Iberia (Albéniz)
Encyclopedia
Iberia is a suite
for piano
composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish
composer Isaac Albéniz
. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half.
It is Albéniz's masterpiece and his best-known work, highly praised by Claude Debussy
and Olivier Messiaen
, who said: "Iberia is the wonder for the piano; it is perhaps on the highest place among the more brilliant pieces for the king of the instruments". Stylistically, this suite falls squarely in the school of Impressionism
, especially in its musical evocations of Spain. Technically, Iberia is one of the most difficult pieces in the repertoire, requiring immense strength from its interpreters and flexible hands.
's wife.
, but each book was premiered in a different place and on a different date. Three of the performances were in Paris
, the other being in a small town in the south of France.
, Miguel Baselga, Michel Block
, Guillermo González
(according to his own critical edition of the score), Marc-André Hamelin
, Alicia de Larrocha
(3 times: 1962, 1973, 1986), Yvonne Loriod
, and Esteban Sánchez
, among others.
and Carlos Surinach
each arranged pieces from Iberia for full orchestra. More recently, Peter Breiner
arranged the whole work for full orchestra. A version for three guitars was made by Christophe Dejour and recorded by Trio Campanella. A two guitars overdubbing
version has been released by French guitarist Jean-Marc Zvellenreuther. There is an orchestral arrangement of the Fête-dieu à Seville by Leopold Stokowski
, from the mid-1920s, which he recorded with the Philadelphia Orchestra
in 1928.
Suite
In music, a suite is an ordered set of instrumental or orchestral pieces normally performed in a concert setting rather than as accompaniment; they may be extracts from an opera, ballet , or incidental music to a play or film , or they may be entirely original movements .In the...
for piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
composed between 1905 and 1909 by the Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
composer Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Albéniz
Isaac Manuel Francisco Albéniz y Pascual was a Spanish Catalan pianist and composer best known for his piano works based on folk music idioms .-Life:Born in Camprodon, province of Girona, to Ángel Albéniz and his wife Dolors Pascual, Albéniz...
. It comprises four books of three pieces each; a complete performance lasts about an hour and a half.
It is Albéniz's masterpiece and his best-known work, highly praised by Claude Debussy
Claude Debussy
Claude-Achille Debussy was a French composer. Along with Maurice Ravel, he was one of the most prominent figures working within the field of impressionist music, though he himself intensely disliked the term when applied to his compositions...
and Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen
Olivier Messiaen was a French composer, organist and ornithologist, one of the major composers of the 20th century. His music is rhythmically complex ; harmonically and melodically it is based on modes of limited transposition, which he abstracted from his early compositions and improvisations...
, who said: "Iberia is the wonder for the piano; it is perhaps on the highest place among the more brilliant pieces for the king of the instruments". Stylistically, this suite falls squarely in the school of Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
, especially in its musical evocations of Spain. Technically, Iberia is one of the most difficult pieces in the repertoire, requiring immense strength from its interpreters and flexible hands.
Book 1
Dedicated to Ernest ChaussonErnest Chausson
Amédée-Ernest Chausson was a French romantic composer who died just as his career was beginning to flourish.-Life:Ernest Chausson was born in Paris into a prosperous bourgeois family...
's wife.
- Evocación (A-flat minor - A-flat major), an impressionist reminiscence of Albéniz' native country, combining elements of the southern Spanish fandangoFandangoFandango is a lively couple's dance, usually in triple metre, traditionally accompanied by guitars and castanets or hand-clapping . Fandango can both be sung and danced. Sung fandango is usually bipartite: it has an instrumental introduction followed by "variaciones"...
and the northern Spanish jotaJota (music)The jota is a genre of music and the associated dance known throughout Spain, most likely originating in Aragon. It varies by region, having a characteristic form in Valencia, Aragon, Castile, Navarra, Cantabria, Asturias, Galicia and Murcia. Being a visual representation, the jota is danced and...
song forms. - El puerto (D-flat major), a zapateadoZapateadoThe zapateado is a dance of Mexican Indian origin characterized by a lively rhythm punctuated by the striking of the dancer's shoes, akin to tap dance...
inspired by the port town of CádizCádizCadiz is a city and port in southwestern Spain. It is the capital of the homonymous province, one of eight which make up the autonomous community of Andalusia....
. - Fête-dieu à Seville (F-sharp minor - F-sharp major) (alternative titles sometimes found: "Corpus Christi"; "El Corpus en Sevilla"), describing the Corpus Christi DayCorpus Christi (feast)Corpus Christi is a Latin Rite solemnity, now designated the solemnity of The Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ . It is also celebrated in some Anglican, Lutheran and Old Catholic Churches. Like Trinity Sunday and the Solemnity of Christ the King, it does not commemorate a particular event in...
procession in SevilleSevilleSeville is the artistic, historic, cultural, and financial capital of southern Spain. It is the capital of the autonomous community of Andalusia and of the province of Seville. It is situated on the plain of the River Guadalquivir, with an average elevation of above sea level...
, during which the Corpus Christi is carried through the streets accompanied by marching bands. This is arguably the most difficult piece in this suite, with the piano partiture spanning three and four stavesStaff (music)In standard Western musical notation, the staff, or stave, is a set of five horizontal lines and four spaces that each represent a different musical pitch—or, in the case of a percussion staff, different percussion instruments. Appropriate music symbols, depending upon the intended effect,...
in long sections. Musically, this piece consists of a processional march that eventually becomes overwhelmed by a mournful saetaSaeta (flamenco)The Saeta is a revered Spanish religious song, whose form and style have evolved over many centuries. They evoke strong emotion and are sung most often during public processions.-Performance:...
, the melody evoking Andalusian cante jondoCante jondoCante jondo is a vocal style in flamenco. An unspoiled form of Andalusian folk music, the name means deep song It is generally considered that the common traditional classification of flamenco music is divided into three groups of which the deepest, most serious forms are known as cante jondo...
and the accompaniment evoking flamencoFlamencoFlamenco is a genre of music and dance which has its foundation in Andalusian music and dance and in whose evolution Andalusian Gypsies played an important part....
guitars. The march and saeta alternate ever more loudly until the main march theme is restated as a lively tarantellaTarantellaThe term tarantella groups a number of different southern Italian couple folk dances characterized by a fast upbeat tempo, usually in 6/8 time , accompanied by tambourines. It is among the most recognized of traditional Italian music. The specific dance name varies with every region, for instance...
that ends abruptly with a flamboyant fort-fort-fort-fortissimo climactic chord; the piece concludes with a gentle coda again evoking flamenco guitars along with distant church bells.
Book 2
- Rondeña (D major), after the Andalusian town of RondaRondaRonda is a city in Spanish province of Málaga. It is located about West from the city of Málaga, within the autonomous community of Andalusia. Its population is approximately 35,000 inhabitants.-History:...
. - Almería (G major)
- Triana (F-sharp minor), after the Gypsy quarter of SevilleTriana, SevilleTriana is a neighborhood and administrative district in the city of Seville that lies on the west bank of the Guadalquivir river. Like other neighborhoods that were historically split from the main city, it was known as an arrabal. Triana is placed in an almost-island between two branches of the...
.
Book 3
- El Albaicín (B-flat minor - B-flat major)
- El Polo (F minor)
- Lavapiés (D-flat major), after the district of MadridLavapiésLavapiés is a central neighbourhood of the city of Madrid, centered on Plaza de Lavapiés.It was the Jewish quarter of the city until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492, the church of San Lorenzo being built on the former site of the synagogue...
.
Book 4
- Málaga (B-flat minor - B-flat major)
- Jerez (A minor (arguably E PhrygianPhrygian modeThe Phrygian mode can refer to three different musical modes: the ancient Greek tonos or harmonia sometimes called Phrygian, formed on a particular set octave species or scales; the Medieval Phrygian mode, and the modern conception of the Phrygian mode as a diatonic scale, based on the latter...
) - E major) - Eritaña (E-flat major)
Premier performance
The twelve pieces were first performed by the French pianist Blanche SelvaBlanche Selva
Blanche Selva was a French pianist, music educator, writer and composer of Catalan origin.-Biography:Blanche Selva was born in Brive-la-Gaillarde in Corrèze. As a child she studied piano with a number of teachers, took preparatory classes with Sophie Chen, and was admitted to the Paris...
, but each book was premiered in a different place and on a different date. Three of the performances were in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, the other being in a small town in the south of France.
- Book I: May 9, 1906, Salle PleyelSalle PleyelThe Salle Pleyel is a concert hall in Paris, France. The resident ensembles are the Orchestre de Paris and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.-History and Design:...
, Paris - Book II: September 11, 1907, Saint-Jean-de-LuzSaint-Jean-de-LuzSaint-Jean-de-Luz is a commune in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques department in south-western France.Saint-Jean-de-Luz is part of the province Basque of Labourd and the Basque Eurocity Bayonne - San Sebastian .-Geography:...
- Book III: January 2, 1908, Palace of Princess de PolignacWinnaretta SingerWinnaretta Singer, Princesse Edmond de Polignac was an American musical patron and heir to the Singer sewing machine fortune.-Early Life and Family:...
, Paris - Book IV: February 9, 1909, Société Nationale de MusiqueSociété Nationale de MusiqueThe Société Nationale de Musique was founded on February 25, 1871 to promote French music and to allow young composers to present their music in public...
, Paris.
Recordings
Iberia has been recorded complete by Claudio ArrauClaudio Arrau
Claudio Arrau León was a Chilean pianist known for his interpretations of a vast repertoire spanning from the baroque to 20th-century composers, especially Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Schumann, Liszt, Brahms and Debussy...
, Miguel Baselga, Michel Block
Michel Block
Michel Block was a renowned pianist and winner of the 1962 Leventritt Competition. Block studied at the Juilliard School. He later taught at the Indiana University School of Music.-References:...
, Guillermo González
Guillermo Gonzalez (pianist)
- Biography and career :Guillermo Gonzalez studied music with José Cubiles, Vlado Perlemuter and Jean Paul Sevilla at the Conservatory of Santa Cruz of Tenerife, then later in Madrid, at the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música, and in Paris, at the Schola Cantorum and the Conservatoire Superieur...
(according to his own critical edition of the score), Marc-André Hamelin
Marc-André Hamelin
Marc-André Hamelin, OC, CQ, is a French Canadian virtuoso pianist and composer.Born in Montreal, Quebec, Marc-André Hamelin began his piano studies at the age of five. His father, a pharmacist by trade who was also a pianist, introduced him to the works of Alkan, Godowsky, and Sorabji when he was...
, Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha
Alicia de Larrocha y de la Calle was a Spanish pianist from Catalonia. One of the great piano legends of the 20th century, Reuters called her "the greatest Spanish pianist in history", Time "one of the world's most outstanding pianists" and The Guardian "the leading Spanish pianist of her...
(3 times: 1962, 1973, 1986), Yvonne Loriod
Yvonne Loriod
Yvonne Loriod was a French pianist, teacher, and composer, and the second wife of composer Olivier Messiaen. Her sister was the Ondes Martenot player Jeanne Loriod.-Life:...
, and Esteban Sánchez
Esteban Sánchez
Esteban Sánchez Herrero was a Spanish pianist. Born in the town of Orellana la Vieja in Badajoz in the province of Extremadura, Sánchez studied with his grandfather, Joaquin Sánchez Ruiz, choirmaster in the cathedral. He went to the Real Conservatorio in Madrid and studied piano with Julia Parody...
, among others.
Arrangements
Enrique Fernández ArbósEnrique Fernandez Arbos
Enrique Fernández Arbós was a Spanish violinist, composer and conductor who divided much of his career between Madrid and London. He originally made his name as a virtuoso violinist and later as one of Spain’s greatest conductors.Fernández Arbós was born in Madrid...
and Carlos Surinach
Carlos Surinach
Carlos Surinach was a Catalan Spanish-born composer and conductor.He was born in Barcelona, where he held conducting posts at the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona and the Gran Teatre del Liceu...
each arranged pieces from Iberia for full orchestra. More recently, Peter Breiner
Peter Breiner
Peter Breiner is a Slovak pianist, conductor, and composer.Breiner began to play and study the piano at age four. At age nine, he started to study at Conservatory in Košice, Slovakia...
arranged the whole work for full orchestra. A version for three guitars was made by Christophe Dejour and recorded by Trio Campanella. A two guitars overdubbing
Overdubbing
Overdubbing is a technique used by recording studios to add a supplementary recorded sound to a previously recorded performance....
version has been released by French guitarist Jean-Marc Zvellenreuther. There is an orchestral arrangement of the Fête-dieu à Seville by Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, from the mid-1920s, which he recorded with the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
in 1928.