Cancionero Popular de la Provincia de Madrid. Vol.

I by Manuel Garca Matos; Marius

Schneider; Jos Romeu Figueras
Review by: Charles Seeger
The Musical Quarterly, Vol. 39, No. 2 (Apr., 1953), pp. 289-293
Published by: Oxford University Press
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Reviews of Books 289
sentence concludes this same letter:
"
I
promise you
that I now have
definitely
shed the
Wagnerian
musical armor." With still other
plans
in
mind,
Hofmannsthal wrote in
1928:
".. . if one
could,
if
only halfway
or
by
a
third,
wrest oneself from the learned German musical
thought,
from that
something
of which there is
just
too much in German music
and which induced Piccini to
say
of Gluck:
puzza
di musica-he
reeks of
music-, . .
." In another letter from the same
year,
Hof-
mannsthal discusses the
possibilities
for a fusion of certain character-
istics of the German and Italian
styles
and writes: "It
apparently
is
not
only
a
question
of Italian sweetness of vocal
line,
nor a
question
of
more or less sound and more or less
polyphony,
but also a
question
of the
composer's
resolution to entrust what is decisive to the voice."
Only
a few months later and
shortly
before Hofmannsthal's sudden
death in the summer of
1929,
Strauss
wrote,
whilst
working
on the
preliminary
sketch of Arabella: "Could
you provide
Arabella with more
lyric
substance? It is
lacking
in this
respect.
After
all,
the aria is the
soul of
opera!
Self-contained numbers between recitatives! That is what
opera always was,
still is
today,
and what it
always
will be !" This
statement is
noteworthy
in itself and admirable for its
humility, coming
from one who had
proved
so
conclusively
that
opera
could also be
something very
different and
who,
with Salome and
Elektra,
may
well
have
paved
the
way
for such other works as
Erwartung
and Wozzeck.
Beside the
553
letters contained in the
volume,
there is an excellent
introduction
supplied by
Franz and Alice Strauss
jointly
with Willi
Schuh and also the
preface
to the first edition of
1925, by
Franz Strauss.
There are further some
moving messages
of Richard Strauss to Frau
Gerty
von
Hofmannsthal,
several
photographs,
two letters in
facsimile,
and also a
complete listing
of works
including
the time and
place
of
first
performance
as well as the
original
cast.
JACQUES
DE MENASCE
CANCIONERO POPULAR DE LA PROVINCIA DE MADRID. Vol. I.
Col-
lected
by
Manuel Garcia Matos. Edited
by
Marius Schneider and
Jose Romeu
Figueras. (Instituto Espafiol
de
Musicologia,
Barcelona-Madrid,
I951.
Pp.
L,
96, 105-)
There
is,
I
believe, general agreement
that well
planned
regional
collecting
of folk music is
highly
desirable, especially
if it is done under
direction of
strong
institutions that can assure
continuity, employment
of
competent specialists, up-to-date
technical
procedures,
and
proper
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290 The Musical
Quarterly
archiving.
And when it leads to
scholarly publication,
as in the
present
instance,
this deserves detailed review.
It would seem
that,
with one
possible exception,
all the desiderata
mentioned above were met in the
gathering
of the materials
upon
which this Cancionero is based. The Instituto
Espafiol
de
Musicologia,
a national
body
founded in
1943
as a
dependent
of the
Consejo
Su-
perior
de
Investigaciones Cientificas,
is under the direction of
Higini
Angles,
one of the most admired of
contemporary musicologists.
It has
permanent headquarters
in Barcelona. Its Section of
Spanish
Folklore
embarked in
1944 upon planned,
nationwide collection of folk music
by region.
It is admitted that the
region, unfortunately,
could not be
defined
reliably
in cultural terms. So the
political
Province became the
unit for the
project
and collection
began wisely,
it would
seem,
with
the Province of
Madrid,
a
triangle roughly
8o miles
upon
a side sur-
rounding
the
capital city
that had been
generally
assumed to have
been
exposed
to
metropolitan
influences for such a
long
time that its
oral tradition had suffered
very
extensive
corruption.
We
may
trust
that the two collectors-Manuel Garcia
Matos,
who visited
every
one
of
200
communities,
and
Magdalena Rodriguez Mata,
who made the
collection in the
city
of Madrid-were in
every way competent
and
did an
exceptionally
conscientious
job.
Attention to the desideratum
possibly
not met is called
by
the ab-
sence,
in the
publication,
of
any
reference to the
techniques
of collection
employed
in the field. It
may
be that
sound-recording-the
sine
qua
non
of scientific collection since
1900oo-was
employed. However,
the
phrases
"thorough [minuciosa]
collection... and scientific
publication" (p.
VII)
and "documents
[documentos]
collected
by
the
expeditions
of the Insti-
tute"
(p. XLIV)
do not
allay
the fear that the notations were taken
down
by
hand at dictation
and, so,
not scientific in a
20oth-century
sense.
However this
may be,
we
know,
of
course,
that scientific
study
and
publication
can be
given
to
any
kind of field collection. But one of the
first
requirements
of such
study
and
publication
is
thorough
critical
review of field
techniques
and detailed documentation of the
resulting
collectanea. It is hard to understand
why
no evidence of either is to
be found in this handsome volume into whose
making
have
obviously
gone
so much
thought
and care. This would be the more true if it
should turn out that
sound-recording
was used after all and that the
physical recordings
are housed as
they
should be in the Instituto.
A
feeling
that the notations were not made from
sound-recordings
in the field
is, however,
further
strengthened by
their own
character,
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Reviews of Books 291
for
they
are
single, skeletal,
model-stanza versions of the sort conven-
tionally printed
in
popular anthologies
for
general use,
without indica-
tion of variant detail. It is not stated whether a notation is of the tune
to which the first stanza of the
speech-text
was
sung,
whether it is an
optimum
chosen from later
stanzas,
whether it is a variant chosen on
the basis of
majority usage
in a
particular
rendition of a
particular
informant
(or
of
several!),
or whether it is a
logical
construction edited
from the
distinguishing
characteristics of a total rendition
(or
rendi-
tions).
A metronome indication is
given
for each notation. But it is
not stated how it was obtained-whether on location with a metronome
or
by
recollection in
tranquility.
All notations
carry key signatures
of
four accidentals or less
(mostly less).
Which were
transposed,
which
not?
Nothing
is said about
accompaniment
in
any particular
case,
though
it is stated
(p. XXXIX)
that
guitars
and
bandurrias,
various
percussion
instruments and the
gaita
are used in the Province. There
is no
description
of
singing style,
nor
any
indication that the informants
sang
other than the written notes as
any
note-reader would
sing
them.
No mention is made of the
problems
met
by
the transcriber of
folksong
who is concerned with the
attempt
to write the tune so that a reader
may hope
to
reproduce
the
original
with maximum
accuracy.
This effort of the reader is still further
impeded by
the utter
frag-
mentation of the materials into a Parte
Musical,
paged 1-96,
followed
by
a Parte
Literaria,
separately paged I- 05.
To find the words of
any
melody beyond
the
single
first or model
stanza,
one has to turn to the
Parte
Literaria,
a hundred-odd
pages
later in the volume. And here
one's troubles
really begin.
For
speech
texts are
given
in standard ver-
sions "A" in an
entirely
different order. As was not the case with the
music
texts,
variants of
speech
texts are
given
in
fragmentary
form in
footnotes
by
a
complicated system
of
signs.
Of the iooo-odd items
collected,
notations
of
477
are classified in
an Introduction
by
Marius
Schneider, 235
music and
219 speech
texts
being
included in this volume. The
rest,
it would
seem,
are to
appear
in a second for the
Province,
the two
together forming
Volume I of the
over-all,
national Cancionero
Popular Espaiol eventually
to be
published
by
the Instituto. Each
song, says Schneider,
can be classified
according
to its three
principal aspects: (a)
musical
type; (b) position
in the
cycle
of the
year; (c) ideological
content. But
if,
on account of the cor-
ruption
of
the
tradition,
these
rarely agree,
he
continues,
it is no less
likely
that in former times there existed "a certain
harmony"
between
them. Both music and
speech
texts are
accordingly
first
grouped
under
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292 The Musical
Quarterly
aspect (b)
in five
"cycles": I, Christmas; II,
Carnival and
Lent; III,
May; IV, Summer; V,
Autumn. Two sections-Dances and Instru-
mental Music-are added. Within these
large
classifications,
the nota-
tions are ordered next
by genre,
then
by
music
type
and the
speech
texts
by
content
(which
accounts for the difference in order above men-
tioned).
Each notation
carries, therefore,
besides its own number a
second,
in italics and
parentheses
below
it, referring
to a text in the
Parte Literaria. With
patience
one can
dig
out the
complete
words to
a
given
tune. Of
course,
should the standard
speech
text "A" be one
associated with another variant of the
given tune,
as it is in about half
the
cases,
one has to reconstruct the words one is
seeking
from the foot-
notes wherever these differ from version "A." Should one wish to reverse
the
process,
that
is,
to find the tune for a
given
version
"A,"
one
might
consequently
fail in about half the
cases,
inasmuch as for about
50%
of the versions "A" no tunes are included.
The
attempt
to
squeeze
a
repertory
into an order that
is,
after
all,
a bit
hypothetical, may
still be an
interesting
one. The
start,
with Christ-
mas,
lends considerable
plausibility: 77 Aguinaldos
and Villancicos
and
II
cumulative
songs
are a
good
harvest. But inclusion of
61
romances
(ballads)
in a Christmas
Cycle
needs more
support
than mere
do-so. Are romances
sung
in the Province of Madrid
only
at Christmas
time,
or even
principally
at that
season-Delgadina (incest),
Gerineldo
(cohabitation
before
marriage),
La Rueda de la Fortuna
(murder
of
faithless
wife),
etc. ? Are childrens'
songs sung only,
or even
principally,
during-Carnival
and Lent?
Speech
texts aside and in
spite
of whatever reservations one
might
have on this
score,
one
might readily
stretch a
point
were the music
typo-
logical
classification such that it offset the inconvenience of the calen-
darial.
Judging, however,
from Schneider's brief
Introduction,
we can-
not see that it does. There
may
well be considerations not
apparent
to
the
eye
of the
unguided
reader. But the
system
is not detailed and tunes
resembling
each other are sometimes far
separated
while
groups
of
cog-
nate tunes follow each other in no ascertainable order. An
essay
is
prom-
ised in which the music
typology
will be
"synchronized"
with
Spanish
folk
customs, presumably
as
part
of the volumes devoted to the
system-
atic and
comparative study
that will follow
publication
of a sufficient
number of
regional
studies such as the
present.
It would
really
be too
bad, however,
if this should be so
delayed
as to
permit
virtual
comple-
tion of this
great project
without
regard
for the
progress
of folk music
study
in the rest of the world. Granted that the
technique
of
fragmen-
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Reviews of Books 293
tation here used has its
advantages,
is there not also some merit in the
technique
built
through
these last few decades
upon
the
theory
of the
interdependence
of tune and
speech
texts? Granted that the
single,
skeletal model-stanza notation has a
very practical
use,
does not scienti-
fic
study
benefit from such
thorough writing
out of all detail and the
whole
song,
as was done in the
Bart6k-Lord
Serbo-Croatian Folk
Songs
(New York, 1951)?
Is not
singing style
half the
song?
Should
we,
as
in this
Cancionero, ignore
the
personalities
of the informants? Is the vil-
lage
in which collection was made the
only
essential local datum? Is the
repertory
of a
region
understandable without
regard
to the
repertories
of individual
singers,
families, age-groups,
classes?
This reviewer feels that before the Instituto
proceeds
much farther
with its
laudable, ambitious,
and
costly project,
it should hasten to can-
vass the world of
scholarship
for methods and
procedures
of
collection,
study,
and
publication
more
adequate
for and
worthy
of the fine ma-
terials
they
have to work with-the oral tradition of one of the
largest
and most distinctive areas in the Occidental culture
community.
CHARLES SEEGER
ROBERT SCHUMANN.
By
Karl H.
Wirner.
(Atlantis-Verlag, Zairich,
1949.
Pp.
371.)
"In
my case,
the man and the musician have
always
striven for
simultaneous
expression."
This
statement--one
of
many self-analytical
observations that can be found in Schumann's collected
writings-sum-
marizes a trait that is most
significant
for a conclusive
appraisal
of his
complex,
arch-romantic
personality.
There is
probably
no
major
com-
poser
in whom the artistic
personality
has been less
separable
from the
pattern
of life than Robert Schumann.
Warner has undertaken more than to offer the
biographical
de-
tails of Schumann's life or to
present
an
analytical
evaluation of his
music. What makes his book such an admirable achievement is the skill
and
sympathetic understanding
with which he
portrays
Schumann's
per-
sonality
with all its internal conflicts and contradictions. The
organiza-
tion of the material is the most notable feature to strike the reader. In
order to
preserve
the
integration
of
Schumann,
the
man,
and
Schumann,
the creative
genius,
Wairner
does not follow the
customary,
often rather
monotonous method of
dealing
with Schumann's life and his
composi-
tions in two
separate
sections.
Instead,
the book derives its structure
from the evolution of Schumann's
personality,
whose
variegated aspects
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