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- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
National anthems: Spain’s classical heyday
Spain had to wait for the composers of the late 19th
and early 20thcentury for its golden era.They fell within
the sphere of the late Romantic period but were bound
instead by a national sound that drew on the strains of
Spanish folk music, particularlyflamencoas it drifted out
of thecafés cantantes. It was all part of the wider thirst
for regional identity in the new industrial age; composers
simply incorporated the motifs of traditional music into
the European trends of the day. Five stood out:
Isaac Albéniz. He ran away from home to play
piano, aged 12, reaching America a year later where
he performed on both North and South continents.
In 1886, aged 25, Albéniz wroteSuite Españolafor
solo piano, drawing on folk music from around Spain.
TheSevillamovement has clear Andalusian influences,
whileAsturiaswas famously adapted for guitar.Iberia
(1905-8) was his magnum opus, a suite of 12 keyboard
tunes that blended French Impressionist music (he had
a protracted stay north of the Pyrenees) with thatgitano
sound. Albéniz’ success drew others to the potential
of Spanish folk music. He died in 1909, aged 48, from
nephritis.
Enrique Granados. Rhythm, metre and modes were
cribbed from Iberian folk music by Granados and cooked
up with contemporary European trends, pushing the
nationalist school ahead. For subject matter he remained
equally patriotic, building his best piano music, the
Goyescas(1911), around the work of the painter Goya.
It was while sailing back to Europe from the NewYork
premiere of an operatic version of theGoyescasin 1916
that Granados’ boat was torpedoed. He and his wife
were killed.
Cécilia Sarkozy, the
second wife of French
President Nicolas
Sarkozy, is the great-
granddaughter of Isaac
Albéniz.
