Trend: Epistolario, 201.
91 Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 237-8.

201
When Trend was invited to give lectures at the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid,
he extended his circle of Spanish contacts and met both established and younger
artists. 92 A Spanish institution in the style of an English university hall of residence,
the Residencia opened its doors in 1915 with the support of influential patrons.93
Music was well catered for at the Residencia with Falla, Ravel, Stravinsky, Milhaud
and Segovia among the visiting musicians. Many first performances of Spanish
works were given there, especially those by composers who would later form part of
the so-called Generaciôn del 27.94

Trend was dedicated to explaining for an English readership the nature of "true"
Spanish music and situating the music in the context of its native environment. Many
of Falla's preoccupations and thoughts on Spanish music were endorsed by Trend and
their close relationship infiltrated his writings. The state of early and modern music
in both Spain and England preoccupied Trend and he wrote about the developing
cultural relationship between the two countries. In relation to Spanish music, he was
eager to dispel myths and misinformed stereotypes for his English readership. Many
of Trend's his newspaper articles were reprinted and reworked in his books. He was a
prolific writer and his work appeared in The Times, The Times Literary Supplement,
The Morning Post, the Athenaeum, Music and Letters, and from 1924 until 1929 the
literary magazine created by T.S. Eliot, the Criterion.95

A Picture of Modern Spain: Men and Music, written in the wake of World War I, was
Trend's first book on Spain. In the first chapter, titled "Spain After the War" he
commented on the relationship between Spain and England, with a focus on common
national traits and characteristics.96 On self-expression he wrote, "Listening to
Spaniards I have often felt that they are expressing a point of view which is very
'English'...In modern Spain it frequently happens that people say things and do

92
Ibid., 39-40.
93 The Residencia attracted a very distinguished list of guest lecturers including H.G. Wells, G.K.
Chesterton, Albert Einstein and others. See Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 79-81.
9a The Generaci6n del 27 was an influential Spanish movement in the arts. Composers who were
active in this group include Salvador Bacarisse, Gustavo Pittaluga, Julian Bautista and others. See
Ibid., 82.
95
Trend wrote seven extended essays on Spanish music for the Criterion. See Buesa, `La recepcibn de
la mûsica espanola de The Criterion,' 153-180.
96
Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 1-16.

202
things in a way which seems more ultimately English than you ever heard in any
country but England itself."97 Trend pointed out differences in outlook between
Spaniards and Englishmen following the War and felt that while England was weary
after years of War, Spain, by remaining neutral, was revitalized and in a position to
advance.98

According to Trend, hardly any Englishmen had understood or written well about
Spain. Those he admired, such as Borrow, Ford and Ellis, lived there for a time and
endeavoured to look beyond commonly-held clichés about Spain. As Trend
explained,

The few reliable Englishmen who have written on Spanish things bring out one point
very clearly. Travellers like Ford and Havelock Ellis, possessed el vivo afan de
comprender, the real desire to find out the truth and understand it, and had no wish to
construct a romantic, imaginary Spain for home consumption.99

Spanish literature occupied a special place in Trend's work and A Picture of Modern
Spain features an extended chapter on Spanish writers.100 He drew attention to
important modern Spanish novelists he believed should be better known in England:
"Some Spaniards are inclined to be sceptical and incredulous when you tell them that
people in England have become interested once more in Spanish things...they learn
from you with astonishment that, except for Blasco Ibanez, no really modern Spanish
novelist has been translated into English.s101 The idea that foreigners had been
seduced by a "literary fiction" about Spain concerned Trend and he extended this
idea to the arts of painting and music.102 He apportioned the blame for these myths to
nineteenth-century French writers and the power of the Carmen character, "nearly all
modern ideas about Spain are secondary emotions. They are not ideas of Spain, but

97 Ibid., 1.
98 "While every man and woman in the rest of Europe has been involved in war, Spaniards have been
catching up their more progressive neighbours, and making good the loss of time, money and
individual happiness which came in the nineteenth century...It is a most striking thing about the
Spaniards of to-day, of all classes, that they have more personality than many people in England. Here
many of us have been left limp and thoughtless by five years of war." Ibid., 6.
99
Ibid., 3.
loo Ibid., 45-79.
101 Ibid., 56.
102 Ibid., 54.

203
of the Spain invented by Gautier and Dumas and decorated by Prosper Mérimée; they
are notions obtained at second hand. The fiction of `Carmen' dies hard."103

Persistent stereotypes derived from Carmen were a genuine annoyance to Trend and
in spite of the success of works such as The Three-Cornered Hat, for many English
readers and audiences, Carmen remained a strong marker of Spanishness. In his book
Spain from the South (1928) he wrote, "It is impossible to understand Spanish art or
Spanish life, or even Spanish music and Spanish dancing, without clearing our heads
of all this `Carmen business'."1o4 He advised readers to dispense with the myth
altogether:

For the traveller in Spain, however, it is important to realize that the figure of Carmen
herself is not an ordinary Spanish or Andalusian type, but a very extraordinary one;
and it is a striking example of the thick-headedness of Europe in particular and the
world in general that ever since the production of the opera in Paris in 1875, Carmen
and all her surroundings have been accepted as literally true of normal Spanish life.' 05

Cultural misunderstandings existed on both the English and Spanish sides and Trend
urged his English readers to learn about the context of Spanish music, encouraging
them to experience a broader range of Spanish popular and concert music better to
understand the works of Falla and his contemporaries. One of the operas championed
by Trend was EI Avapiés (1919) by Spanish composers Conrado del Campo (1878-
1953) and Angel Barrios, to which he gave special mention in A Picture of Modern
Spain. The opera had recently been produced in Madrid during the 1919-20 season
and, according to Trend, was an example of a Spanish opera an English audience
might find appealing and valuable in contextualising the music of Falla.106 Trend
observed:

Music like that of Del Campo and Barrios is not only delightful in itself, but serves
the purpose of making other forms of Spanish musical thought intelligible. It is a step,
though not a very long one, in the direction of De Falla, whose music London has
approached from the wrong end. If we had had the chance of hearing "El Avapiés"

103 Ibid., 55.

104 J.B. Trend, Spain from the South (London: Methuen, 1928), 8.
105 Ibid., 7.
1°6 Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 179.

204
 and then De Falla's opera "La Vida Breve," no one would have found the music to
the "Three-Cornered Hat" cold or difficult to understand. Falla is the central figure in
the group of modern Spanish composers, and anything that helps one to understand
him is of value for that alone.107

Both Trend and Falla admired the guitarist, flamenco connoisseur and composer of El
Avapiés Angel Barrios as is evident in a later chapter of A Picture of Spain. Barrios
features in Trend's recollections of nights at the Alhambra in a chapter titled "Music
in the Gardens of Granada," a depiction of the magical qualities of the Alhambra, the
spiritual home of cante flamenco and soon to be home of Manuel de Falla.108 Making
a connection to the piano piece by Debussy, Trend paints a picture of a musical
"Soirée dans Grenade,"109 featuring a trio of guitar, laid and bandurria, in the mould
of Barrios' Trio Iberia. The repertoire consisted of pieces by Albéniz, Debussy and
Falla, alongside some original works for the group by Barrios. The plucked strings
lent a clarity and transparency to the works and Trend described the musical effect as
follows:

The great charm of a trio of "twangly" instruments is that it makes the music as clear
and translucent as Scarlatti played on a harpsichord. It was immensely interesting to
hear the little minuet of Debussy played as transparently as if it were held up against
the light—almost X-rayed, as it were—so that its workmanship was revealed far
more clearly than is possible on a pianoforte."°

In A Picture of Modern Spain Trend delved into the history of Spanish music from the
Renaissance and Baroque periods, and highlighted parallels with the state of English
music.111 As will be seen in Chapter 8, Trend's continued involvement with Spanish

107 Ibid.
108 Ibid., 237-245.
109 Falla greatly admired Debussy's La Soirée dans Grenade for piano and quoted the piece in the coda
of his guitar piece Homenaje a Debussy (1920). Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 238. According to
Falla, Debussy successfully captured the essence of Spain in his music. In Manuel de Falla and
Spanish Music Trend observed, "Debussy (Falla concludes) wrote `Spanish' music, not by using
authentic tunes, but by `feeling' them, by realizing the foundations on which they rest and conveying
the essence of them in music which was all his own." Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music, 55.
110
Trend, A Picture of Modern Spain, 242.
111 For example, in a chapter titled `The Foundations of Spanish Theatre Music' Trend wrote, "A
performance of an old Spanish play was, in fact, almost as much a musical event as the `Midsummer
Night's Dream' with Purcell's music lately performed at Cambridge." Ibid., 182.

205
music in the 1920s anticipated the development of a neoclassical Spanish style of
music and the associated rise of the classical guitar.

Lord Berners and the Fantaisie Espagnole

The English composer Lord Berners engaged with changing representations of
Spanish music in his orchestral work Fantaisie Espagnole (1919). This work was
informed by his studies of French and Russian musical representations of Spain, and
his intimate knowledge of the Spanish works produced by the Ballets Russes. In
contrast to the nineteenth century style of the "Spanish" music written by of Sullivan
and Elgar, Berners' Fantaisie was influened by more current modes of European
composition. Berners is remembered as an eccentric character, active as a painter,
writer and composer at different stages of his life.112 Born Gerald Tyrwhitt-Wilson in
1883 he inherited the title of 14th Baron Berners in 1918. From 1911 until 1918 he
worked as a diplomat at the British Embassy in Rome where he was part of a thriving
artistic community. He befriended Diaghilev and Stravinsky and became close to
members of the Ballets Russes. Diaghilev eventually commissioned Berners to write
the music for The Triumph of Neptune for the Ballets Russes in 1926, one of only two
English ballets he commissioned, the other being Constant Lambert's Romeo and
Juliet (1924-5). 113

Stravinsky regarded Berners highly as a composer and they shared an appreciation of

Spanish music,1 4 and during their time in Rome together Berners gave Stravinsky
recordings of Spanish music.115 In Rome Berners had aligned himself with the
futurist movement in art, a progressive group that included representatives from the
visual arts, music and literature. The Italian composer Alfredo Casella (1883-1947)
was an advocate for the music of Berners and played his Trois petites marches
funèbres for piano at the Academia Santa Cecilia in Rome on 30 March 1917, the first
professional performance of his music.116 In a series of contemporary music concerts

112 See Mark Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric (London: Chatto and Windus, 1998).
113
Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 82.
114
In his library Berners kept scores of Granados' Goyescas and Falla's El amor brujo [first edition
with drawings by Gontcharova]. See Dickinson, Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter, 178 for a
list of scores in Berners' library.
115
Letter from Tyrwhitt to Stravinsky, 6 June 1917, translated in Stravinsky, Selected Correspondence,
vol. II, ed. Robert Craft (London: Faber, 1984) 143.
Ils
Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 15.

206
Casella regularly programmed works by Berners alongside those of Falla, Ravel and
Stravinsky.l 17

Berners' music was published by Chester and according to Peter Dickinson, in the
1920s Berners "brought an international sophistication to British music to offset the
obsession with folk music.s118 He enjoyed the support of influential critics like Jean-
Aubry, whose poetry he set in Trois chansons (1920), and Edwin Evans, whose 1920
series on modern British composers in The Musical Times included a feature on his
music.119 Evans recognised Berners as the most international of English composers:
"He has a sense of humour which corresponds to a national trait, but the manner of
expression is international. It is English fun with a Latin pungency."I20

The Fantaisie began life in a version for solo piano in late 1918 and, after completing
the orchestral score in June 1919, Berners arranged the work for piano duet.121 The
piece is in three movements, Prélude, Fandango and Pasodoble, played without a
break. The Fantaisie was first performed at a Proms concert on 24 September 1919
and again at the Proms on 7 June 1921 in a program featuring the first concert
performance of The Rite of Spring in England. Writing in 1920, Evans suggested that
the Fantaisie was Berners' most important work to date, and noted the use of humour
and the exaggeration of Spanish musical elements.122 In reviews of the Fantaisie,
comparisons with Falla's ballet were made, for example a critic in The Observer
wrote of the second Proms performance, "The Berners `Spanish Fantasy' was given a
much more pointed and detailed performance than before, and came out brilliantly. It
improved wonderfully at a second hearing (but in certain places Lord Berners is
obviously merely talking through his three-cornered hat)."123 Even though The
Three-Cornered Hat may not have been the chief model for the Fantaisie, it drew on
similar influences such as Stravinsky's language and use of folk materials, Ravel's
Rapsodie Espagnole and Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio Espagnol (1887).

117 D i ck i nson, Lord Berners, 144.

118
D i ck i nson, Lord Berners,23.
19
Edwin Evans, `Modern Spanish Composers: VII — Lord Berners,' Musical Times 61 (Jan. 1920): 9-
13.
120
Quoted in Dickinson, Lord Berners: Composer, Writer, Painter, 25-6.
121 Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 52-3.
123
Edwin Evans, `Modern Spanish Composers: VII — Lord Berners, 9-13.
123
Observer, 26 June 1921.

207
The orchestration of the Fantaisie is expansive,124 demonstrating the extent to which
Berners had studied Stravinsky, Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio and Chabrier's
Espana. 125 Berners employed triple and quadruple woodwinds, a substantial brass
section, five percussion instruments, two harps and a celeste. Ravel's Rapsodie is a
key model and the movements of this work, `Prélude à la nuit', `Malaguena',
`Habanera', and `Feria', mirror the structure of Berners' work.126 The strong balletic
overtones of Berners' Fantaisie show that he was aware of The Three-Cornered Hat
and other Spanish-inspired works such as Las Meninas performed by Ballets Russes.

There are a number of ways Berners combined Spanish melodies and rhythms with
contemporary influences. Ostinato passages are prominent throughout the work and
at times offset by dense chromatic passages in other parts. The influence of
Stravinsky, is prominent throughout the work and, as the correspondence between the
composers demonstrates, Berners was familiar with Stravinsky's recent music.127 The
sophisticated use of layering and abrupt rhythmic shifts in Stravinsky's works such as
the Étude pour pianola, later orchestrated and renamed Madrid and included as the
fourth movement of the Quatre Études (1928), made an impression on Berners.128
Characteristic Spanish rhythms and repetitive devices form the basis of the second
and third movements. Distinctively Spanish melodic phrases and ornamentation are
prevalent in the Fantaisie and Berners was evidently proud of its melodic profile,
claiming to have identified at least seventy melodies in the work.129_The Fantaisie
begins with a delicate Prélude marked Moderato tranquillo assai.
The subtlety of the orchestration points to the influence of the first movement of
Ravel's Rapsodie Espagnole, "Prélude à la nuit." Example 7a shows sustained D and

124
Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole (London: Chester, 1920).
'25
Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric, 64.
'26
Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 54.
127 See the correspondence between Tyrwhitt and Stravinsky, in Stravinsky, Selected Correspondence,
135-159. Jones notes that the ending of the final Pasodoble movement of the Fantaisie is the "most
clear-cut allusion to Stravinsky in all Berners' music." Jones, The Music of Lord Berners, 60.
128
Letter from Tyrwhitt to Stravinsky, 8 Jan. 1918, Ibid., 149. For a discussion of Madrid and the
influence of Picasso and the plastic arts on Stravinsky see Michael Christoforidis, `Madrid de Igor
Stravinsky, Pablo Picasso y la vanguardia de las artes plâsticas,' in Campos Interdisciplinares de la
Musicologia: V Congreso de la Sociedad Espanola de Musicologia, (Barcelona: Sociedad Espafola de
Musicologia. 2002), 1303-1309.
129
Amory, Lord Berners: The Last Eccentric, 65.

208
A pedal notes in the double basses which are accompanied by ostinati in the clarinet,
harp, violins, violas and 'celli, with a plaintive melody introduced in the oboes.

209
 Example 7a. Lord Berners, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.l-6.130

2 it G. Francesco Malipiero.

Fantaisie espagnole.
Prélude. Lord Berners.
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130 Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 2

210
The melody played by the oboes in Example 7a evolves to take on a distinctly
Hispanic character with the addition of a melodic ornament to complete the phrase, as
in the bassoon line of Example 7b:

131
Example 7b. Berners, bassoon melody, "Prélude," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.20-21.

ritual

Bassoon
3
p mollo espress.

The energy and abandon of parts of the second and third movements recall the end of
Rimsky-Korsakov's Capriccio and the final movement, `Feria' of Ravel's Rapsodie.
The second movement is a fandango, marked Allegro Feroce and written in an
insistent 6/8 with strong accents on every dotted crotchet beat. As shown in Example
8a, an F# Phrygian scale is featured in the woodwinds and violas, while rhythmic
stabs in the contra bassoon, brass, percussion and strings, propel the music.

131 Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 5.

211
 Example 8a. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.1-5.132

Fandango.

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132
Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 9.

212
The rhythmic intensity increases later in the movement when every quaver pulse is
accented and the ferocity is realized. To subvert the regular rhythmic flow Berners
used hemiola rhythms, changing phrase lengths and off-beat accents.

Another technique used to create tension is the insertion of moving chromatic parts
into an otherwise harmonically static texture. In example 8b the flutes, clarinet and
first violins play repeated notes while the bassoons and horns insert sliding chromatic
harmonies and horn 1 and violin 2 play a strident melody.

Example 8b. Berners, "Fandango," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.62-64.' 33

Flute I

. .Jef .■•■ M,Mir 10.111INI

■
. . . . . .
Flute 2

1
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The large orchestral forces are fully utilized in the final Pasodoble which opens with
characteristic Spanish phrases in the woodwind that suggest the Phrygian mode.
Percussion instruments are skilfully employed in the final sections of the movement,
as the piece builds intensity through a series of tempo changes. Distinctive Spanish

133
Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 18.

213
musical tropes are exaggerated and embellished in the work and it may be said that
Berners both pays homage to, and parodies, Spanish music in this piece. The
beginning of the final `Feroce' section, highlighting the pasodoble rhythm and
expansive orchestration is shown in Example 9:

214
Example 9. Berners, "Pasodoble," Fantaisie Espagnole, ms.140-148. 134
44
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J. W.C. 80.

134
Lord Berners, Fantaisie Espagnole, 44.

215
In the Fantaisie Berners exhibits the musical traits that set him apart from the
emerging English nationalist school of composers. His musical excursion to Spain is
a unique example of an English composer writing "Spanish" music informed by a
broad range of contemporaneous compositional approaches. Writing in 1934,
Constant Lambert remembered the impact of the Fantaisie:

It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the Spanish National style was
invented by a Russian, Glinka, and destroyed by an Englishman, Lord Berners; for
after the latter's amazingly brilliant parody of Spanish mannerisms, it is impossible to
hear most Spanish music without a certain satiric feeling breaking through.'35

The Three-Cornered Hat presented a modern style of Spanish music and dance to
English audiences familiar with Spanish entertainments. There were imitators, most
notably the Ballets Suédois who presented a new take on Spanish ballet, but without
the success of the Ballets Russes. Amongst the musical imitators of a modern style of
Spanish music, Berners was the most overstated with his Fantaisie that paralleled
aspects of The Three-Cornered Hat. In the 1920s Spanish composers, most notably
Falla, engaged with early music, folk sources and flamenco, matching developments
in English music where folk music and early music were seen as suitable sources for
indigenous composers cultivating a national style. This similarity of thought
extended to a closer musical relationship between England and Spain, fostered by
anti-German sentiment of the post-war period. Falla continued to chart the course for
Spanish composers in the 1920s as will be discussed in Chapter 8.

135 Constant Lambert, Music Ho! (London: Faber and Faber, 1934) 152.

216
 Chapter 8
Spanish Musical Nationalism, Neoclassicism and the guitar

Spanish nationalist composers entered a new period of achievement and recognition

after World War I. By the 1920s Falla's contemporaries Oscar Esplâ (1886-1976),
Conrado del Campo, Joaquin Turina and the Cuban-born composer and pianist
Joaquin Nin (1879-1949), had established themselves as leading composers of
Spanish music. Internationally, however, Falla remained the most conspicuous
Spanish voice, and in this chapter I will examine the reception of his music in
England in the 1920s, with a focus on two neoclassical works, El retablo de maese
Pedro (1919-1923) (Master Peter's Puppet Show) and the Concerto (1923-1926). In
these compositions Falla moved away from the Andalusian influence of his earlier
scores, towards a more universal Castilian musical language.' He created his own,
distinctly Spanish style of neoclassicism through a combination of early Spanish
music, folksong and stylistic elements drawn from the works of Stravinsky. His
neoclassical works were a major inspiration to the next generation of Spanish
composers, especially those associated with the "Generation of 1927" (Generaci6n
del 27) and known as the "Group of Eight" (Grupo de Ocho). 2

Led by specialist critics Trend and Jean-Aubry, the English press promoted and
endorsed Falla's stylistic transformation in El retablo and the Concerto. Falla's
earlier works such as Noches en los jardines de Espara (1916) and the Siete
canciones populares (1914) were performed repeatedly in London in the 1920s,
reinforcing the view of Falla as a composer grounded in Spanish folksong and music
from the south of Spain. In the same decade El retablo and the Concerto garnered

Harper divides Falla's output into five categories: Youthful Period (1896-1904), Period of
Consolidation of Musical Language (1905-1914), Andalusian Period (1915-1919), Period Beyond
Nationalism (1920-1926) and Period of Research for a Universal Synthesis (1927-1946). Harper,
Manuel de Falla, 329-413.
2 Composers who formed part of the Group of Eight include Salvador Bacarisse (1898-1963), Rosa
Garcia Ascot (1902-2002), Julian Bautista (1901-1961), Ernesto Halffter (1905-1989), Rodolfo
Halffter (1900-1987), Gustavo Pittaluga (1906-1975), Fernando Remacha (1898-1984), Juan José
Mantecbn (1895-1964) and Jests Bal y Gay (The Generation of 1927 refers to a movement originally
associated with figures in Spanish literature, but extended to include artists, filmmakers and musicians.
For a study of composers affiliated with the Generation of 1927 see Emilio Casares Rodicio, La mûsica
en la Generaci6n del 27 (Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 1987).

217
critical acclaim and earned him the admiration of his peers. In the process Falla
achieved a level of popularity uncommon for a composer of modern music.

As England recovered from the devastation of World War I, a select group of English
musicologists espoused the view that English composers needed to look beyond their
own borders and develop new musical affiliations. They promoted the music of
continental composers through their writings and publications, and encouraged the
formation of music societies to advance their aims. Two of the key protagonists who
promoted links with their continental colleagues, were Eaglefield-Hull and Dent.
Both men sat on the editorial board of the progressive A Dictionary of Modern Music
and Musicians (1924), which generously covered the burgeoning European schools of
composition. Spanish composers and performers were well represented in the
Dictionary through articles written by the London-based Spaniard Morales. Other
English critics endorsed the neoclassical bias of new Spanish music. In the 1920s
Trend published a monograph on Falla, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music (1929)
and two books exploring Spanish early music, Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas (1925)
and The Music of Spanish History to 1600 (1926).3 In this Chapter I will consider the
role of cosmopolitan English critics in encouraging a greater knowledge and
appreciation of Spanish music in 1920s London.

Throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the guitar remained a
significant Spanish presence in London. The instrument underwent profound changes
in construction and appearance,4 and proved to be an adaptable instrument, moving
between highbrow and popular music contexts with relative ease. In the 1920s the
Spanish guitar entered a new phase of popularity, around which coalesced some of the
main themes pertaining to Spanish music in London: early music, flamenco and
modern neoclassical composition. Spanish guitarists Emilio Pujol and Miguel Llobet
had enjoyed some measure of success in London prior to World War I but the focal
point for the Spanish guitar revival in the 1920s was the Andalusian guitarist Andrés
Segovia. The neoclassical orientation of the new classical guitar owed much to ideas

3Trend, Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas ; Trend, The Music of Spanish History to 1600.
4The Spanish guitar maker Antonio Torres (1817-1892) revolutionized the way guitars were made.
His system of fan-bracing was widely copied and his instruments were played by Arcas, Térraga and
Llobet. For an examination of Torres guitars from a makers point of view see José L. Romanillos,
Antonio de Torres, Guitar Maker: His Life and Work (Longmead: Element Books, 1987).

218
promoted by Pedrell and Falla, and representations of the instrument in modern art.5
After his triumphant London debut in 1926, the English capital remained an important
city for Segovia's career and in the subsequent history of the classical guitar. In the
last section of this chapter I will examine press responses to Segovia's London
concerts of the 1920s, with a focus on his playing of Bach and commissioning of new
works. The critical reception of these concerts demonstrates how perceptions of
Spanish music in London had changed since the 1870s. Spanish music was now a
partner in the European hierarchy of musical nations and acknowledged as a country
with a flourishing cohort of contemporary composers.

Falla and Spanish Neoclassicism in 1920s England

In performances of Falla's chamber opera El retablo de maese Pedro and the
Concerto, a new vision of Spain evolved that separated it even further from the
colourful folklorism of flamenco and regional dance. These pieces embodied a
modernist neoclassicism that drew on historic sources of Spanish music, clothed in a
musical style indebted to Stravinsky's neoclassical works of the 1920s. In both El
retablo and the Concerto, Falla further distanced Spanish nationalist music from the
exotic stereotypes of Spain that were created and perpetuated in Romantic scores.

El retablo de maese Pedro is a chamber opera in one-act based on an episode from

Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. The story centres on a puppet show conducted
by the puppeteer Master Peter and observed by Don Quixote and his companion
Sancho Panza. The work was written for performance in the drawing room of the
wealthy Parisian socialite and musical patron the Princesse de Polignac (1865-1943).
Born Winaretta Singer, the Princesse de Polignac had a penchant for commissioning
and supporting leaders in all fields of modern art.6

With El retablo Falla moved away from the influence of folk-song towards a variety
of historical sources, due, in part, to his desire to create a type of Spanish music with
universal appeal. Even before the work was performed in England, reviews and
articles appeared in the English press, most notably those written by Trend and Jean-

s Piquer Sanclemente and Christoforidis, 'Cubism, Neoclasicismo,' 6-10.

6 Other musical works commisioned by the Princesse include Stravinsky's Renard, Milhaud's Le
Malheurs d'Orphée and Tailleferre's Piano Concerto. See Hess, Sacred Passions, 125.
M ichael Christoforidis, `Aspects of the Creative Process,' 39.

219
Aubry. As the leading exponent of neoclassicism in music, Igor Stravinsky approved
of Falla's musical transformation, writing "In my opinion these two works [El retablo
and the Concerto] give proof of incontestable progress in the development of his great
talent. He has, in them, deliberately emancipated himself from the folklorist influence
under which he was in danger of stultifying himself."8

In November 1921 a short article appeared in The Times, written by a Madrid

correspondent previewing the new musical work El retablo: "De Falla appears in a
new light in this work, the music of which is purely Castilian in character, based in
part on popular airs from Castile and on the music of the Castilian classics."9 The
repeated references to Castilian music indicated Falla's shift away from Andalusian
folkloric sources towards a more universal type of hispanicism.

Composers writing in a neoclassical style used musical forms, titles, structures and
elements of phrasing and ornamentation modelled on music from earlier eras, most
commonly the Renaissance and Baroque periods. In the years before the war
Debussy and Ravel used works by Rameau and Couperin as models.10 In the
composition of both El retablo and the Concerto Falla looked to early Spanish music
from the medieval period such as the Cantigas of Alfonso X and guitar music by
Spanish Baroque guitarist Gaspar Sanz. Falla had a deep interest in the modal aspect
of early music, echoing his fascination with modal elements of capte jondo. His
study and incorporation of elements of Spanish medieval, Renaissance and Baroque
music gave his version of neoclassicism a uniquely Spanish flavour.11

El retablo was first performed in a concert version on 23 March 1923 at the Teatro
San Fernando (Seville) conducted by Falla and played by members of the Orquesta
Bética da Câmara (Chamber Orchestra of Andalusia). Falla was involved in the

8
Igor Stravinsky, An Autobiography (London: Calder and Boyars, 1975), 133.
9 `Don Quixote in Music,' Times, 3 Nov. 1921, 8. This piece possibly drew on an article by Adolfo
Salazar published in El Sol, `Manuel de Falla, En Granada: El Retablo de Maese Pedro,' 25 Oct. 1921.
10 Examples include Debussy's Hommage à Rameau from the second book of Images (1905) and

Ravel's suite in six movements for piano, Le tombeau de Couperin (1914-1917). For a detailed
discussion of neoclassicism in France 1870-1914 see Scott Messing, Neoclassicism in Music: From the
Genesis of the Concept through the Schoenberg/Stravinsky Polemic (Ann Arbor, Michigan: UMI
Research Press, 1988),
1-59.
11 Carol Hess writes, "his use of modality marked a suggestive new path for neoclassicism while subtly
asserting Spanish identity, even in this presumably `universalist' context." Hess, Sacred Passions, 138.

220
creation of this ensemble in 1922 with the cellist Segismundo Romero and Eduardo
Torres, chapel master of the Seville cathedral. The premiere performance of El
retablo was a significant occasion for Falla's admirers who travelled to Seville for the
concert, with Trend amongst the attendees. Trend reviewed the premiere in The
Times and detected that the new work was not what audiences familiar with the sound
of The Three-Cornered Hat or El amor brujo would be expecting:

The music itself, when it is heard in London, will seem, perhaps, very little Spanish
in feeling. This is because there is nothing superficially "Spanish" about it; yet it is
not only profoundly Spanish, but intensely individual—no other composer but Falla
could have written it. If the Three Cornered Hat is Andaluz in spirit the Retablo de
Maese Pedro is Castilian.'2

The first fully staged version of El retablo was given at the Hotel Singer-Polignac in
Paris on 25 June 1923. Falla was the scenic director and Wladimir Golschmann
conducted the ensemble. Jean-Aubry described the Polignac salon performance of El
retablo as taking place "before an invited audience of 200 persons, consisting of
composers, writer's society people, all delighted with his [Falla's] work, who gave the
composer a true ovation."13 Further performances of El retablo followed in Paris,
New York, Zurich, Venice and Amsterdam, and the work was widely praised by
international critics.14

Performances in 1920s London of earlier Falla compositions such as the Siete

canciones populares, maintained his reputation as a composer with strong ties to
Spanish folksong. In concert reviews, the Southern Spanish and even Moorish
foundations of these songs were often commented upon:

Manuel de Falla's treatment of these songs is masterly: he enhances their warmth of

colour and piquancy of flavour, and the irony of the words is subtly reflected in this
music...The songs are particularly interesting because of their strong Oriental
seasoning, which shows that the Moorish invasion left not only architectural, but other

12
Trend, `A New Opera by de Falla,' Times, 3 Apr. 1923, 8.
" Georges Jean-Aubry, `De Falla Talks of his New Work Based on a Don Quixote Theme,' Christian
Science Monitor, 1 Sept. 1923, 17.
14 Hess, Manuel de Falla, 201.

221
 artistic monuments in Southern Spain. It is fortunate that they have found a restorer in
an Andalusian composer whose musical gifts, learning, and sense of tradition unite in
making him by far the greatest contemporary figure in Spanish music.15

The Three-Cornered Hat, familiar to London audiences in both the ballet and concert
versions, was the first major orchestral work by a Spanish composer to be performed
repeatedly by British orchestras. Another major Spanish work to receive multiple
performances in London in the 1920s was Falla's Noches en los jardines de Espana
(1916). The work evoked the Alhambra, the adjacent gardens of the Generalife and
images of Spain's Moorish past. A 1925 review of a performance of Noches en los
jardines de Espana given by piano virtuoso Arthur Rubinstein,16 drew attention to the
strong connection with Southern Spain:

For an almost visibly pictorial suggestion of Southern Spain, where Moorish elements
are still as clearly traceable in folk-song as they are in architecture, this music would be
hard to surpass. De Falla does not resort to the methods of the tourist bureau to attract
us to his country; he never exhibits the familiar views by means of which so many
musical travelling agents have long made us weary of Iberian superficialities. His
achievement is to bring home the lure of Spain by an unfamiliar presentation which we
vaguely feel to be based on profound truth.17

The first taste English audiences had of Falla's neoclassical compositional style was
at a festival of short operas in Bristol in 1924 where El retablo received its English
premiere. The week-long event was the brain-child of Philip Napier-Miles, a wealthy
local philanthropist and amateur composer with a strong interest in opera. Alongside
three works by Napier-Miles the festival programmed English operas by Vaughan
Williams and Purcell, making El retablo the only foreign work on the program.
Falla's short opera was performed next to Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and The Times
critic (probably Trend) drew a parallel between the two, noting that Falla's music was
"direct and simple, even as is Purcell's."18 The performance was given in English

15 '
Mr. John Goss's Recital,' Manchester Guardian, 12 Apr. 1924, 12.
16 Falla's Fantasia Bética (1919) for solo piano was written for Arthur Rubinstein who premiered the
work on 20 February 1920 in New York. The piece did not stay in his repertoire and does not seem to
have been performed in England until the 1940s.
17 ` Queen's Hall Symphony Concert,' Manchester Guardian, 9 Feb. 1925, 16.
18 ` Opera at Clifton,' Times, 16 Oct. 1924, 12. Falla had been introduced to Purcell's music by Trend.

222
with a libretto prepared by Trend who drew on Thomas Shelton's early English
translation of Don Quixote in preparation for his version.19 El retablo was performed
a total of six times in Bristol with conductors Adrian Boult and Malcolm Sargent.20

In the first performance given in the Polignac salon, all the characters were puppets.
The producer of the Bristol performances adopted an alternative suggestion noted in
the score that, "the puppets representing real persons may be replaced by living
actors; but in that case they should wear masks."21 According to Trend, this
arrangement made the work more intelligible 22 Reviews of the Bristol production of
El retablo were uniformly favourable and The Times critic praised Trend's English
translation of the text and applauded the sets and use of puppets.23 Falla's work was
singled out as the highlight of the week-long opera festival and The Times wrote, "the
special note of distinction is that which comes from Spain."24 Such was the success
of the work that the Bristol organisers programmed El retablo again in 1926.

Amongst the musical aims of neoclassical composers were the values of simplicity,
objectivity and clarity.25 This encompassed the use of smaller instrumental forces as
epitomized by Stravinsky in his Histoire du soldat (1918), scored for an instrumental
septet and three actors.26 Falla's emerging neoclassical aesthetic was propagated
through the activities of the chamber orchestra he co-founded, the Orquesta Bética.
The ensemble programmed modern compositions alongside music from pre-
nineteenth century traditions, and Falla made arrangements of works by other
composers for the group, including Rossini's overture to The Barber of Seville,

19 Shelton made the first translation of Don Quixote into English and completed his version of both
parts of the novel in 1620. Trend compared the naturalness of Falla's word setting, in particular the use
of declamation, with Purcell's setting of English in operas such as Dido and Aeneas, King Arthur and
The Fairy Queen. Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music, 117.
2° Ibid., 138.
21
Ibid., 137.
22
Ibid.
23 "
Among all the people concerned in this admirable production two seem equally to deserve the first
congratulations; Mr. J.B. Trend who has given the opera an English text (based on Shelton)...and Miss
Rachel Russell, whose scene and whose puppets present the most transporting combination of realism
and fantasy." `The Operas at Clifton,' Times, 18 Oct. 1924, 10.
24 Ibid.
Zs
Messing, Neoclassicism, 111.
26
Numerous French composers advocated a simplification of musical style and means before World
War I. See Ibid., 59. The term neoclassicism was redefined through its association with Stravinsky in
the 1920s. For a detailed discussion of Stravinsky and neoclassicism see Ibid., 87-149.

223
Debussy's modern classic Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune and the opening
movement of Adolfo Salazar's (1890-1958) Preludios.27

In July 1925 the Orquesta Bética travelled to London for several concerts, the first of
which was organised by the Marchioness of Carisbrooke at the Ritz Hotel. Her
husband Lord Carisbrooke was Queen Victoria's grandson and the brother of the
Spanish Queen Victoria Eugenie. The Guardian critic noted that good reports had
reached England of the orchestra's activities in Spain, but he was somewhat
disappointed by the large number of English players employed to bolster the numbers
of the touring ensemble.28 Many of these players came from Anthony Bernard's
London Chamber Players, a small orchestra formed with similar aims to the Orquesta
Bética. Falla's suite from El amor brujo was well received and was described as
"racial and colourful."29 Halffter's conducting was praised but The Guardian
reviewer was scathing about another work on the program, Adolfo Salazar's string
quartet Rubaiyat (1924), describing it as "a shapeless and endless ebullition which
nowhere betrays the least sign of any artistic urge or creative facility.i30 Salazar, a
music critic who was also a composer, was a firm supporter of both Falla and the
orchestra, and this connection was hinted at by a reviewer who expressed his
disappointment at the inclusion of "one or two quite worthless elements which any
impartial judge would have at once eliminated."31

A few days later the Orquesta Bética presented a program at the Wigmore Hall
featuring music from El amor brujo, The Three-Cornered Hat and the finale of El
retablo, the first time any part of the work was heard in London. The performance
was under-rehearsed but there were still kind words for Falla's music.32 A writer in
The Times commented on positive aspects of Falla's compositions, especially "the

27
Harper, Manuel de Falla, 104.
28 "The Orquesta Bética da Camera, of Seville, an enterprising and progressive organization, of whose
activity in Spain some glowing accounts have reached England lately. It is a little difficult to judge
these artists fairly since they were liberally supplemented by English players." 'A Spanish Chamber
Orchestra,' Manchester Guardian, 8 July 1925, 6.
29 Ibid.
30 Ibid.
31
Ibid.
32
A critic in The Times wrote of Falla's arrangement of Rossini's overture to The Barber of Seville,
"The whole would doubtless sound well enough in a larger hall and with a better performance." The
performance of El retablo was described as "somewhat scrappy and disjointed." 'A De Falla Concert,'
Times, 14 July 1925, 19.

224
freshness of the thematic material... [and] Falla's fine feeling for rhythm."33 The
same critic noted that much of Falla's music was originally intended for the theatre,
not the concert hall and "without the dramatic action it was bound to lose a good deal
in effect."34 In the brief excerpt presented at the concert, El retablo did not make a
significant impression. It was not until 1927 that London audiences were able to fully
appreciate Falla's stylistic transformation in a special concert devoted to his works.

Falla travelled to London to perform in this concert at the Aeolian Hall on 22 June
1927, featuring the first London performances of three of his pieces: El retablo, the
Concerto and the Soneto a Cordoba (1927). El amor brujo was also on the program
and Stravinsky was in London and attended the concert.35

The Aeolian Hall concert was a milestone event for those interested in Falla's new
music and most of the critical attention focused on El retablo and the Concerto.
Falla's reputation inspired The Observer's critic to write: "We have too much faith in
the music we know of de Falla not to be sure that what we have still to make the
acquaintance of will be worth the trouble."36 A few London critics noted Falla's
musical transformation and marvelled at his uniquely Spanish form of neoclassicism.
A commentator in The Guardian wrote, "although the music is wholly free from
conventional Hispanicisms, it is as Spanish as the immortal work of Cervantes
itself."37 One critic made a negative comparison with the Bristol performance of the
previous year, "Those who saw the admirable stage presentation of it at Bristol last
year could enjoy it with the aid of recollection. But the majority, who had not had
that advantage, must have wondered what all the freakish noises were about. It didn't
help that it was sung in Spanish."38 However, the Concerto was the piece that
attracted the most mixed reviews.

After finishing El retablo, Falla began to compose the Concerto for harpsichord, flute,
oboe, clarinet, violin and cello (1923-1926). The Concerto grew out of his
fascination with the harpsichord, an instrument Falla was introduced to through

33 Ibid.
34 Ibid.
35
Collins, Falla in Britain, 40.
36
'Manuel de Falla's Compositions,' Observer, 26 June 1927, 14.
37 'Music by Manuel de Falla,' Manchester Guardian, 23 June 1927, 15.
38 'Senor de Falla's Music,' Times, 23 June 1927, 12.

225
recitals given by his friend the Polish harpsichordist Wanda Landowska (1879-
1959),39 and he had already incorporated it into the score of El retablo. He embraced
the harpsichord for its clarity, rhythmic precision and historical associations and the
work builds on Falla's preoccupations with the music of Domenico Scarlatti and
Spanish folksong.

Landowska wrote to her friend Lawrence Gilman, an American music critic,

explaining the genesis of the Concerto:

Four years ago I spent some time with my friend de Falla in Granada...I was able to
play for him a great deal during several days and we went deeply into the various
possibilities of the instrument. He became more and more interested and little by
little he reshaped entirely the keyboard part in his Retablo. His enthusiasm grew and
he resolved to write a Concerto for the harpsichord.°

In the end Falla did not call the work a "Harpsichord Concerto", but a Concerto for
harpsichord, flute, oboe, clarinet, violin and cello with the instruments interacting on
equal terms. In her letter to Gilman, Landowska also described the stylistic
transformation Falla had undergone which began with El retablo and continued with
the Concerto:

You will hear in the Concerto that the regional influences play a lesser role than in his
preceeding works. This new music is a composite of Hispano-Castillian elements
rather than an echo of impressions of Andalusia or another Spanish province. It is
extremely important to stress this point because naturally every concert-goer, and
even a musician, expects and rejoices in advance at the thought of hearing in the new
de Falla Concerto some languishing motifs of the Alhambra accompanied by
arpeggios imitating the guitar.41

At the Aeolian Hall in 1927 Falla played the Concerto on the piano at the beginning
of the concert and on the harpsichord as the closing item. Overwhelmingly critics

39
Falla had heard Landowska perform a program that included works by Domenico Scarlatti in Paris
on 10 May 1911. Carol Hess, Sacred Passions, 51.
40
Letter from Wanda Landowska to Lawrence Gilman, 24 Dec. 1924, AMF, reprinted in Christoforidis,
`Aspects of the Creative Process,' 522.
41 Reprinted in Ibid.

226
deemed the harpsichord version to be the more successful, making the piano version
seem redundant.42 As one critic observed,

It was difficult to care greatly for it at the first hearing, but when it was played a
second time in its proper medium all its delicacy and wit and grace emerged clearly.
It was as if a beautiful picture had at first been spoilt by bad lighting, and afterwards
revealed in all its charm by being properly hung.43

Other reviewers felt the musical language of the Concerto was difficult to
comprehend and The Observer commented on the unfamiliar language, complaining
that, "we do not feel that we know the concerto though he played it twice (on the
piano first and then the harpsichord), because it is, so to say, written in Spanish, and
Englishmen cannot be expected to divine instinctively all that is `written between' the
notes."44 The same writer recognised the influence of Scarlatti in Falla's score,
particularly his use of pedal points.45

Even though Falla's Concerto was difficult to appreciate on first hearing for non-
specialist critics, reviewers of the 1927 Aeolian Hall concert attempted to understand
the work through their knowledge of early and modern Spanish music, and recognised
that Falla's neoclassical works represented a significant development in Spanish
musical nationalism.

El retablo finally received a staged London performance in June 1928 at the Court
Theatre. The realization of Falla's original concept for the work met with a uniformly
favourable response: "It is only at a performance of this little masterpiece as it was
intended by the Spanish composer that the extraordinary aptness of his score makes

42
"If the idea was to convince us that the harpsichord sounds very much better than the piano in this
combination of instruments, and in the particular way de Falla uses them, the demonstration was
entirely successful; but it seemed an ill-judged method of introducing a new work of some
importance... We would have preferred to have heard two performances with the harpsichord." `Senor
de Falla's Music,' Times, 23 June 1927, 12.
43 ` Music by Manuel de Falla,' Manchester Guardian, 23 June 1927, 15.
44
'Manuel de Falla's Compositions,' Observer, 26 June 1927, 14.
45
"The characteristic thing about this music seems to be the fondness for `pedal points'—long
persistent figures or reiterated chords, which lend it strength...The finale reminds one here and there
that Domenico Scarlatti was for a long time an important musical figure in Spain". Ibid. In
preparation for the last movement of the Concerto Falla studied rhythmic effects in the keyboard
sonatas of Scarlatti. See Christoforidis, `From Folksong to Plainchant,' 235.

227
itself wholly felt."46 The Guardian critic went on to describe the success of the
performance and chose as highlights, "The character-drawing, the mixture of humour
and humanity, the local colour and period feeling which this music blends into a
wonderful synthesis of Hispanicism."47

At the end of the 1920s Falla enjoyed the support of influential critics and esteemed
peers such as Stravinsky,48 taking his place among the elites of European music.
Spanish music had journeyed a long way from the exotic clichés of the late nineteenth
century and London had played an important role in this journey for Falla in
particular and Spanish music in general. As Christoforidis has written of Falla's
stylistic evolution in the 1920s:

The progressive integration and conflation of folk and preclassical sources in Falla's
work of this period complemented his reinterpretation of Spanishness in terms of
"Castilian" or "general Hispanic" values, through which he consciously sought to
redefine Spain and its music, not as a manifestation of the exotic Other on the
European periphery, but as a culture linked to the continent's historical and artistic
traditions.49

Spain and English musical cosmopolitanism and the writings of Morales

and Trend
Anti-German sentiment in the post-war era led to the search for new political and
cultural alliances. Jean-Aubry, through his editorship of The Chesterian, promoted
new Spanish and French music to an English audience and Trend encouraged a
greater awareness of "authentic" Spanish music in his books and articles. Periodicals
and musical associations promoting new music also formed in other countries after
the war. The French periodical La Revue Musicale,50 founded in 1920 by the

46
`Three Small Operas,' Manchester Guardian, 13 June 1928, 5.
47
Ibid.
48 In his writings Stravinsky highlighted similarities between elements of Russian and Spanish popular
music: "The Andalusians have nothing Latin in their music. They owe their sense of rhythm to their
eastern heritage." Quoted in Messing, Neoclassicism, 120.
49 Christoforidis, `From Folksong to Plainchant,' 236.
5o An issue of the Revue Musicale published in 1920 with the title Tombeau de Claude Debussy
featured short compositions dedicated to the memory of Debussy by Falla Dukas, Malipiero, Roussel,

228
musicologist Henri Prunières, supported a new generation of composers and in the
USA the New York League of Composers was established in 1923 and produced the
journal Modern Music from 1924. In the words of Carol Oja, Modern Music
"immediately became the single most important forum for American modernist
composers."51

The ISCM (International Society for Contemporary Music) was founded in Salzburg
in 1922 as a musical "League of Nations" of the post-war period. Dent, who later
became chairman of the ISCM, was a key figure in the new society and Falla was the
Spanish delegate for a period in the 1920s. The society had a central base in London
and Falla's music was well represented at its annual festivals. He travelled to Siena
for the fourth ISCM where El retablo and the Concerto were presented.52 In a letter
to Falla, Dent explained that "some of the composer's `English friends' would foot
the bill" for this journey.53 As an indication of Falla's international standing, he was
elected honorary officer of the ISCM in 1931. The other honorary members at this
time were Ravel, Sibelius, Strauss and Stravinsky.54

One of the stated aims of the Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians edited by
Eaglefield-Hull and published in London in 1924, was to "supply the musician and
the general music reader with a concise and practical survey of all modern musical
activities."55 The Musical Times critic commented on the pluralistic nature of the
dictionary: "The foreign side of such a dictionary, always important, is even more so
to-day, when the lines of intercommunication between the British and Continental
musical worlds, broken by the war, have not yet been fully repaired."56 An
impressive range of writers and musicians contributed to this volume, including
members of the editorial committee, which comprised Eaglefield-Hull, Granville
Bantock, Henry Wood, Hugh Allen and Dent. Many of the contributors to the
Dictionary were distinguished musicians themselves, for example the sub-committee

Loosens, Schmitt, Bartok, Stravinsky, Ravel and Satie. Falla's tribute, the influential guitar work
Homenaje a Debussy (1920), was first published in this issue.
51 Carol J. Oja, Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s (New York: OUP, 2000), 4.
52 Collins, `Falla in Europe,' 258.
53
Quoted in Hess, Sacred Passions, 165, fn. 99.
54
Collins, `Falla in Europe,' 267.
55
A Eaglefield-Hull, ed., preface to A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (London: J.M.
Dent, 1924), v.
56
H.G., `A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians,' Musical Times 65, (1 Oct. 1924): 919.

229
organized to discuss the topic of harmony, included contributions from Béla Bartok,
Arnold Box, Eugene Goossens, Vaughan Williams and Donald Tovey. Experts were
engaged to write on national music styles and the task of writing the entries on
Spanish music was handed to Morales.

The sweep of the Dictionary is borne out by the list of 52 Spanish musicians,
including many lesser known names, with dedicated entries.57 This breadth was not to
the satisfaction of all critics and a reviewer of the Dictionary in Music and Letters
complained that the "Spanish and perhaps the Scotch and Belgian articles are a little
overlong".58 The Spanish composers who have the most substantial entries are
Granados, Albéniz and Falla. Devoting his longest entry to Albéniz, Morales wrote,
"He revealed to the world the artistic significance of Spanish music, and awoke
musical Spain to the reality of a modern sensibility."59

The Dictionary promoted a cosmopolitan view of music, and a number of musical

societies and organizations created in the post-war era provided a forum for the
performance of music from allied nations. The Anglo-Spanish Chamber Music
Society was formed in 1927 with the aim of promoting links between English and
Spanish music and musicians. The Society presented Spanish pianist José Cubiles in
a concert on 3 November 1927, performing well-known Spanish music by Albéniz,
Granados, Falla and Turina. According to The Guardian, he played, "with a dexterity
and conviction that would have persuaded us of the value of Isaac Albéniz, Granados,
Manuel de Falla, and Turina even if their work had been less familiar to us than it
is."60 Other Spaniards represented on the program were Ernesto Halffter, and the
eighteenth-century composers Antonio Soler and Mateo Albéniz, while the British
content was provided by the singer Miss Grainger Kerr who sang "groups of old and
modern English songs.s61

The following year the Aguilar Quartet, an ensemble of Spanish lutes, of the type

" For the full list see A. Eaglefield-Hull, A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (London: J.M.
Dent, 1924), 471-2.
58 `A Dictionary of Music and Musicians,' Music and Letters (Oct. 1924): 374.
S9 Morales, `Albeniz,' l0.
60 `Spanish Piano Music,' Manchester Guardian, 3 Nov. 1927, 4.
61 Ibid.

230
brought to London by Angel Barrios and the Trio Iberia before the war, was presented
by the Anglo-Spanish Chamber Music Society. Their program ranged from
arrangements of harpsichord pieces by little-known English composers Croft and
Clarke to dances by Albéniz and pieces from The Three-Cornered Hat.62 The clarity
of texture obtained by the plucked strings came to the fore in arrangements of Spanish
music from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This sonority attracted one reviewer
who considered it, "so beautiful and so evocative of a musical culture of which one
knows next to nothing that one would gladly have listened to more.s63 The only
modem composition on the program was Turina's La oraciôn del torero, originally
written for the quartet of lutes. A writer in The Guardian criticised Turina's work for
a lacking originality: "his mannerisms crop up everywhere with a familiarity that is by
turns agreeable and distressing, and there remains just the little picturesque talent for
which one has known him before this."64

Another music society actively promoting a cosmopolitan selection of repertoire in

the 1920s was the New English Music Society founded by the conductor of the
London Chamber Orchestra Anthony Bernard. Bernard championed the music of
young British composers and this organisation promoted new works alongside pre-
nineteenth-century works in line with the values of neoclassicism. The inaugural
concert of this group was held at the Park Lane Hotel on 31 March 1928 with a
program of works that ranged from Purcell to Vaughan Williams, Debussy, Casella
and Falla. The Manchester Guardian described the Society as devoted to "the
performance of old and modem music written for the small orchestral combinations
that were in use at the royal, electoral, and ducal Courts of Europe in the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries and are now once more cultivated by composers."65 The
aims of this English society were in sympathy with those of the Orquesta Bética, and
promoted the rise of the new nationalist school of Spanish composition alongside new
English works.

As I have discussed, specialist critics through their publications and engagement with
organizations such as the ISCM drew attention to Spanish music as part of a broader
62 `
Lute and Guitar Hybrid,' Manchester Guardian, 11 Apr. 1928, 11.
63 Ibid.
64 Ibid.
65 `
New English Music Society,' Manchester Guardian, 31 Mar. 1928, 18.

231
engagement with modern European music. Central to the new Spanish nationalism
was the rediscovery of Spanish music from golden age of the Renaissance and
Baroque periods.66 This was mirrored by trends in England where the recognition of
music from the Renaissance period was key to a new awakening of nationalist styles
in music 67 Trend explored these common themes in his writings on Spanish music in
the 1920s.

Early Spanish music occupied Trend in the mid 1920s. The Musical Times reviewed
Trend's book on the vihuelistas alongside new publications on Orlando Gibbons and
early Tudor composers. The reviewer remarked upon the simultaneous revival of
English lute music and its Spanish counterpart: "Just as we English are discovering
our lutenist composers, so there is a revival of interest in their Spanish equivalents,
the vihuelistas."68 Through his writings Trend fostered this revival in Spanish early
music at the same time as guitarists, notably Emilio Pujol, were transcribing and
publishing new editions of Spanish vihuela and baroque guitar music for the classical
guitar. As we shall see, this music became an integral part of the new classical guitar
repertory of Spanish guitarists such as Segovia and Regino Sâinz de la Maza (1896-
1981).

First published in 1929, Trend's book Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music was the
first volume in English devoted to Falla and his music.69 It contains in-depth analysis
of Falla's music up to and including the Concerto. In this monograph Trend referred
to English performances and premieres of Falla's pieces and articulated his belief that
Spanish music needed to be heard in the context of a broader knowledge of Iberian
music and culture.

The preoccupation with folksong was a common feature of both the English and
Spanish nationalist schools of composition and Trend drew the reader's attention to
these similarities:

66
The Golden Age, or Siglo de Oro in Spanish history refers to the period from the late fifteenth
century through to the end of the seventeenth century. See Henry Kamen, Spain 1469-1714: A Society
of Conflict (London: Longman, 2005).
67 Meirion Hughes and Robert Stradling, The English Musical Renaissance, 1840-1940 (London:
Routledge, 1993).
68 C.W., `Luis Milan and the Vihuelistas by J. B. Trend,' Musical Times 66 (1 July 1925): 618-619.
69
Trend, Manuel de Falla and Spanish Music.

232
 Yet there is one accidental point of likeness between folk-song in Spain and in Great
Britain. The kind of Spanish music, cultivated or popular, which is best known
outside the Peninsula, the only kind which many people and many musicians
immediately recognize as Spanish is the kind which comes from Andalucia; while
foreign musicians are generally convinced that the only folk-music in the British Isles
is that which belongs to the "Celtic fringe." The "England" of the Spanish peninsula
is Castile; and Castilian folk-music, like English folk-music, has lately been coming
into its own.70

Trend compared the efforts of Vaughan Williams and Cecil Sharp in collecting
folksong with the work done by Spanish collectors of folk music such as Federico
Olmeda, Juan de Ledesma, Eduardo Martinez Torner and Felipe Pedre11.71

An illuminating chapter of Trend's book on Falla is titled "The Spanish Idiom" where
he discussed the nature of music accepted abroad as Spanish. He argued that the
template for Spanishness in music had not changed for fifty years and he revisited his
frustration with the Carmen stereotype:

Carmen has become, for the non-Spanish world, the mirror of the Spanish soul, the
pattern of Spanish music. Yet Carmen herself is by no means a normal Spanish type,
or even an abnormal Spanish type which is specifically Spanish, and the few
genuinely Spanish touches in the music are not derived directly from folk-song.72

Trend mentions Lalo's Capriccio and piano duets by Moszkowski as other examples
of music widely regarded as "Spanish" but written by non-Spaniards.73 He drew
attention to the acceptance of an internationally recognisable "Spanish" style, which
he believed was, "largely a creation of the eighteenth century."74 In his writings,
particularly those on Falla, Trend strove to overturn misconceptions about Spanish
music, and to help audiences appreciate and discover modern Spanish music firmly
based on tradition, folksong and the music of the past.

70 Ibid., 10.
71 Ibid.
72 Ibid., 17-18.
73 Ibid., 15.
74
Ibid., 16.

233
According to Trend, two crucial elements of Spanish music were rhythm and the
sonority of plucked strings. In his article "Falla in `Arabia' he discusses the primacy
of rhythm in Spanish music and the importance of clarity of texture, the latter related
to plucked string sounds.75 After describing the trio of laud, bandurria and guitar and
the influence this texture had on Falla, Trend explained the importance of these
elements to an understanding of Spanish music:

Experience with plucked instruments affects the rhythmic sense of a Spanish

musician in another way...Pianists who are not Spaniards, when they play "Iberia" or
the "Goyescas" or Falla's Four Spanish Pieces, generally forget that at the back of
each composer's mind is a plucked instrument, the chords of which invariably give
the effect of an appoggiatura and produce a vital throb in the rhythm.76

Trend continued to write on Spain and the Hispanic world for the rest of his life.77

Andrés Segovia and the new classical guitar

As discussed in Chapter 4, the Estudiantinas of the 1880s and 1890s encouraged
greater interest in the guitar in London, particularly due to the subsequent popularity
of the Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar movement.78 Publications such as Phillips Bone's
The Guitar and Mandolin (1914) and the London Banjo, Mandolin and Guitar
magazine, first published in 1903, documented and encouraged the growth in guitar
activity. In the post-war era the guitar had not yet attained the popularity seen in the
1930s, however, it began to be seen and heard in emerging trends in popular music

75
"The feeling for Southern Spanish music lies partly, of course, in a feeling for Southern Spanish
rhythms. Albéniz, Granados, Turina, Pérez Casas, Conrado del Campo, Oscar Espla, and most of all
Falla, have an intense feeling for rhythmic effects." Ibid., 46.
76 Ibid., 47.
77 Later books by J. B. Trend include: The Origins of Modern Spain (New York: Macmillan, 1934),
Mexico: A New Spain with Old Friends (London: Macmillan, 1940), The Civilization of Spain
(London: Oxford University Press, 1944), Bolivar and the Independence of Spanish America (London:
Hodder and Stoughton, 1946), Lorca and the Spanish Poetic Tradition (Oxford: Blackwell, 1956).
78 Jeffrey Noonan discusses the rise in popularity of the guitar in the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries as part of the BMG movement in America. This movement in the United States had strong
parallel movements in England, Australia and across the globe. Noonan, The Guitar in America:
Victorian Era to Jazz Age, 3-20.

234
such as the crazes for tango and Hawaiian music, not to mention the expanded role of
the instrument in American folk music.79

Falla's teacher Pedrell was a chief advocate of the union of popular and high art
sources and the aesthetic of neoclassicism allowed for the incorporation of early
music and modern styles, alongside popular elements.S° In 1917 Falla positioned the
guitar at the centre of these concerns, as "an example of reconciliation between the
popular and high art traditions united in a stylised revival of the past."81 The guitar
featured prominently in cubist art and post-cubist classicism, as represented and
deconstructed by Spanish and French cubist painters, most notably Pablo Picasso,
Georges Braque and Juan Gris.82 The representation of the guitar in the visual arts
added to the allure of the instrument in modern music.

The Spanish guitarist Andrés Segovia built a career as the most famous and celebrated
classical guitarist of the twentieth century. He helped to define the guitar as a concert
instrument and through his activities the modern classical guitar became an intrinsic
marker of Spanish music for English and international audiences. London was an
important city in Segovia's career, not just for the many concerts and recitals he gave
there, but because he gave regular broadcasts for the BBC and it is where made his
earliest recordings for the HMV label.83 From his first performance in London on 7
December 1926 Segovia found strong support and an enthusiastic public in the
English capital where the audience had been prepared through exposure to Spanish
music and performances of Spanish plucked string instruments, from the Spanish
Estudiantinas to post-war recitals given by Angel Barrios, Miguel Llobet and Emilio
Pujol.

79 For a summary of factors leading to the success of the guitar in the early twentieth century see Victor
Coelho, `Picking Through Cultures: A Guitarist's Music History,' in The Cambridge Companion to the
Guitar, ed. Victor Coelho (Cambridge: CUP, 2003), 3-12. Kevin Dawe and Andy Bennett's
introduction to the book Guitar Cultures is a fascinating overview of the global reach of the guitar in
the twentieth century. Kevin Dawe and Andy Bennett, `Introduction: Guitars, Cultures, People and
Places,' in Guitar Cultures, eds. Kevin Dawe and Andy Bennett (Oxford: Berg, 2001), 1-10.
8° Harper, Manuel de Falla, 24, 28.
81 Piquer Sanclemente and Christoforidis, 'Cubismo, Neoclasicismo,' 10.
82
Ibid., 8.
88 Wade, and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 68-69.

235
Segovia was born in the Andalusian town of Linares in 1893 and grew up in Southern
Spain. In his autobiography, Segovia refers to a performance in Granada towards the
end of 1909 as his first recital.84 He began to perform regularly in Spain during the
1910s, developing his repertoire and performance style, both modelled on the school
of Târrega. He met Llobet in 1915 and incorporated some of Llobet's arrangements
into his concerts.85 Segovia's early programs consisted of music by nineteenth-
century guitarist-composers, such as Sor, Spanish pieces by Albéniz and Granados
(many of them modelled on arrangements made by Târrega and Llobet),
transcriptions of Bach, his own compositions and transcriptions of Romantic
composers such as Chopin and Mendelssohn.

Prior to his international success, Segovia was an influential member of the cultural
elite in Granada. According to Ian Gibson, in 1918 he was contacted by Lorca's
family for advice on an early manuscript by the young poet.86 He was known to
frequent the regular discussions of the Rinconcillo in Granada with Barrios,87 and was
also one of the guest artists invited to the Residencia de Estudiantes in Madrid during
its early years.88 In 1922, through his close ties to Falla, Lorca and other organisers of
the Cante Jondo competition, Segovia played a concert to open the proceedings and
possibly acted as a judge.

In Eaglefield-Hull's Dictionary, the extent of the entries on the guitarists Segovia,

Llobet and Pujol reflect their relative standing in London at that time. Pujol is
granted two sentences only and there is only a little more information on Segovia who
is identified as a "link between the Romantic school... and the modern style."89 By far
the most extensive entry is given to Llobet who was recognised as the pre-eminent
modern player, the "Casals" of the guitar.90 His friendships with influential French

84 Andrés Segovia, Segovia: An Autobiography of the Years 1893-1920, trans. W.F. O'Brien (London:

Marion Boyars, 1976), 20.

85 Segovia learnt Llobet's arrangement of Catalan folksong El Mestre and Llobet's transcription of
piano works by Granados by imitation from Llobet at this time. See Wade and Garno, New Look at
Segovia, 39.
86
Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 59-60.
87 Hess, Sacred Passions, 132
88 See Gibson, Federico Garcia Lorca, 82; Hess, Sacred Passions, 90.
89
Pedro Garcia Morales, 'Emilio Pujol,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A.
Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 400.
90 Pedro Garcia Morales, 'Miguel Llobet,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians, ed. A.
Eaglefield-Hull (London: Dent, 1924), 302.

236
and Spanish composers were recognised and his status as the most notable Spanish
guitarist of the post-War era was confirmed by the dedication to him of Falla's only
solo guitar piece, the Homenaje a Debussy (1920). However, in just a couple of years,
Segovia's fame would eclipse that of Llobet and all other Spanish guitarists.

Pujol uncovered much Spanish vihuela and guitar music from the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries and published numerous editions of these works for the modern
guitar.91 Pujol performed in London in 1912 and there were conflicting reviews of his
performance of a Gavotte and Fugue by J.S. Bach. According to The Observer,
Pujol's performance of the Bach "shed a flood of lights on their contents" whereas
The Guardian thought it was "hopeless to attempt to arrange Bach and Schubert for
the guitar."92 Pujol's guitar playing was praised at both this recital and a repeat visit
to London in 1914. There was a noticeable difference in the critical response to
Segovia's appearances of 1926 and 1927 when he played programmes with a similar
range of repertoire. The revival of interest in Bach was tied closely to Stravinsky's
neoclassicism of the early to mid 1920s and formed one of the bases of anti-
Romanticism between the wars. Segovia capitalized on the interest in Bach on the
guitar and through his commissioning of composers such as Manuel Ponce (1882-
1948) and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (1895-1968) gave the modern guitar repertoire
a strong neoclassical bias.93

Segovia toured extensively in South America and Spain in the early 1920s before his
breakthrough Paris debut on 7 April 1924.94 Many important figures of Spanish and
French music were in attendance, among them Paul Dukas (1865-1935), Albert
Roussel (1869-1937), Falla and Joaquin Nin.95 The excitement generated by
Segovia's continental performances guaranteed a healthy audience at his London

91 Segovia included a number of Pujol's arrangements in his repertoire.

92
`A Guitar Recital,' Observer, 15 Dec. 1912, 17; `A Guitar Recital in London,' Manchester
Guardian, 16 Dec. 1912, 4.
93
Works written for Segovia in the 1920s include the following pieces by Ponce: Sonata Mexicana
(1925), Thème varié et Finale (1926), Sonata 111(1927), Sonata cl6sica (1928), Sonata romc ntica
(1929), Suite en la Mineur (1929), written in the style of a Baroque lute suite by S. L. Weiss, and
Variations and Fugue on La Folia (1929). Castelnuovo Tedesco began writing for Segovia in the
1930s and his works for guitar include the Sonata Hommage à Boccherini, op. 77 (1935) and the Guitar
Concerto No. 1 in D major, op. 99 (1939).
94
For a thorough discussion of Segovia's concerts in Spain and overseas from 1920-1924 see Lopez
Poveda, Andrés Segovia: Vida y Obra, 146-183.
95
Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 51.

237
debut at the Aeolian Hall on 7 December 1926. Ernest Newman wrote in The Times,
"we went to Aeolian Hall on Tuesday afternoon expecting we did not quite know
what, but hoping, since Senor Andrés Segovia's reputation had preceded him...that
we should satisfy our curiosity about an instrument that has romantic associations".96

In reviews of his London debut, newspaper critics registered their surprise at the
musicality of his playing and amazement that a guitar could present such a broad
range of repertoire convincingly. The guitar was also linked to the burgeoning early
music scene, particularly the harpsichord, which it evoked in clarity of texture and
rhythm. The issue of limited concert repertoire for the guitar led naturally to a
discussion of new works. The Observer review of 12 December 1926 summed up the
enthusiasm of many English reviews of Segovia's London debut, "This Spanish
guitarist has given one of the most stimulating concerts of the season. There can be
no question that he is a very fine player with great command over his instrument and
much skill in managing the devices of its technique."97 Segovia's technical facility
was noted, as was his ability to vary the tone colour by movements of the right hand,

It was a revelation to hear what could be called forth from this instrument by an
expert, the variety of tone which could be obtained when the plucking hand was
moved gradually nearer the bridge: there was also a piercing quality in the upper
register and a rich tone in the lower strings which, in a succession of slow octaves,
gave out a sound that we feel is personal to the guitar alone.98

In response to Segovia's London debut a writer in The Times described the features of
the guitar that impressed the most: "This directness of touch makes possible subtleties
which even the violin cannot approach, still less the harpsichord, which is its nearest
relation in the matter of timbre."99 Segovia's performance of Bach works was singled
out for praise by the critic of The Observer who was less enthusiastic about the
modern repertoire for the guitar:

96
'A Guitar Recital,' Times, 9 Dec. 1926, 14.
97 Observer, 12 Dec. 1926.
98 Ibid.
99
'A Guitar Recital,' Times, 9 Dec. 1926, 14.

238
 The Bach Suite was played with fine phrasing. But the actual music of the modern
section was disappointing. It is true that guitarists have to rely to some extent on
arrangements. But there is de Falla's "Homenaje a Debussy," and there are the
compositions of Angel Barrios which we hope Don Andrés Segovia will one day let
us hear. The Turina that he played last week was interesting, the Albéniz (which we
suspect to have been a transcription) rather less so, the Torroba definitely dull. One
of the largest feats of performance was the Haydn Minuet, one of the most delightful
1°°
pieces of interpretation the Granados Dance.

After the success of his London debut in December 1926, Segovia was invited back
for concerts in January of the following year.1°1 His performances of Bach and the
historical resonances of the guitar (both real and imagined) conjured up images of
Elizabethan lute music, and made at least one writer speculate whether this could be a
source of guitar repertoire:

The making of a programme for his instrument must present difficulties, and we
venture to call Mr. Segovia's attention...to the music of our English lutenists, which
would be admirably suited to his purpose. To have it revived by such a musician, and
on an instrument so closely akin to that for which it was written, would be of great
interest and also a great pleasure.102

Segovia, however, did not explore or play English lute works. It was left for the next
generation of performers, in particular Julian Bream, to uncover this vast treasury of
lute music.103 Segovia often featured brackets of works by Bach in his programs of
the 1920s and 1930s and at the Wigmore Hall in November 1927 he opened with ten
pieces by Bach.104 The London magazine Keynotes published Segovia's transcription
of Bach's Gavotte (from Suite BWV 1006a) in September 1929, 105 and his

loo Observer, 12 Dec. 1926.

10t Lopez Poveda, Andrés Segovia: Vida y Obra, 210.
102
`Weekend Concerts,' Times, 31 Jan. 1927, 17.
103
Julian Bream pioneered the performance and recording of Elizabethan lute music in the 1950s and
1960s. See Button, Julian Bream.
1°4 'Concerts,' Times, 1 Nov. 1927, 12.
105
Keynotes was connected to a shop that sold banjos and guitars. The magazine was later taken over
by the B.M.G. magazine. These periodicals served amateur players of the banjo, mandolin and guitar
and they tell the story of the growing popularity of the guitar which eventually outstripped the banjo
and mandolin. See Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 67.

239
transcription of the Bach Chaconne confirmed Segovia's reputation as an interpreter
of Bach in the 1930s.106

The program from Segovia's recital of 29 January 1927 reprinted in figure 13 shows
an eclectic mixture of music from the Baroque and the nineteenth century alongside
new twentieth-century works in various styles that made up his repertoire at this point
in his career. This breadth of repertoire would not have been possible without the
numerous transcriptions for the guitar made by Târrega, Llobet and Segovia himself.

Figure 13. Program for Andres Segovia's concert at the Wigmore Hall, 29 January
1927.107

Composer Title Repertoire Category

Part I
F. Sor Andante and Rondo Nineteenth century
guitarist/composer
F. Moreno Torroba Danza Twentieth century composition
C. Pedrell Improvisation Twentieth century composition
E. Granados Tonadilla Romantic Spanish transcription

Part II
G. F. Handel Sarabande Baroque transcription
J.S. Bach Gavotte et Musette — Loure Baroque transcription
F. Mendelssohn Canzonetta Romantic transcription

Part III
M. Ponce Theme varie et Finale Twentieth century composition
G. Samazeuilh Serenata Twentieth century composition
I. Albéniz Granada — Cadiz Romantic Spanish transcription

New compositions made up a substantial portion of Segovia's early programs.

Through his commissioning of new works Segovia reinforced the neoclassical
orientation of the modem classical guitar, although a number of established
composers who wrote works for Segovia found he did not play their works. Pieces by

106 Segovia published his transcription of the Bach Chaconne in 1934. Ibid., 89.
107 Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 65.

240
Roussel (Segovia), Frank Martin (1890-1974) (Quatre Pièces Brèves) and three
English composers fall into this category. The English composers in question are
Eugene Goossens (1893-1962), Lennox Berkeley (1903-1989) and Cyril Scott (1879-
1970) who all wrote pieces for Segovia that did not enter his repertoire. The
Goossens work has been lost but recent research has brought the Scott and Berkeley
works to light.'08

In the 1920s Cyril Scott was an established composer with a growing performance
profile in Europe.109 He counted amongst his friends Ravel and Debussy who both
organized performances of his works in Paris. Scott probably met Segovia through
their mutual friend Morales,10 and wrote a three-movement Sonatina for Segovia,
who only played the opening movement, under the title Reverie." In July 1927
Segovia wrote to Ponce that he was working on the Sonatina by Scott "without great
enthusiasm."112 The only London performance of Scott's guitar work took place at
Wigmore Hall on 11 May 1928. In a review in The Times, Scott's work was
compared unfavourably with Falla's Homenaje for guitar:

A "Reverie" by Cyril Scott, dedicated to the recitalist, was given its first performance,
but even Mr. Segovia could not make it hang together as a continuous piece of
musical thinking. De Falla's "Hommage a Debussy" provided a strong contrast to
this piece. It is rhapsodic in manner, and makes clever allusions, without any very
definite quotation, to various works by Debussy, and yet there is no feeling of
patchiness.113

108 The publisher Berben, in conjunction with the Andres Segovia archive in Linares, Spain, has
?ublished a number of previously unpublished scores from Segovia's library.
09 See A. Eaglefield-Hull, `Cyril Meir Scott,' A Dictionary of Modern Music and Musicians (London:
J.M. Dent, 1924), 449. Eaglefield-Hull also penned a monograph on Scott. See A. Eaglefield-Hull,
Cyril Scott, Composer, Poet, Philosopher (London: K. Paul, Trench, Trubner and Co., 1918).
110 In a letter to Manuel Ponce, Segovia described the stature of Morales in London, "I want to give you
the address of a friend of mine in London, editor of several German and English journals, composer
and one of the most faithful people you can imagine...he is Pedro Morales. In London he is considered
an authoritative critic, and moreover, since he is a man of English high society, there is not an event in
which he is not involved." Miguel Alcazar, ed., The Segovia-Ponce Letters, trans. Peter Segal
(Columbus: Editions Orphée, 1989), 17.
111 The movement Segovia played is probably the first which is the most reflective of the three
movements. In the published score there is no subtitle, just the direction `Adagio quasi introduzione'.
Cyril Scott, Sonatina, ed. Angelo Gilardino and Luigi Biscaldi (Ancona: Berben, 2002).
112
Alcazar, Segovia-Ponce Letters, 12-13.
113
Times, 14 May 1928, 21.

241
Although Segovia later played Scott's piece in Buenos Aires, it is fair to assume that
Segovia did not like the work and he and Scott did not keep in touch. Scott made no
mention of Segovia in his autobiography.114

The English composer Lennox Berkeley studied with Nadia Boulanger in Paris
between 1927 and 1932 and his Quatre pièces pour la guitar, dedicated to Segovia,
were probably written during this time.115 The four pieces were discovered in the
Segovia Archive in Linares by Angelo Gilardino in 2001, and exhibit an
understanding of guitar texture that Berkeley carried over to his later works written
for Bream and Angelo Gilardino.116 In a short review of a 1931 Segovia performance
in Paris Berkeley showed his admiration for Segovia's talent:

Another recital that roused great enthusiasm was Segovia's conce rt at the Opéra. I
think it is superfluous to praise Segovia's guitar playing—it will suffice to say that he
was at the top of his form and amply justified his choice of the Opéra to perform
in...the fact that one heard perfectly every sound bears witness not only to Segovia's
power of tone production but also to the acoustic properties of the Opéra.117

While Berkeley's Quatre pièces have only recently entered the guitar repertoire,
Berkeley's other guitar works, particularly the Sonatina (1957) have been played and
recorded many times in recent decades.

A key factor in Segovia's international success in the 1920s and 1930s was his
embrace of the medium of recording. Many of his early recordings were made in
London and reviewed in Gramophone magazine, from as early as August 1927.118

The guitar reached a new height of popularity in England as a result of Segovia's

success and on 13 October 1931 the Philharmonia Society of Guitarists honoured him
with a dinner, following similar occasions for guitarists Pujol and Mathilde

114
Allan Clive Jones, foreword to Cyril Scott Sonatina, 5.
115
Peter Dickinson, The Music of Lennox Berkeley (Rochester: Boydell Press, 2003), 185.
116 Berkeley wrote Sonatina, Songs of the Half Light and Guitar Concerto (op. 88) for Julian Bream.
The Theme and Variations (op. 77) of 1970 was written for Angelo Gilardino.
117
Dickinson, Lennox Berkeley, 185.
118 Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 68.

242
Cuervas.119 Segovia's membership of the Society and the health of society
membership was noted in the monthly B.M.G. magazine:

The Society will shortly celebrate its fourth anniversary and it is satisfactory to note
that the membership has increased by forty per cent. High society has also shown a
keen interest in the movement. H.H. Princess Galitzine, the Earl of Dries, Baron von
Haeften, and many other well-known people having become members. During the
past year, the celebrated guitarist, A. Segovia, became a member and practically all
the world's most famous players have now joined.120

The foundations for the ongoing popularity of the classical guitar in England were
laid during the inter-war period. In the 1930s Len Williams, father of the Anglo-
Australian guitarist John Williams (1941-), heard Segovia for the first time in London.
Both John Williams and his English contemporary Bream (1933-) would gain
prominence among the next generation of classical guitar virtuosi.

Spanish musicians continued to influence the trajectory of the classical guitar as the
twentieth century progressed. Segovia maintained a busy international touring
schedule until his death in 1989 while Spanish guitarists such as Narciso Yepes
(1927-1997) mapped a distinctly Spanish path for the instrument through the
commissioning of new works and creation of new transcriptions in addition to fresh
technical approaches to the instrument.121 Spanish composer Joaquin Rodrigo's
(1901-1999) Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) was the most performed concerto for the
guitar in the twentieth century and recorded by most of the leading guitarists of the
generations after Segovia.

London remained an important centre for the classical guitar throughout the twentieth
century, with the Wigmore Hall one of the world's most prestigious venues for guitar
recitals. A healthy number of London publishers and critics ensured that the Spanish
classical guitar continued to thrive in the English capital.

19 Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 75.

120 B.M.G, 39 (Feb., 1932): 99. Quoted in Wade and Garno, New Look at Segovia, 75.
121
Bacarrise wrote his Concertino for Guitar and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 72 (1952) for Yepes.
Yepes pioneered the use of the ten-string guitar and used it for his transcriptions of lute music and also
modern works.

243
Through an examination of the English reception of Falla's neoclassical works and
the issues surrounding them in the 1920s, I have shown how Spanish music was
accepted as a genuine force in European music. In El retablo and the Concerto Falla
created a new type of Spanish music, distanced from nineteenth-century Romantic
stereotypes, with a conscious move towards a Castilian-shaped Hispanicism. In
Falla's construction of Spanish neoclassicism, he employed elements of Spanish early
music and drew on the example of Stravinsky who in turn endorsed Falla's stylistic
transformation. English-based critics such as Trend made vital contributions to the
dissemination of Spanish music in London in the 1920s. The continued performances
of Falla's earlier works in 1920s London ensured that he remained the most
prominent Spanish composer of the decade.

Falla's dual interests in Spanish early music and neoclassicism were united in the
repertoire of the classical guitar. The guitar was able to suggested ancient lutes and
vihuelas, while retaining its image as the quintessentially Spanish instrument. Both
the classical guitar and emerging flamenco guitar styles would come to define
Spanish music for an international audience during the years of Franco's rule and
beyond.122

122
Francisco Franco (1892-1975) ruled Spain from 1936 until his death.

244
 Conclusion

In response to a 1931 performance of Noches en los jardines de Espana in London, a

writer compared Falla's achievements with those of the new English school of
composition,

His music is full of the shimmer of guitars and stamping dance-rhythms. But here is
no Spanish Rhapsody, or pot-pourri of folk-tunes. The native material has been
absorbed, as Vaughan Williams has absorbed it in England, and out of it a personal
style has been created.'

In this thesis I have focused on specific protagonists and events that contributed to the
English reception of Spanish music between 1878 and 1930. In that time the
landscape for Spanish music in London evolved from Romantic perspectives based on
exotic stereotypes to reflect some of the concerns of post-war musical modernism and
nationalism in a new cosmopolitan context. The recognition of Spanish music in
1920s London was due to the confluence of many factors and the culmination of
decades of English engagement with Spanish music.

The opera Carmen defined Spanish music for many during this period and was a
potent symbol of Spanishness in the English public imagination. In the 1920s the
enduring nature of stereotypes derived from the opera came to be seen as a hindrance
to the development of a sophisticated appreciation of Spanish music in England.

The strength and hybridity of popular entertainment in London's music halls and the
theatre meant that Spanish music was easily incorporated into popular entertainments.
This crossover between "low art" or popular music contexts and elevated ballet, opera
and concert settings ensured a broad dissemination of Spanish music and fostered a
diverse range of Spanish entertainments in the English capital.

Questions of what constituted "real" or "true" Spanish music comprised an important

element of the English engagement with Spain. Even the most prominent Spanish

'"The Musicians Gramophone", Times, 21 Jan. 1931, 12.

245
musicians were occasionally seen to be lacking the key ingredients of Spanishness
when compared to Bizet's music or tropes derived from Carmen. "Spanish" music
written by non-Spaniards could also be considered authentic and contributed to the
ongoing appreciation of Spain. What was deemed to be a "true" representation of
Spanish music was constantly changing and at various times all of the following were
considered authentically Spanish: nineteenth-century dancers trained in the art of the
Bolero school, visiting Spanish guitarists, the opera Carmen, estudiantinas, flamenco,
cante jondo, The Three-Cornered Hat, Falla's neoclassical works and the Spanish
classical guitar. Notions of authenticity and Spanish music continued to evolve as
visiting Spanish artists responded to the demands and expectations of English
audiences and critics, and as English audiences became more familiar with musical
developments in Spain and France.

In the late nineteenth century the images portrayed by travel writers heavily
influenced the English appreciation of Spanish music. In the Edwardian era and the
years after World War I some English writers cultivated a more complex appreciation
of Spanish music, becoming expert commentators and informing the English
reception of Hispanic works. The stimulus provided by French writers and musicians
to the modern appreciation of Spanish music was decisive in England. Without the
guiding influence provided by the French promotion of Spanish music, the English
perspective would not have been so richly nuanced.

In this thesis I have outlined different stages of appreciation of Spanish music in

England, which at times were mediated by extra-musical events and international
trends. Changing political relationships and international alliances also influenced the
reception and acceptance of Spanish music in England. While some stereotypes
associated with Spanish music persisted throughout the period under examination, it
is clear that Spanish music came to be considered beyond the confines of a timeless
and unchanging exotic "Other".

A number of topics explored in this thesis could be of interest for further research into
how English perceptions of Spanish music continued to change in the twentieth
century. In recent years scholars have begun to focus attention on the
cosmopolitanism of the inter-War years and the relationship between English and

246
Spanish streams of modernism. A resource worth examining in this context is the
Dent Archive at the library of King's College Cambridge which holds material
relating to Dent's work with the International Society of Contemporary Music and
correspondence between Dent and Trend.

It would be fascinating to consider the ongoing reception of The Three-Cornered Hat

in England in tandem with the revival in English ballet. Of the works by Falla
discussed in this thesis, The Three-Cornered Hat was the most frequently performed
in the decades that followed. Massine's association with the ballet in England from
the late 1940s underscored subtle transformations in the English reception of Spanish
music and dance at a time when the modern English ballet tradition was being formed.
He revived The Three-Cornered Hat for the Sadler's Wells Ballet,2 and continued to
champion the work in England until the 1950s.3 This period also witnessed the
proliferation of Spanish dance companies touring England, many of which were
influenced by the choreography of the Ballets Russes. It could be argued that the
continued popularity of The Three-Cornered Hat and Spanish ballet in England
obscured the appreciation of Falla's neoclassical works and Spanish modernist music
in the post-World-War-II era .4 It was not until the demise of General Franco in 1975
and the subsequent international fashion for Spain of the 1980s and 1990s that these
works began to receive more performances and recordings.

Another area ripe for future investigation is the rise to prominence of the Spanish
classical guitar in England from the late 1950s through the recordings and
performances of Julian Bream and John Williams. The popularity of the classical
guitar roughly coincided with Spain opening its borders to tourism through an
extended campaign of mass marketing.5 The Franco regime's tourist campaign of the
1960s had an impact on projections of the Spanish guitar in England and the way the
instrument was promoted internationally in the 1960s and beyond. Williams studied
guitar with Segovia and his father Len established the Spanish Guitar Centre in

2 Leslie Norton, Léonide Massine and the 20th Century Ballet (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2004), 274.
3 Vicente Garcia-Marquez, Massine: a Biography (New York: Knopf, 1995), 311-315.
4 Although there was some interest in the music of the post civil-war Spanish émigré composer Roberto
Gerhard (1896-1970).
S
M. Barke and J. Towner, `Exploring the History of Leisure and Tourism in Spain,' in Tourism In
Spain: Critical Issues, eds. M. Barke, J. Towner and M.T. Newton (Wallingford: CAB International,
1996).

247
London in the 1950s. John Williams recorded prolifically in the 1960s, and amongst
his best selling albums were those showcasing Spanish repertoire.6 By this time
Julian Bream was already well established as a recording artist and a number of his
recordings emphasised the Spanish orientation of the classical guitar. While
cultivating new repertoires for the instrument, they both continued to endorse the
image of the classical guitar as a Spanish instrument through recordings and
television appearances in the late twentieth century.8

The international fascination with Spanish music continued in the last decades of the
twentieth century. Spain joined the European Union in 1986 and international interest
in the country reaching a high point in 1992 with Barcelona hosting the Olympic
Games and the Universal Exposition held in Seville. This activity signalled a new
wave of interest in Spanish music and culture.

In the midst of this continued interest in Spanish music and dance, Carmen continued
to exercise its fascination on English audiences and act as a marker of Spanishness.
The recent advertising of two Carmen productions in London illustrates how the quest
for an authentic version of the work continues, while at the same time nineteenth-
century Spanish stereotypes persist. A 2012 production directed by Spanish director
Calixto Bieito at the English National Opera in London was promoted as an updated
production, faithful to Bizet's original conception of the work, while still engaging
with mythic Spanish elements in the opera:

In rejecting the opera's traditional touristic trappings and presenting it instead as a

full-on battle of the sexes, fought out in the near-mythic arena of a symbolic Spanish
bullring, Calixto Bieito's hugely popular production...is arguably truer to the spirit of

6 John Williams, A Spanish Guitar, Westminster, Wst14138, 1961; Two Guitar Concertos, Rodrigo
and Castelnuovo-Tedesco, CBS 72439/6834, 1965; Two Guitar Concertos, Rodrigo and Dodgson, CBS
72661 /MS 7063, 1968; John Williams Plays Spanish Music, CBS 72728, 1970. See William Starling,
Strings Attached: The Life and Music of John Williams (London: Robson Press, 2012).
7 Julian Bream, The Art of the Spanish Guitar, RCA, VCS 7057(2), 1970; Popular Classics for Spanish
Guitar, RCA, SB6887, 1974.
8 Julian Bream filmed a series for television exploring the guitar music of Spain, first aired in 1984 and
John Williams recorded a very successful album in the Royal Alcazar in Seville. John Williams, The
Seville Concert, Sony 53359, 1993; Julian Bream, Guitarra! A Musical Journey Through Spain, first
aired on BBC TV on 11 October, 1984.

248
 Bizet's original conception than most more conventional stagings you'll ever see.9

By way of contrast, a recent Royal Opera House production of Carmen was

advertised with language reminiscent of nineteenth-century travel writers: "Spanish
heat and gypsy passion are brought to the stage in Francesca Zambello's vivid
production of Bizet's opera."10 As these two quotations demonstrate, Carmen has
retained its currency as a marker of Spanishness and many stereotypes about Spanish
music drawn from the nineteenth century have endured and been repackaged for later
generations. At the same time elusive notions of authenticity and what constitutes
"true" Spanish music and culture continue to resonate in the early twenty-first century.

9 'English National Opera,' accessed 16 May 2013, www.eno.org/see-whats-

on/productions/production-page.php?item id=2133.
10 `Royal Opera House, Carmen,' accessed 16 May, 2013, www.roh.org.uk/productions/carmen-by-
francesca-zambello.

249
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Minerva Access is the Institutional Repository of The University of Melbourne

Author/s:
MURRAY, KEN

Title:
Spanish music and its representations in London (1878-1930): from the exotic to the modern

Date:
2013

Persistent Link:
http://hdl.handle.net/11343/57402

File Description:
Spanish music and its representations in London (1878-1930): from the exotic to the modern