ExclusiveChabrier: España, rhapsody for orchestra

【Classical music and nature 古典音樂小站】Emmanuel Chabrier: España, rhapsody for orchestra. This beautiful piece was played by Waterloo-Cedar Falls Symphony. It has Creative Commons license (CC BY 3.0 DEED Attribution 3.0 Unported) and is provided through www.musopen.org.

España, rhapsody for orchestra (rapsodie pour orchestre in its original French) is a work by Emmanuel Chabrier, written and premiered in 1883 and dedicated to conductor Charles Lamoreux. The piece had its source of inspiration in a trip to Spain that Chabrier took with his wife in 1882. While visiting, he learned about the local folk genres, and returned with the idea of working on a voluptuous and powerful piece evoking them.

In more detail: From July to December 1882 Chabrier and his wife toured Spain, taking in San Sebastian, Burgos, Toledo, Seville, Granada, Málaga, Cádiz, Cordoba, Valencia, Saragossa and Barcelona.His letters written during his travels are full of good humour, keen observation and his reactions to the music and dance he came across and demonstrate his genuine literary gift. In a letter to Edouard Moullé (18451923); a long-time musician friend of Chabrier, himself interested in folk music of Normandy and Spain, the composer details his researches into regional dance forms, giving notated musical examples. A later letter to Lamoureux, from Cadiz, dated 25 October (in Spanish) has Chabrier writing that on his return to Paris he would compose an extraordinary fantasia which would incite the audience to a pitch of excitement, and that even Lamoureux would be obliged to hug the orchestral leader in his arms, so voluptuous would be his melodies.

Although at first Chabrier worked on the piece for piano duet, this evolved into a work for full orchestra. Composed between January and August 1883, it was originally called Jota but this became España in October 1883.

Encored at its first performance, and received well by the critics, it sealed Chabrier's fame overnight. The work was praised by Lecocq, Duparc, Hahn, de Falla (who did not think any Spanish composer had succeeded in achieving so genuine a version of the jota, and even Mahler (who declared it to be the start of modern music to musicians of the New York Philharmonic). Chabrier more than once described it as a piece in F and nothing more.

Parts of España feature prominently in the Waldteufel waltz España of 1886. It is also the basis of the melody of the 1956 American popular song Hot Diggity (Dog Ziggity Boom). (Source: hebu-music.com)

The score asks for 1 flute, 1 piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets in Bb, 4 bassoons, 2 horns in F, 2 natural horns in C, 2 trumpets, 2 piston cornets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, various percussions, and two harps.

The video was filmed at "Schwarzsee" (black lake) in Switzerland by Simone Schlegel and edited by Wenjing Ma.






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