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National Traditions in the Music of Roberto Gerhard

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2016

Julian White
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Extract

Since his death in 1970 Roberto Gerhard's posthumous reputation has suffered from precisely the kind of neglect that seems to follow the death of many a major artist. For those admirers in Britain and Spain expecting to have to wait for the centenary of his birth in 1996 for any kind of reassessment, 1992 provided an unexpected, and very welcome, interim bonus.

Type
Research Article
Information
Tempo , Issue 184 , March 1993 , pp. 2 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1993

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References

* See Antony Bye's reviews of The Duenna premiére in Tempo 180 (p.19) and the Auvidis disc in Tempo 183 (p.48) –(Ed).

1 BBC Radio talk (1949).

2 The melodies arranged in Cancionero de Pedrell are taken from Pedrell's pioneering collection of traditional Spanish sources, the Cancionero Musical Popular Español. This is one of a number of folksong collections that Gerhard possessed and from which he was to draw inspiration. Others included the 1928 volume of the mammoth but incomplete Obra del Canconer Popular de Catalunya, one of the first collections to reject such artificial ‘improvements’ as regularized barring, and K. Schindler's Folk Music & Poetry of Spain & Portugal, the first scientific study of Spanish folksong to be based on actual field recordings. I am indebted to the kind generosity of Dr. Rosemary Summers (the executor of the Gerhard estate) for giving me access to these collections and other primary source material and for granting me permission to quote freely from them. The examples cited in the text can be found in these and other collections which are referred to by the following abbreviations: Pedrell, F.. Cancioniero Musical Popular Español (Vails, 1919–1922): CMPEGoogle Scholar. Obra del Canconer Popular de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1926–1929) edited by Pujol, F. and others: OCPCGoogle Scholar. Schindler, K.. Folk Music & Poetry of Spain & Portugal (New York, 1941): FMPSPGoogle Scholar. F. Lorca. Coleccion de Canciones Populaires Antigues: CCPA. Baldelló, F.. Catifoner Popular Religiós de Catalunya (Barcelona, 1932): CPRCGoogle Scholar. Cancons Populars Catalanes (Biblioteca popular de ‘L'Avenc’, Barcelona, 1909) First Series: CPC1. Second Series: CPC2Google Scholar. Gordon, R. Mitjana y. ‘La Musique en Espagne. In Encyclopedic de la musique et dictionahe du Conservatoire (1920), Pt 1, pp. 1913–2351.: EMDC. J. Inzenga. Folk Songs of Murcia: FSM. S. Segui. Cantionero Musical de la Provincia de Alicante: CMPAGoogle Scholar.

3 Drew, David. ‘Roberto Gerhard: The Musical Character’, Score (09 1956): 40 Google Scholar.

4 Collet, Henri. L'Essor de la Musique Espagnole au XXe siecle. (Paris, 1929)Google Scholar.

† See Nash's, Peter Paul article on the work, Tempo 139 pp.5–11 Google Scholar. (Ed.)

5 Casablancas, Benet. ‘Recepcio a Catalunya de L'escola de Viena’ Rtcerca Musicologica IV (Barcelona, 1984): 246 Google Scholar.

6 Paine, R. Hispanic Traditions in 20th Century Catalan Music (New York & London, 1989)Google Scholar. Paine's study is a useful introduction to 20th-century Catalan music in which the music of Gerhard as well as that of three ofhis contemporaries – Toldra, Mompou and Montsalvatge – is related to both Catalan and Spanish musical traditions.

7 Llúis Millet epitomizes the prevailing attitudes of the Catalan musical establishment at this time. An eminent musician in Barcelona, he was, with Amadeu Vives, the joint founder of the ‘Orfeo Catala’, a conservative and bourgeois choral organization. Details of the concert and the subsequent polemic are given in: Artis, Pere. ‘La polemica Robert Gerhard – Llúis Millet’. Revista Musical Catalana, Vol. 23, 09. 1986: 28–29 Google Scholar.

8 Llates, Rossend. ‘The Independent Composers’. Mirador, Vol. 3 no. 127, 9 07 1931: 5 Google Scholar.

9 McCully, M. Introduction to Hommage to Barcelona: the city and its art (1888-1935) (London, 1985): 15 Google Scholar.

10 Gerhard, R. ‘Musicians of Today, Bela Bartok’. Mirador, Vol. 3 no. 105, 5 02: 5 Google Scholar. Like Bartok, Gerhard was more attracted to the obscure and primitive forms of his native folkmusic (the peasant repetory) than to the corrupted and commercialized Andalusian flamenco which he regarded as a Spanish equivalent of Hungarian Tzigane music. With the exception of Alegrias (a deliberately ironic pastiche of flamenco style) Gerhard either avoids the Andalusian idiom or radically transforms it.

11 Schoenberg, A. ‘National Music II’, 24 02 1931, in Style and Idea (London & Boston): 173 Google Scholar.

12 Gerhard, R. op. cit.

13 Livermore, A. A Short History of Spanish Musk (London 1972): 173 Google Scholar.

14 Whilst these melodic sources were consciously exploited by Gerhard, the Catalan-sounding theme that represents Don Quixote himself was apparently a discovery of Gerhard's subconscious. It was only after composing the first scene of the ballet that he became aware of its similarity to a theme from his home town of Vails, where ‘it is played on a primitive reed-instrument as the march music for the huge cardboard-headed giants which on solemn occasions herald the approach of religious processions’. Richard Raine compares it to In Recort -a processional tune from Catalonia sung by a boy and accompanied by a trumpet, which is cited in Pedrell's, Cancionero (vol. 1, no. 140)Google Scholar.

15 In an unpublished letter to Colin Mason (20 February 1958), Gerhard recalls having been surprised to discover later that this was not in fact a Zarzuela melody that he had heard Sarasate play as an encore in his home town during his youth, but ‘something out of valse by Waldteufel called (significant perhaps in the coincidence) Esptrna’.

16 Entry in Gerhard's Notebooks cited by David Drew in the Programme book to the Opera North production (1992).

17 McCabe, J. ‘Gerhard: Creator in Exile’, Records and Recording 15 (02 1972): 44–5Google Scholar.

18 Paine, R. Op. Cit.

19 Wood, Hugh. Lecture entitled: ‘Roberto Gerhard, The Symphonist’. 03, 1983 Google Scholar.

* Quoted here in the condensed form, using long note-values, that was cited by MacDonald, Calum in ‘Sense and Sound: – Gerhard's Fourth Symphony’ (Tempo 100, p.29)Google Scholar, where allusion was made to its Spanish character, but not of course to this specific source. (Ed.)

20 Draft letter written in response to Hans Keller's open letter to the composer concerning the Fourth Symphony. See: Keller, Hans. ‘Roberto Gerhard's Two Ears’, Listener No.82, 24 07 1969: 121 Google Scholar.