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These pages contain program notes written for Redwood
Symphony. You are free to use the information in your own program
notes. If you quote me directly, please attribute it. Thanks!
These notes were edited, amended, and otherwise
improved by Eric Kujawsky, Peter Stahl, and Doug Wyatt.
Barbara Heninger
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Emmanuel Chabrier
España
Emmanuel Chabrier's family intended him to be a lawyer, and he dutifully
studied, passed his exams, and worked in the Ministry of the Interior for
eighteen years. But his passion was always music, and he began composing on the
side, publishing many minor works and two operettas before finally abandoning
his ministry post in 1880 to devote his time to composition.
He loved the stage and wrote many comic operas as befitted his generally
sunny personality. These works were popular at the time, but his musical
influence was deeper than mere public fancy. His colorful musical palette and
adept compositional ability brought him admirers such as Maurice Ravel, who
later wrote that "all of contemporary French music stems from [Chabrier's]
work."
It was España that established Chabrier as a composer of serious
works. In 1882 he visited Spain with his wife and family, and was enchanted by
the energy of Iberian music. He described the dancers at the café concerts to a
friend: "If you could see them wiggle, unjoint their hips, contort, I believe
you would not want to get away! At Malaga I was compelled to take my wife away…"
Returning to Paris, he promised the conductor Charles Lamoureux he would write a
Spanish-themed piece that would cause audience members to leap up and embrace
each other. Though the first performance in 1883 may not have ended in a group
hug, the piece did catch fire with the public, and its themes were so memorable
that the main melody was a hit again 73 years later in a 1956 ditty called "Hot
Diggity" (with the chorus: "oh hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom what you do to
me").
Though he first wrote España for piano, Chabrier quickly realized it
needed the thrust and brilliance that orchestration could give it, and he makes
full use of his resources. Written in a traditional sonata form, the two main
themes contrast the tempestuous Spanish jota with the slower, lyrical malagueña.
The kinetic first theme, by means of repeated hemiolas, seems to be in three and
two simultaneously (much like "America" in West Side Story). In the
development, Chabrier hints at the "endless variety of rhythms" that he
heard superimposed on the basic 3/4 pattern of the dance. A new theme is
introduced by the trombones, punctuated by references to the opening theme. The
conventional recapitulation is followed by an exciting coda that brings back the
trombone theme for a brilliant conclusion. If we are not left dancing in the
aisles, it is only because we have suppressed Chabrier's delicious enticement.
April 1, 2001
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