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166
„The Sonata for Guitar in 1920-1950 period – The
Neoromantic Generation ”
Ph.D. Thesis by Costin Soare
Résumé
We will begin by saying that metaphorically speaking and by
circumscribing the object of our research, the 1920-1950 period represented for
the guitar world a sort of sonata exposition: it is the time when certain ideas,
certain “themes” were presented, their development still being “work in
progress” today. There are many factors which have had their contribution to
the boom of our instrument in the 20th century, unfortunately still seen at that
time as a “less serious” one; if we were to choose three main “themes”, those
would be: the predecessors - the guitarist-composer Francisco Tárrega and the
luthier Antonio de Torres; the guitarist Andrés Segovia and the composers of the
so-called neoromantic generation (Turina, Ponce, Castelnuovo-Tedesco, José,
Manén, Moreno-Torroba). Our thesis, entitled „The Sonata for Guitar in 1920-
1950 period – The Neoromantic Generation ”, forays the world of the composers
mentioned above through their output in a certain genre, the sonata; our
approach will follow an analytical approach at a syntactic and, especially,
semantic level, by highlighting the emotion and sentiments specific to the
performing act during its progress. We will present an account of our research
by succinctly discussing each chapter of our thesis.
Introduction
The first subchapters of the introduction represents in fact the theoretical
base of the thesis: the first, discussing general aspects concerning the analytical
methods in the 20th century, starts with a short description as found in „The
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Treatise of Musical Form and Analysis” by Livia Teodorescu-Ciocănea. Their
enumeration (the referential-descriptive method; the positivist-constructivist method;
the hermeneutic method; the energetic method; the structural method; the holistic
method of Schenker) reveals also, beside the specific approach of each method,
some historical and philosophical implications, namely the
interaction/complementarity which always existed between the philosophical
and practical ways of knowledge: in this way, the aesthetics, the science
studying, defining and enouncing the principles/laws of beauty in the art of
sounds, will influence the musical theoretical thinking and also the practical
side of it during different eras. The importance of the concept derived from
here, interdisciplinarity, resides in the way certain ideas, attitudes specific to a
certain field of thought, could be found and have an influence in another: the
intercrossing of music with imagination and creativity, with literature, poetry
and visual arts, but also with psychology, hermeneutics, philosophy, rhetoric,
mathematics, can be of help in the search of an analysis model with relevance
in the performing act.
This second subchapter proposes varied perspectives in the search of the
analysis method(s) which can get us closer to the „correct” way of performing a
musical work: this search represents the fruit of our experience and, having no
pretension to offering definitive or complete answers, we will try to offer our
personal vision, defined as a mode of being with a certain perspective of the
world around. A first idea springs from the words of Arthur Schnabel who
declares that „the true analysis means a clarification and intensification of the
musical sensibility, an additional stimulus in the correct direction, as established
by our musical instinct”, in contrast with a formal type on analysis which
makes more harm than it helps. That implies also a good intellectual thinking:
for avoiding all sorts of excesses there is a need to find an equilibrium between
the emotional and the intellectual side; Schnabel also recommends studying
composition, a great exercise for a musician-performer.
Then we discuss the analysis model developed under the supervision of
the conductor and professor Takao Nakamura, whose relevance in
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understanding and interpreting a musical score was already verified in various
contexts. Based initially on analysing the music with text, the model needed a
set of questions regarding the way in which certain structures, tonalities,
timbres and so on, are able to create certain affective moods, namely the
emotions felt by the performer and also by the audience.
Following this road we reach the subject of affects and musical rhetoric
which is, historically speaking, a part of the theory and practice of the Baroque
Era, but which is also generally applicable in the theory of interpretation for any
kind of music. Being based on the rhetorical-musical figures, the concept of
musica poetica was searching, as Dietrich Bartel says, „a balance between science
and art, ratio and sensus, speculation and craft”. A short enumeration of the
affects (Amor, Luctus seu Planctus, Dolor, Laetitia et Exultatio, Praesumptio et
Audacia etc.) and of the rhetorical-musical figures (abruptio, anabasis, antithesis,
climax, dubitatio, epizeuxis, passus duriusculus etc.), as found in the treatise
Musurgia Universalis by Athanasius Kircher, is meaningful to our research: we
can observe how certain musical patterns give a specific affective „answer”,
scientifically documented by the theoreticians of the era.
One of the essential features of the music, that of expressing something,
could be found in all the musical epochs: one of the meanings of the term
expression „is referring at the emotional qualities of music as perceived by the
auditors”, in the opinion of the musicologists Juslin and Persson. To be able to
communicate those emotions, a mediator between the composer and the public
is needed: this is the performer. But what and how is the performer
communicating/performing/transmitting? For an accurate answer, the
instrumentalist needs a „guide of performance” to help him find the musical
„truth”, an objective view in a very subjective world, that of a language at the
borders of the ineffable. The book of Diana Moş, „Introduction to the hermeneutics
of the musical discourse”, offers a possible way in which one can decipher the
musical score and its meanings: „the object of the hermeneutics will be not
particularly the music score, but the discourse – the text being actualized,
performed at a certain moment”. Using a linguistic terminology based on a
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series of concepts like „explicitation-comprehension”, „sense-meaning”,
„syntactic-semantic”, the author reveals the complementarity between rational
or logical thinking and the psychological world of the human being. There are
also interesting ideas concerning the poeticism inherent to the musical score
which leads towards ambiguity, a intrinsic quality of music which can reveal
various levels of meaning; we can also mention the chapter about „a (possible)
musical hermetic”, which discusses the suprarational side, the „mystery”, the
subconscious energies dictating the making and interpretation of a musical
work.
We have finally presented the goal of our research which is emphasising
the specific emotions of the musical performance during its progress in time,
mental states/affects derived from:
1. the „objective” interpretation/performance of a musical score, meaning
to follow adequately certain musical paths by founding their logic in the
writing itself of the work (tonality, modulations, performing instructions,
motivic and thematic material and the way those are being developed
etc.);
2. a „subjective” perspective containing our own experiences, in other
words the personal, unique and non-repeatable performance of a music
at a given time;
For the description of these affects we will use a list of specific words
inspired form an essay of Marianne Ploger, „The Craft of Musical
Communication”; the analysis will also follow the important sintactical
elements, will suggest our personal approach concerning the tempo, dynamics,
agogic and timbre. We will also present two diagrams about the extremes of the
semantic tension (maximum and minimum).
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The guitar in the 20th century
Before our analytical undertaking, we needed a historical frame of the
guitar phenomenon in the 20th century: we have presented the important
events, people and the „conquests” specific to each period. Shortly, they are as
follows:
I. 1852-1920 – the first year mentioned is the year in which Antonio de
Torres (1817-1892) starts his career as a guitar luthier, developing an
instrumental design bearing an outstanding influence in the
evolution of the instrument; 1852 is also the birth year of Francisco
Tárrega, guitarist, composer and pedagogue whose influence in the
20th century guitar world was prominent; around 1920, Manuel de
Falla becomes the first non-guitarist composer writing a work for the
guitar: Homenaje pour le Tombeau de Claude Debussy;
II. 1920-1965 – starting with the twenties, the more and more sonorous
voice of Andrés Segovia (1893-1987) can be heard: he is the one who
succeeded in bringing the instrument on the big stages of the world
and whose charismatic personality convinced more and more
composers to write music for the guitar; the first audition, in 1964, of
Benjamin Britten’s Nocturnal after John Dowland, op. 70 and its
publishing one year later will be for „the guitarists a process of
reevaluation, a technical and musical challenge ”;
III. 1965-21st century – a period of maximum flourishing of the guitar at
all levels.
Evoking the great figure of Andrés Segovia is a good occasion for a short
discussion about his stylistic approach in performance: elements like the
horizontal approach to fingering, vibrato, rubato, glissando, legato, a full and varied
sound etc., as found in the book by Graham Wade and Gerard Garno („A New
Look at Segovia”), reveals a musical world different from the contemporary one;
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the exacerbation and the extreme individualization of the musical discourse
were the premises of a very subjective way of performing: the „correct” stylistic
approach was not the main goal of the performer, who was the absolute master
on the stage.
A period of normality in the guitar world starts with the second half of the
century, the focal point being the year 1964 when the premiére of the Nocturnal
after John Dowland by the English guitarist Julian Bream took place: this is an
important moment in which the new school of guitar goes on its own way,
different from the Segovia legacy. The guitar and its players will benefit from
this change: more and more contemporary composers start writing works for
the instrument, festivals and magazines makes possible a good information
flow, the guitar enters the academic institutions, audio and video recordings are
being made, musicological research is developing. It happens somehow the
same thing, at a smaller level, in our country starting with the 90’: composers
show interest in writing for the instrument, whose rapid ascension have at its
base the premises above mentioned.
Performing analysis
To reach our goal, the emphasising of the specific emotions of the musical
performance during its progress in time, we have chosen four sonatas which are
representative for that era:
1. Manuel Maria Ponce – Sonata III (1928)
2. Joaquin Turina – Sonata (1932)
3. Antonio José – Sonata (1933)
4. Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco – Sonata (Omaggio á Boccherini), op. 77
(1935)
Our choice was based on the intrinsic value of these sonatas, another
criteria being their frequent performances and recordings. Each chapter
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presents in a short manner biographical data and information about the
composer’s musical world, general matters concerning the other guitar works,
the circumstances surrounding the sonata genesis and the actual analysis
which, beside the above mentioned goal, gives an account of the syntactical
aspects and also makes suggestions about tempo, dynamics, timbre and so on.
We discuss also about the maximum and minimum, the extremes of semantic
tension: for two of the sonatas (Ponce and Turina), we have added diagrams of
the semantic tension and made a succinct commentary, in this way completing
the initial information regarding the quality of the affects with quantitative data
showing the intensity of those psychological states.
A very important aspect for every movement of the sonatas was the
characterizing of the essential (micro)structures: the principal tonal group (GTP)
or the first theme, the secondary tonal group (GTP), the principal motifs or ideas of
the slow and final movements in the form of a rondo; this „description” has
pointed at various levels of the musical language: syntax, melody, harmony,
articulation, timbre, metre, tempo etc. The accurate description of these
elements will lead to a proper understanding of the progress or evolution of
that specific movement (for example, a correct appraisal of the musical
parameters of the GTP and GTS will lead, without doubt, to a performance in
the spirit of the respective movement). It is understood that the analysis
continued at the macrostructural level, looking how the principal ideas have
contributed to the development section or how the emergence of new motifs in
the episodes created a contrast with the refrain or have become complementary to
it. We will describe in a concise way such a model of analysis based on Manuel
Maria Ponce’s Sonata III, letting the interested reader to have a more detailed
account during the integral lecture of the performing analysis chapter.
We have identified in the GTP the main elements of the musical discourse
such as: the agitation and disquietude affects present in here come out from the
leap motion of the melodic line, from the ostinato figure in the bass line on D,
from the „harsh” tonal color of the d minor tonality; we suggest here the musical
equivalent of a ballade, there is an energy which makes us think about the
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aesthetic categories of pathetic and heroic. In the bridge section we follow two
motives derived from the GTP acquiring a special importance in the progress of
the exposition: the first one, built on two chords (minor chord with major
seventh, respectively augmented chord with major seventh) exposed in the
form of arpeggios, suggesting affects of tumult and ardour, takes us to the
semantic maximum of the exposition; the second one, in the bass line as a
melody in a step motion with an affect of inward pathetism, connects the two
appearances of the arpeggio motive. In GTS one can feel a clear contrast with
the previous section, the sober and calm mood emerging from the minimal
melodic movement accompanied in the bass line by repeated sounds, like
delicate timpani strokes.
Ponce builds intelligently the subsequent musical plot by emphasising in
the first section of the development the dramatic and pathetic character of the
main theme: the gradual intensification of the musical discourse, presenting
now fragments of theme accompanied by arpegios in triplets, leads us to the
maximum semantic tension of the whole movement. The following section
appears again in a clear contrast with the preceding one: from here starts the
area of lyricism, nostalgia, even reverie, which progresses in an espressivo and
intimate mood (low dynamics, short fermatas, poco rubato, dolce). In the
recapitulation we can observe the same structure with the exposition, with two
exceptions: starting with bar 115 there is a transposition at a minor third lower,
and the secondary theme is also transposed with a perfect fourth higher in the
initial tonality, d minor: this way, the last section concludes by approving an
(almost) classical sonata allegro.
We have tried by using our imagination to justify the using of a song
(Chanson) full of lyricism and nostalgia as the second movement of the sonata
through the universal feeling of longing, which could have been the state of a
Mexican man living in Paris, far away from his native land. Within the
simplicity and sincerity of this song, Ponce appeals to the polyphonic syntax,
sometimes imitative, but generally treated in a free way; the first section, in a
tri-strophic form followed by a coda, is divided in three segments: a first phrase
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presenting a simple and lyrical melodic line, a meditation followed by an
intensification of the emotion, the climax being found in the first bar of the last
segment. Among the important technical and musical coordinates to be taken
into account, there are: a molto legato articulation; poco rubato, observing not to
exaggerate the feelings involved in it; to highlight each voice in the given
polyphonic context; a moderate tempo (andante comes from the italian word
andare – to walk), not a slow one. The median part (Vivo) can be described as
energetic, even exuberant and it has a ascending-descending dynamic profile
presented in successive waves repeating one and the same melodic and
rhythmic figure. In „recapitulation” we can hear again, in a slightly varied way,
the first section: the polyphonic texture gets a little more thick, creating an
atmosphere of intense emotions; it is followed by a coda, a gradual extinction,
like the immersion in a dream.
The refrain of the last movement of the sonata, whose structure makes us
to suggest a classic rondo form followed by a Spanish fantasy, runs its course in
the tonality of D major, at an allegro non troppo tempo, with the character subtitle
of giocoso. This first segment is defined by a tonal-modal game whose varied
nuances can be accurately performed by using extremely short fermatas,
different articulation and timbre. The episodes can be resumed as follows:
- B: lyrical, cantabile, slightly improvisational, „Spanish mood”;
- C: capricious character, unpredictable, ironic; it uses the anapaest figure
from the second movement (Vivo);
- D: meno mosso, it reminds us of the lyrical atmosphere of the Chanson; the
texture resembles to a chorale, requiring special attention to the voices’
independent motion;
The last „episode”, the fantasia mentioned earlier, is in fact a rondo
characterized by: the repeated usage of the frigic mode; virtuosity passages in
the Spanish flamenco style; the legato tremolo, a technical device specific to the
guitar. The episodes suggest a more pathetic affect, in contrast with the „refrain”
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energetic style; it is interesting to observe the density of the semantic tension
maximums, which can give the guitarist some good ideas about how to
intelligently build the tension and the dramaturgy of this last movement.
Synthesis
Starting from a quotation of Daniel Albright, who declares that
„neoromanticism in the 1920s meant a subdued and modest sort of emotionalism,
in which the excessive gestures of the Expressionists were boiled down into
some solid residue of stable feeling”, the first synthesis subchapter, under the
title of „Common stylistic features in the guitar sonatas written by
neoromantic composers in the first half of the 20th century”, includes in a
general way some relevant historic, stylistic and axiologic ideas. We mention
the influences received in the works for the guitar from musical trends of the
time, like impressionism, neoclassical style, late romanticism or national schools; also,
despite a position outside the avantgardist movement of those times, owed to
the traditionalist/conservative spirit of Andrés Segovia, the guitar works will be of
great importance to the evolution of the instrument in the last century by their
intrinsic musical value. As a matter of fact, this is the most important reason in
choosing and analysing the the four sonatas in this thesis, not to mention the
constant performances in festival, recitals and recordings, a cultural fact of great
relevance.
We then enumerate as follows few general stylistic features coming out
from the sonatas’ analysis: cyclic form; an expanded tonal frame which includes the
modal; the typical Spanish character (flamenco scales, using of the frigic mode); the
using of the homophonic syntax (which does not exclude few polyphonic moments of
great beauty); a form structure which includes in two sonatas’ allegro movements no
development section, and in another one a reduced development section, then, in the
slow movements, the usage of a song as an expressive device and, finally, for the third
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movement, the classical form of rondo, with some liberties taken; mentioning the
impressionistic or neoclassical style influences.
In the subchapter entitled technical perspectives, we have generally
presented the issue of the instrumental technique, which is an important element
of the „craft” of each artist, a field of thought and practice by which the musical
substance gains structure and clarity. An indispensable base for
communication, the correct instrumental technique is a must for those wishing to
get closer to the musical ideal. Two of the most important methods in the 20th
century are presented here: „Escuela razonada de la guitarra” by Emilio Pujol, a
first rank personality in the guitar world and „Escuela de la guitarra” by Abel
Carlevaro, unveiling a special perspective in the physiology of playing the
instrument. Both of them look at what we might call the traditional technique of
the guitar, whose complementary perspective is the contemporary technique, with
special sound effects used in contemporary music, not discussed in this thesis.
Pujol’s method, based on Francisco Tárrega technical principles, is written
in the spirit of 19th century treatises: it contains in the theoretical exposition
general things about lutherie, strings, range, positions, historical issues, the first
contact with the instrument, watching the correct position of the body and both
hands and a series of advices for the future musicians. In the next volumes,
there is a concentric approach of the technical means, starting with open strings
exercises and arpeggios, then going into the area of the left hand through varied
combinations of the fingers, preparatory exercises for scales and position
exchange, getting finally in the last chapter, subtitled virtuosité, to complex
exercises which point at a thoroughness of the technical capabilities of both
hands and the complete development of the musician-guitarist.
Abel Carlevaro is the founder of an innovatory technical school, based on
a deep knowledge of anatomy and physics laws, whose originality and
functionality were one of the most important steps in the guitar evolution in the
last century. The author uses clear concepts in a logic manner by the aid of an
analytical thinking able to decompose a instrumental gesture/procedure,
simple or complicated, in its components, the conscious recomposition of it
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representing the necessary step towards the development of the performer. The
first volume contains the theoretical exposition and discusses in order the
following issues: the position of the instrument, the right hand, the guitarist and his
total development, the left hand, scales, „dampers” and vibrato, completed by a
preliminary discussion of the exercises from the following practice books.
Concepts like stable equilibrium, natural position, fijacíon, toques, unity through
muscular contraction need to be assimilated and transformed in correct technical
means through a constant practice routine always under the scrutiny of an
active intellect.
Finally, we have exposed our personal perspective over the necessary
technical means of the performer in the 21st century; we have enumerated a list
of technical means necessary to every player (confidence, mobility, force,
versatility, agility, clarity, robustness, flexibility, endurance, independence, dynamism,
precision), then we have presented a model of approaching the instrumental
technique based on our experience as performer and pedagogue. Shortly, this
focuses on the following elements:
- for the right hand: repeated notes, arpeggios, chords, tremolo, rasgueado and
natural harmonics; tirrando and appoyando approach;
- for the left hand: fingers’ combinations, legato (then appogiaturas, trills,
mordents etc.), barrée, extensions, position exchange, natural and artificial
harmonics;
To this, we will add scales and technical procedures specific to the guitar
like tamburo, pizzicato, glissando; all the technical exercises must have at their
base a correct and relaxed position of the body and both hands, always
supported by an active thinking.