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ENRIQUE GRANADOS IN PARIS: THE FORGING OF A SPANISH ICON IN THE

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SCENE
and
ENRIQUE GRANADOS’S VISIT TO AND RECEPTION IN NEW YORK (1915–1916),
VIEWED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HIS UNPUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE

Carlos E. Roscoe, 2014

iii
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE ........................................................................................... vii

I. Introduction .......................................................................................................... viii

II. Enrique Granados................................................................................................... ix

III. Personal Connection ............................................................................................. xii

IV. Academic Study of Granados ............................................................................... xii

V. Author Miriam Perandones Lozano ..................................................................... xiii

VI. The Translated Articles ........................................................................................ xiv

VII. Translation Challenges ......................................................................................... xvi

Nuevo españolismo, nuevo casticismo .................................................... xvi

Oriente, exotismo, orientalismo ............................................................... xix

Other Challenges ..................................................................................... xxii

VIII. Biographical Names ........................................................................................... xxiii

IX. Geography .......................................................................................................... xxix

X. Translations of Titles, Proper Names, and Institutions ....................................... xxx

XI. Granados Song Titles ........................................................................................ xxxii

XII. The Language of Music .................................................................................... xxxv

XIII. French and Catalan languages ............................................................................... xl

XIV. Abstracts ............................................................................................................... xli

XV. Errata to “Enrique Granados en París” (EGP) ..................................................... xlii

XVI. Background Notes on Composers and Historical Figures .................................. xliii

iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .............................................................................................. lxiii

ENRIQUE GRANADOS IN PARIS: THE FORGING OF A SPANISH ICON IN THE

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SCENE ................................................................................. 1

Paris Residency and Piano Studies (1887–89).................................................................... 4

Possible Trips to Paris ....................................................................................................... 10

Granados’s Reception in Paris as a Performer-Composer, from the Perspective of his

Concerts, Compositions, and Personal Relationships ........................................... 12

The 1905 Salle Pleyel Concert .......................................................................................... 13

Inception of an International Career, 1909 ....................................................................... 15

Acceptance by Paris Society as Composer: the 1911 Concert.......................................... 21

The Rapid Incorporation of Goyescas into the International Piano Repertoire ................ 26

The 1914 Société Musicale Indépendent (SMI) Concert .................................................. 29

“Generation of ‘98” Thinking Reflected in Goyescas ...................................................... 38

Granados’s “Modern” Style .............................................................................................. 40

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 41

ENRIQUE GRANADOS’S VISIT TO AND RECEPTION IN NEW YORK (1915–

1916), VIEWED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HIS UNPUBLISHED
CORRESPONDENCE...................................................................................................... 47

Introduction ....................................................................................................................... 50

Preparation for the Goyescas Premiere ............................................................................. 53

Granados’s New York Sojourn and Premiere ................................................................... 57

Granados’s Reception in New York and Goyescas ........................................................... 63

Conclusion ........................................................................................................................ 69

v
BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................. 71

“Enrique Granados en París: La construcción de un icono español en el ámbito musical

internacional” ........................................................................................................ 76

“Estancia y recepción de Enrique Granados en Nueva York (1915–1916) desde la

perspectiva de su epistolario inédito” ................................................................. 106

vi
TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

vii
 TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE

I. Introduction

In partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master of Arts degree in Translation

from the Graduate Program in Translation at the University of Puerto Rico, I have

translated two articles published by musicologist Miriam Perandones Lozano on

important events concerning the life of Spanish classical pianist and composer Enrique

Granados (1867–1916). The first, “Enrique Granados en París: La construcción de un

icono español en el ámbito musical internacional” (Enrique Granados in Paris: The

Forging of a Spanish Icon in the International Music Scene), was published in Revista de

Musicología, 34, no. 1 (2011): 203–32. The second, “Estancia y recepción de Enrique

Granados en Nueva York (1915–1916) desde la perspectiva de su epistolario inédito”

(Enrique Granados’s Visit to and Reception in New York [1915–1916], Viewed from the

Perspective of his Unpublished Correspondence), was published in Revista de

Musicología, 32, no. 1 (2009): 281–95.

The translated articles are presented in chronological order, in accordance with

the occurrence of events in the composer’s life, rather than the order in which they were

published. Material from the first article, which covers the composer’s formative years in

Paris, provides background information that enables the reader to better appreciate the

events recounted in the second article concerning the composer’s successful opera

premieres and piano performances in New York, which concluded just weeks prior to

viii
Granados’s tragic death.

For the sake of brevity, I will refer to the first article, “Enrique Granados en París:

La construcción de un icono español en el ámbito musical internacional” as “EGP,” and

the second article, “Estancia y recepción de Enrique Granados en Nueva York (1915–

1916) desde la perspectiva de su epistolario inédito,” as “EGNY.”

II. Enrique Granados

Enrique Granados (1867–1916) was a Spanish Catalan classical pianist and

composer of piano solos, art songs, chamber music pieces, and operas. His compositions

have been categorized as late Romantic, and compared favorably to the music of Frédéric

Chopin, Robert Schumann, and Franz Schubert.

Granados’s compositions were influenced by his piano instructor and mentor

Felipe Pedrell (1841–1922), a prominent proponent of Spanish nationalism in music of

the late nineteenth century. Called “the apostle of nationalism in Spain,” 1 Pedrell believed

that a nation’s music should be based on its native musical traditions. 2 His 1891

manifesto, Por nuestra música, encouraged Spanish composers to seek inspiration in

Spanish folk music and resist the temptation to mimic the styles of foreign composers. 3

Granados was, in turn, an important influence upon at least two other important Spanish

composers and musicians, Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) and Pablo Casals (1876–1972).

1
Walter Aaron Clark, Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano (New York: Oxford University Press,
2006), 28.
2
Michael Kennedy, Joyce Kennedy, and Tim Rutherford-Johnson, Oxford Dictionary of Music, 6th
ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012).
3
Felipe Pedrell, Por nuestra música (Barcelona: Henrich, 1891).

ix
 Granados spent most of his adult life in Barcelona during the height of the

international artistic and cultural movement called modernisme. In the United States and

France, the movement was known as “art nouveau” or “modern style.” 4 In Catalonia, it

was characterized by a search for Catalan national identity, reflected in the paintings of

Ramón Casas and Santiago Rusiñol, and in the early architecture of Antoni Gaudí. 5

Modernisme encouraged artists, such as musicians, to assimilate other areas of artistic

endeavor, such as painting, into their fields. Along with his contemporaries Isaac Albéniz

(1860–1909), Falla, and Casals, Granados promoted Spanish nationalism, but was open

to considering himself both Castilian and Catalan. 6 His compositions incorporated

musical traits of non-Spanish composers, ultimately distinguishing him from his

contemporaries, and, as the translated articles illustrate, led to success in France and the

United States.

Granados studied, composed, and performed in Paris (1887–89, 1909, 1911, and

1914), but his most important overseas visit was to New York and Washington, DC

(December 1915–March 1916). During that trip, he garnered critical acclaim and further

developed an international audience due to the successful premiere of his opera Goyescas

o Los majos enamorados (Pieces in the Style of Goya or The Majos in Love). While in

New York, Granados made piano roll recordings of several of his compositions at a time

4
Clark, 77–78.
5
Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, s.v. “Catalan literature,” accessed November 13, 2012,
http://0-www.britannica.com.mylibraryus.fmwr.net/EBchecked/topic/99052/Catalan-literature.
6
Clark, 79.

x
when the technology was newly emerging. These performances are available in modern

formats, and are treasured by scholars and Granados enthusiasts.

Granados wrote poems in Spanish, French, and Catalan, and composed a number

of songs based on his poetry, ranging from salon pieces in the zarzuela style, tonadillas

written “in the ancient style,” to the elaborate Goyescas suite (1911–13), a musical

chamber piece inspired by the tapestries and paintings of Francisco de Goya. Granados

eventually developed Goyescas into the opera that premiered in New York on January 28,

1916, just two months before his death aboard the SS Sussex, a channel ferry that was

torpedoed by a German submarine while it crossed the English Channel. By most

accounts, Granados jumped from his lifeboat as the ship was sinking, in an attempt to

save his wife Amparo Gal. Tragically, both Granados and his wife perished during the

attack.

Granados was also a renowned piano teacher. In 1901 he founded a Barcelona

music school, Academia Granados, that still operates today as Academia Marshall, in

honor of Frank Marshall, the director who led the school to prominence after Granados’s

death. One of the academy’s alumnae, Alicia de Larrocha (1923–2009), who was

considered one of the premier pianists of the last half century, became the academy’s

director after Marshall passed away in 1959. De Larrocha enjoyed a stellar international

concert and recording career. In 2006, she wrote the forward to Walter Aaron Clark’s

book, Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano, which has been a valuable resource

throughout this project. Danzas españolas and Goyescas remain among Granados’s most

xi
enduring and widely performed compositions, but their recognition outside of Spain has

been limited.

III. Personal Connection

I first discovered Enrique Granados’s compositions as an undergraduate at Duke

University, where I studied piano performance as an extracurricular activity. I was

impressed and captivated by Granados’s compositions. For a piano performance seminar,

I researched Granados’s life and gave a presentation on Granados’s life and compositions.

Granados was completely new to just about everyone I encountered, except my piano

teacher and mentor, Tibor Szász, himself a renowned performer and musicologist. He

observed that Granados had been widely ignored by scholars and performers, yet was one

of the most significant composers of the Romantic period. I performed two of the twelve

Danzas españolas (“Oriental” and “Andaluza”) at a university piano recital.

IV. Academic Study of Granados

Most scholarly research of Granados has been conducted by Spanish

musicologists publishing in Spanish and Catalan, with two notable exceptions: Carol

Hess’s Enrique Granados, a Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1991), and

Walter Aaron Clark’s Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano (New York: Oxford, 2006).

These are the only book-length biographies published on Granados, in any language,

during the past fifty years; the last significant project was Antonio Fernández-Cid’s 1956

Spanish language biography, Granados (Madrid: Samarán, 1956). The Hess and Clark

books are thorough academic research projects written in an accessible historical style

xii
and are significant contributions both to musicologists and to a broad English-speaking

audience. Both authors agree that Granados’s influence on the Romantic period was

noteworthy, that his life and music merit further study, and that his music should continue

to be performed. Clark conducted extensive research, using many texts available only in

Spain, and gained access to Granados’s personal correspondence.

V. Author Miriam Perandones Lozano

Miriam Perandones Lozano has taught at the Universidad de Oviedo’s

Department of Art History and Musicology since 2008. She has specialized in Granados’s

life and music, with particular emphasis on Granados’s art songs, on which she focused

her 2008 doctoral thesis, “La canción lírica de Enrique Granados (1867–1916):

microcosmos estilístico elaborado a partir de un nuevo epistolario” (The art songs of

Enrique Granados [1867–1916]: a stylized microcosm emerging from a newly discovered

collection of letters). Perandones went further than Clark did in her use of Granados’s

correspondence. She contacted additional surviving family members and obtained

previously undisclosed personal letters from Granados’s grandson, Antoni Carreras i

Granados (1928–2012). Perandones first presented the material in her dissertation and

integrated her discoveries into seven subsequently published articles in which she

presented new insights into important formative experiences of the artist’s life. Professor

Perandones has also presented academic papers at musicological symposia, where she has

compared and contrasted Granados’s compositions and performance style to those of his

contemporaries Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de Falla.

xiii
VI. The Translated Articles

Other than the books by Hess and Clark, little has been published in English about

Granados, including Perandones’s articles, which have never been translated. I contacted

Professor Perandones by telephone and email, and she granted permission to translate

EGP and EGNY. 7

In EGP, Perandones observes that Granados was not recognized by the French

musical press until 1909, despite his growing international reputation and 1887–1889

residency in that country. Unlike Spanish contemporaries Ricardo Viñes and Pablo

Casals, Granados was timid and insecure, slow to learn the French language, and

reluctant to network. Perandones reviews press reports published during Granados’s time

in France, examines Granados’s relationship with his piano instructor Charles de Bériot

(1833–1914), and describes how Granados finally obtained recognition in France, first as

a performer, and later as a composer.

Granados’s initial mentions in the French musical press coincided with the

emergence of two opposing groups of musical thought. The so-called “conservative”

faction was the Société Nationale (SN), a movement aligned with formal Germanic

compositional technique. An opposing faction, the “innovators,” broke off to form the

Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI). The group was led by a new generation of

composers that included Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) and Claude Debussy (1862–1918).

7
Miriam Perandones Lozano, pers. comm. via email, October 16, 2012.

xiv
The SMI was influenced by the impressionist movement and rejected conventional

compositional formulas. As expected, they admired Granados’s rejection of these

preestablished methods of composing.

The SMI supported an important 1914 Granados concert in Paris and convinced

well-known artists to attend. This impressed music critics and helped bolster Granados’s

credibility as a serious performer and composer. The SMI considered Granados’s music a

welcome foreign influence and judged it to be distinct from the compositions of his

Spanish contemporaries. One French writer observed that Granados’s music presented a

“new Spain” to French listeners, a style that did not overly rely upon the dominance of

Arabic elements, which were common in other Spanish music of the era.

Perandones’s second article, EGNY, focuses on the newly discovered

correspondence to present details surrounding Granados’s New York premiere of

Goyescas from the perspectives of Granados, his wife Amparo Gal, and pianist and friend

Ernest Schelling (1876–1936). Previous studies relied largely on third-party accounts

published by the American media. As in EGP, Perandones observes that 1909 was a

pivotal year in Granados’s life, when the composer began receiving correspondence from

prominent foreigners, an occurrence that continued unabated until the time of his death,

when he was at the pinnacle of international acclaim. In Granados’s letters, Perandones

discovered that the composer suffered from nervous exhaustion from the moment he

arrived in New York, and that this ailment prevented him from performing in a number of

previously scheduled concerts.

xv
 The article also reveals the extent to which Granados’s wife astutely observed the

complex series of events surrounding the New York visit. Through several of her letters

that are quoted and examined, the author shows that Gal maintained a consistently

positive outlook on the couple’s prospects, despite notable setbacks that occurred during

the short visit. Her letters also suggest that she was influential in Granados’s career

decisions and recognized that the New York premiere represented a milestone in

Granados’s career. Granados’s successful premiere led to an invitation by President

Woodrow Wilson to perform at the White House on March 7, 1916. The performance was

“a brilliant success,” 8 taking place just seventeen days before the tragic deaths of the

composer and his wife aboard the SS Sussex.

VII. Translation Challenges

Nuevo españolismo, nuevo casticismo

The first important translation challenge, nuevo españolismo, appears in the

keyword lists of both articles (EGP, 203, 226; EGNY, 1, 13, 16). A synonym, nuevo

casticismo (EGP, 229), and a related term, españolista (EGP, 226, 232; EGNY, 15), are

also significant.

In EGP, the author explains that Granados brought a Spanish influence to French

music. It is the essence of this Spanish musical influence that the author later terms

españolismo, a noun defined by the Real Academia Española (RAE) as: 1. m. Amor o

8
Clark, 162.

xvi
apego a las cosas características o típicas de España. 2. m. hispanismo. 3. m. Carácter

genuinamente español. (1. n., m. Love or fondness toward those things that characterize

Spain, or are typical of Spain; 2. n., m. Hispanicism; 3. n., m. Genuine Spanish

character.).

Merriam-Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary offers “Hispanicism” as a loosely-

related equivalent: “a word, phrase, or mode of expression distinctive of Spanish

especially when it appears in an English context.” However, this is not an adequate

translation for españolismo.

On page 229 of EGP, the author explains that Granados opened a historicist

channel in musical composition in what has now been termed nuevo casticismo. The

context suggests this to be a synonym for nuevo españolismo, which I confirmed with the

author.

Clark further discusses casticismo:

In his 1895 essay “En torno al casticismo” (“On ‘Casticism’”), Miguel de Unamuno, one of
the leading writers of the Generation of ’98, found a solution that came to exercise a profound
influence on artists and intellectuals in the wake of the Spanish-American War. Casticsmo means
“genuine Spanishness,” the pure spirit of the nation, implying a reverence for tradition. Such a
term, of course, is slippery enough to be capable of almost any definition, and some used it as a
9
shibboleth in denouncing foreign ideas and trends.

Clark’s excerpt offers “Casticism” and “genuine Spanishness” as two possible

translations for casticismo and its synonym, españolismo. “Casticism” is problematic.

Although used as a translation for Unamuno’s essay, as well as in a half-dozen books on

9
Ibid, 110.

xvii
Spain and Spanish music, I could not find the term in any academic journals dealing with

Spain; furthermore, “Casticism” is just as likely to be used in books pertaining to Hindu

caste systems. 10 Furthermore, I could not find the term in any dictionaries, so it is apt to

cause confusion.

A search of parallel texts revealed that, for casticismo and españolismo,

“Spanishness” and “genuine Spanishness” are widely-employed translations, found in

several English language scholarly publications that discuss Spanish history and

culture. 11 Though not listed in Webster’s, “Spanishness” is listed under the entry for

“Spanish” by the Oxford English Dictionary as a derivative: “Spanishness: n. the quality

of being Spanish.” The entry adds two usage quotations, the first, from a 1960 New York

Times Book Review, “. . . this mysterious quality of ‘Greekness’ or ‘Spanishness’”), and

the second, from the 1977 book Gentle Barbarian: “Her Spanishness had its Islamic

roots.” 12 “Spanishness” is also listed in the Collins Spanish Dictionary as carácter

español, cualidad española. 13

10
S.K. Panigrih, Casticism Politics in India (New Delhi: Cyber Tech Publications, 2008); N.
Jayapalan, Problems of Indian Education (New Delhi: Atlantic, 2001); Jai Narain Sharma, The Political
Thought of Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak (New Delhi: Concept, 2009).
11
Clark; Michael Thompson, Performing Spanishness–History, Cultural Identity and Censorship
in the Theatre of José María Rodríguez Méndez (Chicago: University of Chicago, 2007); Núria Triana-
Toribio, Spanish National Cinema (New York: Routledge, 2003); Susan Larson and Eva Woods, eds.,
Visualizing Spanish Modernity (New York: Berg, 2005); others.
12
Oxford English Dictionary Online, s.v. “Spanishness,” in “Spanish” entry, accessed December 8,
2013, http://www.oed.com/.
13
WordReference.com, s.v. “Spanishness,” tab marked Collins Spanish Dictionary – Complete and
Unabridged, 8th Ed., accessed December 8, 2013, http://www.wordreference.com/es/translation.asp?
tranword=spanishness.

xviii
 Since the term to translate is nuevo casticismo, “new” was added to reflect the

notion of a “new, genuine Spanishness,” thereby maintaining consistency with

publications that have previously employed these terms.

Oriente, exotismo, orientalismo

A better understanding of the articles was attained by researching terms used in

EGP: oriente, exotismo, orientalismo, as well as the use of oriental in naming Granados’s

1890 piano solo, Danzas españolas No. 2, “Oriental.”

It is helpful to begin with a discussion of Granados’s piano solo. Clark describes

the piece as evoking the minor scales and chromatic inflections of Middle-Eastern and/or

Gypsy music. The higher octaves of the piece simulate Middle Eastern cymbals and

double-reed or plucked-string instruments. Clark goes on to explain that Spanish

composers often relied on Gypsy and Moorish codes and markers to identify certain

compositions as “other”—in other words, as non-Spanish and exotic: “that word

[‘Oriental’] . . . was code for the Gypsy/Moorish South [of Spain].”14 Clark’s assertion is

further supported by the piano solo’s subtitle, “Árabe.”

Since the piano solo “Oriental” references Middle Eastern and Gypsy/Moorish

southern Spain, the initial tendency was to translate oriente as “Arabic” or “Middle

Eastern.” However, the context in which oriente appears is not as a music term, but a

geographic one:

14
Clark, 32.

xix
 Chabrier, Fauré y Debussy […] utilizan sobre todo dos fuentes de renovación:

exotismo y folclore. El exotismo viene de España, de oriente, de la música francesa

antigua, del folclore y del jazz (Chabrier, Fauré, and Debussy . . . utilized two sources of

renewal: exoticism and folklore. Exoticism drew its roots from Spain, from oriente,

ancient French music, folklore, and jazz.) (EGP, 225)

The Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (DRAE) defines oriente as 1. m.

Este (punto cardinal). 2. m. Asia y las regions inmediatas a ella de Europa y África (1. n.,

m. east [cardinal point]. 2. n., m. Asia and its European and African border regions). I

next proceeded to search for an appropriate term that would best communicate “Asia and

its European and African border regions.” Two promising possibilities were “the Orient”

and “the East.”

Following the Chicago Manual of Style’s recommendation, I referred to Merriam-

Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, which defines “the Orient” as “the eastern regions or

countries of the world . . . formerly understood to include regions (such as the Middle

East) lying to the east and southeast of southern Europe but now usually understood to

refer to regions and countries of eastern Asia [emphasis added].” 15 The evolving

definition offered by Merriam-Webster’s is echoed by Edward Said in Orientalism –

Western Conceptions of the Orient, where he explains that “the Orient,” to Americans, “is

15
Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary, 3rd ed. (Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster,
1997): 877.

xx
likely to be associated . . . with the Far East (China and Japan, mainly).” 16 Given these

explanations, “the Orient” is not an appropriate translation for oriente.

Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary defines “East” as “1. The countries

of Asia and of the Asian archipelagoes [emphasis added]; the countries east of Europe;

The Orient.” This is a very close equivalent to the DRAE’s definition. Oxford Music

Online, in its entry on “exoticism,” characterizes “Eastern” musical variants as those

originating “from Turkey and the Arab world, Central Asia, and South and East Asia.” 17

What is most appealing about selecting “the East” as the best translation for

oriente is that, not only does the Merriam-Webster’s definition coincide closely with the

DRAE, but the Oxford Music Online’s definition of “exoticism” closely parallels the

entire Perandones passage, which is a discussion of the origins of exoticism itself. In light

of this discussion, the translated passage reads: “Exoticism drew its roots from Spain, the

East, ancient French music, folklore, and jazz.”

Oxford Music Online was also helpful in confirming the use of the cognate

“Orientalism” as the best translation for orientalismo in the following excerpt:

…mostrando una modernidad española alejada de las «castañuelas» y el

orientalismo que predominó en el siglo XIX (. . . demonstrating a Spanish modernity quite

16
5th ed. (New Delhi: Penguin Books India, 2001): 1. Said explains that Europeans view the
Orient more broadly than Americans do, as “the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies,
the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most
recurring images of the Other.”
17
Oxford Music Online, s.v. “Exoticism,” by Ralph P. Locke, last modified July 25, 2013, http://
www.oxfordmusiconline.com/.

xxi
different from the “castanets” and Orientalism that had influenced this music throughout

the nineteenth century.) (EGP, 231).

Oxford Music Online defines “Orientalism” as “the dialects of musical exoticism

within Western art music that evoke the East or the Orient.” 18 Echoing Clark, Oxford

continues, “The ‘Orient’ in the term ‘Orientalism’ is generally taken to mean either the

Islamic Middle East (e.g., North Africa, Turkey, Arabia, Persia), or East and South Asia

(the ‘Far East,’ e.g., India, Indochina, China, Japan), or all of these together.”

Other Challenges

A number of minor lexical challenges emerged throughout the texts, such as the

following from EGP: charranada (digámoslo así) (214) (double dealing, as we shall call

it), la raza pura (228) (‘pure’ national culture), and from EGNY: jugarreta del destino (9)

(a wicked twist of faith), afianzar la siembra (10) (to consolidate arrangements),

pletórica (11) (overjoyed), volcara (16) (becoming enthralled with). These posed no

special problems with the assistance of standard dictionaries and research tools. What

was far more challenging was applying the most appropriate English lexicon and syntax

at the appropriate register, while avoiding the use of false cognates.

EGNY contains a quote from Granados’s wife Amparo Gal: Amparo afirma que

“viste el visitarnos” y describe una agitada agenda social: (EGNY, 11). I consulted with

Professor Perandones, and she provided a precise explanation: viste is the third person

18
Ibid, s.v. “Orientalism,” by Ralph P. Locke, last modified May 26, 2010..

xxii
singular conjugation of the verb vestir, used in the context of definition 11 of the DRAE:

11. intr. Dicho de una cosa: Ser elegante, estar de moda, o ser a propósito para el

lucimiento y la elegancia. (“El color negro viste mucho.”) (11. v., intr. Said of a thing: to

be elegant, in style, or opportune for show and elegance. [“Black goes with everything.”])

Professor Perandones went on to explain that Amparo was telling her friends that a visit

to see the Granados couple in New York queda bien (suits you) or está de moda (is in

style). Given these factors, I concluded that viste el visitarnos could best be translated as

“Visiting us has become all the rage.”

VIII. Biographical Names

For music publishing generally, the Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS)

recommends that authors and editors refer to Writing About Music: A Style Sheet, 2nd ed.

In the section on composers’ names, this reference states that “transliterated, American

English names” of composers should be used, 19 and provides four pages of discussion

and examples. This reference also directs writers to the “Biographical Names” section of

Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary. CMOS recommends the same reference, in

addition to Merriam-Webster’s New Biographical Dictionary, which CMOS describes as

“an authoritative guide for well-known persons long deceased.” 20 Finally, CMOS and

Writing About Music strongly recommend Oxford Music Online. This methodology

19
D. Kern Holoman, Writing about Music: A Style Sheet, 2nd ed. (Berkeley: University of
California, 2008), 7.
20
University of Chicago Press, The Chicago Manual of Style (CMOS), 16th ed. (Chicago:
University of Chicago, 2010), 16.71.

xxiii
quickly yielded the proper spelling for Igor Strawinsky (EGP, 224, 228): Writing about

Music and Oxford agree that “Stravinsky” is the proper English spelling. Writing about

Music views this as an example of the so-called “Russian Problem,” and recommends

“[using] the spellings with v, not w” for names of Russian composers. 21 Similar

resolution was achieved for the spelling of the name of Polish pianist and composer Ignaz

Paderewski (EGP, 213; EGNY, 10) and Padereweski (EGNY, 3), revealing “Ignacy

Paderewski” to be the preferred spelling.

In the case of influential French composer Vincent D’Indy, there was disagreement

among the referenced texts. CMOS sets forth guidance for the use of the particle d’ in

French names: “lowercased (except at the beginning of a sentence),”22 a convention

followed by Merriam-Webster, and four out of seven Oxford Music Online entries. Three

Oxford entries prefer the uppercase D’ in “D’Indy.” Writing About Music specifically

addresses this dilemma and 50 others, in section 1.24: “List of names that pose

difficulties of one sort or another, with their hyphenations.” 23 The entry for this composer

reads “D’Indy (uppercase D).” I opted to follow Writing About Music’s guidance.

While these references helped determine the proper spellings of composers’

names, they did not address whether, or when a music author should identify composers

and other historical figures by their full names, or whether it might sometimes be

21
Holoman, Writing about Music, 8.
22
CMOS, 8.7.
23
Holoman, 9.

xxiv
appropriate to refer to an individual by their last name alone. Throughout academic

writing, both practices are common.

In the case of the translation of an academic text, the translator must not merely

transpose the text into the target language, but must take into account the cultural context

and potential readers. In the cases of EGP and EGNY, the source language texts deal with

several Spanish and French musical historical figures, and the author often refers to

individuals by last name only. While it is plausible that many, or most of these historical

figures are known to European musicologists and/or learned readers, it is less clear that

the same level of detailed background knowledge would be shared by a similarly erudite

American readership who may not have specialized knowledge of French and Spanish

Romantic period composers. Views on this issue vary widely among translators and

translation professors. One school favors consistently removing ambiguity by fully

identifying historical figures in a translated text, resulting in several first names being

added, in brackets. Other translators favor strictly mirroring the source text, under the

premise that the author’s omission of the historical figure’s first name should be

respected in the translated work.

I researched this question but found no guidance in CMOS. I did, however, review

several musicology journal articles, and reviewed the guidelines for authors published by

journal editorial boards.

The journals varied widely in their use of full names (in the first mention) versus

last names only. In the case of translated articles, there were, indeed, some examples of

xxv
first names added by the translator, in brackets. However, I was unable to find any

translated musicology journal articles in which all or almost all of the historical figures

were fully identified with first and last names.

There was no guidance provided by the journal editorial boards on the use of

composers’ and/or historical figures’ full names in the first mention, with one notable

exception. The Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM) places special

emphasis on this and four other points in its “Special Concerns” section in its guidelines

for writing abstracts: “Give full names for lesser-known persons or ones who might be

confused with a more famous person with the same last name (e.g., Leopold Mozart).” 24

This guidance confirmed what appears to have been the methodology employed in the

translated musicology articles reviewed: a middle-ground approach in which the

translator neither ignores the need to specify the first name of some historical figures, nor

indiscriminately adds first names to all persons, a practice that could be unnecessary

and/or patronizing. I followed this guidance because it came from a reputable source, and

because it appears to be widely practiced. For the definition of what constitutes a “lesser-

known person,” however, I found no written guidance.

In order to determine if a historical figure was “lesser known,” I developed a

24
Répertoire International de Littérature Musicale (RILM), “Writing Abstracts,”2. http://www.
rilm.org/submissions/pdf/Guidelines_AbstractStyle.pdf. RILM publishes a comprehensive bibliography of
writings on music serving the global music research community. Its RILM Abstracts of Music Literature is
produced under the joint auspices of the International Musicological Society and the International
Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres at the RILM International Center at
the City University of New York. On its “Submissions” page, the website implores, “The section called
Specific concerns —only 113 words —is required reading!”

xxvi
methodology consisting of using Oxford Music Online, recommended by CMOS. With

Enrique Granados as a starting point for a lesser-known person, I noted that Oxford

published just eight publications that reference this composer, whereas, for a well-known

composer such as Maurice Ravel, the same site offers thirty-two references. For Claude

Debussy, there are forty mentions, and Igor Stravinsky has ninety-nine. Experimenting

with various composers, musicians, and result numbers, I noticed consistency in my

intuitive sense for who was a well-known or lesser-known composer, and the numbers of

references offered.

Using the previous discussion as a guide, if the composer or musician in question

had fewer than twice as many Oxford references as Granados—fifteen or less—then a

first name was added in brackets to indicate material added by the translator. The

methodology resulted in neither too many first names added, nor too few: of the thirty-

four last-name-only references throughout both source language texts, this methodology

resulted in adding just eleven first names in brackets. Thus, Florent Schmitt (EGP, p. 225)

remained “Schmitt” (thirty-nine Oxford references), while the lesser-known pianist

“Mme. De Serres” (EGP, p. 208), who had no references in Oxford, was presented as

“Mme. [Caroline] de Serres” in the target language text. Similarly, composer Arcangelo

Corelli (EGP, p. 211) was left as “Corelli” (eighteen references). The well-known family

name “Scarlatti” (EGP, 210; EGNY, 14), however, could be identified with several

members of the Scarlatti family who are considered important to the world of music:

Alessandro, Anna María, Domenico, Francesco, Giuseppe, Melchiorra Brigida, Pietro,

xxvii
and Tommaso: “[Domenico] Scarlatti” appropriately specified which Scarlatti was being

referenced, and was thus added in this manner in both translated texts.

In order to employ these methodologies only when absolutely necessary, there

were instances in which I moved the original text’s full name reference from the point at

which it originally appeared, to the very first mention of the individual in the translated

article. I took this step in order to follow the CMOS convention of using a person’s full

name in the first mention. Writing under different guidelines, the author undertook an

approach contrary to CMOS in this regard: in several instances, the author referred to a

composer by last name only in the first mention, and then followed with a full name

reference, as in EGP, 212: “ . . . Granados had been invited by Fauré to serve as a member

of the judges’ panel, . . .” which was followed in the very next paragraph by “. . . one of

the most influential composers and personalities of Paris, Gabriel Fauré, might have

invited . . .”; in another example, Francis Planté (who only has one entry in Oxford Music

Online) is referred to by his last name only (EGP, 213), but nine pages later, his full name

appears (EGP, 222). In other cases, the full name appears in footnotes, but only the last

name appears throughout the article text; in these cases, the full name was added in the

translated article text, without brackets, because the author clearly intended for the reader

to have the benefit of the individual’s full name; this is another example of modifying the

format to conform to CMOS.

In the case of footnotes, the volume of last name-only references was unwieldy,

and therefore, the above-described methodology could not be employed. In fact, some

xxviii
individuals in the footnotes, as well as in the article text, were so obscure, or their

reference so vague, that they could not be fully identified, as in the case of “. . . joining

Granados on the panel of Prix Diémer judges were . . . Chevillard, Rosenthal, . . . Leroux,

Lavignac, Vidal, A. de Greef, H. Bauer, A. Pierret, and Batalla” (EGP, 212, footnote 38).

The minor importance of these individuals, the difficulty or impossibility of fully

identifying them, as well as their inclusion in footnotes rather than in the main text, also

implies that their fully being identified is not critical to the appreciation of the article.

Therefore, they could comfortably remain unmodified in the target language text.

IX. Geography

CMOS also offers guidance on geographical names. The most accessible principal

reference it recommends is the “Geographical Names” section of Webster’s, as well as

Merriam-Webster’s Geographical Dictionary. These were valuable guides to all the

geographical references in the texts and for the background notes at the end of this

section. For example, the Polish city “Kraków,” though commonly spelled without an

accent, was found in both Merriam-Webster’s references to contain the accent on the “ó”

(Merriam-Webster’s also allows “Cracow” and “Krakau”). In the case of Granados’s

birthplace, Merriam-Webster’s accepts either the Spanish “Lérida” (with accent), or the

Catalan “Lleida” and “Ilerda.”

EGP contained demonyms with no English equivalents, such as: este intérprete

leridano (“the Lérida-born performer,” 204), el periódico gijonés (the Gijón newspaper,

213), and compositor gerundense/gerundés (“Gerona-born composer,” 216, “the

xxix
composer from Gerona,” 218, 230). In the case of pedrelliano (EGNY, 13), I found the

cognate “Pedrellian” to be used in English language scholarly publications dealing with

works influenced by Felipe Pedrell, despite its absence from Webster’s. In other cases,

where adjectives had been coined in Spanish to refer to the followers of certain styles or

philosophies, there was sometimes no specific word available: ni un d’indysta está

ceñudo, ni un debussysta afila las uñas (EGP, 217) (Not a single D'Indy disciple frowned,

nor did the Debussy-ites file their nails), estilo albeniciano (EGP, 231) (in the Albéniz

style, 231), and El pensamiento noventaiochista en las Goyescas (EGP, 228)

(“Generation of ‘98’” Thinking Reflected in Goyescas). In the case of Granados’s crisis

de montmartrismo (EGP, 228), an “affliction” coined by Ricardo Viñes in the context of a

personal letter, a cognate was appropriate: “a crisis of ‘Montmartrism’.”

X. Translations of Titles, Proper Names, and Institutions

Following the CMOS convention for running text, translations following a foreign

word, phrase, or title were placed in parentheses, 25 not brackets. If the foreign word,

phrase, or title was previously published in the target language, then it appears in

quotation marks or italics, depending on the CMOS convention for the type of work (e.g.,

operas and other long works: italics; songs: quotation marks, etc.). If the foreign word,

phrase, or title has not been published, then the English is capitalized sentence-style,

neither in quotation marks nor italics. 26 All such translations appearing in the articles, in

25
CMOS, 7.50.
26
Ibid, 11.6.

xxx
this format, are my own. Additionally, in accordance with academic convention, if the

foreign word, phrase or title is a cognate easily discernible by the reader (e.g., Le Guide

du Concert), then the English language translation is omitted.

CMOS also specifies the use of brackets to enclose a foreign word or phrase in

order to avoid ambiguity. Using this guidance, I explained the use of the words cuaderno

(notebook) when the first use of “tableau” (artistic grouping; representation of the action

at some stage in a play, created by the actors suddenly holding their positions) was made

to designate each of the three sections of the Goyescas opera: “. . . and the first notebook

[cuaderno], or tableau of Goyescas” (EGP, 217); “. . . the 1911 premiere of the first

notebook [cuaderno], or tableau of the Goyescas opera” (EGNY, 3). “Tableau” and

“tableaux” were employed by Clark, Hess, as well as by music publisher G. Shirmer

when the Goyescas score was published in the United States as Goyescas: An Opera in

Three Tableaux.

In notes and bibliographies, if an English translation of a title is supplied by the

author or editor, it follows the original title and is enclosed in brackets, without italics or

quotation marks. It is capitalized sentence-style, regardless of the bibliographic style

followed. 27

In its guidelines for writing abstracts, RILM also directs authors to “give true

titles in the original language, followed by a parenthetical translation if most RILM users

27
Ibid, 14.108

xxxi
are unlikely to know the original.” 28 I followed this guidance in CMOS style for works

published in the target language, as in Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (EGP,

224), for the benefit of readers unfamiliar with French and/or the original title. In the case

of the Sociedad de Conciertos Clásicos (EGP, 209), this guidance was especially helpful.

This title was written in Spanish in the source text, referring to Granados’s Barcelona-

based subscription series for the promotion of symphonic and chamber music, under

whose auspices Granados’s own orchestra performed. Upon researching the organization,

I discovered that the series title was originally established in the Catalan language, as

Societat de Concerts Clàssics. I thus followed the RILM guidance of employing true

titles in the original language, omitting the English translation because the title was easily

understood as a cognate.

Similarly, RILM directs authors to “give all societies, institutions, and other

organizations their full names in their original language.” 29 This led to the replacement of

“Universidad de Tours” (EGP, 210) with “Université de Tours,” the inclusion of

“Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona” (EGNY, 13) in the institution’s official Catalan

name, and other similarly written organization names.

XI. Granados Song Titles

A number of Granados song titles appear in the texts. Some, but not all, have been

previously translated. Jacqueline Cockburn and Richard Stokes’s The Spanish Song

28
RILM, “Writing Abstracts,”2.
29
Ibid.

xxxii
Companion 30 was especially helpful. These authors’ translations were the same ones used

in one or more other texts, such as “Gracia Mía” (“My Graceful One”), which was

published with the same song title in several books. However, in some cases, a judgment

call was required, where a commonly employed, yet imprecise song title had been

repeatedly published. In the case of “Mañanica Era,” The Song Companion translated the

title as “Daybreak,” while the more precise translation would have been “It Was

Daybreak.” Indeed, I found both “Daybreak” and the better alternative “It Was

Daybreak,” translated by Laura Claycomb, on the Rec Music Foundation’s website, 31 so I

opted to use the more precise “It Was Daybreak.”

For “Coloquio en la Reja,” I discovered seven different translations across a

variety of texts: “Love Duet,” 32 “Dialogue at the Window,” 33 “Conversation at the

Window,” 34 “A Conversation Through the Grating,” 35 “Conversation Through the

Bars,” 36 “Conversation at the Grille,” 37 and “Dialogue Through the Grill.” 38

30
Jacqueline Cockburn and Richard Stokes, The Spanish Song Companion (Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press, 2006).
31
REC Music Foundation Online, s.v. “Mañanica era,” last modified September 2013, http://
www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=1082.
32
Maurice Hinson, Guide to the Pianist’s Repertoire, 3rd ed. (Bloomington, IN: Indiana
University Press, 2000), 348; James Friskin and Irwin Freundlich, Music for the Piano (New York: Dover,
1973), 124.
33
Clark, 121.
34
Last.FM, s.v. “No. 2. Coloquio en la Reja (Conversation at the Window),” accessed November
24, 2014, http://www.lastfm.fr/music/Enrique+Granados/_/No.+2.+Coloquio+en+la+Reja+(Conversation+
at+the+Window).
35
Oxford, s.v. “Goyescas,” accessed November 24, 2013.
36
Ritmic, s.v. “Coloquio en la reja,” accessed November 24, 2013, http://www.ritmic.com/ralph-
votapek-121562/ii-coloquio-reja-conversation-through-the-bars-25055711.html.

xxxiii
 In an article in the musical journal Diagonal,

American pianist and Granados scholar Douglas Riva

published sketches from Granados’s notebook Apuntes para

mis obras (Notations on my works) that displayed

Granados’s drawings representing Goyescas, including

“Coloquio en la Reja.”

The sketch, which also appears in Clark’s book,

visually represents the courtship ritual between majo and

maja, a dialogue taking place through an iron grating. According to Clark (who translated

the title as “Dialogue at the Window”), “ornamented iron grills [emphasis added] were

placed in doors or walls, and it was through these that majos carried on their courtship

with the majas.” 39 Riva translated the song title similarly: “Dialogue Through the Grill

[emphasis added].” However, Merriam-Webster’s defines, “grill” primarily as “1a: a

cooking utensil on which food is exposed to red heat, . . .” while a “grille” is “1a: a

grating (as of wrought iron, bronze, or wood) forming an often elaborate openwork

barrier, screen, or cover as to a door, window, or other opening); 1b: an opening covered

37
Spotify, s.v. “Granados: Goyescas,” accessed November 24, 2013, https://play.spotify.com/
album/06Zv5VLPFIDsC85sontSCp; Grooveshark, s.v. “Izumi Tateno Goyescas – Los majos enamorados,”
accessed November 24, 2013, http://grooveshark.com/#!/album/Granados+Goyescas/8065458.
38
Douglas Riva, “Apuntes Para Mis Obras: Granados’ Most Personal Manuscript and What It
Reveals.” Diagonal: Journal of the Center for Iberian and Latin American Music, Proceedings of the
Conference “Music in the Time of Goya, and Goya in the Time of Granados” held at the University of
California, Riverside, February 25, 2005, as part of “Encuentros 2005.” Accessed August 13, 2013. http://
www.cilam.ucr.edu/diagonal/issues/2005/riva.html.
39
Clark, 129.

xxxiv
with a grille: such as (1) : a window for the sale of tickets.” 40 Though Merriam-Webster’s

admits both the spellings “grill” and “grille” in the context described above, “grille” is

preferred, and is therefore the better of the two choices.

The DRAE defines a coloquio as 1. m. conversación entre dos o más personas. (1.

n. a dialogue between two or more persons). According to Webster’s, both “dialogue”

(“2.a(1): an instance of conversational exchange, 2.a(2) oral communication :

conversation”) and “conversation” (“3.a(1): oral exchange of sentiments, observations,

opinions, ideal : colloquial discourse”) would be acceptable. On this particular point, I

preferred to follow Clark’s and Rivas’s preference for “dialogue,” concluding with

“Coloquio en la Reja” (Dialogue through the grille).

XII. The Language of Music

The articles contain references to the proper names of several musical works. For the

most part, these were straightforward, such as Chopin’s Rondó en Do mayor (EGP, 208).

Following CMOS and Writing About Music conventions concerning the capitalization of

keys and the proper use or omission of hyphens, the translation became “Rondo in C

Major.” Similarly, Nocturno en Do # menor (EGP, 211) was translated as “Nocturne in C-

sharp Minor; Polonesa n° 2 became “Polonaise No. 2 in E-flat Minor,” and Balada n° 3

was “Ballade No. 3 in A-flat Major”.

40
Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, s.vv. “grille” and “grill,” accessed November 24, 2013,
http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/grille, and http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/
unabridged/grill.

xxxv
 Cognates generally provided the most appropriate translations for music

terminology. A number of reference works were consulted, including Oxford Music

Online, The Harvard Dictionary of Music, and Diccionario técnico Akal de términos

musicales, Español-Inglés, Inglés-Español.

Spanish English Definition

Acento
Su color, su acento,
vibrante, y su aspecto
elegante, seductor, lánguido
si se da el caso (EGP, 222)
accentuation
Their tone color and
accentuation are vibrant,
elegant, seductive, or
languid if need be . . .
“Accentuation” is the use of accent (a
perceptible alteration, usually an increase in
volume) in musical performance, real or
imagined. The term may refer to particular
notes or chords, or more comprehensively to
an entire performance; in the modern
Western tradition, accentuation, together
with phrasing, articulation, dynamics, etc.,
contributes to musical expression. 41

acentos locales
en las Goyescas dominan el
ritmo y los acentos locales
(EGP, 218)
local color The context suggests that acento in this
the Goyescas were instance means: 8. m. Importancia o relieve
dominated by rhythm and especial que se concede a determinadas
local color ideas, palabras, hechos, fines, etc. (8. n., m.,
The importance or special prominence
conferred upon ideas, words, facts, aims,
etc.). 42 Acentos locales suggests
regionalism, as in “local color,” defined by
Merriam-Webster as: “Color (i.e., character,
complexion, tone, quality, nature) . . .
derived from the presentation of the features
and peculiarities of a particular locality and
its inhabitants.” 43

41
Oxford, s.v. “accentuation,” by Matthias Thiemel, last modified July 25, 2013.
42
DRAE Online, s.v. “acento,” accessed November 24, 2013, http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=acento.
43
Merriam-Webster Unabridged Online, s.vv. “color” and “local color,” accessed November 24,
2013, http://unabridged.merriam-webster.com/unabridged/color, and http://unabridged.merriam-webster.
com/unabridged/local%20color.

xxxvi
canción lírica
tesis doctoral La canción
lírica de Enrique Granados
(EGP, 204; EGNY, 4, 15)
art song
doctoral dissertation, . . .
(The art songs of Enrique
Granados)
An “art song” is a song intended for the
concert repertoire, as opposed to a
traditional or popular song. The term is
more often applied to solo, rather than
polyphonic songs. During the eighteenth
century, “art song” came to have its
predominant modern meaning of secular
solo song with an independent keyboard
accompaniment. 44 There are English-
language academic texts on the subject of
Spanish art songs. 45 In Chapter 1 of Art
Song Composers of Spain, the author writes
that she intends to provide a teaching tool
that explains “the complexities of the
canción lírica, Spanish art song.” Chapter
29 of her book is devoted exclusively to the
art songs of Enrique Granados. 46

color, coloreado, colorista
sus adorables piezas de
piano, tan coloristas, tan
originales, y tan
pintorescas» (EGP, 215)
Granados tiene un «color»
de sonido que le es propio.
(EGP, 216)
Coloreado de preciosas
armonías (EGP, 218–19)
la receta para la
composición de las
Goyescas es el color
nacional unido al lirismo y
el todo coloreado… (EGP,
219)
color, tone color, colored,
colorful, flavor
his lovely piano pieces,
which are so colorful,
original, and picturesque.
Granados played with a tone
“color” that was uniquely
his own.
colored with gorgeous
harmonies
the formula for composing
Goyescas consisted of a
nationalist flavor combined
with lyricism, while the
assembled whole remained
colorful . . .
“Color,” “tone color,” “tone quality,” or
“timbre” refers to that which distinguishes
the quality of tone of one instrument or
singer from another. Its perception is a
synthesis of several factors, and is a more
complex attribute than pitch or loudness,
which can be represented by a one-
dimensional scale. 47 In music it is
customary to speak of “coloring” or “tone
color” where variations of “timbre” or
“tone” are produced by different intensities
of the overtones of sounds. 48
In the case of el color nacional (EGP, 219),
the context showed this to be a non-musical
use of color, referring instead to “a
nationalist flavor.”

44
Oxford, s.v. “art song,” by Peter Dickinson, et al, last modified July 25, 2013.
45
Suzanne Rhodes Draayer, Art Song Composers of Spain: An Encyclopedia (Lanham, MD:
Scarecrow Press, 2009); Jacqueline Cockburn and Richard Stokes, The Spanish Song Companion (Lanham,
MD: Scarecrow Press, 2006); John H. Baron, ed., Spanish Art Song in the Seventeenth Century (Madison,
WI: A-R Editions, 1985).
46
Rhodes Draayer, 1, 267.
47
Oxford, s.vv. “timbre,” “colour (Tone-colour),” and “sound” by Charles Taylor and Murray
Campbell, accessed November 24, 2013.
48
Don Michael Randel, ed., The Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4th ed. (Cambridge, MA: Belknap
of Harvard, 2003), 893.

xxxvii
Su color, su acento, vibrante,
y su aspecto elegante,
seductor, lánguido
si se da el caso (EGP, 222)
conservatorial
ni la crítica de partidos se
ha ensañado con él como
suele acontecer a un
scholista o a un
conservatorial. (EGP, 217)
fantasía
marcadas por una fantasía
delicada y de un
sentimentalismo expresivo.
(EGP, 218)
modulante, modulaciones
muy modulante y muy tonal
al mismo tiempo [...] y
admirablemente pianístico»
(EGP, 219)
modulaciones escasas (EGP,
229)
49
Oxford, s.v. “Avignon,” by Marcel Frémiot and Charles Pitt, accessed August 18, 2013.
50
Harvard Dictionary of Music, 306–8.
51
Ibid, 522–24.
Their tone color and
accentuation are vibrant,
elegant, seductive, or
languid if need be . . .
a graduate of the Paris
Conservatoire
nor the relentless criticism
from parties who take issue
with him, as they tend to do
with graduates of the Schola
Cantorum or the Paris
Conservatoire.
fantasia
a delicate fantasia marked
by sentimental
expressiveness.
modulating, modulations
at once tonal and
modulating, . . . and
impressively pianistic.
few modulations
xxxviii
Conservatorial is not in the DRAE or any
other dictionary. Its meaning was
determined by its context in the article.
Musicians who studied at the Paris
Conservatoire received instruction in
compositional techniques that emphasized
cyclic form. They were subjected to
criticism for allegedly possessing a narrow
range of skills. 49
A “fantasia” is an ingenious and imaginative
instrumental composition, often
characterized by distortion, exaggeration,
and elusiveness resulting from its departure
from current stylistic and structural norms.
Throughout its use, fantasia has often
simply meant to improvise. By extension, it
may be applied to a piece that attempts to
give the impression of flowing
spontaneously from a player's imagination
and delight in performance. 50
“Modulation” is the process of changing
from one key to another during the course of
a composition, in accordance with the rules
of harmony. 51
orientalismo
alejada de las «castañuelas»
y el orientalismo que
predominó en el siglo XIX.
(EGP, 231)
Orientalism
quite different from the
“castanets” and Orientalism
that had influenced this
music throughout the
nineteenth century.
“Orientalism” refers to the dialects of
musical exoticism within Western art music
that evoke the East or the Orient. The
“Orient” in Orientalism is generally taken to
mean the Islamic East, Middle East, South
Asia, or all of these together. In Spanish
music, “Oriental” is often regarded as “code
for the Gypsy/Moorish South [of Spain].” 52

ornamento ornamentation “Ornamentation,” or “embellishment” is the

las mencionadas danzas while Danzas lacked modification of music, usually but not
están desprovistas de todo ornamentation always through the addition of notes, to
ornamento (EGP, 218) make it more beautiful or effective, or to
demonstrate the abilities of the interpreter. 53

polifónica polyphonic “Polyphony” is musical texture in two or

las Goyescas tienen una Goyescas’ writing was more (though usually at least three)
escritura «polifónica, sólida, polyphonic, solid, robust relatively independent parts. The sound
recia, (EGP, 218) sources may be used on their own, in
monophony, or with another or others. 54

scholista
ni la crítica de partidos se
ha ensañado con él como
suele acontecer a un
scholista (EGP, 217)
la formación scholista de
Turina, basada en la
observancia de la forma,
influyó negativamente (EGP,
229)
a graduate of the Schola
Cantorum
or the relentless criticism
from parties who take issue
with him, as they tend to do
with graduates of the Schola
Cantorum
Turina's musical education
at the Schola Cantorum,
which emphasized the
observance of structure,
negatively influenced
Scholista is not in the DRAE or any other
dictionary. Its meaning was determined
through its contextual use in the article.
Musicians who studied at the Schola
Cantorum in Paris received instruction in
compositional techniques that emphasized
cyclic form. They were subjected to
criticism for allegedly possessing a narrow
range of skills. 55

52
Oxford, s.v. “Orientalism,” by Ralph P. Locke, last modified May 26, 2010; Clark, 32.
53
Harvard Dictionary of Music, 617.
54
Oxford, s.v. “polyphony,” by Wolf Frobenius, et al, accessed November 24, 2013.
55
Ibid, s.v. “Avignon,” by Marcel Frémiot and Charles Pitt, accessed August 18, 2013.

xxxix
sonido
destaca en una de las
cualidades francesas por
excelencia, el sonido, (EGP,
216)
tone quality
his unforgettable tone
quality, the French virtue
par excellence;
“Tone quality,” “tone color,” “color,” or
“timbre” is that which distinguishes the
quality of tone of one instrument or singer
from another. Its perception is a synthesis of
several factors, and is a more complex
attribute than pitch or loudness, which can
be represented by a one-dimensional scale. 56

tonal tonal “Tonal” is defined as exhibiting the

muy modulante y muy tonal at once tonal and principles of tonic-dominant tonality (a
al mismo tiempo [...] y modulating, . . . and strong pull toward a specific key center or
admirablemente pianístico» impressively pianistic. structure), as distinct from other systems of
(EGP, 219) organizing pitch. 57

XIII. French and Catalan languages

Throughout the articles, there are quotations from French musicology

publications, Catalan song titles, and Catalan sayings. Where possible, the original

French text was found, and a direct translation from French to English undertaken. EGP

includes two quotes from Michel Duchesneau’s book, L'avant-garde musicale et ses

sociétés à Paris de 1871 à 1939. I was able to locate the original French text and

translated the originals directly into English with guidance from my advisor. The original

French was included in background notes at the end of this section.

In the case of phrases encountered in Catalan, I used online tools to arrive at close

English approximations, but had to contact the author for further assistance. In the case of

the Catalan song titles in footnote 62, EGP (221), Professor Perandones explained that the

56
Ibid, s.vv. “timbre,” “colour (Tone-colour),” and “sound” by Charles Taylor and Murray
Campbell, accessed November 24, 2013.
57
Harvard Dictionary of Music, 898.

xl
song titles were written in what Professor Perandones termed “prenormative” Catalan,

and she offered her own translations into Spanish:

Catalan Spanish: Author English: Translator

Per qu’ils aucells refilan
(Article 1, 221)
Per qui les flors esclatan
(Article 1, 221)
Mes enllá de la selva, mes
enllà (Article 1, 221)
Deu nos en guart de
enamorament de dona
lletcha (Article 2, 8)
para dejarlo todo a y clan
(tancar una cosa amb pany
i clau) (Article 2, 10)
Para el que las aves cantan
Para el que las flores se
abren
(Dime, sol, ¿qué hay) más
lejos, más allá de las
montañas?
Dios nos libre de
enamorarnos de la mujer
fea
tener una cosa a buen
recaudo (literalmente:
dejarlo todo cerrado con
cerradura y llave)
To the one for whom the
birds sing
To the one for whom the
flowers bloom
(Tell me, sun, what is)
farther away, beyond the
mountains?
May God deliver us from
falling in love with an ugly
woman
to leave everything squared
away

XIV. Abstracts

Both original EGP and EGNY articles contained abstracts in English, provided by

the author. I modified both in order to bring consistency to the writing styles, since the

two abstracts appeared to have been written by different persons.

Journals set forth widely diverging guidance as to the word counts required of

abstracts. Some require abstracts as short as 100 words, and others allow as many as 300.

Therefore, both abstracts may need to be lengthened, shortened, and/or modified before

being published in an English language journal. EGP’s translated abstract is presently 257

words, and EGNY’s is 184 words.

xli
 XV. Errata to “Enrique Granados en París” (EGP)

The original version of EGP included errata, provided by the author, listing

typographical errors and other minor corrections. I incorporated the revisions, listed

below, into a new Spanish language PDF of the article, which is provided as an appendix,

along with EGNY, for which no errata were provided:

EGP Original Author’s correction, incorporated into Page

new PDF
su íntimo amigo Ricardo Viñes o Pablo sus íntimos amigos Ricardo Viñes o Pablo 203
Casals Casals
apenas seis años antes de su muerte apenas siete años antes de su muerte 203
Echanges musicaux franco-espagnols, Échanges musicaux franco-espagnols 205, footnote
5
(La Revue Musicale SIM, julio de 1911) (la Revue Musicale SIM, julio de 1911) 219
Le Monde Musical («»Siliana » [sic] Le Monde Musical («» Siliana [sic] 219, footnote
62
prestigio internacional que comienzan a prestigio internacional que empiezan a 221
estudiar estudiar
La Revue Musicale SIM la Revue Musicale SIM 222
En el concierto, según La Revue Musicale En el concierto, según la Revue Musicale 223
una persona –a quien no hemos logrado una persona –posiblemente M. 224
identificar– de la Revue Musicale SIM le d’Écorcheville– de la Revue Musicale SIM
pida a Granados le pida a Granados
El comité fundador de la SIM había sido El comité fundador de la SMI había sido 225
conformado por conformado por
En el suplemento de La Revue Musicale En el suplemento de la Revue Musicale 227
SIM, SIM,
En esta charla de presentación de su En la charla de presentación de su 227
concierto concierto
En los dos casos Granados abre una línea En los dos casos Granados abre una línea 229
historicista en la composición en lo que se historicista y castellana en la composición
ha llamado « nuevo casticismo ». en lo que se ha llamado « nuevo
casticismo ».

xlii
 XVI. Background Notes on Composers and Historical Figures

The articles generally do not provide background explanations concerning authors

and composers, with the notable exception of footnote 67 in EGP on Arthur Rubinstein.

This is most likely due to the fact that both articles were published for a readership who

is presumed to be exceptionally knowledgeable about Spanish and French music history.

In order to assist the reader, I have prepared the following notes, listed in their

order of appearance in the translated articles, providing context for many of the

composers and important historical figures mentioned.

Background Notes for “Enrique Granados in Paris” (EGP)

Historical Page Background
Figure/Term
Ricardo Viñes 4 Ricardo Viñes (1875–1943): Spanish pianist. He studied with Charles de Bériot at
the Paris Conservatoire, receiving a Premier prix in 1894. Viñes had exceptional
technique and a prodigious repertoire, and was the foremost champion of new
music by French, Spanish, Russian, and Latin American composers. He became
close friends with Ravel, Debussy, Satie, Séverac, Falla, and Granados. His
playing revealed an unforced virtuosity, charming rhythmic pointing, and
shimmering pedal effects (Oxford Music Online, s.v. “Ricardo Viñes,” by Charles
Timbrell, with Esperanza Berrocal, accessed August 17, 2013).
Santiago de 5 Santiago de Masarnau (1805–1882): Spanish pianist, composer, and religious
Masarnau activist. He studied music in Paris, and for twenty years Masarnau divided his life
between Paris, London, and Madrid. Although he remained a music teacher
throughout his life, he was best known for establishing the Spanish chapter of the
Society of Saint Vincent de Paul charity (Josep María Quadrado, Biografía de Don
Santiago de Masarnau [Madrid: Tipografía Católica del Sagrado Corazón, 1905]).
Pedro Pérez 5 Pedro Pérez Albéniz (1795–1855): Spanish pianist, composer, and teacher. He
Albéniz studied piano in Paris with Henri Herz, and composition with Friedrich
Kalkbrenner. He gave private instruction to Queen Isabel II, and was the first to
introduce modern methods of keyboard technique and pedagogy into Spain
(Oxford, s.v. “Pedro Pérez Albéniz,” by Antonio Iglesias, accessed August 11,
2013).
Joaquín Malats 5 Joaquín Malats (1872–1912): Catalan pianist. He spent three years in Paris
studying with Charles de Bériot at the Paris Conservatoire, and in 1903 he was
awarded the prestigious Prix Diémer. He also appeared in two-piano concerts with
Enrique Granados and Isaac Albéniz, with whom he enjoyed a warm friendship;
the vibrant yet controlled virtuosity of his playing helped to inspire the
composition of Albéniz’s Iberia (Oxford, s.v. “Joaquín Malats,” by Charles

xliii
Background Notes for “Enrique Granados in Paris” (EGP)
Historical Page Background
Figure/Term
Hopkins, accessed August 11, 2013).
Charles de 8 Charles de Bériot (1833–1914): French pianist and pupil of Austrian pianist and
Bériot composer Sigismond Thalberg. In 1887 he was appointed to the piano faculty of
the Paris Conservatoire, where he taught for many years, counting among his
pupils Maurice Ravel, Enrique Granados, and many other notable pianists and
composers. Among Bériot’s works are four piano concertos, chamber music, and
various orchestral and vocal compositions (Oxford, s.v. “Charles de Bériot,” by
Boris Schwarz, accessed August 11, 2013).
Gaspar Villate 8 Gaspar Villate (1851–1891): Cuban composer who produced abundant and wide-
ranging work, mostly centered on opera. He spent much of his life in Europe,
especially Paris, but also wrote the creole works La virgen tropical and Adios a
Cuba. His eight waltzes, Soirées cubaines, and romances were appreciated in
Parisian salons. He died in Paris (Alejo Carpentier, Music in Cuba [Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2001], 239-42).
Jules Massenet 8 Jules Massenet (1842–1912): French composer. He was the leading opera
composer in late nineteenth-century France, and his operas have remained in the
repertoire. He started giving composition classes at the Paris Conservatoire at the
age of 18. He composed prolifically and in the mid-1860s turned his attention to
the stage. He served in the National Guard in the Franco-Prussian War, alongside
his friend, composer Georges Bizet (Oxford, s.v. “Jules Massenet,” by Richard
Langham Smith, accessed August 11, 2013).
Ravel 9 Maurice Ravel (1875–1937): French composer. He is considered one of the most
original and sophisticated musicians of the early twentieth century. His
instrumental writing—whether for solo piano, for ensemble or for orchestra—
reflected a fascination with the past and with the exotic, resulting in music of a
distinctively French sensibility and refinement. He studied at the Paris
Conservatoire under Charles de Bériot and others (Oxford, s.v. “Maurice Ravel,”
by Barbara L. Kelly, accessed August 11, 2013).
Montmartrism 9 Montmartre is a 425-foot hill in the northern Paris district of the same name. As a
term apparently invented by Viñes in the context of a personal letter,
Montmartrismo is translated as “Montmartrism,” implying that Granados became
infatuated and distracted by the artistic activity in the Montmartre district, which
was, at the end of the nineteenth century, the principal artistic center of Paris
(Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s.v. “Montmartre,” accessed August 12, 2013,
http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/391015/Montmartre).
Premier prix 10 The Premier prix was awarded to those select graduates of the Paris Conservatoire
who attained top honors. The Premier prix could be awarded to more than one
student per year (Sax on the Web; “First Prize” at Paris Conservatory – What Is
It?,” last modified May 25, 2007, http://forum.saxontheweb.net/archive/index.php/
t-59947.html).
Jenö Hubay 10 Jenö Hubay (1858–1937): Hungarian violinist and composer. Robert Volkmann
and Franz Liszt played important roles in his development. He gave recitals with
Liszt in Budapest on several occasions, and in 1878, on Liszt’s advice, he
travelled to Paris, where he soon became a favored guest at music salons.
Subsequently, he gave highly successful concerts in France, England, and
Belgium (Oxford, s.v. “Jenö Hubay,” by László Gombos, accessed August 11,

xliv
Background Notes for “Enrique Granados in Paris” (EGP)
Historical Page Background
Figure/Term
2013).
Mme. 10 Caroline de Serres (1843–1913): French pianist, who studied at the Paris
[Caroline] de Conservatoire with Le Couppey. She made successful concert tours throughout
Serres Europe and often played Camille Saint-Saëns’s two-piano compositions with him
(Sabina Teller Ratner, Camille Saint-Saëns, 1835–1921: The Instrumental Works
[New York: Oxford University Press, 2002], 61).
Jules Delsart 10 Jules Delsart (1844–1900): French cellist and violin player. He studied at the Paris
Conservatoire, graduating with the Premier prix in 1866 and returning later as a
professor. Delsart was said to be one of the foremost French cellists of the period,
with faultless technique, a precise bow, and a sweet, though not large, tone. He
owned the handsome 1689 “Archinto” Stradivari (Oxford, s.v. “Jules Delsart,” by
Lynda MacGregor, accessed August 11, 2013).
León Moreau 11 León Moreau (1870–1946): French pianist and composer. Despite winning the
Grand Prix de Rome in 1899, he is now considered a composer of minor
importance. He became famous in 1925 for storming out of a Ravel concert in the
United States sponsored by Mrs. Calvin Coolidge, shouting in the concert hall that
he objected to the anti-colonial lyrics of the song “Aoua!” which allegedly
insulted the French troops fighting in Morocco (though the lyrics predated the
French Revolution) (Arbie Orenstein, Ravel: Man and Musician [New York:
Columbia University Press, 1975]).
Henri Duparc 13 Henri Duparc (1848–1933): French composer, educated at the Jesuit College at
Vaugirard, where he showed little inclination for music, but César Franck was a
visiting piano teacher at the college, and it was with him that Duparc studied
composition. The sixteen solo songs and one duet on which his reputation rests
were written between 1868 and 1884. In 1871 Duparc joined Saint-Saëns and
Romain Bussine in founding the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM), with the
aim of promoting contemporary French music, and he was a strong proponent of
Richard Wagner’s music and compositional techniques (Oxford, s.v. “Henri
Duparc,” by Martin Cooper, accessed August 11, 2013).
Albéniz 13 Isaac Albéniz (1860–1909): Spanish pianist and composer of over 250 works
which employed Spanish rhythmic and melodic idioms. He also wrote operettas,
songs, orchestral works, and piano sonatas. He studied with Felipe Pedrell, who
guided him towards composing (Oxford, s.v. “Isaac Albéniz,” by Frances
Barulich, accessed August 11, 2013.
Marie Panthés 13 Marie Panthés: According to at least one source, she was one of the most brilliant
pianists of her day, but additional biographical material could not be found
(Pierrette Hissarlian-Lagoutte, Style et technique des grands maîtres du piano
[Paris: Ed. Henn-Edmond Cross, 1948], 49).
[Domenico] 13 Domenico Scarlatti (1685–1757): This eighteenth-century Italian harpsichord
Scarlatti virtuoso and prolific composer exercised a profound influence on Enrique
Granados. Scarlatti spent the final twenty-eight years of his life in Madrid and
became enamored of Castilian folk music and dance, which he evoked in many of
his sonatas. Granados transcribed a total of twenty-six purportedly Scarlatti
sonatas he found in a manuscript in Barcelona, but scholars have confirmed that
two of these sonatas in the collection are not by Scarlatti (Clark, 114).
Corelli 13 Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713): Italian violinist and composer. He joined the

xlv
Background Notes for “Enrique Granados in Paris” (EGP)
Historical Page Background
Figure/Term
court of Queen Christina from 1679–86. He lived in Cardinal Ottoboni’s palace,
and died a rich man with a fine art collection. His importance as a composer lies
in his Sonatas da camera and concerti grossi from which the solo sonata and the
orchestral concerts of Handel and Bach evolved (Oxford, s.v. “Arcangelo Corelli,”
by Michael Talbot, accessed August 11, 2013).
César Franck 13 César Franck (1822–1890): Belgian-born composer. He studied at the Paris
Conservatoire from 1837 to 1842. His compositions were ignored by the general
public until his pupils, led by Vincent D’Indy, organized a concert of his works in
1887, and the composer subsequently wrote three of his finest works. His
compositions played an important role in restoring French taste for “pure music,”
thereby opening the way for Debussy, Ravel, and others (Oxford, s.v. “César
Franck,” by John Trevitt and Joël-Marie Fauquet, accessed August 11, 2013).
Edouard Risler 14 Edouard Risler (1873–1929): French pianist, teacher, and conductor. He entered
the Paris Conservatoire and studied there with Louis Diémer, winning a Premier
prix in 1889, and later taught at the Paris Conservatoire. Revered by his
colleagues, he achieved status as an interpreter of Beethoven that has remained
unmatched by any other French pianist (Oxford, s.v. “Edouard Risler,” by James
Methuen-Campbell, accessed August 11, 2013).
Jean Huré 14 Jean Huré (1877–1930): French composer, organist, pianist, and teacher. He was
on the founding committee of the Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI) in 1910
with Ravel, Koechlin, Fauré, and Vuillermoz. A supporter of Debussy, his Dogmes
musicaux (1904–07) reflected the aesthetic divide between the SMI and the
Société Nationale de Musique (SNM). He argued for a French music free from
foreign influence and revealed an interest in Celtic French identity (Oxford, s.v.
“Jean Huré,” by Barbara L. Kelly, accessed August 12, 2013).
Jacques 15 Jacques Thibaud (1880–1953): French violinist. He studied at the Paris
Thibaud Conservatoire, where he graduated with a Premier prix in 1896. He toured widely
in Europe, and made frequent appearances in Britain and the United States in
1903. Thibaud was distinguished by the silvery purity of his tone and the exquisite
polish of his technique, which he combined with instinctive warmth of expression
in performances that were refined, rather than robust. He excelled in Mozart and
in works from the French Romantic school (Oxford, s.v. “Jacques Thibaud,” by W.
W. Cobbett and Noël Goodwin, accessed August 11, 2013).
Gabriel Fauré 16 Gabriel Fauré (1845–1924): French composer, teacher, pianist, and organist. He
was considered the most advanced composer of his generation in France, where he
developed a personal style that had considerable influence on many early
twentieth-century composers. His harmonic and melodic innovations also affected
the teaching of harmony for later generations (Oxford, s.v. “Gabriel Fauré,” by
Jean-Michel Nectoux, accessed August 11, 2013).
Prix Diémer 15 Louis Diémer (1843–1919): French pianist and composer. At the Paris
Conservatoire he won Premiers Prix in piano, harmony, accompaniment,
counterpoint, and fugue, as well as a Second Prix in organ. He steadily gained a
reputation as a virtuoso. In 1902 he established a trust fund for a triennial
competition, with a prize of 4,000 Francs, open to male pianists who had won a
Premier prix for piano in the preceding ten years. The competition became known
as the Prix Diémer (Oxford, s.v. “Louis Diémer,” by Elisabeth Bernard and

xlvi
Background Notes for “Enrique Granados in Paris” (EGP)
Historical Page Background
Figure/Term
Charles Timbrell, accessed August 12, 2013).
Dubois 16 Théodore Dubois (1837–1924): French composer, organist, and teacher. Dubois is
perhaps best known for his religious works, some of which have remained in the
repertoire of French churches for decades. His music was admired for its French
character and solid construction, elegance and charm, purity of style and
sentiment (Oxford, s.v. “Théodore Dubois,” by Jann Pasler, accessed August 11,
2013).
Paderewski 16 Ignacy Jan Paderewski (1860–1941): Polish pianist, composer, and statesman. He
became one of the most famous international pianists of his time. In 1910, he
spoke at the unveiling of a monument in Kraków, and thereafter symbolized
Polish aspirations. During World War I he worked ceaselessly for the Polish cause.
When Poland became an independent nation in 1919, he became Prime Minister
and Foreign Minister of the first government, but retired a year later after
disagreement with other politicians. In 1922 he resumed his recitals, raising large
amounts of money for war victims (Oxford, s.v. “Ignacy Jan Paderewski,” by Jim
Samson, accessed August 11, 2013).
Francis Planté 16 Francis (François) Planté (1839–1934): French pianist. He made his début at the
age of seven and won a Premier prix at the Paris Conservatoire in 1850. After
performing Beethoven's Concerto No. 5 at the Société des Concerts du
Conservatoire in 1861, he retired to the Pyrénées for ten years. He resumed his
career in 1872, and from then on, he was recognized as one of the greatest French
pianists of the century. His concerts could last from three to six hours, and he
would sometimes discuss the music with members of the audience seated nearest
him (Oxford, s.v. “François Planté,” by Charles Timbrell, accessed August 11,
2013).
Raoul Pugno 16 Raoul Pugno (1852–1914): French pianist, teacher, and composer. From 1866 to
1869 he was a student at the Paris Conservatoire, where he won a Premier prix for
piano (1866), harmony (1867), and the organ (1869), and a Première Médaille for
solfège (1867), an elaborate, systematic regimen in basic musicianship. He was
soon recognized as perhaps the leading French pianist of the time. An early
exponent of Wagner in France, he and Debussy provided the two-piano
accompaniment for a famous concert performance of parts of Das Rheingold on 6
May 1893. His stage works and salon music are now forgotten, but he created a
more lasting influence through his many piano pupils (Oxford, s.v. “Raoul
Pugno,” by Guy Bourligueux, accessed August 11, 2013, and s.v. “Solfeggio,” by
Owen Jander, accessed October 27, 2013).
Saint-Saëns 16 Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921): French composer, pianist, and organist. He
entered the Paris Conservatoire in 1848 and became friends with Franz Liszt, by
whom he was much influenced. In 1871, he was co-founder of the Société
Nationale de Musique (SNM), formed to encourage development of a French
instructor’s school. Elegance of form and line, beautiful harmonies, and chords
were more important to him than emotional feeling or technical adventure, and his
music has therefore been condemned for its superficiality and facility.
Nevertheless, these very qualities, to which may be added graceful melodic
invention, have ensured the survival of a large amount of his work. It is significant
that he was admired by Ravel, another emotionally undemonstrative composer

xlvii
Background Notes for “Enrique Granados in Paris” (EGP)
Historical Page Background
Figure/Term
(Oxford, s.v. “Camille Saint-Saëns,” by Daniel M. Fallon and Sabina Teller
Ratner, accessed August 11, 2013).
André 17 André Mangeot (1883–1970): British violinist and impresario of French birth. He
Mangeot studied at the Paris Conservatoire and later headed the Paris-based Le Monde
Musical. He settled in London after World War I, where his main career was in
chamber music. In 1948 he formed the André Mangeot Quartet and taught the
violin and chamber music at Oxford and Cambridge Universities (Oxford, s.v.
“André Mangeot,” by Lynda MacGregor, accessed August 12, 2013).
parranda 18 The parranda is a festive dance originating from the southeastern Spanish region
of Murcia. (Clark, 41). Parranda means “party,” which helps explain why “Ecos
de la parranda” is usually published in English as “Echoes of Revelry.”
“Oriental” and 18 “Oriental” (Danza española No. 2) evokes the minor scales and chromatic
“Jota” inflections of Middle-Eastern and/or Gypsy music; the piece simulates Middle
Eastern instruments such as cymbals and double-reed or plucked-string
instruments. “Rondalla aragonesa” (Danza española No. 6) is also known as “Jota
aragonesa,” or “Jota,” as referenced in the text. The piece evokes the Aragonese
jota, a lively dance in triple time from northern Spain, typically accompanied by
guitar and castanets (Clark, Enrique Granados, 32, 35; Oxford, s.v. “Jota,”
accessed September 25, 2013).
Casals 18 Pablo Casals (1876–1973): Catalan cellist, conductor, pianist, and composer. As a
performer, he joined a piano trio with the Belgian violinist Crickboom and
Granados, and later a string quartet led by Crickboom. His artistry led to a new
appreciation of the cello and its repertoire. He directed later festivals at Perpignan
and in Puerto Rico, where he finally settled in 1956. In 1957 he married Puerto
Rican cellist Marta Montañez. Among his honors were the French Légion
d’honneur, an honorary doctorate from the University of Edinburgh, the Royal
Philharmonic Society’s gold medal, and the United Nations Peace Prize (Oxford,
s.v. “Pablo Casals,” by Robert Anderson, accessed August 11, 2013).
Alfred Cortot 22 Alfred Cortot (1877–1962): Swiss-born pianist and conductor, and long-time
resident in France. From 1905, he played in a celebrated piano trio with French
violinist Jacques Thibaud and Spanish cellist and pianist Pablo Casals (Oxford,
s.v. “Alfred Cortot,” by Martin Cooper and Charles Timbrell, accessed August 18,
2013).
Wanda 22 Wanda Landowska (1879–1959): Polish keyboard player and composer. She was a
Landowska champion of seventeenth and eighteenth-century music and the leading figure in
the twentieth-century revival of the harpsichord (Oxford, s.v. “Wanda
Landowska,” by Lionel Salter, accessed August 11, 2013).
Lazare-Lévy 22 Lazare-Lévy (1882–1964): French pianist and teacher. He studied with Diémer at
the Paris Conservatoire, where he received a Premier prix in 1898. As a performer,
he was especially noted for his cultivated performances of Schumann and Mozart,
whose works he recorded; Lazare-Lévy was also an early champion of Albéniz,
whose Iberia he played in 1911. As a distinguished professor of piano at the Paris
Conservatoire, he was considered the successor to Alfred Cortot (Oxford, s.v.
“Lazare Lévy,” by Charles Timbrell, accessed August 12, 2013).
poulailler 22 Poulailler (Fr.), literally “henhouse,” refers pejoratively to the audience seated in
the elevated theater gallery, visually the worst seats in the house, and often the

xlviii
Background Notes for “Enrique Granados in Paris” (EGP)
Historical Page Background
Figure/Term
least expensive (Larousse Online, s.v. “poulailler,” accessed August 18, 2013:
http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/divers/poulailler/81903 and http://www.
larousse.fr/dictionnaires/francais/poulailler/63074).
graduates of 22 Scholista and conservatorial were translated as “graduates of the Schola
the Schola Cantorum or the Paris Conservatoire.” Musicians who graduated from these
Cantorum or institutes received instruction in compositional techniques that emphasized cyclic
the Paris form. They were subjected to criticism for allegedly possessing a narrow range of
Conservatoire skills (Oxford, s.v. “Avignon,” by Marcel Frémiot and Charles Pitt, accessed
August 18, 2013).
D'Indy 22 Vincent D'Indy (1851–1931): French composer and teacher. He helped found the
Schola Cantorum for the study of church music, where he became sole director in
1911. He was an enthusiast for German composer Richard Wagner and French
composer Claude Debussy, helping to revive the music of Claudio Monteverdi,
Jean-Philippe Rameau, Christoph Willibald von Gluck, and Johann Sebastian
Bach (Oxford, s.v. “Vincent D’Indy,” by Andrew Thomson, accessed October 27,
2013).
majos 25 Majo and maja (Spanish dandy or belle of the lower class, respectively) refer to
the nineteenth century bohemian inhabitants of one of Madrid's working-class
neighborhoods. In Enrique Granados, Clark elaborated: “The real-life majo cut a
dashing figure, with his large wig, lace-trimmed cape, velvet vest, silk stockings,
hat, and sash in which he carried a knife. The maja, his female counterpoint, was
brazen and streetwise, and also carried a knife, hidden under her skirt. Lengthy
courtships between majo and maja were the norm.” Majo endures in Spanish
colloquial language as an adjective used to characterize something as attractive, or
to describe someone as a good person (Clark, 112; Diccionario del español
colloquial, accessed October 12, 2013, http://www.coloquial.es/es/diccionario-del-
espanol-coloquial/buscador/?q=majo).
Enrique 27 Enrique Montoriol Tarrés (1876–?): Catalan pianist and piano teacher. He gave his
Montoriol first public concert at the age of sixteen and moved to Paris in 1896 to continue
Tarrés his piano studies. Throughout his career, he performed principally in Spain and
France. Following Enrique Granados’s death, Montoriol published an article on
Granados in Revista Musical Catalana. In his will, he left all of his earthly
possessions to his piano (Joaquín Gironella, “Personajes Figuerenses, Tocats de la
Tramuntana” [Distinguished people of Figueres, touched by the cold northerly
wind], Revista Girona (n.d.): 78).
Harold Bauer 27 Harold Bauer (1873–1951): English-born American pianist. After studying with
Ignacy Paderewski, he performed throughout Europe and the United States, and
settled in New York. Known principally as a Beethoven interpreter, he also earned
recognition for his interpretation of French piano compositions by Claude
Debussy, Maurice Ravel, and César Franck (Oxford, s.v. “Harold Bauer,” by
Charles Hopkins, accessed October 27, 2013).
. . . Paris, [?], 28 Original text: …París, Jebe, Lausanne,… Neither the translator nor the author
Lausanne, . . . could confirm “Jebe” to be an actual city or geographical reference. Professor
Perandones attempted to locate the original letter, which could possibly have
provided clarification, but was ultimately unable.
[Jacques] 30 Jacques Rouché: managing director of the Opéra de Paris from 1915–39 (Oxford,

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Rouché s.v. “Claude Debussy,” by François Lesure, accessed October 27, 2013).
Émile 30 Émile Vuillermoz (1878–1960): French music critic. He studied at the Paris
Vuillermoz Conservatoire and achieved moderate success before abandoning composition for
criticism. In 1909 he played a key role, along with Fauré, in setting up the Société
Musicale Indépendante (SMI). He became editor in chief of the Revue Musicale
(1911) and contributed prolifically to several prominent publications. He was a
conspicuous figure in French cultural life for more than half a century on account
of the bulk and scope of his journalism and his efforts on behalf of contemporary
music (Oxford, s.v. “Émile Vuillermoz,” by John Trevitt, accessed August 12,
2013).
Falla 31 Manuel de Falla (1876–1946): Spanish composer. He studied piano at the Madrid
Conservatory, but of much greater importance to his development was his
friendship with Felipe Pedrell, from whom he took composition lessons between
1901 and 1904. Pedrell, who was working his way towards a specifically Spanish
style based on folk music, introduced Falla to the polyphonic music of Spain's
golden age. Pedrell’s influence was decisive. The fact that Falla's reputation today
continues to grow, in spite of the limited size of his published output, testifies to
the quality and diversity of his creative work (Oxford, s.v. “Manuel de Falla,” by
Carol A. Hess, accessed October 27, 2013).
Stravinsky 32 Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971): Russian-born composer, conductor, pianist, and
writer. The premiere of his ballet Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring)
(1913) famously caused a riot in Paris because every aspect of the production
flouted the conventions of ballet, and the choreography purposefully contradicted
the basic techniques of classical ballet. He is considered a seminal figure in
twentieth-century music (Oxford, s.v. “Igor Stravinsky,” by Stephen Walsh,
accessed October 27, 2013).
Jules 32 Jules Écorcheville (1872–1915): French musicologist who founded the publication
Écorcheville Revue Musical SIM (Larousse Online, s.v. “Jules Écorcheville,” accessed July 20,
2013, http://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/musdico/Écorcheville/167407).
Légion 32 The Légion d’honneur is the highest national decoration in France. In existence
d’honneur since the French Revolution, it rewards the outstanding merits of citizens in all
walks of life, regardless of social, economic or hereditary backgrounds. There are
three award classes: Knight, Officer, and Commander (Grande Chancellerie de la
Légion d’honneur, accessed August 4, 2013, http://www.legiondhonneur.fr/index_
en.html).
Michel 33 Michel Duchesneau: Chairman of the Department of Musicology at the University
Duchesneau of Montreal. He is the author and editor of numerous musicology books and
scholarly articles (University of Montreal, accessed August 4, 2013, http://www.
musique.umontreal.ca/personnel/duchesneau_m.html).
Original 33 Mais il est indéniable que l’importance primordial accordée aux formes
Duchesneau traditionnelles et aux techniques de composition héritées du XIXe siècle constitue
text l’essence de la création musicale chez d’Indy.
Louis Aubert 34 Louis Aubert (1877–1968): French composer. He entered the Paris Conservatoire
in 1887 and became a pupil of Marmontel, Lavignac, Diémer, and subsequently
Fauré. Aubert wrote songs and piano music, as well as several ballets and
incidental music, but left only one opera, La forêt bleue (The Blue Forest), a fairy-

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tale piece with a happy ending which engagingly depicts Pérrault’s original
characters (Oxford, s.v. “Louis Aubert,” by Richard Langham Smith, accessed
August 12, 2013).
[Jean] Roger- 34 Jean Roger-Ducasse (1873–1954): French composer and teacher. A student at the
Ducasse Paris Conservatoire from 1892, he studied composition with Fauré, counterpoint
with Gédalge, harmony with Pessard, and piano with Charles de Bériot. He was a
founding member of the Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI) (1909), along with
Ravel, Vuillermoz, and Koechlin. His compositions blurred the boundaries
between ballet, opera, and oratorio (Oxford, s.v. “Jean Roger-Ducasse,” by
Barbara L. Kelly, accessed August 12, 2013).
[Charles] 34 Charles Koechlin (1867–1950). French composer, teacher, and musicologist. He
Koechlin entered the Paris Conservatoire in October 1890. His music was characterized by
energy, naïvety, and an absolute, simple sincerity that lies at the heart of his music
and character. Until the late 1920s, Koechlin was at the forefront of Parisian
musical life. With fellow Conservatoire pupils Ravel and Schmitt, and with the
backing of Fauré, he founded the Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI) in 1909 to
promote new music, in opposition to the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM),
which was controlled by D’Indy and the Schola Cantorum (Oxford, s.v. “Charles
Koechlin,” by Robert Orledge, accessed August 12, 2013).
Schmitt 34 Florent Schmitt (1870–1958): French composer, pianist, and critic. Throughout his
life, Schmitt was valued for his independent spirit and refusal to be identified with
any school or group. In a time when many composers embraced impressionism,
Schmitt’s music, albeit influenced by Debussy, was admired for its energy,
dynamism, grandeur, and virility, for its union of French clarity and German
strength. Between 1894 and 1900, Schmitt had vocal, piano, and chamber music
performed at eight concerts of the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM) (Oxford,
s.v. “Florent Schmitt,” by Jann Pasler (with Jerry Rife), accessed August 12,
2013).
Debussy 34 Claude Debussy (1862–1918): French composer. One of the most important
musicians of his time, his harmonic innovations had a profound influence on
generations of composers. He made a decisive move away from Wagnerism in his
only complete opera, Pelléas et Mélisande, and in his works for piano and
orchestra he created new genres and revealed a range of timbre and color which
indicated a highly original musical aesthetic (Oxford, s.v. “Claude Debussy,” by
François Lesure, accessed August 12, 2013).
[Emmanuel] 34 Emmanuel Chabrier (1841–1894): French composer. Chabrier principally wrote
Chabrier songs, piano pieces, and stage works. Though he composed a relatively small
body of work, it was of consistently high quality and very influential on French
composers in the first quarter of the twentieth century (Oxford, s.v. “Emmanuel
Chabrier,” by Steven Huebner, accessed August 12, 2013).
Original 35 …ouvrent la voie à une nouvelle musique française qui doit une bonne part de
Duchesneau l’éclosion de sa sensibilité musicale à ces influences extérieures.
text
Schoenberg 35 Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951): Austrian-born composer, conductor, and teacher
(Oxford, s.v. “Arnold Schoenberg,” by O. W. Neighbour, accessed August 12,
2013).

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Zoltán Kodály 35 Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967): Hungarian composer and teacher, who was a
proponent of folk music as a basis of national culture. He is remembered for
developing the Kodály Method, a popular and well-known approach to music
education (Oxford, s.v. “Zoltán Kodály,” by László Eősze and Mícheál Houlahan,
Philip Tacka, and s.v. “Solfeggio,” by Owen Jander, accessed October 27, 2013).
Casella 35 Alfredo Casella (1883–1947): Italian composer, conductor, pianist, and author. His
early works were influenced by Mahler, whose music he conducted. After 1920 he
identified himself with Neo-Classicism (Oxford, s.v. “Alfredo Casella,” by John
C.G. Waterhouse and Virgilio Bernardoni, accessed October 27, 2013).
Tonadillas 36 The Spanish tonadilla (diminutive of tonada [folksong]) was a type of short,
single-act comic opera that flourished in Spain from the mid-eighteenth to the
early nineteenth century. It was originally performed in sections between the acts
of a play as a kind of intermezzo or opera. The tonadilla dealt mainly with lower-
class characters (e.g., peasants, innkeepers, gypsies, and barbers), and its music
consisted mostly of vocal solos in aria form. Enrique Granados’s Tonadillas
(1912–13) are a collection of twelve songs written in collaboration with librettist
Fernando Periquet in the style of the traditional tonadilla. The verses of the
Granados Tonadillas are in a popular and accessible style, “frothy and lighthearted
evocations of majo/a joys and sorrows, avoiding anything psycho-metaphysical.”
(Oxford, s.v. “tonadillas,” by Roger Alier, accessed October 7, 2013; Clark, 116).
Ernest 38 Ernest (Henry) Schelling (1876–1936): American pianist, composer, and
Schelling conductor. He studied at the Paris Conservatoire (1882–5), and later with Moritz
Moszkowski and other notable instructors, including Ignacy Paderewski (1898–
1902). Many believe he was motivated to serve as a United States Army
Intelligence Officer in World War I by the 1916 sinking of the SS Sussex by a
German U-boat which killed Enrique Granados, his wife Amparo Gal, and
seventy-eight others (Oxford, s.v. “Ernest Schelling,” by Katherine K. Preston and
Michael Meckna, accessed August 11, 2013; “Ernest Schelling’s Papers and
Memorabilia Come to Hoover,” Hoover Institution, last modified June 18, 2012,
http://www.hoover.org/library-and-archives/acquisitions/120346).
“Generation of 38 The “Generation of ’98” refers to the novelists, poets, essayists, and thinkers
’98” active at the time of the Spanish-American War. This particular group of artists is
credited with restoring Spain to a position of intellectual and literary dominance it
had not held for centuries (Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s.v. “Generation of
1898,” accessed November 12, 2012, http://global.britannica.com/EBchecked/
topic/415672/Generation-of-1898/).
Felipe Pedrell 39 Felipe Pedrell (1841–1922): Spanish Catalan composer, musicologist, and teacher.
His church and chamber music, cantatas, songs, orchestral and stage works,
including an ambitious operatic trilogy beginning with Los Pirineos (1890–91),
are seldom played; however, his rediscovery of sixteenth-century Iberian music,
especially the works of Victoria, was vital to the development of the new national
music, as was his revival of Spanish folksong. His influence was felt most keenly
through his many pupils, who included Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Manuel
de Falla, Federico Moreno Tórroba, and Roberto Gerhard (Oxford, s.v. “Felipe
Pedrell,” by Walter Aaron Clark, accessed October 7, 2013).
“new, genuine 40 The term used in the original text was nuevo casticismo, referring to a fresh

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Spanishness” approach to authentic Spanish nationalism. For casticismo, “genuine Spanishness”
[nuevo is the accepted translation in at least three English language publications that
casticismo] discuss Spanish history and culture (Clark; Núria Triana-Toribio, Spanish
National Cinema [New York: Routledge, 2003]; and Susan Larson and Eva
Woods, eds., Visualizing Spanish Modernity [New York: Berg, 2005]). Since the
term to translate is nuevo casticismo, “new” was added to reflect the notion of a
“new, genuine Spanishness,” while maintaining consistency with publications
from similar genres.
Orientalism 44 Orientalism refers to the dialects of musical exoticism within Western art music
that evoke the East or the Orient. The “Orient” in Orientalism is generally taken to
mean the Islamic East, Middle East, South Asia, or all of these together. In
Spanish music, “Oriental” is often regarded as “code for the Gypsy/Moorish South
[of Spain].” (Oxford, s.v. “Orientalism,” by Ralph P. Locke, last modified May 26,
2010; Clark, 32)

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sainete; Los 51 A sainete is a type of late 18th-century Spanish comic opera in one octosyllabic
Ovillejos act, usually performed as an interlude between acts of a play or after the main
performance. It is considered the Spanish equivalent of opera buffa (Italian comic
opera). An ovillejo is a poem consisting of a stanza of three rhyming couplets. The
first line of each couplet is octosyllabic and forms a question to which the second
line follows with a tetrasyllabic answer. The second stanza is a quatrain whose
final verse is composed of the three tetrasyllabic verses from the first stanza
(Oxford Music Online, s.v. “sainete,” by Roger Alier, accessed October 7, 2013,
www.oxfordmusiconline.com; DRAE, s.v. “ovillejo,” accessed October 12, 2013,
http://lema.rae.es/drae/?val=ovillejo; Paul Archer, accessed October 12, 2013,
http://www.paularcher.net/translations/miguel_de_cervantes/ovillejos.html/).
Antoni 52 Clark dedicated his book to Enrique Granados’s grandson, Antoni Carreras i
Carreras i Granados (1928–2012) and his parents, Antoni Carreras i Verdaguer and Natalia
Granados Granados y Gal (Clark, Enrique Granados, v).
Giulio Gatti- 54 Giulio Gatti-Casazza (1869–1940): Italian impresario. From 1910 to 1935 he was
Casazza director of the New York Metropolitan Opera. Gatti-Casazza brought a thorough
professionalism to the Metropolitan. Under his aegis, the performance of opera in
its original language became customary. He presented many American operas and
ballets, though with little success (Oxford, s.v. “Giulio Gatti-Casazza,” by Patrick
J. Smith, accessed August 13, 2013).
George 56 George Copeland (1882–1971): Traditionally schooled in Boston and Europe,
Copeland Copeland enjoyed a steady concert career and was admired for his use of color
and wide dynamics in his playing. He spent a year in Paris studying with Claude
Debussy, yet his approach was far different from that of most French performers.
Still, Debussy told Copeland in 1911, "It is not my habit to pay compliments. But
I wish to say, Mr. Copeland, that I never thought to hear my music played as well
as that in my lifetime." Another of Copeland's specialties was Spanish music,
Granados, in particular (Vivian A. Liff, American Record Guide 61, no. 3

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[May/June 1998], 249).
Sophie Braslau 56 Sophie Braslau (1892–1935): American contralto. In a career that lasted 21 years,
Sophie Braslau spoke and sang fluently in seven languages. She frequently
performed at the Metropolitan Opera and drew high acclaim in concert tours
throughout the United States and Europe. By 1930, she had become famous
singing live on newly-established CBS Radio and through her commercial
recordings (Chaim Leib Weinberg, Forty Years in the Struggle: The Memoirs of a
Jewish Anarchist [Duluth, MN: Litwin Books, 2001], 192-3).
Emilio de 56 Emilio de Gogorza (1874–1949): American baritone of Spanish descent. He spent
Gogorza his youth in Spain, France, and England, where he sang as a boy soprano. He
returned to New York and was very active in various recording studios, ultimately
becoming one of the most successful and prolific Victor Red Seal artists. He was
master of many styles, especially admired in music of the French and Spanish
schools (Oxford, s.v. “Emilio de Gogorza,” by Philip L. Miller, accessed August
18, 2013).
Antonia Mercé 56 Antonia Mercé (1888–1936): Spanish dancer. “La Argentina,” as she was
generally known, was the most celebrated Spanish dancer of the early twentieth
century. Although she was taken to Spain at the age of two, she adopted the
country of her birth as her professional name. Mercé’s modernism was shaped by
three colossal forces: Paris and its avant-garde art world, Spain’s Gypsy past, and
European Romantic neoprimitivism (Ninotchka Devorah Bennahum, Antonia
Merce,́ "La Argentina": Flamenco and the Spanish Avant-Garde [Middletown:
Wesleyan University Press, 2000], 1).
Joaquín Nin 56 Joaquín Nin (1879–1949): Cuban composer and pianist. He emigrated to Spain as
a child and studied in Barcelona and Paris (1902), where he taught piano at the
Schola Cantorum (1905–8). He revisited Havana in 1910 and left Europe for good
in 1939. As a performer, he was a noted exponent of the Spanish Baroque and
French Impressionist repertories. He wrote quantities of folk-based vocal and
piano music, of which he is best remembered for his Veinte cantos populares
españoles [Twenty Spanish folk songs] (1923) and Danza ibérica (1926) (Oxford,
s.v. “Joaquín Nin,” by Carol A. Hess, accessed August 18, 2013).
Miguel Llobet 56 Miguel Llobet (1878–1938): Spanish guitarist, composer, and arranger. His friend
Ricardo Viñes, the noted pianist and Debussy interpreter, presented him in Paris
for Llobet’s 1904 foreign debut. He was one of the most important mentors to
Andrés Segovia. Llobet is credited with introducing the classical guitar into the
modern musical world of international concert tours (Oxford, s.v. “Miguel
Llobet,” by Ronald C. Purcell, accessed August 18, 2013).
Gabriel Miró 57 Gabriel Miró (1879–1930): Spanish novelist. As one of the leading authors in
Barcelona, Gabriel Miró developed a friendship with Enrique Granados, as they
“were very similar: quiet family men, solidly bourgeois, apolitical and
sympathetic to the Church, [and] devoted to technical perfection in their
respective arts . . . Miró was as seriously interested in music as Granados was in
literature” (Clark, 146).
Las cerezas 57 Las cerezas del cementerio [The cherries in the cemetery]: Spanish writer Gabriel
[del Miró's 1910 novel presented “a love triangle accompanied by the pains and
cementerio] passions of erotic entanglements” (Maureen Ihrie and Salvador A. Oropesa, World

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Literature in Spanish: an Encyclopedia [Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2011], 635).
María Gay 57 María Gay (1879–1943): Catalan mezzo-soprano. She was considered one of the
best interpreters of Carmen of her era (Nancy Toff, Monarch of the Flute: The Life
of Georges Barrere [New York: Oxford University Press, 2005], 71-2).
Fernando 57 Fernando Periquet (1873–1940): Spanish writer and opera librettist. In Madrid he
Periquet joined the offices of the weekly periodical El Clamor (1893). His article “Apuntes
para la historia de la canción española” [Notations on the history of Spanish song]
was required reading at the Madrid Conservatory. In 1916, he saw the premiere of
his Opera Goyescas at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, written in partnership
with Enrique Granados. His reputation ultimately rested on the words he wrote for
songs and tonadillas (intermezzos sung between acts of a play or opera),
reminiscent of the time of Goya, whom he helped to rediscover (Spain is Culture
website, accessed August 13, 2013, http://www.spainisculture.com/en/artistas
_creadores/fernando_periquet.html).
. . . leave 60 Original text: …nos quedamos unos días más para dejarlo todo a [?] y clan.
everything Professor Perandones explained that clan was an informal reference to the Catalan
squared away expression tancar una cosa amb pany i clau, which literally means “to store under
lock and key,” translated as “squared away.”
Eduardo 61 Eduardo Granados (1894–1928): Enrique Granados's eldest son and family head
Granados following Enrique Granados’s death, as well as a composer and orchestral
conductor in his own right. According to Clark, Eduardo mismanaged Enrique
Granados’s collected works following the composer’s death, causing his
compositions to be rarely performed, and they fell into neglect (176).
Malvina 61 Malvina Hoffman (1887–1966): Accomplished sculptress who studied under
Hoffman Auguste Rodin (Marianne Kinkel, Races of Mankind: The Sculptures of Malvina
Hoffman [Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2011]). While in New York,
Granados practiced on Hoffman’s piano, which had belonged to her late father
Richard, a concert pianist (Clark, 233).
Anna Fitziu 62 Anna Fitziu (1887–1967): American soprano who enjoyed a prolific international
opera career during the early part of the twentieth century (Jesse Russel and
Ronald Cohn, Anna Fitziu [Stoughton, WI: Books on Demand Publishers, 2013]).
Enrico Caruso 62 Enrico Caruso (1873–1921): Italian tenor, regarded as one of the greatest of all
time. He sang thirty-six roles and appeared over 600 times at the New York
Metropolitan Opera (Oxford, s.v. “Enrico Caruso,” by Rodolfo Celetti and Alan
Blyth, accessed August 13, 2013).
Georges Bizet 63 Georges Bizet (1838–1875): French composer. He studied at the Paris
Conservatoire and composed several operas, but none of this early work enjoyed
much success. In 1873, he began work on the opéra comique Carmen, which was
at first coolly received; however, it has since become one of the most popular
operas ever written. A brilliant pianist, Bizet also composed for the piano, and his
songs and church music are considered to be of high quality. Though Bizet's fame
rests largely on Carmen, “all of his published work has color, melody, and brilliant
aptness of orchestration” (Oxford, s.v. “Georges Bizet,” by Hugh Macdonald, last
modified May 16, 2009).
Tomás Luis de 65 Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548–1611): Spanish Renaissance composer, organist,
Victoria and choirmaster. He is regarded as one of the supreme contrapuntists of his age.

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Between 1902–13, Felipe Pedrell published a complete, updated edition of
Victoria’s works (Oxford, s.v. “Tomás Luis de Victoria,” by Robert Stevenson,
accessed October 27, 2013).
Cristóbal de 65 Cristóbal de Morales (c. 1500–1553): Spanish Renaissance composer. His church
Morales music ranks him with Tomás Luis de Victoria and Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina
as a master of polyphony (Oxford, s.v. “Cristóbal de Morales,” by Robert
Stevenson and Alejandro Enrique Planchart, accessed October 27, 2013).
“new, genuine 65 The term used in the original text was nuevo españolismo, which the author
Spanishness” confirmed to be a synonym of nuevo casticismo in this context. Both terms refer
[nuevo to a fresh approach to authentic Spanish nationalism.
españolismo]
“La tirana del 65 The tirana was an Andalusian dance-song, popular in Spain throughout the
Trípili” eighteenth century, usually performed in 6/8 time with syncopated rhythms; the
trípili was a type of tonadilla performed during the last third of the eighteenth
century. Granados based the opening of “Los requiebros” (“The Flirtations”) on
“La tirana del Trípili” in an attempt to recreate the urban folkstyle of the
eighteenth-century tonadilla (Oxford, s.v. “tirana,” and “Enrique Granados,” by
Mark Larrad, accessed October 7, 2013; Spanish Theater Songs: Baroque and
Classical Eras, ed. Carol Mikkelsen [Van Nuys, CA: Alfred Music, 1998], 46).
Blas de 65 Blas de Laserna (1751–1816): Prolific, popular Spanish composer of sainetes
Laserna (short theatrical pieces performed between acts), melólogos (short musical
melodramas accompanying the spoken word), instrumental pieces, prologues, and
at least 700 tonadillas (intermezzos sung between acts of a play or opera). As an
educator, he championed traditional Spanish musical forms (The Norton/Grove
Concise Encyclopedia of Music, ed. Stanley Sadie [New York: Norton, 2001]).
Francesc 65 Francesc d’Assis Bonastre i Bertran (b. 1944): Catalan musicologist and composer
Bonastre who focused mainly on studies of Hispanic Baroque music and has made
important contributions to the rediscovery of the music of several Catalan
composers (Vilaweb, El Punt Digital, last modified March 18, 2006, http://www.
vilaweb.cat/www/elpunt/noticia?p_idcmp=1793673).
Julia Culp 66 Julia Bertha Culp (1880–1970): “The Dutch Nightingale,” internationally-
acclaimed mezzo-soprano (Evi, “Facts about Julia Culp,” accessed July 29, 2013,
http://www.evi.com/q/facts_about_julia_culp/).
salon style 68 “Salon style” refers to music composed specifically for performance in a domestic
context rather than in a concert hall, church, or theatre. In its widest sense, “salon
style” includes most solo and chamber music, but usually denotes undemanding
compositions (particularly those of the nineteenth and twentienth centuries) of a
lightweight character and designed for private amusement (Oxford, s.v. “salon
music,” by Jane Bellingham, accessed October 7, 2013).
Spanish Civil 68 The Spanish Civil War (1936–39) erupted after decades of polarization in Spanish
War life and politics between Left and Right political factions. Republican forces in
control of the government—a left-wing coalition of secular Anarcho-syndicalists,
Socialists, and Trotskyists—were supported by urban and agricultural workers and
the educated middle class. The Republicans received logistical aid from the Soviet
Union and assistance from volunteer combatants from Europe and the United
States. The opposing Nationalist right-wing rebel forces included the army and

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police, and were supported by the landed aristocracy, the Roman Catholic Church,
and the business class. Nationalist forces also received troop support and military
equipment from Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany. In 1939, the Republicans
surrendered to the Nationalists, whose leader Francisco Franco ruled as dictator
until his death in 1975 (Encyclopedia Britannica, 1967 ed., s.v. “Spanish Civil
War;” Encyclopædia Britannica Online, s.v. “Spanish Civil War,” accessed
October 9, 2013, http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/558032/Spanish-
Civil-War/).
Spanish 68 Spanish nationalism—usually considered distinct from the right-wing Nationalist
nationalist cause of the Spanish Civil War—refers to a collective identity that developed and
ideal evolved within the Iberian Peninsula centered upon a Castilian-based culture.
Spanish nationalism has generally implied loyalty to the Spanish Crown and
Empire, and adherence to the Catholic religion; its definition has continually
evolved throughout the nation’s history (José Álvarez-Junco, Spanish Identity in
the Age of Nations [Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2011]).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

lxiii
 Acknowledgments

I wish to thank the dedicated professors and staff of the Graduate Program in

Translation, from whom I have had the pleasure of taking courses throughout my years of

study in the program. Almost without exception, the knowledge acquired in each course

has contributed in some manner to the decisions made throughout the completion of this

thesis.

I would like to thank Professor Miriam Perandones Lozano, not only for granting

permission to translate her articles, but for her thorough and helpful replies to the

numerous questions I posed during the project. I would also like to thank my thesis

readers, Professors Robert Dupey and Luis García Nevares, for their instrumental roles in

my graduate coursework, and in particular, for the significant time and effort they have

dedicated to reviewing and providing thoughtful comments and suggestions on the thesis.

Their suggestions were extremely helpful.

Finally, I wish to thank Professor Margaret Charlotte Ward for her invaluable role

as my thesis advisor. Professor Ward’s encyclopedic knowledge of the best translation

and syntax reference works available enabled me to expand my personal reference

library, which will be an invaluable future resource. Finally, and most importantly,

Professor Ward imparted knowledge equivalent to several courses of graduate study by

way of her insightful explanations that logically and fully described the reasons for every

one of her suggestions. Her support, encouragement, and patience enabled me to

complete the project in a timely manner and inspired my best efforts.

lxiii
ENRIQUE GRANADOS IN PARIS: THE FORGING OF A SPANISH ICON IN THE
INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SCENE
Revista de Musicología, 34, no. 1 (2011): 203–32
Miriam Perandones Lozano
Universidad de Oviedo

Translated by Carlos E. Roscoe

 Abstract: Researchers interested in studying Granados’s life are faced with

several unresolved issues surrounding the composer’s connection with Paris. Contrary to

what one might expect, references to Granados in the French musical press do not appear

until the final years of his life, while other Spanish performers, such as Granados’s close

friends Ricardo Viñes and Pablo Casals, were already acknowledged performers who, by

1900, played frequently in Paris concerts.

In view of this situation, a question immediately arises: Why was Granados, one

of the universal figures of Spanish nationalism, along with Isaac Albéniz and Manuel de

Falla, absent from the Parisian specialized press until 1909, just seven years before his

death?

The objectives of this article are to describe Granados’s relationship with Paris

and explain why his international success came so late in his career, while the city

nonetheless managed to transform him into a Spanish nationalist and universal icon. This

study is based on a systematic compilation of the press 1 as a means to identify the reasons

for Granados’s introduction to the Parisian music scene, and to recognize the manner in

1
Transcriptions of some article excerpts may be found in Enrique Granados: Algunas opiniones
de prensa sobre sus conciertos [Some opinions in the press on Enrique Granados’s concerts] (Barcelona:
Musicografía Wagner, La Moderna), 191.

2
which his work was received in France. The article closes with a review of Granados’s

unpublished collected letters, which formed part of my doctoral dissertation.

The composer lived in Paris for almost two years between 1887 and 1889 as a

pupil of the prominent piano instructor Charles de Bériot. Twenty years later, in search of

international recognition, Granados would focus his efforts in Paris as a performer

(1909), and subsequently as a composer (1911 and 1914).

Keywords: Granados, Paris, criticism, Goyescas, “new, genuine Spanishness”

3
Paris Residency and Piano Studies (1887–89) 2

Granados’s musical training in Paris marked an important sideline in his career,

yet many of its aspects remained unclear because the episode was principally known

through a single source, Ricardo Viñes's detailed account, published in Revista Musical

Hispano-Americana. 3 In the present study I have concluded the biography of the Lérida-

born performer, starting at the point left off by Nina Gubisch's doctoral dissertation based

on Granados’s diary, 4 and supplemented with a review of official documents from the

Paris Conservatoire.

Granados is one of the many young music students who, throughout the

nineteenth century, decided to leave their homes to study in Paris, adding to the long list

of Spanish and Catalan pianists who sought to further their performance studies in the

French capital. According to Montserrat Bergadà, 5 the influx began in the wake of

2
A more detailed study is available in my doctoral dissertation, “La canción lírica de Enrique
Granados (1867–1916): microcosmos estilístico elaborado a partir de un nuevo epistolario” [The art songs
of Enrique Granados (1867–1916): a stylized microcosm emerging from a newly discovered collection of
letters]. (PhD diss., Universidad de Oviedo, Department of Art History and Musicology, 2008).
3
Ricardo Viñes, “Granados íntimo o Recuerdos de su estancia en París,” [Granados up-close, or
Memories of his stay in Paris] Revista Musical Hispano-Americana 7 (July 31, 1916): 2–6.
4
Nina Gubisch-Viñes, “Ricardo Viñes à travers son journal et sa correspondance: contribution à
l'histoire des relations franco-espagnoles à l'aube du XX siêcle” [Ricardo Viñes through his journal and
correspondence: a contribution to the history of Franco-Spanish relations at the dawn of the twentieth
century]. (Diss., Paris, 1977).
5
Montserrat Bergadà, “Les pianistes espagnols au Conservatoire de Paris au XIXe siècle”
[Nineteenth-century Spanish pianists of the Paris Conservatoire] (Échanges musicaux franco-espagnols,
XVIIe–XIXe siècles. Actes des Rencontres de Villecroze (15 au 17 octobre 1998) rèunis par François Lesure

4
Ferdinand VII's restoration to the Spanish throne, when a number of important artists

took refuge in the neighboring country. Among the pianists who traveled to Paris during

this first wave were Santiago de Masarnau and Pedro Pérez Albéniz, and later in the

century, Granados’s close friends Joaquín Malats and Ricardo Viñes. The precise date of

the composer's arrival in Paris is unknown. According to Granados’s diary, 6 he may have

arrived there in 1885. However, researchers believe the date to be closer to 1887, 7

although some suggest 1888. Carol Hess 8 and Walter Clark, 9 the researchers of reference

in this field, favor 1887, a date I can confirm. They base their findings on the testimony

of Ricardo Viñes, the composer's close friend from the time the two were in Paris; Viñes

published an article in 1916 dedicated to Granados in Revista Musical Hispano-

Americana. Viñes used precise dates to narrate the vicissitudes of his friendship with the

composer, possibly based on facts he noted in his own diary. 10

One of the controversial points concerning Granados’s time abroad as a student

[Franco-Spanish musical exchanges, seventeenth–nineteenth centuries: proceedings of meetings convened

in Villecroze by François Lesure, October 15–18, 1998] (Paris: Klincksieck, 2000): 195–233.
6
Pablo Vila San-Juan, Papeles íntimos de Enrique Granados [Personal papers of Enrique
Granados] (Barcelona: Amigos de Granados, 1966).
7
For example, Henri Collet in Albéniz et Granados (Paris: Libr. Félix Alcan. 1925); Andrés Ruiz
Tarazona in Enrique Granados, el último romántico [Enrique Granados, the last romantic] (Madrid: Real
Musical. 1975) and Antonio Iglesias in Enrique Granados: su obra para piano [Enrique Granados: piano
works] (Madrid: Alpuerto, 1985–86).
8
Carol Hess, Enrique Granados: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1991).
9
Walter Aaron Clark, Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano (New York: Oxford University Press,
2006).
10
The then-extremely young pianist began writing this document upon embarking on a voyage to
Paris with his parents on October 12, 1887. This journal is currently in the care of Nina Gubisch, who based
her doctoral dissertation on this Viñes diary, which I have, unfortunately, not been allowed to consult. For
this reason, dates taken from Viñes's diary were extracted from The Musical Kaleidoscope, 1870–1915
(New York: Braziller, 1987), whose author, Elayne Brody, was apparently permitted access.

5
concerns his access to the Paris Conservatoire. According to Granados himself, at the

time of the Conservatory entrance exam, he was suffering from a high fever and remained

unconscious in the hospital for some fifteen to twenty days. He later remained

convalescent for weeks, and was therefore unable to take the November 7th exam:

The first thing that occurred upon my arrival in Paris was that I got lost for half an hour,
wandering in circles around the hotel Cologne et d'Espagne where I had checked in. . . . A terrible
illness slowly threatened to end my life. One night, I was driven by car from the hotel to the
Maison de la Santé. . . . My convalescence lasted over three months, during which time I lost the
right to enroll at the Conservatory because I missed the deadline by exceeding the maximum age
of admission; I was thus unable to take the entrance exam. 11

Viñes's account corroborates the fact that Granados convalesced upon his arrival

in the city: “. . . Twenty-eight and a half years ago, when the poor man was just beginning

to recover from a grave illness—a malignant typhus—that, upon his arrival from

Barcelona, had him wavering between life and death for weeks . . . At the time, Enrique

was twenty years old, while I was only twelve. . . .” 12

Still, in this account of Granados’s convalescence, there is a series of implicit

contradictions that do not help resolve the question as to why he never enrolled in the

Conservatory as a student. As we have just seen, Granados exceeded the age required for

admittance by having his birthday while he was ill. However, the maximum age allowed

11
Vila San-Juan, Papeles íntimos de Enrique Granados, 69–70.
12
This paragraph, in the article previously cited from Revista Musical Hispano-Americana, might
appear a bit vague by citing “twenty-eight and a half years ago.” However, this time period appears to be
completely accurate: according to Viñes's diary, he arrived in Paris October 13, 1887, and on October 17 he
registered at the Hôtel de Cologne et d’Espagne on rue de Trévise. Precisely twenty-eight years, six months
later, Viñes would write his memoirs concerning both composers' stays in Paris. Although the article
provides as its only reference “the spring of 1916,” we can speculate that it was written in April, the month
in which we know Granados and his wife perished.

6
for admittance to the Paris Conservatoire was twenty-two, 13 while Granados was just

twenty, as Viñes affirmed. According to Bergadà and Hess, the real reason Granados did

not attend was because the Conservatory only accepted two foreign students per class, 14

and Granados simply was not among the foreigners admitted; according to his diary,

Viñes was also denied enrollment for the same reason. 15 Based upon a review of

Conservatory documents, it is known that Granados indeed never took the entrance

exam, 16 likely because the places reserved for foreigners were already filled, and not due

to the illness cited in Granados’s diary. 17

Throughout 1888–89 there was no way for Granados to take classes at the

Conservatory because additional slots were not made available to piano students that

year, 18 though Granados prepared intensively throughout 1888 for the admissions test,

13
When Granados attempted to gain admittance to the Paris Conservatoire in 1887, the institution
was governed by the Règlements généraux of 1878, which, in Chapter II [Des Éleves, de leur admission, de
leur droits et de leurs devoirs) [Students, their admission, their rights and duties], Article 39, establishes
twenty-two as the maximum age for admittance.
14
This was a permanent rule modification to the Règlements généraux, implemented August 6,
1894.
15
Elayne Brody, The Musical Kaleidoscope, 1870–1915 (New York: Braziller, 1987), 170.
16
Granados’s name appears neither in the Paris Conservatoire archives (AJ/37), nor in the list of
student applicants (AJ/37/329/2). The November 13 Le Ménestrel [The minstrel] published a list of
admitted applicants in which Edouard Risler's name appeared, and in the preparatory classes, Raoul
Laparra’s and Alfred Cortot’s names were listed. Granados would later share close relationships with these
three pianists, especially with Risler and Cortot.
17
The Granados biography published June 30, 1914 by Le Monde Musical also discussed his
illness. This excuse, presented by Granados, provided French society an elegant face-saving explanation for
their “lack of courtesy.”
18
Le Ménestrel announced that the Conservatory presumably would not offer additional
placements, thus making it impossible for Granados to compete again to become an official student. A
review of the Conservatory archive (AJ/37/333/1) confirmed that in 1888 there were no admissions exams
offered for regular piano students.

7
according to Bergadà. 19

Viñes and Granados audited classes at the Conservatory, and there is little doubt

on this point, thanks to Viñes's account. Still, Granados’s name is absent from the official

roster of class auditors. Viñes asserts that Professor Charles de Bériot taught Viñes and

Granados at the Paris Conservatoire, at the Cours Schaller, 20 and at the professor’s own

home. The following year, having surpassed the age permitting access to Conservatory

classes, Granados returned to Spain.

In Paris, Granados’s training was limited to piano performance. He attended

harmony classes, 21 but it is unknown with whom he studied. The classes could possibly

have been with Viñes's own instructor Gaspard Villate, though this is mere speculation.

Although Rafael Mitjana wrote that Granados studied piano with Bériot, and composition

under Jules Massenet, 22 the latter assertion is inaccurate. On November 15, 1888, Ricardo

Viñes wrote in his diary that Granados had an appointment with Massenet (“This

morning, Granados came to see us and said he would later go to Massenet's house”). Yet

at this point in time the two did not know one another, because in a July 15, 1896, letter

to Granados, Massenet wrote that he still hoped to meet Granados personally (“I’d be so

19
Bergadà based his assertion on an excerpt from the musicology chronicle of the Paris
Conservatoire (1971) prepared by Nina Gubisch-Viñes, entitled Les années de jeunesse d'un pianiste
espagnol en France (1887–1900): Journal et correspondance de Ricardo Viñes [The youthful years of a
Spanish pianist in France (1887–1900): the diary and correspondence of Ricardo Viñes].
20
The Cours Schaller was a private school. The November 4, 1888 issue of Le Ménestrel reported
on the re-opening of schools and their professors, including Cours Schaller (5, rue Geoffroy-Marie), where
Bériot gave piano lessons.
21
Viñes, “Granados íntimo,” 5.
22
Rafael Mitjana, “Pro Patria,” La Dinastía (July 10, 1894).

8
thrilled to meet an artist in person, a maestro such as yourself!”).

Ravel also took lessons with Bériot, and it is for this reason that Gubisch, in her

dissertation, asks whether Granados and Ravel might have shared a friendship. In “Le

journal inédit de Ricardo Viñes (Ravel, Debussy et Duparc)” (Ricardo Viñes’s

unpublished diary [Ravel, Debussy, and Duparc]), 23 Nina Gubisch notes that on Thursday,

April 11, 1889, Granados, Viñes, and Malats were together at Ravel's mother's house.

Even if this were the case, to presume that a relationship existed between Granados and

Ravel during their time as students is mere conjecture.

It is known that Granados lived on Rue de Trèvise during his first year in Paris,

very near the Conservatory, and according to Viñes, the following year he suffered a

“crisis of ‘Montmartrism’” and moved to 48, rue Fontaine in the Montmartre district. The

neighborhood's fame was at its peak, and given the city's allure, the cultural and social

movement surrounding it was probably difficult for a young twenty year-old in Paris to

resist.

As Granados himself wrote in his diary, he did not understand French before he

moved to Paris, and this is an interesting point Gubisch makes in her dissertation. Even as

the Spanish colony grew, it was closed off to Parisian society. Coupled with the fact that

Granados was timid and insecure, this caused him to miss out on opportunities in Paris to

make friends in French music society, although he did attend concerts and listen to the

23
Revue Internationale de Musique Française 2 (June 1980): 154–248.

9
great pianists of the day who had earned a Premier prix at the Conservatory. 24

With respect to the concerts that Granados may have offered in Paris during that

time, we are left only with Viñes's account, because there are no other references to

Granados as a performer. The first mention is of an audition of Conservatory students at

the Salle Érard on May 24, 1888, where both Granados and Viñes played Chopin's Rondo

in D Major, but no references can be found. The second ostensible performance,

according to Gubisch, was a concert in which Granados accompanied Hungarian violinist

Jenö Hubay (Budapest 1858–Vienna 1937), but this performance appears not to have

taken place. The May 12th edition of Le Ménestrel reported that the other performers

joining Hubay were Mme. [Caroline] de Serres and M. Jules Delsart, with no mention of

Granados.

Possible Trips to Paris

From the time of Granados’s return to Spain in 1889, until 1905, there are

indications that the composer made very short trips to Paris, but these cannot be

confirmed. According to a letter written by Granados to Viñes on January 15, 1894, the

composer indicated that he had been in Paris to meet with Bériot (probably at the end of

1893 or the beginning of 1894), but Granados did not find him. Perhaps Granados

intended to show Bériot his latest Danzas españolas music notebook, since his former

24
For example: On February 28, 1888, Viñes and Granados together attended a concert by M.
Isidore Philipp (Premier prix at the Paris Conservatoire), who later would become an admirer of Granados’s
work, as evidenced in the letter archive. In a postcard, possibly dated 1912, Philipp reported that he had
included Granados’s Allegro de concierto in the concert program he performed in Holland.

10
teacher had already evaluated one of his Danzas albums during the summer of 1892.

Judging from Granados’s letter to Viñes, Granados was thinking of returning to Paris in

October 1894, but he changed his plans because in September he moved to Madrid,

where he took exams in competition for a position as piano instructor at the Real

Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid.

According to Borrás de Palau's account, 25 in 1898 Granados made a trip to Paris

in which he premiered an orchestral work called Desolació, but there are no preserved

manuscripts of this piece, and there is no periodical source or other evidence to

corroborate this claim. Finally, according to Joaquín Nin in “Evocaciones sobre Enrique

Granados” (Reminiscences of Enrique Granados), 26 the composer went to Paris in 1904

and presented his opera Follet to French composer León Moreau. Granados knew

Moreau because the French composer had directed Granados’s orchestra at the Societat

de Concerts Clàssics in Barcelona on November 4, 1900, and in March 1901 Granados

presented another concert with Moreau, also in Barcelona. Accordingly, Moreau

performed some of Granados’s Danzas in Paris. This is all that is known about the

relationship between these pianists and composers.

25
Joan Borrás de Palau, “Enrique Granados,” La Ilustración Musical Hispano-Americana (June
1899).
26
Joaquin Nin, “Evocaciones sobre Enrique Granados,” Revista Musical Hispano-Americana 5
(May 31, 1916): 2–5.

11
Granados’s Reception in Paris as a Performer-Composer, from the Perspective of

his Concerts, Compositions, and Personal Relationships

As already indicated, there were virtually no mentions of Granados in

contemporary music publications until 1909. Until this time, only a few pianists included

Granados’s compositions in their repertoires, and these were always limited to pieces

from his signature work Danzas, until Goyescas o Los majos enamorados (Pieces in the

Style of Goya or The Majos in Love) replaced it in the international repertoire.

According to Bergadà, 27 Joaquín Malats was the first pianist to play a Granados

Danza in a public concert in Paris on February 14, 1896, although, as mentioned by

Granados in a letter to Viñes on January 15, 1894, it is quite possible that Malats also

performed some of Granados’s compositions, presumably Danzas, in private

performances. Viñes would become Granados’s foremost proponent, though up until

1913 his repertoire remained limited to just one selection from this piano suite.

Some Danzas españolas were performed at Catalan music festivals of the Schola

Cantorum between 1900 and 1905. 28 On Tuesday, December 11, 1900, the Schola

27
Montserrat Bergadà, “Les pianistes catalans à Paris entre 1875 et 1925: Contribution à l’étude
des relations musicales entre la France et l’Espagne” [Catalan pianists in Paris (1875–1925): a contribution
to the study of musical relations between France and Spain] (Diss., Tours: Université de Tours, 1997);
Second part: “Les pianistas catalans à Paris (1895–1925)”; Third part: “Les trois figures de prouve” [The
top three personages], Chapter 11. “Enrique Granados”; 2. “Diffusion de l‘œuvre en France” [Distribution
of the work in France].
28
In 1905, Blanche Selva performed Albéniz's “Cantos de España” [Songs of Spain] and Vega;
Viñes played two Granados Danzas, as well as the Albéniz pieces “Torre Bermeja” [Crimson tower] and
Sevillana; also, María Gay sang popular songs and lieders by Joan Gay and J. Civil “with a consistently
marvelous voice.” Guitarist Llobet also participated, and received glowing acclaim (“. . . tonal intensity and

12
Cantorum offered its first-ever foreign music concert dedicated to Catalonian music, in

which Henri Duparc performed pieces by Granados and Albéniz. Viñes also performed

Danzas 1, 2, 5, and 6 at the Salle Érard on January 9, 1904, under the auspices of the

Société Nationale de Musique (SNM). León Moreau also introduced Granados’s Danzas

españolas in Paris, as he gave a concert that included four pieces from the suite in 1901;

Marie Panthès also performed Danzas in 1906.

The 1905 Salle Pleyel Concert

On March 31, 1905, Granados performed his first confirmed Paris concert at the

Salle Pleyel with Belgian violinist Mathieu Crickboom. 29 Granados performed six self-

transcribed [Domenico] Scarlatti keyboard sonatas, as well as solo works by Chopin

(Nocturne in C-sharp Minor, Polonaise No. 2 in E-flat Minor, and Ballade No. 3 in A-flat

Major). Granados and Crickboom performed the La Follia sonata by Corelli, and another

sonata by César Franck. For the encores, Granados performed two original compositions:

according to Le Monde Musical, 30 he performed one Estudio [from Seis estudios

expresivos en forma de piezas fáciles] and one of the Danzas españolas, while Le Guide

Musical 31 reported that Granados performed two Estudios.

diversity,” “utterly prodigious and exciting to the ultimate degree; we surely wish to see Llobet undertake
formal studies in France”). Le Ménestrel (May 5, 1905).
29
The Belgian violinist Mathieu Crickboom (Hodimont [Liège] 1871–Brussels 1847) was a
disciple of Eugène Ysaÿe, for whose quartet he played second violin until 1894, when he went on to play
first violin for the Quartet of the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM). After a trip to Barcelona in 1895,
he settled there, and in 1897 founded the Sociedad Filarmónica; according to Enrique Granados’s
unpublished correspondence, Granados and Crickboom joined Pablo Casals in establishing the Academia
de la Sociedad Filarmónica. That same year, they toured as a trio throughout northern Spain. Despite

13
 In his March 31, 1905, diary entry, Ricardo Viñes wrote that “Granados played

very well; his performance was a tremendous success.” In a letter to Granados in 1905,

Edouard Risler was enthusiastic: “At long last, an artist, after so many show-offs and

nobodies! It's been a long time since I've been so impressed. Your Scarlattis and Chopins

were unforgettable.” 32

The review published in Le Monde Musical by Jean Huré continued along the

same lines:

Enrique Granados, one of the most delightful composers of all time . . . performed as a
pianist at the Salle Pleyel. He unquestionably matches the Greats with his bold, elegant
virtuosity—always impeccable, sometimes frenzied . . . and, thanks to his extraordinary
individuality, he surpasses virtually all to whom I have listened, all the while respecting the work
being performed.

I refer, in particular, to his refined and charming interpretation of Chopin. . . . Granados

evokes the most varied tones from his piano, moving effortlessly from dynamic accents to the
most exquisite delights. 33

Le Guide Musical also mentioned his qualities as a Spanish performer, yet

stressed that “he honors the French school,” thanks to his studies with Bériot. The journal

highlighted as well his efforts as a performer of Chopin, le poète du piano, a sobriquet

now frequently bestowed on Granados:

Granados’s split from the group in 1900 in order to establish his own Academy, the two were able to
reconcile their differences and they maintained a professional relationship for the remainder of their lives.
30
Jean Huré, “Salles Pleyel. Concert Granados-Crickboom,” Le Monde Musical (April 15, 1905).
Part of this article is translated into Spanish in Enrique Granados: Algunas opiniones de prensa, 4–5.
31
T. [Julien Tiersot?], Le Guide Musical (April 9, 1905).
32
Luis Villalba, Enrique Granados. Semblanza y biografía [Enrique Granados: a biographical
sketch] (Madrid: Imprenta Helénica, 1916). The letter was published in Revista Musical Catalana in 1905:
“Una carta d'en Risler a n'en Granados” [A letter from Risler to Granados] 109, cited by Clark in Enrique
Granados, 221.
33
Jean Huré, “Salles Pleyel. Concert Granados-Crickboom,” Le Monde Musical (April 15, 1905).

14
 We search in vain for the qualities he lacks, for he has them all: strength and delicacy of
tone, precision in tempo, and steadiness and breadth of style. His self-control provides him with
confidence in the auditorium and with his performance. . . . [Granados] was capable of performing
the Nocturne with such grace that is only possible just short of being in direct communication with
Chopin himself. 34

Granados presented himself to the French public as a pianist because, even though

he had premiered his original Scarlatti transcriptions in which he incorporated “flowery

embellishments typical of late nineteenth century Romanticism,” 35 the few concert

reviews he received merely addressed his interpretative skills. Only the two cited

publications mentioned the concert. As such, and despite the favorable reviews and

success mentioned by Viñes and documented by the Le Guide critic, the concert barely

made an impact. 36

Inception of an International Career, 1909

Interest in Granados first began to grow in 1909, thanks to two concerts he

performed with violinist Jacques Thibaud in early June at the Salle des Agriculteurs. 37

Previously, Granados had been invited by Gabriel Fauré to serve as a member of the

judges’ panel for the prestigious Prix Diémer at the start of May, where he hobnobbed

34
T. [Julien Tiersot?]
35
Hess, Enrique Granados, 24.
36
The March 15 Le Courrier Musical, for example, announced the Crickboom-Granados concert,
but later failed to follow up with information on the concert in subsequent issues. The publication did,
nonetheless, report on Viñes, who was presenting a series of four keyboard concerts, March 27 to April 17,
that featured ancient music through contemporary works. The Crickboom-Granados program was not
publicized, and accordingly, there was no concert review.
37
At the June 2nd concert Granados performed Bach's Sonata No. 3 in E-Major, Beethoven's
Sonata in C-Minor, and Schumann's Sonata in D-Minor; at the June 9th concert, he performed Mozart's
Sonata in B-flat major, César Franck's Sonata for violin and piano, and Beethoven's Kreutzer Sonata.

15
with great contemporary pianists. 38 Granados would again be invited to serve as a judge

for the same competition, which took place May 1st and 2nd, 1909. Additionally, on an

undetermined date in 1910, he was named faculty judge for the doctorat degree in piano

at the Paris Conservatoire, 39 along with Dubois, Fauré, Paderewski, Francis Planté, Raoul

Pugno, and Saint-Saëns. This official tribute stimulated a widespread positive reaction

throughout Spain, from the Gijón newspaper El Noreoeste, to the Ilustración Artística

(Artistic enlightenment).

This considerable activity in Paris starkly contrasted with events that occurred

prior to 1909, leading one to wonder why one of the most influential composers and

personalities of Paris, Gabriel Fauré, might have invited an internationally unknown

pianist to form part of the judges’ panel for a prestigious prize. The most plausible answer

seems to be that the French composer met Granados during a visit to Barcelona in March

of the same year when he participated in the third and fourth concerts of Lent, and gave a

private performance there (March 11, 12, and 14, 1909). The two composers had

38
Joining Granados on the panel of Prix Diémer judges were Fauré, Raoul Pugno, Chevillard,
Rosenthal, Moszkowski, Leroux, Lavignac, Vidal, A. de Greef, H. Bauer, A. Pierret, and Batalla. On April
30, 1909, Le Monde Musical reported: “For the third time, we will enjoy the Diémer competition scheduled
at the Paris Conservatoire Theatre, May 3 and 4 at 9am, which is reserved, as we know, for Conservatory
Premier prix titleholders from the previous ten years.” The second time he was invited to participate, in
1912, panel members included Gabriel Fauré, Lavignac, Chevillard, Risler, Moszkowski, Emil Sauer,
Pierret, De Greef, Granados, Staven-Hagen, Lortat, and Bourgeta, once again, as secretary.
39
According to Fernando Periquet, in a 1910 article on the Prix Diémer: “Soon thereafter, he
joined the doctorat piano faculty, which was founded by the Société des musiciens français. (Fernando
Periquet, “Granados, y el premio Diémer,” El Imparcial [December 16, 1910]). According to Juan Riera
(Enrique Granados (Estudio) [Lleida: Instituto de Estudios Ilerdenses, 1967]), Granados was named a
permanent panel judge for the Paris Conservatoire. The only reference that can be found on this subject in
the composer's collected letters is a card Granados sent to Joan Borrás de Palau, undated, on which was
inscribed, “From the Paris examination committee for piano instruction and the doctorat in music degree.
From the panel of judges for the great Prix Diémer of the Paris Conservatoire.

16
previously been in contact, thanks to their mutual friend Isaac Albéniz, and also because

Granados planned to premiere Fauré's Balada in Barcelona. 40 Still another possibility

could be that Granados established contact with Saint-Saëns during their joint concert at

the April 1908 Saint-Saëns Festival in Barcelona, and Granados subsequently

collaborated with Jacques Thibaud, also in Barcelona, on November 8 of the same year.

The concurrence of the three great musicians in Barcelona, coupled with Granados’s

fortuitous presence, might have led to Granados’s invitation the following year, first as a

panel judge, and later as a performer. As André Mangeot wrote in Le Monde Musical on

June 15, 1909, “Mr. Granados would not have dared perform in such a concert unless his

most trusted advisors, especially Saint-Saëns, had not pushed him. Today we can attest to

his well-established reputation.” Even though Saint-Saëns had frequently traveled to

Spain, it was not until 1908 that he truly began to know Granados as a performer and

composer. In 1909, Granados dedicated his piano concerto to Saint-Saëns, which he

evidently was going to premiere at the Associació Musical de Barcelona. However, the

concert never took place due to problems he had with the Association. 41

This French support was due, in large part, to expectations that prevailed in Paris

music society, following the death of Albéniz, that Granados should replace him as the

40
“The key point was that I simply had to play Fauré's Balada, and it indeed was one of the
proudest moments of my life. However, due to serious differences I had with this Association, I deemed it
inappropriate to present myself in public while receiving their support.” (Letter from Enrique Granados to
Isaac Albéniz. Barcelona: January 15, 1909).
41
“I was composing a concerto for piano and orchestra that I was going to premiere, and, as you
can well imagine, I was filled with high expectations at the prospect. But in light of their 'double dealing,'
as we shall call it, I declined to participate in any more of their concerts.” Ibid.

17
preeminent Spanish composer. In June 1909, Mangeot went straight to the point: “Shall

we talk of the composer? He is one of the most engaging of the young Spaniards, and is

now the successor in Paris to the position of Spanish composer that was vacated on

account of Albéniz's tragic death.” 42 Granados appeared on the cover, together with the

recently deceased Albéniz. Beneath Granados appeared the caption, “Spanish pianist-

composer, who recently performed two concerts with Jacques Thibaud,” and for the first

time, a Granados review was published that discussed works other than Danzas

españolas:

Twelve exquisite Danzas españolas, one Álbum consisting of six pieces: “Preludio,” “Ecos
de la parranda” (“Echoes of Revelry”), etc., . . . one Álbum de la juventud (“Album of Youth”),
worthy of comparison with Schumann, six easy Estudios expresivos, the Valses poéticos, one
Allegro de concierto approved by the Conservatorio de Madrid and used in exams given in piano
classes, Escenas Románticas, and the concert pieces “Oriental” and “Jota.” Pianists will discover
true gems among these compositions, which should become widely known in Paris. . . . There are
great works here: a sonata for piano and violin, a concerto for piano and orchestra, and four
dramatic works: María del Carmen (three acts), Follet (two acts), Petrarca (one act), Gaziel (one
act), as well as two symphonic poems: Dante (in two parts), and Romeo y Julieta. 43

The music critics who reviewed Thibaud for the same publication reported

similarly. Upon praising both performances, especially Granados’s, the writer sought to

highlight his French piano training:

Words are barely sufficient to describe the powerful emotions evoked by these two
remarkable performers! . . . Though Thibaud may have grown accustomed to the limelight, it must
be said that his artistry has never been so grand, so pure, or more sublime. Granados is of the stock
of great musicians, one of those stunning performers, like an Albéniz, Casals, Malats, or Viñes,
who has, like the last two, been schooled by Bériot. 44

The same article first labels Granados a musician, yet urges him to present

42
André Mangeot, “Enrique Granados,” Le Monde Musical (June 15, 1909).
43
Ibid.
44
L.R., “MM. Jacques Thibaud et Granados,” Le Monde Musical (April 15, 1909).

18
himself as a composer in the future: “The thunderous ovations he received . . . should

compel Mr. Granados to present himself as a composer next time.”

The reviews of the Salle des Agriculteurs concerts and those in Le Monde Musical

were echoed in the June 15, 1909, Le Courrier Musical, in the June 4, 7, and 11

Comœdia, and in the June 27 issue of Le Guide Musical. 45 There was consensus among

the praises bestowed upon both performers, and with the exception of this last magazine,

the others expressed their “surprise” at discovering a star like Granados within the Paris

music scene. Paul De Stoecklin wrote, “I'm pleased to note Granados’s tremendous

success. It's not every day that one sees a pianist perform chamber music before an

audience in Paris.” 46 Comœdia wrote:

Mr. Granados, really, has rapidly acquired well-deserved prominence. This pianist, who, for
my part, I had not yet had the chance to hear, may be compared with the most renowned pianists
of the day, as he plays with great virtuosity and the quality of his tone is very beautiful. It has been
said that Mr. Granados is widely regarded in Spain as a composer, and he has indeed composed
many pieces for the piano . . . (as well as) dramatic works. . . . We can see that Granados has an
interesting personality. We hope to see him as a composer in Paris someday soon. 47

According to Bergadà, Granados was known principally as a performer; however,

this assertion does not seem altogether true in light of comments by the critics, as we

have just seen. Similarly, in a June 1909 letter, J. Saint-Jean affirms that “until now, Mr.

Granados was not known in our home as anything other than a composer; all French

musicians, in essence, know and appreciate his lovely piano pieces, which are so colorful,

45
Oddly enough, nothing appears in the Bulletin Français de la SIM, which was the same
publication that, in 1914, would extol Granados as one of the greatest composers of all time.
46
Paul De Stoecklin, “MM. Granados et Jacques Thibaud,” Le Courrier Musical (June 15, 1909).
47
L.V., “2º Séance Jacques Thibaud-Granados,” Comœdia (June 11, 1909).

19
original, and picturesque,” evidently referring to Danzas. He continues:

We had known, only by reputation, of his talent as a piano virtuoso. Some time ago, Mr.
Granados was chosen by Gabriel Fauré, along with the most distinguished piano masters, to form
part of the judges' panel for the Prix Diémer, and this attracted the attention of the Parisian music
community. The announcement of his concerts with Jacques Thibaud piqued curiosity, because
Thibaud had the reputation of surrounding himself only with artists equal to him in musical
stature.

Accordingly, the fact that Granados was invited by Fauré to form part of the

judges' panel and performed in a concert with Thibaud focused the attention of the music

community upon him.

In his letter, Saint-Jean wrote that “all the prominent Paris musicians sparkled in

the front row. The public was rewarded for its wait, as Mr. Granados not only lived up to,

but surpassed his tremendous reputation. . . . We wish to see him again soon among us.”

As we can see, the atmosphere surrounding the arrival of a new Spanish

composer, who would turn out to be Granados, could not have been better. His

performances were impressive, but they were made more so by his unforgettable tone

quality, the French virtue par excellence; 48 this trait helped to underscore his French

piano pedigree originating from his studies with Bériot. Granados was now ready to be

introduced to the world as a composer.

48
Le Guide Musical stressed the quality of his “subtle nuances,” and Stoeklin, in Le Courrier,
pointed out that Granados “is an impressive pianist who doesn't pound the keys.” For his part, Jean Huré,
writing enthusiastically about Granados’s performance in Le Monde Musical, mentioned that Granados
played with a tone “color” that was uniquely his own.

20
Acceptance by Paris Society as Composer: the 1911 Concert

According to Alfonso Albéniz, 49 Granados felt transformed following the death of

Gerona-born composer Isaac Albéniz, and decided to reorient his professional life based

on the final words of advice he received from the deceased composer. During the summer

of 1909 Granados began composing Goyescas, a work that he would perform at the Salle

Pleyel in Paris on April 1, 1911. Goyescas would validate his worth as a composer and

fulfill the expectations placed upon him, affirming Granados as Albéniz's successor and

Spain's musical future. This concert consolidated his reputation and marked his entry into

Paris society and music history.

Granados presented a program exclusively based on his own compositions,

performing two Danzas españolas, Valses Poéticos, Allegro de Concierto, Azulejos

(Tiles), a transcription of a Scarlatti sonata, and the first notebook [cuaderno], or tableau

of Goyescas. According to Le Guide du Concert, the intention of the program was to

present Granados’s works to the French public in a manner that showcased the

composer's artistic evolution, from his earliest works to the culmination of his talents,

epitomized by Goyescas.

Numerous artists attended the concert, something considered a “rare” occurrence.

(“Rarely had so many artists attended a concert at the Salle Pleyel, and rarely had the

49
Alfonso Albéniz, Revista Musical Hispano-Americana 4 (April 30, 1916): 7.

21
auditorium been more vibrant or enthusiastic. The audience was completely transported

by this great Barcelona artist”). 50 It appeared that a great number of artists desired to

support Granados’s future success, and at his concert, the various Parisian musical

factions united to enthusiastically support his music. According to Joaquín Turina:

[The concert was] a smashing success: universal enthusiasm, a full house, and unanimous
praise from virtuosos (Alfred Cortot, Wanda Landowska, Lazare-Lévy, Viñes, etc.). . . . This
composer is so fortunate that the entire musical world accepts him just the way he is, without over-
analyzing or engaging in illintentioned critiques of his work. He has not had to endure, as has
Malats, neither the envious whistling from the poulailler, nor the relentless criticism from parties
who take issue with him, as they tend to do with graduates of the Schola Cantorum or the Paris
Conservatoire. Granados began playing his Danza española in E Minor, and you should have seen
the faces in the auditorium! Not a single D'Indy disciple frowned, nor did the Debussy-ites file
their nails. All appeared deeply satisfied. . . . 51

The concert review in the Le Monde Musical, signed by A. M. (André Mangeot),

began, “Granados projects formidable individuality, encompassing both of his roles as

pianist and composer.” 52 Goyescas gained acceptance as “the most important chamber
53
music work that Spain has ever produced,” and another wrote that “there is no doubt

that this may be considered modern Spanish style.” 54 Comœdia considered that, among

the works of young Spanish composers, Goyescas “deserves special mention for its

originality and inspiration.” 55

The concert was supported by critics from most of the specialized press, a factor

50
André Mangeot, “M. E. Granados,” Le Monde Musical (April 15, 1911).
51
Joaquín Turina, Joaquín Turina: corresponsal en París y otros artículos de prensa. Escritos de
un músico [Joaquín Turina: Paris correspondent, and other articles in the press. The writings of a musician]
(Granada: Junta de Andalucía, 2002), 44.
52
Mangeot, “M. E. Granados.”
53
J. M. [Jules Maurel?], “Las Goyescas d'Enrique Granados,” Le Monde Musical (June 30, 1912).
54
F. Guerillot, Revue musical mensuelle SIM (April 15, 1911): 89.
55
Enrique Granados: Algunas opiniones de prensa, 7, 8.

22
that evidently contributed to the performance's success. In the first group of publications

that initially reported on the concert (Le Monde Musical, Le Guide Musical, Le Courrier

Musical, Revue Musicale SIM, Le Guide du Concert, and Comœdia), there are three

important points which I shall examine.

First, the periodicals insisted on identifying Granados as the successor to Albéniz,

a point which Bergadà noted in his dissertation and Turina mentioned (“in Goyescas we

see the enormous influence of Albéniz”). 56 It is a viewpoint that Granados himself

conspicuously promoted, evidenced by the fact that he included Azulejos in the program,

a composition started by Albéniz, but posthumously finished by Granados at the behest of

the ill-fated composer. “(Granados) should become the justified successor of the dearly

missed Albéniz.” 57 “Goyescas (is) a singularly attractive work that is on a par with

Albéniz’s Iberia.” 58 “In Goyescas, Granados evokes memories of Albéniz, and though he

is also profoundly nationalistic, Granados is not as flashy, . . . He evokes less of a folk

influence, one could say . . . But [Granados] is more elegant, more aristocratic, . . . more

refined, and has greater sensitivity”). 59

The concert reviews focused on Goyescas. According to Clark, one of the reasons

the piece was so well-received was due to a French fascination with Goya, which had

commenced at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The current research confirms that

56
Turina, Corresponsal, 44.
57
Ch. C. [Charles Cornet?], Le Guide Musical (April 9, 1911): 287.
58
[Maurel?], “Las Goyescas d'Enrique Granados”
59
Ibid.

23
one of the key reasons for Goyescas' warm reception was because the Parisian public

found in this work the picturesque quality they sought from a Spanish composer. Spanish

nationalism is the second aspect to point out in the reception of Granados’s work. The

direct link to Albéniz is one such proof of this. However, in Granados’s compositions the

French critics discovered Spanish music that bore different characteristics from those of

the composer from Gerona. According to the Le Guide Musical critic, the Goyescas were

dominated by rhythm and local color. He further described the piece as a delicate fantasia

marked by sentimental expressiveness. The Le Monde Musical correspondent considered

Goyescas to be the end result of a technical evolution that took place throughout the

composer's lifetime, but one which preserved the picturesque essence from his earliest

works, that is to say, from Danzas. Nevertheless, as the same correspondent pointed out,

while Danzas lacked ornamentation, Goyescas’ writing was “polyphonic, solid, robust,

. . . and colored with gorgeous harmonies. It was at once tonal and modulating, . . . and

impressively pianistic.” 60 In addition, Federico Lliurat repeated the same comment in

“Barcelona” (Revue Musicale SIM, July 1911) by mentioning the premiere of Goyescas

and Cant de les estrelles (Song of the stars). According to Lliurat, the formula for

composing Goyescas consisted of a nationalist flavor combined with lyricism, while the

assembled whole remained colorful, poetic, and pianistic.

The third common thread seen in reviews of Goyescas was its “narrative” form.

60
Ibid.

24
All of the publications, with the exception of the Revue Musicale SIM, published the

same description, confirming that the verbiage had been provided by the composer

himself: The Goyescas represented a sort of painting of Spanish life during the time of

Charles IV, and

. . . they evoke the love between two majos: the majo following the maja along the narrow
streets of Madrid, muttering “Los requiebros” (“The Flirtations”): one-thousand discrete, delicate,
amorous compliments, a cadence that would fill anyone with joy. In continuation, the love duet
“Coloquio en la reja” (Dialogue through the grille) follows, which presents a painful love, one
filled with ominous premonitions. The complaints of the maja continue, as she is abandoned, but
the nightingale answers her call in the midst of a peaceful, mysterious nightfall. “El fandango [de
candil]” (“Fandango by Candelight”) ends this first part. 61

Le Guide du Concert also portends the plot of the second tableau of Goyescas,

which is not included in the program: “In the second tableau, the majo dies following a

party, and we learn in the concluding epilogue that his spirit returns to serenade the

abandoned maja.” One should recall that Goyescas’ second tableau is made up of two

works, “El amor y la muerte” (“Love and Death”) and the “Serenata del espectro” (“The

Ghost's Serenade”).

During the same year, as a result of the interest garnered by the composer, two

music periodicals, Le Guide Musical and Le Monde Musical, made reference to the

lyrical stage work Liliana, which premiered in Barcelona in September 1911. Le Monde

Musical even dedicated an entire article to the piece, based on information supplied by

Granados, and it employed the same musical examples. 62

61
“Oeuvre de M. Granados,” Le Guide du Concert (April 1, 1911).
62
In an October 3, 1911 letter to Granados, André Mangeot requested information from the
composer concerning Liliana. New York's Morgan Library & Museum has preserved Granados’s October

25
 Granados hastily left Paris following his 1911 concert. 63 Wanda Landowska's

letter confirms this, and demonstrates the tremendous attention Granados had attracted

there:

You left us so suddenly! We were quite worried. All of our friends have been excited by your
art, and by you. Here are two letters I have just received: Mr. and Mrs. Pollet, who frequently offer
lengthy musical sessions at their home, invite you to dinner on Sunday. Count Béranger de
Miramon wants you to play at his in-laws’—and they pay artists quite well. Do you intend to
return to Paris? Most importantly, please keep us apprised of the status of your health. You are
very dear to us. 64

The Rapid Incorporation of Goyescas into the International Piano Repertoire

In a letter written in Catalan on April 7, 1911, by an unidentified person, 65 the

concert reviews were invariable in their descriptions of the impact of Granados’s concert:

“Everyone speaks of nothing but you, and they all look forward to summer, when they

can begin working on your pieces. We'll see who will be the first to convey them to our

ears.” As it appears, Cortot was the artist most impressed by Granados’s work, and

22, 1911, reply. Granados supplied a detailed description of the piece, which is transcribed almost word for
word in a Le Monde Musical article (“Siliana [sic] de Granados à Barcelona.” September 15, 1911). In the
article, Paul Martineau transcribes virtually all of the musical examples Granados provided, except for brief
excerpts concerning the sung portions: "Per qu'ills aucells refilan" [To the one for whom the birds sing],
excerpt from "Per qui les flors esclatan" [To the one for whom the flowers bloom], and "Mes enllá de la
selva, mes enllá" [(Tell me, sun, what is) farther away, beyond the mountains?].
63
According to an April 5, 1911, letter written by the then-young pianist José Iturbi to López-
Chavarri, Granados departed suddenly due to an illness: epistle number 262 transcribed in Eduardo López-
Chavarri Marco: Correspondencia, eds. Rafael Gómez and Vicente Galbis López. (Valencia: Edición
Generalitat Valenciana, 1996).
64
Letter from Wanda Landowska to Granados, Paris. Circa April 7, 1911. Following is the original
text: Vous nous avez quitté si brusquement! Nous en étions très inquiets. Tous nos amis ont été
enthousiasmés de votre art et de vous. Voici deux lettres que je viens de recevoir: M. et Mme. Pollet qui
donnent souvent de grandes séances musicales chez eux, vous invitent á dîner pour Dimanche. Le Comte
Béranger de Miramon voudrait que vous jouiez chez ses beaux-parents, qui payent très bien les artistes.
Avez-vous l’intention de revenir à Paris? Et surtout tenez nous au courant de votre santé qui nous est très
chère.
65
The individual in question is believed to have been Lluís Millet.

26
Thibaud echoed this sentiment in a letter dated May 5, 1911 (“By every measure you

enjoyed tremendous success in Paris! Everyone I know who was there has been

enthusiastic. Cortot, in particular, is crazy about you!”).

Following Granados’s initial performance, Alfred Cortot, to whom Granados

dedicated “Serenata del espectro,” was one of the first pianists to perform Goyescas in

Paris. According to Bergadà, Cortot and Enrique Montoriol Tarrés were the only other

pianists who performed Goyescas there. However, Granados’s unpublished

correspondence provides new evidence that demonstrates that the most important

contemporary pianists of the day, not just in France, but throughout the world, began to

include Goyescas in their repertoires immediately after this concert for their

performances throughout Europe, the United States, and Russia, starting in 1912, the year

when the Goyescas were first published. Additionally, by 1911, Granados had begun to

establish regular contact with pianists of international stature who began to practice and

perform the Goyescas suite.

Harold Bauer was another pianist who studied the Goyescas and performed them

in concert, though he criticized and “abridged” them. Granados’s collected letters

demonstrate that Bauer requested Granados’s permission to do so, and that Granados

granted it. 66 Granados dedicated “El amor y la muerte” and “Rapsodia aragonesa” from

66
Letter from Harold Bauer to Granados, written in Switzerland, July 1, 1912: “For the past
fifteen days I have been working on your Goyescas, which I find exquisite, and I wish to add them to my
repertoire in order to perform them everywhere, and often. However, . . . I find them too long (I speak only

27
Goyescas to Bauer. In his April 12, 1913, letter to Granados, Bauer expressed his

gratitude and informed Granados that he was performing Goyescas at his concerts: “It is

with great pleasure that I learned that you dedicated the epilogue of your lovely Goyescas

to me. I suppose that it's ‘El amor y la muerte,’ about which we spoke some time ago, and

it is with much anticipation that I await it! I performed ‘El fandango [de candil]’ and

‘[Quejas o La maja y el] ruiseñor’ (“Complaints, or The Maja and the Nightingale”) quite

a lot last winter, and I expect to play them in America next season.”

Edouard Risler, to whom Granados dedicated “El coloquio en la reja,” wrote to

Granados on April 22, 1912, to confirm that he indeed was including Goyescas in his

concert repertoire: “Please examine the enclosed program, which I will perform next year

in Paris, [?], Lausanne, Lyon, Bordeaux, and Madrid (Sociedad Filarmónica Madrileña).

You will find that the program includes your Goyescas (complete), which is a piece I

enjoy immensely.” The relationship that Granados maintained with this pianist predated

1912, a fact evidenced by other letters in the archive. These pianists performed together

twice, in two-piano concerts in Barcelona, and in 1907, Risler performed a Beethoven

concert at the Academia Granados, thanks to a sponsor’s support. This great pianist also

formed part of the judges’ panel for the Academia Granados piano competition in 1911.

Arthur Rubinstein also performed Goyescas soon after their publication. In two

letters to Granados from Pablo Casals, written between 1913 and 1914, Casals mentioned

of the first three; the fourth is a perfect gem), and I ask whether there might be room to make some cuts. Of
course, I will not make the slightest change without your authorization and full approval.”

28
that the great Polish pianist was performing Goyescas in his concerts. 67 The French

pianist Francis Planté praised Goyescas, despite his withdrawal from public life between

1900 and 1915:

My Dear, Eminent Friend,

I just received a visit from our friend Mr. Moullé, and, in order to best honor you and
musically celebrate your presence with us, I thought that nothing would be better than to have him
listen to “Los requiebros” and “El fandango de candil” from your marvelous Goyescas collection.
. . . Their tone color and accentuation are vibrant, elegant, seductive, or languid if need be . . .
(Mont-de-Marsan, March 27, 1913).

It was the same Édouard Moullé, cited in Planté’s letter, who was present when

Planté had expressed his preference for Goyescas “over” Albéniz’s Iberia. In a July 18,

1912, letter to Granados from Planté, written in Paris, Planté displayed his inclination

toward the composer from Lérida (“While we listened to recordings of Albéniz, I must

say that his music did not much impress me, or the other listeners present, and the piece

generally failed to cause much of a reaction. But yet Iberia was played. There is much

affectation in that work. It was a real disappointment to us all. We would very much have

preferred to listen to your Goyescas.”)

The 1914 Société Musicale Indépendent (SMI) Concert

Among the pianists who incorporated Goyescas into their repertoires, Enrique

Montoriol Tarrés would play a pivotal role in influencing the reception of Granados’s

67
Arthur Rubinstein (Lodz 1887–Geneva 1982): Polish pianist who later became a naturalized
American citizen. He debuted with Casals in London at Queen’s Hall, 1912. He was an enthusiast for the
works of Granados, Falla, Albéniz, and Villa-Lobos. As we can see, he performed Goyescas in Russia in
1913, and in Paris in 1914. According to Antonio Fernández-Cid, in 1916, on the day before the news of
Granados’s death reached Barcelona, the pianist Rubinstein performed “La maja y el ruiseñor” at the Palau
de la Música (see Granados [Madrid: Samarán, 1956], 53).

29
music in Paris. On May 3, 1913, this pianist performed “La maja y el ruiseñor” and

“[Los] requiebros” at the Société des Concerts hall (previously the Conservatoire) in

Paris, a recital reported concurrently by Le Courrier Musical, Le Guide du Concert, and

Le Guide Musical.

On November 1, 1913, Montoriol published an article in the Revue Musicale SIM

(“À Barcelona: Une visite à Granados”) that portrayed the composer at his home and

emphasized his austere lifestyle, which contrasted sharply with the great importance of

his work. In 1914, during the last two weeks of March, shortly before Granados’s Paris

concert, Montoriol Tarrés performed Goyescas at the Salle Érard. According to the Revue

Musicale, Montoriol explained the work’s underlying plot to concertgoers, surely

preparing the audience for the Granados performance. Just a few days later, Granados

granted an interview before the concert, with Montoriol Tarrés as presenter. The concert

received extensive coverage from Jacques Pillois in the Revue Musicale SIM (“Un

entretien avec Granados” [An interview with Granados]), published April 15, 1914.

Montoriol Tarrés recommended Goyescas to the director of the Opéra de Paris, M.

[Jacques] Rouché, during his first visit in 1914. In a letter to his wife on April 5,

Granados affirmed: “Tomorrow I will meet at Montoriol’s home with the director of the

Opéra for him to listen to what I have completed so far of the Majos. There is intense

enthusiasm supporting my work.” According to Montoriol, 68 in 1913 Granados sent him

68
Enrique Montoriol Tarrés, “Enric Granados,” Revista Musical Catalana 13, vol. 150 (June
1916): 195.

30
Goyescas to Paris. Impressed by the quality of the work, he contacted Émile Vuillermoz,

editor in chief of the Revue Musicale SIM, in order for him to appreciate the importance

of the composition in Paris. Until that date, Montoriol Tarrés confessed that he had been

unfamiliar with Granados’s work.

Even though the concert may have been brought to fruition in the manner

described above, Vuillermoz was not necessarily completely unfamiliar with Granados’s

work. From the moment the Société Internationale de Musicologie (SIM) magazine

contacted Granados in 1911, Vuillermoz had secured a copy of Granados’s score, and, by

extension, so had the Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI), under whose auspices

Granados performed in Paris for the first time. A letter preserved in the family archives

from the Revue Musicale SIM, dated October 30, 1911, requested a copy of Goyescas

from Granados in order for the publication to use it as a reference.

Unfortunately, precious little is known of the Catalonian pianist Enrique

Montoriol Tarrés. A brief report on his first Paris concert appears in the March 30, 1898

Le Monde Musical. From Nin’s article, “Evocaciones,” we learn that he was married to

the French painter Isabel Beaubois de Montoriol, and the April 1915 Revista Musical

Catalana revealed that he moved to Barcelona on account of the outbreak of World War

I. 69 In April 1914, both Montoriol and Granados were present at Nin’s Paris residence for

a music session with Falla, where Granados performed a portion of his opera, and Falla

69
Ibid, 12, vol. 136 (April 1915): 116.

31
performed his recently premiered La Vie Brève (“Life Is Short”). Bergadà authored a brief

entry on Montoriol in the Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana, in

which he neither explained nor identified the pianist’s relationships or artistic tendencies

in Paris. However, through this brief anecdote we can infer that Montoriol was aligned

more closely with the innovative faction that began forming in 1910 than to the faction

represented by the SIM and the SMI.

Vuillermoz, editor in chief of the Revue Musicale SIM, took the lead in promoting

Granados’s concert because it was in the interest of the Société Internationale de

Musicologie (SIM) to do so at the time. He published reviews in Comœdia y Musica (not

even in his own publication) that compared Granados to Stravinsky, who was in Paris for

the premiere of Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring). For this reason, it does not

seem unusual that one person—possibly Jules Écorcheville—from the Revue Musicale

SIM, in a letter dated July 1, 1914, requested that Granados publicly recognize the

support he received from Vuillermoz, the editor of the French publication. The letter even

suggested that Granados should be awarded the French Légion d’honneur, thanks, in part,

to Vuillermoz. 70

At his April 4, 1914, concert, Granados played under the auspices of the Société

Musicale Indépendante (SMI), an association that split from the Société Nationale de

70
“You have been received and honored at the Opéra, all this thanks to the excitement we
generated on your behalf, and the efforts of our esteemed Vuillermoz. I know he would be most gratified if
he could be compensated for his troubles, that is to say, if you could write a few brief words that he could
rush to publication in our SIM. . . . Vuillermoz is very discrete, and I know that he would never ask for
anything; it is for this reason that his director writes on his behalf.” (Paris, July 1, 1914).

32
Musique (SNM). SMI embraced Granados and invited him to perform at a concert in

which he played the second tableau of Goyescas. André Mangeot, who headed Le Monde

Musical, appeared to be Granados’s principal supporter in Paris up until this time, yet he

ultimately failed to support Granados in future years. Nonetheless, the reviews of the

1914 concert were quite favorable, along the same lines as the reviews and articles

published in prior years.

Starting in 1909, the classical music scene in Paris had been divided into two

factions: the conservatives and the innovators. The division was caused by a split in 1909

within the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM) that resulted in the establishment of the

Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI). The conservative faction, represented by the

SNM, was headed by Vincent D'Indy, founder in 1896 of the Schola Cantorum, who had

effectively turned the Société Nationale de Musique (SNM) into a branch of his own

music school. This development was criticized by the new generation of composers,

especially by Ravel, who condemned the systematic obstruction of works that deviated

from the compositional techniques celebrated by the Schola. As a result of the internal

dissent, Ravel resigned in 1909, and the SMI was subsequently established. The SNM

and the SMI would coexist from 1909 until 1935, when the SMI was dissolved. 71

D'Indy passionately defended French music, but he nonetheless remained tied

both to formalism and to nineteenth century Germanic musical tradition. According to

71
The SNM would maintain a regular concert schedule and continued to wield influence over the
music scene. The activities of both associations, however, as well as those of other Paris musical societies,
ceased between 1914 and 1917, due to the war.

33
Michel Duchesneau, “The essence of D’Indy’s compositions undeniably resulted from

the primordial importance he placed upon the observance of traditional musical forms,

and compositional techniques inherited from the nineteenth century.” 72 The founding

committee of the SMI included Louis Aubert, André Chalet, [Jean] Roger-Ducasse, Jean

Huré, [Charles] Koechlin, Ravel, Schmitt, and Vuillermoz, who, as we have just seen,

played an essential role in the positive reception that Granados’s last concert received in

Paris. [Albert] Mathot was secretary, and Fauré the president, but the latter did not return

to the meetings, although he did publicly support the institution in its apparently justified

act of defiance. Debussy chose not to take sides, but thanks to Fauré’s intervention,

Debussy also provided pieces to premiere through the institution. These were the primary

differences between these associations from 1910 to 1914, and it was rare for composers

to play for both.

Due to insufficient financing, Granados’s performances fit within a concert

schedule in which chamber music and piano music dominated, as did also quartets,

quintets, and mélodies for voice and solo instruments (piano). The SMI's aesthetic

tendencies were based on a “new musical tradition” founded by [Emmanuel] Chabrier,

Fauré, and Debussy, based on new themes and formality, and upon a renewed harmony.

Above all, they utilized two sources of renewal: exoticism and folklore. Exoticism drew

72
Michel Duchesneau, L'avant-garde musicale et ses sociétés à Paris de 1871 à 1939 (Brussels:
Mardaga, 1997), 36.

34
its roots from Spain, the East, ancient French music, folklore, and jazz. 73

The SMI’s ideological foundations provided an environment conducive to the

presentation of Granados’s concert. In the first place, the SMI sanctioned compositions

by foreign composers, but it was not quite this simple at the Société Nationale de

Musique (SNM), which also presented such concerts, but did not officially endorse them.

In second place, the SMI promoted foreign works that did not necessarily fit within the

criteria established for classical music. The new society thus made it possible for

compositions by foreigners to become widely known throughout France if they were

judged to be exceptional, due to either their deviation from language or genre, or because

of their manner of presentation. Granados indeed fulfilled these conditions as a Spanish

artist who composed nationalistic Spanish works, and who employed unconventional

musical structure in his chamber pieces.

According to Duchesneau, the works of foreign composers, and especially those

of Granados, “opened the way for the development of a new French music that owed a

large part of the formation of its musical sensibility to external influences.” 74 We should

consider that Granados’s abandonment of pre-established structural forms—a reference,

no doubt, to Goyescas—influenced French composers; we can thus name him, along with

Schoenberg, Kodály, and Casella, among those composers who influenced French music

and contributed “Spanishness” to French works. Surely these affirmations might be

73
The SNM also used regional French folklore, but the other organizations did not.
74
L'avant-garde musicale, 155.

35
somewhat exaggerated, so it would be appropriate to find a contrasting opinion, but

Granados did indeed contribute to the expansion of Spanish influence in France,

especially in the piano repertoire. Granados’s “adoption” by the SMI also demonstrated

the possibilities of expanding musical language.

Through these questions, we may deduce that the concertgoers who enjoyed the

second tableau of Goyescas were different from the audience that had embraced

Granados three years earlier. Although there were turn-of-the-century representatives of

French music society present at the concert—and for this reason Granados was likely

received by a sympathetic audience—the concertgoers were dominated by “a large

number of young music luminaries.” 75 According to Granados himself, in a letter to his

wife, Amparo Gal:

The Spanish Ambassador was present throughout the concert, applauding enthusiastically.
The concert hall was packed, and all the big names of Paris were there: Strawinsky (sic), (?),
Smith, Huré, Casella, Lazare-Lévy, Écorcheville, Vuillermoz, and so many others that I can't even
name them all now.
After yesterday’s concert, more than sixty artists accompanied me to the café, and they
stayed with me until 2am. (Paris, April 5, 1914)

The “Festival Granados” concert at the Salle Pleyel could not have been better

received. Granados presented the second tableau of Goyescas, two Danzas españolas, the

Serenata for two violins and piano (with Costa and Zighera), and Tonadillas, performed

with Madame Polack.

Le Monde Musical, the only publication consulted which depended neither on the

75
A.G., “Festival Granados,” Le Monde Musical (April 15, 1914).

36
SIM nor the Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI), reported that Granados was a

“renowned” composer. In other words, the publication once again affirmed Granados’s

characterization as a Spanish composer, and the reviewer insisted on comparing

Granados’s works to Iberia by Albéniz, which, though a complementary piece, shares no

musical similarities with Granados’s works. The review of Tonadillas, which “rejuvenates

the classical Spanish song,” reported that Madame Polack found it necessary to repeat

“Las currutacas modestas” (“The Modest Belles”), but Granados wrote in the same letter,

“Despite the fact that the Tonadillas were dreadfully sung, the audience enjoyed them

very much, especially the “Dolorosas” [“La maja dolorosa” (The grieving maja)], and the

“Currutacas,” which were encored. I found it necessary to perform two additional pieces

that were not part of the program, and I had to return to the stage ten or twelve times. It

was my greatest success ever.”

In the supplement to the Revue Musicale SIM, Pillois reported that the original

Tonadillas were like “a fresh and inexhaustible fountain, and we consider that Granados

should be quite proud.” In the talk he gave as a preview to his concert, Granados

performed some of these pieces, all the while humming along, and announcing the

emotions of each one: languid or earnest, passionate or nostalgic. The piano sounded like

“a distant guitar, or like a song strummed by an invisible bow,” and Pillois compared

these pieces to the simplicity of the Schubert lieders, writing that the songs were “along

ideal . . . melodic lines,” with “their supporting harmonies deliberately free of all excess;

it’s truly remarkable.” They reminded him of “Schubert, and at his status,” although the

37
comparisons to which he was actually referring were to Schumann’s Frauenliebe und

leben (A Woman’s Life and Love) and Dichterliebe (A Poet’s Love) song cycles.

Another interesting remark in this review was what Pillois described as the

“delicate point” in the piece, having to do with tempo. According to Granados, regional

differences are largely marked by differences in tempo, more so than by differences in

melody. He provided two examples on the piano, demonstrating how a Bretonic dance, at

increased tempo, could be transformed into a Catalonian Christmas carol.

Granados returned to Paris in June 1914, where he was awarded the medal of the

French Légion d’honneur. He gave his final interview to M. Rouché on June 15, at which

time he agreed to premiere Goyescas at the Opéra de Paris.

On June 16, Granados wrote to his family and explained that, thanks to American

pianist Ernest Schelling, he had finally managed to introduce Goyescas to the Opéra de

Paris. He also announced another possible premiere in Boston, though nothing more is

known of this last possibility.

“Generation of ‘98” Thinking Reflected in Goyescas

During the interview recounted by Pillois, Granados insisted on the musical

notion of a differentiated, “peaceful” Spain, evoking a metaphor of winds sweeping

across the Iberian Peninsula. Granados explained that prevailing winds traverse the whole

of Spain: northerly winds, as well as southerly sirocco winds from North Africa.

Montoriol concluded the analysis of the composer, describing three prevailing musical

tendencies: the northern (Asturias, Galicia, and Catalonia), the Hispano-Arabic (Murcia,

38
Valencia, and Andalusia), and the Castillian: pure, truly Iberian, and “untainted.” The

latter was the one Granados embraced and utilized to express himself. This idea was

clearly tied to the “Generation of '98.” In the same article, Pillois pointed out that Castile

is to Spain what the Île de France is to France: pure, unadulterated language.

This vision of Spain and its music was recounted in all of the French music

journals. This leads one to ask whether it might have been possible for Granados to

believe Castile was the only place in Spain where “purity” could be found in its songs.

The issue becomes more complicated if we believe that the Tonadillas were not based on

popular songs per se, but on the Spanish tonadilla, which Granados’s teacher Felipe

Pedrell termed “accidental folkloricism.” In any case, there is no contradiction between

the application of Pedrellian theories and the supposed Spanish purity described herein.

In the May 1914 issue of the magazine Musica, Vuillermoz asserted:

In his country, Enrique Granados represents the embodiment of “pure” national culture. He is
the creator who awakens the consciousness of his people. . . . However, Spanish music does not
exclusively originate from unmixed heritage. Disregarding the diverse waves of European
immigrants who settled throughout Catalonia and the Basque Country, . . . we observe that the
dominant arts of Andalusia, Murcia, and Valencia are the only ones worthy of export. Thus, we
[French] only perceive the melodies of these particular regions as authentic Spanish music—their
foreign character derives from provincially assimilated Arabic and Moorish influences. Indeed,
Castile and Aragon are the only regions of Spain capable of evoking authentic Iberian musicality.

Vuillermoz repeats the notion in an April 6, 1914, article in Comœdia, dedicated

to Stravinsky. According to Vuillermoz, Stravinsky and Granados each represented the

land of his birth, and each highlighted the boldness of his own language, despite the

obvious differences between them. He stressed the sensitivity of Granados’s work, which

was a trait that had become customary to emphasize.

39
Granados’s “Modern” Style

Generally speaking, French music society appreciated the modern Spanish style

represented by Goyescas and Tonadillas. Through both compositions, Granados opened a

historicist and Castilian school in musical composition termed “new, genuine

Spanishness” [nuevo casticismo]. He simultaneously incorporated important instrumental

and vocal international tendencies—that is to say, those unassociated with the opera

genre—into compositions for piano and concert song, as opposed to salon-style songs.

A recurring theme in discussions of Granados’s compositions has been their lack

of structure, a trait viewed as a weakness. Accordingly, in his review of the April 1911

concert in the Revista Musical of Bilbao, Joaquín Turina reported along these lines,

writing that the Goyescas “lack structure, as well as a thematic argument; they have few

modulations, and therefore, are somewhat monotonous.” 76 Nonetheless, we should take

into account that Turina's musical education at the Schola Cantorum, which emphasized

the observance of structure, negatively influenced his ability to evaluate Goyescas. This

same opinion was repeated by Frenchman Henri Collet in his monograph on Albéniz and

Granados. This remained one of the most important reference works for subsequent

Spanish biographers who, to a large extent, did not study Granados by directly examining

the scores of his pieces (or, perhaps, had weak musical training themselves). Instead, they

derived their opinions from those of the Frenchman, repeating them to such an extent that

76
45.

40
they became a common starting point for evaluating Granados’s musical production.

Very much to the contrary, the lack of conventional structure in Granados’s pieces

was a positive trait and one valued by SMI members, as we have seen. Nonetheless, this

was not to be the interpretation that would predominate throughout the Granados

historiography. Clark, who was practically the first biographer to deliberately approach

the Goyescas score from a neutral perspective, concluded that the repetition of themes in

this work was not due to some deficiency in Granados’s compositional technique, but

rather, arose from the expressive necessities of the work itself. 77

Another interesting point is that the composer revealed “a new Spain” 78 to France,

through music completely removed from the parameters to which the French public had

been accustomed up to then: He presented Spanish musical history in a rewritten

language, one in which Arabic elements did not necessarily predominate, as had occurred

in Spanish music up to the time of Albéniz. The April 12, 1914 edition of Le Monde

Musical also mentioned this trait, pointing out that Granados’s musical language

eschewed “tambourines and drums.”

Conclusion

This is not the proper forum in which to discuss the historical and musical reasons

why, in 1905, Granados’s superb performance in Paris went practically unnoticed, yet in

1909 his return was anticipated with much fanfare and expressions of renewed hope

77
Enrique Granados, 125.
78
Paul Ladmirault, “Festival Granados,” Revue Musicale SIM (April 15, 1914).

41
concerning Spanish music in Paris. For that subject, a different research project would

need to be undertaken. Nonetheless, we can identify certain aspects which, in light of the

biographical review just carried out, do clarify some key points concerning this issue. His

brilliant performance in 1905 had little impact, first, because the (Scarlatti) repertoire he

initially presented as a composer was of little interest to the French audience, and second,

because as a performer in 1905, he faced stiff competition from other Spanish expatriates

established in Paris, starting with his friends Ricardo Viñes and Joaquín Malats, who

triumphed in the concert halls. These facts notwithstanding, the most important reasons

were because Granados lacked support from the great French musical figures of the day,

and there was no musical void that needed to be filled, as later became the case in 1909,

following Albéniz’s death. Up until then, Granados was detached from Parisian musical

and social circles, and as a consequence, he played neither in public nor private concerts,

and was generally out of touch with the French and international music scenes. His

relationship with France, which had begun tentatively in 1905, took off decidedly in

1909. Granados was unknown and ignored by the French music press until 1909, a time

when great hope was thrust upon him as the “Spanish” musician of the future, a fact

confirmed at his 1911 concert; it was from 1911 and thereafter that his relationship with

his international music contemporaries began in earnest, as evidenced by copious letter

exchanges which had not previously existed.

Another one of the important points regarding this issue is the death of the

charismatic composer Albéniz in 1909. Granados allowed himself to be presented by the

42
press as a composer, creating a certain expectation concerning his work and his

personality as the future of Spanish music. It appears to have been no accident that

Granados decided to begin composing Goyescas at the precise moment when the French

music world sought in him a replacement for the composer from Gerona. Granados

subsequently composed a piano suite in the Albéniz style, but personalized it in form and

depth.

At the 1911 concert, Granados fulfilled the expectations placed upon him in the

presentation of his work, for even though he included Scarlatti and his Allegro de

concierto, the majority of the program was limited to a repertoire that was “exportable”

to France: the Azulejos, which tied Granados directly to Albéniz, two Danzas, and the

Goyescas. Evidently, the repercussions and the critical impact of these last two were

much greater than for the remaining works presented in the program, because some

pieces were already known, and others simply did not interest the French musical

audience; they demanded that music from a Spanish musician be presented in a “Spanish

style,” despite that, in Granados’s case, his presentation was “innovative,” and “in the

modern Spanish style.” 79 The characteristics of Granados’s music were barely discussed.

The Goyescas were considered “Spanish,” above all else; there was discussion about their

main theme, and they were praised for their role in discovering the new Spanish

composer, but further reports did not delve further into the matter.

79
F. Guerillot, Revue Musical SIM (April 15, 1911): 89.

43
 The reviews of 1914 began covering areas of aesthetics and style. Granados’s

modern approach was compared to a new concept of Spanish music tied to Castile, as

opposed to Albéniz, whose music was compared to historical Spanish music, especially

with regard to the Tonadillas, thus demonstrating a Spanish modernity quite different

from the “castanets” and Orientalism that had influenced this music throughout the

nineteenth century.

Although in 1914 Granados was backed by the SMI, which created an atmosphere

favorable for his partnership with Vuillermoz, it also appears true that Granados did not

fit within either of the two camps which were dividing French musical society at that

time. Le Monde Musical also wrote a highly favorable review and placed Granados on

the cover of its June 30 issue. Fauré’s invitation for Granados to serve as one of the

Diémer panel judges also placed the composer in a position to begin relations or reinitiate

contact with prestigious contemporaries, evidenced by the letters he received following

his death from such diverse musical figures as D'Indy, Fauré, Saint-Saëns and Debussy,

who wrote glowing commentaries sent to the Ilustración Musical Hispano-Americana.

The presentation of Goyescas in Paris undoubtedly initiated Granados’s fame as a

cosmopolitan composer. The repertoire that made this fame possible would endure

throughout time and ultimately be performed and accepted worldwide (Danzas,

Goyescas, and Tonadillas), including in his native country of Spain, despite his efforts to

present and disseminate music that was separate and distinct from traditional Spanish

44
norms. 80

The fact that Granados was considered an “offspring” of the French piano school

through his studies with Bériot favored Granados’s acceptance by French music society.

Backed by Saint-Saëns, and possibly by Fauré, some composers used Granados’s image,

and especially his tragic death, as a pretext to hoist the French flag for political purposes.

D'Indy, in his letter of condolence, displayed anti-German sentiment through Granados’s

death:

I adored Enrique Granados, and I am sad to know I will never see him again. So many of our
French artists have gloriously succumbed in this epic struggle between our magnificent Latin
civilization and oppressive German barbarism. And those over there, fulfilling their duty and
giving their lives for France, . . . I believe that our friends in Spain will be with us when “the
scores are finally settled” for all the Teutonic infamies. (Letter from V. D'Indy. Paris, April 14,
1914)

Additionally, when writing about Granados’s lyrical work, Collet attempted to

justify Granados’s apparent Wagnerian style (akin to Germanism) by employing bellicose

terms, such as “that German musical blitzkrieg, victorious on the Iberian Peninsula, as in

other European nations,” 81 implying that other countries were also under Wagner’s

musical influence. This was the manner in which Granados was adopted by the French

nation as a French protégé, through both his musical and political connections to

80
At the same concert where he performed Goyescas in Barcelona, Granados also premiered the
Cant de les estrelles, a work in Catalan for piano, organ and choir, which was published by the Naxos
music label, thanks to the restoration and editing of the score by Douglas Riva for the Boileau music label
and Riva’s Naxos recording. Granados’s efforts to disseminate Dante were also noteworthy: on May 25,
1915, the Madrid Symphony performed Dante at the Palau, and on November 5 and 6, 1915, the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra performed the American premiere of Dante with the contralto soloist Sophie Breslau,
from the Metropolitan Opera.
81
Collet, Albéniz et Granados, 216.

45
France. 82

82
This discussion continues in Samuel Llano's dissertation, “El hispanismo y la cultura musical de
París: 1898–1931,” presented to the Department of Contemporary Art History at the Universidad
Complutense de Madrid in 2007.

46
ENRIQUE GRANADOS’S VISIT TO AND RECEPTION IN NEW YORK (1915–1916),
VIEWED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF HIS UNPUBLISHED CORRESPONDENCE
Revista de Musicología, 32, no. 1 (2009): 281–95
Miriam Perandones Lozano
Universidad de Oviedo

Translated by Carlos E. Roscoe

47
 Abstract: The composer Enrique Granados has inspired interest in the English-

speaking world since the time of his brief three-month stay in New York between 1915

and 1916. This curiosity has resulted in the publication of detailed descriptions of the

final trip of the composer’s life in two recognized American works. 1 Having located and

studied Granados’s unpublished correspondence, which was stored in private family

archives, I was able to evaluate, for the first time and in detail, his visit to New York from

Granados’s own point of view, and above all, from the perspective of his wife, Amparo

Gal. In these letters, Granados’s wife describes her impressions of the Goyescas opera

premiere, as well as the plans and projects that resulted from the debut. This section

concludes with an examination of letters from prominent contemporary figures, found

among the correspondence, mainly from pianist Ernest Schelling.

I also examine Granados’s influence as a model of “new, genuine Spanishness” on

the New York music scene, taking into account his resistance to conforming to the

Andalusian stereotypes expected of a Spanish composer in the second decade of the

twentieth century.

1
Reference is made to Carol Hess's book Enrique Granados: A Bio-Bibliography (Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1991) and Walter Aaron Clark, Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano (New York: Oxford
University Press, 2006).

48
 Keywords: Granados, family letters, biographical review, “new, genuine

Spanishness”

49
Introduction

In late 1915, Enrique Granados made a transatlantic voyage to New York to

preside over the January 1916 premiere of his opera Goyescas o Los majos enamorados

(Pieces in the Style of Goya or The Majos in Love). The composer, who was virtually

unknown on the international music scene just five years prior to his arrival in New

York, had, by that time, been accepted within French music circles and became known on

a global scale beginning with the 1911 premiere of the first notebook [cuaderno], or

tableau of the Goyescas opera in Paris. This event can be confirmed through an

examination of letters found in the Granados family archive: in 1911, a large volume of

correspondence began to be received from international figures—practically nonexistent

until then among the collected letters—attesting to the composer’s rapid career

development in just seven years, from 1909 until his death in 1916, and which swiftly

accelerated following the Paris concert. The prominence he attained following the Paris

concert enabled Granados to arrive in New York accompanied by friends of international

stature, such as Ignacy Paderewski, who was a member of the Board of Directors of the

Metropolitan Opera, and Ernest Schelling.

Granados raised enormous expectations for his opera’s premiere to such a degree

that it resulted in a frenetic New York social life upon his arrival. As a result, four United

States-based archives collected documents of inestimable value concerning the composer,

50
despite his having resided for only three months in the city. The institutions include: (1)

the Hispanic Society of New York, which preserves a handwritten vocal score of

Goyescas; (2) the Morgan Library & Museum, which preserves two valuable documents:

a letter addressed to André Mangeot, 2 director of the bimonthly Paris magazine Le Monde

Musical, describing his lyrical-dramatic stage work Liliana, and the composer’s personal

notebook “Apuntes para mis obras” (Notations on my works), a manuscript written by the

composer that has proved critical to understanding the origins of the Tonadillas and the

sainete Los Ovillejos; (3) G. Shirmer, Inc. publishers, with whom Granados signed his

final publication contracts; and (4) the International Piano Archives of Maryland (IPAM),

which preserves letters written by Granados to pianist Ernest Schelling, the person most

responsible for Granados’s New York success.

The composer's arrival in the city caused major repercussions in the press, as

articles were published in a wide range of journalistic outlets. The research into his stay

in New York, which covered his December 1915 arrival until his March 1916 departure,

has involved an exhaustive review of American media publications and secondary

sources, based on the testimony of third parties. A study was initially conducted by Carol

2
The Morgan Library & Museum preserves the only letter authored by Granados during this
period. According to this library, one possible recipient was Jean Aubry. However, the letter was definitely
intended for André Mangeot, because it was a reply to an epistle from Mangeot dated October 3, 1911, in
which he requested information from the composer about his work Liliana. Granados provided a detailed
description that was transcribed almost word for word in an article in Le Monde Musical entitled “Siliana
(sic) de Granados a Barcelona” on November 15, 1911. In the article, Paul Martineau transcribed virtually
every musical example Granados provided.

51
Hess in her 1991 book Enrique Granados: A Bio-Bibliography, 3 and a second, by Walter

Aaron Clark in the chapter “A World of Ideas,” with his Granados biography Enrique

Granados: Poet of the Piano. 4 In that chapter,Clark chronicled the ups and downs of the

trip, and exhaustively reported on the Goyescas premiere, so reference is made to his

work where one may access a detailed analysis of the news reports concerning this

critical time in the composer's life. In the present study, I offer new data and a different

perspective on the New York visit, because my research was conducted primarily through

a review of Granados’s unpublished correspondence, which I first initiated for the

purpose of conducting research for my doctoral dissertation, “La canción lírica de

Enrique Granados (1867–1916): microcosmos estilístico elaborado a partir de un nuevo

epistolario” (The art songs of Enrique Granados [1867–1916]: a stylized microcosm

emerging from a newly discovered collection of letters). 5

The archive that is the subject of the present study was assembled by locating and

studying the family letters stored at the residence of the grandson of composer Antoni

Carreras i Granados; some of these letters are now kept in the Biblioteca de Catalunya.

Due to the discovery of these letters, which were previously believed to have been lost, 6

and, taking into account the important biographical contribution they were presumed to

3
Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1991.
4
New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
5
The thesis defense took place in October 2008 at the Department of Art History and Musicology
within the Faculty of Geography and History, Universidad de Oviedo, and received the highest possible
grade.
6
On page 21 of his biography, Walter Clark writes, “The few extant letters from Granados to
Amparo reveal an intense adoration (none of hers have survived).”

52
contain, I first used other sources of documentation to conduct my research, consulting

publications where one could locate originals, facsimiles, or copies of letters written by

or to Granados. In this way, I was able to reconstruct an initial collection of letters.

The letters found in the family archive have primarily been the ones studied in

order to better understand Enrique Granados’s trip to New York. I refer specifically to the

epistles from Granados’s wife Amparo Gal to her children, as well as the letters from

American pianist Ernest Schelling to the composer. This new approach represents a shift

in perspective from the way scholars previously viewed this visit. While prior studies had

been accomplished from the point of view of English-language researchers, we can now

consider the visit from a point of view supplied by the composer himself. At the same

time, I demonstrate how the study of the composer's correspondence with his instructor

Felipe Pedrell, which is deposited in the Pedrell collection at the Bilbioteca de Catalunya

(Manuscript 964), has enabled me to propose an interpretation of Granados’s aesthetic

reasoning, based on his Pedrellian pedigree. The use of these resources helps to explain

how Pedrell decisively influenced the manner in which Granados presented himself in

New York City.

Preparation for the Goyescas Premiere

Ernest Henry Schelling (1876 [Belvedere, NJ]–1936 [NY]) was a critical figure

during the final years of Granados’s musical life. As a music company promoter in Paris

and New York, he introduced Granados’s work to the United States. The letters that were

newly discovered illustrate the promotional efforts that Schelling undertook on

53
Granados’s behalf with the G. Schirmer publishing house, and according to Pablo Vila

San Juan, 7 Schelling was also the driving force behind the Goyescas premiere at the

Metropolitan Opera, a promotional feat he had also achieved in Paris at the Grand

Opéra, 8 according to a June 16, 1914, letter Granados wrote to his wife. The premiere, it

is widely known, took place in New York and not in the French capital, due to the

outbreak of World War I. A letter from Giulio Gatti-Casazza, director of the Metropolitan

Opera, written in 1915 and preserved in the family archive, describes the relationship

between G. Schirmer and the Metropolitan. Clark has also written that it was Schelling

himself who persuaded Schirmer to discuss a possible Goyescas concert with Gatti-

Casazza:

Certainly Schirmer, your New York publisher, must have already informed you that I, in the
capacity of general manager of the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York, have acquired the
performance rights to your lovely and interesting opera Goyesca (sic) for the 1915–16 concert
9
season.

We do not know exactly when Granados and Schelling met. However, given that

Schelling’s first letter to Granados, preserved in the Schelling family archive, was dated

March 13, 1912, it is possible that they met in Barcelona during the American pianist's

concert tour in 1912. Schelling was apparently impressed with the composer, and shortly

7
Papeles íntimos de Enrique Granados [Personal papers of Enrique Granados] (Barcelona:
Amigos de Granados, 1966), 83.
8
“Dearest Ones: We should begin by bestowing a blessing upon Schelling. In one fell swoop he
has catapulted me to stardom. My opera has been enthusiastically accepted by the Grand Opéra for
performance this winter.” Unpublished letter from Granados to his family (June 16, 1914).
9
Letter from Giulio Gatti-Casazza to Enrique Granados ([New York?]: 1915).

54
thereafter, on March 26, 1913, Schelling performed Goyescas 10 for the first time at

Carnegie Hall in New York, thus preparing the way for Granados’s visit to the United

States. 11 In a hastily written letter that I estimate was written in March 1913, the

American writes, “Dear Friend, . . . some of the critics have seen Goyescas. The Times

and the Evening Post are the largest and most prominent newspapers in New York and the

United States.” The New York Times, in fact, sub-headlined its column on Schelling's

recital with the caption, “Spanish Pieces by the Spanish Composer Granados Heard for

First Time.” 12 Granados thanked Schelling in a letter dated May 9, 1913, expressing

gratitude for his initial approaches to G. Schirmer publishers:

My Very Dear Friend,

I am very grateful for the material you have sent me regarding Goyescas in the United States.
Your enthusiasm towards my work has been published in two great New York newspapers, and
this is tremendously important to my future prospects in America. You have provided me a service
that I will never forget.
Along the same lines, I appreciate the service that you wish to provide me by introducing me
to Schirmer publishers during your visit to Geneva.

According to Amparo Gal, upon her New York arrival, “There prevailed very

favorable attitudes toward the work (Goyescas). They say he (Granados) is the man of the

hour, and that it is he who draws interest toward the [Metropolitan Opera's winter

concert] season.” (December 1915). Preparations were indeed underway in the United

10
Specifically, he performed “Los requiebros” (“The Flirtations”), “Coloquio en la reja” [Dialogue
through the grille] and “El fandango de candil” (“Fandango by Candlelight”).
11
According to his December 1, 1913 letter, Schelling would also premiere Goyescas in London
on December 10, 1913. Granados thanked his friend for his support: “I read the English (sic) newspapers
and I am thrilled to ponder that, thanks to my friend and fellow artist, my work now travels the globe, and
before one of the (foremost audiences) of the world! It is all too much for me! Thank you, a thousand times,
thank you! (February 4, 1914).
12
“Mr. Schelling Recital,” New York Times, March 27, 1913: 11.

55
States for preview performances of his works, something which further encouraged a

favorable New York reception. Percy Grainger premiered “El pelele” (“The Straw Man”)

on December 8, 1915, at New York's Aeolian Hall, and George Copeland performed

some Goyescas pieces on December 6, 1915, at the same venue. Sophie Braslau

premiered Dante with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on November 5 and 6, 1915, 13

and baritone Emilio de Gogorza performed some Tonadillas on November 18 at the

Aeolian.

Adding to a well-prepared potential concert audience, there was a resurgence of

Hispanophilia that swept through New York in 1915, and upon which Granados

capitalized, as Clark notes. Consequently, at the moment when Granados arrived in the

American city, other Spanish performers were seeking their own opportunities in New

York concert halls, those such as Antonia Mercé (“La Argentina”), Rosa Culmell (wife of

pianist Joaquín Nin), Miguel Llobet (who traveled with Granados and his wife), the

composer’s pupil Paquita Madriguera, María Barrientos, and Pablo Casals. The Spanish

colony in New York frequently socialized together, as Amparo Gal wrote in a letter to her

children, “a superb box of chocolates . . . has been the delight of children of Rosa Nin,

Paquita Madriguera, Llobet, and all the Spaniards who visit us here.”

13
Sophie Braslau wrote an undated letter to Granados, thanking him: “My Dear Mr. Granados!
I've been wanting to write to you for some time, but have been ill. Please forgive me. Many thanks for your
charming and gracious dedication of Dante. I was proud to have been able to sing your magnificent musical
La Francesca. I hope to have the pleasure of meeting you soon.”

56
 Amparo, an intelligent and practical woman, took advantage of this opportune

moment by searching out professional opportunities for the Hispanic community, for her

family and other acquaintances, such as author Gabriel Miró, a close personal friend of

the family, as well as the extremely young singer Conchita Badía. This was what she

wrote to her children in 1916:

I have been very attentive to Miró lately, though it is difficult to do much for Him (sic) . . . In
any case, one of these days an article will come out describing Miró as a man of letters, and I will
later see if I can get Las cerezas [del cementerio] (The cherries in the cemetery) translated . . . For
Conchita Badía . . . I obtained the following proposals from María Gay: she will cover all costs of
travel, wardrobe, and sustenance; she will take care of her; Conchita will live with Them (sic) as if
she were their daughter; She (sic) will have Conchita make her debut during the first concert
season, which begins in September.

Granados’s New York Sojourn and Premiere

As evidenced by the letter archive, Granados and his wife boarded the

Montevideo in Barcelona in late November, 1915. They made several stops along the

coast, the last one in Cádiz,14 where Goyescas opera librettist Fernando Periquet boarded

the vessel. The New York arrival was beautifully recounted by the composer's wife,

including her impressions as she encountered the comforts of an advanced industrialized

society, such as modern heating. 15 Granados and his wife arrived in New York on

14
According to the orchestra's director, José Lasalle, on November 29th they departed Cádiz
aboard the Montevideo, and the vessel was stopped by the French warship Cassard. However, a postcard
from Cádiz bearing a December 1915 postmark appears to refute this.
15
“We are at a lovely hotel with sixteen above-ground floors and three basement levels. We are in
room 500, which we use as a living room, and in room 501 we have the magnificent bedroom and
bathroom. The building is out of place among the majority of buildings in this large, extremely unattractive
city, not because our hotel is beautiful, and not due to any magnificence—you could never imagine an
uglier country—but rather, due to its charm, and one could say as we Catalonians do, “Deu nos en guart de
enamorament de dona lletcha” [May God deliver us from falling in love with an ugly woman]. Since there
is so much that enthralls me, I feel as if I could get used to this, and I could come to appreciate this

57
December 15, 1915, and moved into the Hotel Claridge until mid-February, when they

moved to the Wellington Hotel on Seventh Avenue. The voyage was harrowing, as it

involved two warship boardings and violent storms that, according to Amparo, placed the

ship in “real danger.” Granados, who had experienced dark premonitions of his own

death aboard ship since childhood, suffered enormously throughout the voyage, and this

precipitated the onset of illness during his first weeks in New York. Clark conveys

Granados’s terrified disposition during those initial weeks, as told by several

individuals. 16 Taking into account what has been learned from the correspondence, it is

believed that the illness was brought about as a result of Granados’s acute sensitivity,

complicated by the physical and psychological consequences of continued suffering

throughout the voyage. In a January 8 letter, Amparo told her sons of Granados’s

suffering:

Ever since our arrival, on top of the anxiety that he suffered during the voyage, when he
barely ate or drank milk or anything, these circumstances worsened his nervous exhaustion to such
a degree, and he was so anemic, that I came to fear that he would become incapacitated and unable
to take care of matters pertaining to the opera.

Even though Granados apparently appeared to physically recover in January, his

suffering would affect him enormously, and it may have been one of the reasons why he

environment within the space of less than four days. What is of unsurpassable beauty is the view of New
York when one enters the harbor, when one sees the silhouettes of the great buildings, villas and houses of
its surroundings; the views seen through the mist are like the legends of the shores of the Rhine with their
enormous castles atop the jagged rocks . . . Overall, my children, it is a unique spectacle.” Letter from
Amparo Gal to her children. (New York, December 1915).
16
In his memoir Joia I Tristor: Reflexions de Pau Casals tal com les va relatar a Albert E. Karn
[Joy and sadness: reflections of Pablo Casals as related to Albert E. Karn] (Barcelona: Bosh, 1977), Pablo
Casals mentions Granados’s frightened state, and Juan Ramón Jiménez, who also was in New York in 1916,
writes in his book Españoles de tres mundos (Buenos Aires: Losada, 1942), that Granados was permanently
terrified, scared of everything.

58
experienced tremendous difficulty attending the rehearsals of his own opera. In a letter

from Fernando Periquet to M. [Jacques] Rouché dated September 21, 1919, shortly

before the premiere of Goyescas at the Opéra de Paris, the librettist “admits” that

Granados “left it to the discretion of the Metropolitan to resolve everything pertaining to

the instrumentation of the work, to such an extent that entire scenes were orchestrated by

Maestro [Gaetano] Bavagnoli.” Although in light of the different testimonials, it is clear

that Granados was incapable of attending the Goyescas rehearsals, this last assertion

should be viewed with caution, given the declared animosity that existed between

Periquet and the Granados family during those later years.

In any case, Granados’s illness made it impossible for him to bring to fruition the

concerts that Schelling had scheduled in the United States, contrary to Clark’s assertion

that no such concerts were ever planned. 17 On the contrary, the composer's sickly state

indeed prevented him from performing the concerts planned in December, but once he

recovered, two concerts were scheduled, the first on January 23rd with Casals for the

Friends of Music of New York, and the second as a public performance at Aeolian Hall

on February 22nd. His wife Amparo was the one who arranged his appearance schedule

and decided which types of concerts best suited him, with an eye toward the family

coffers. In a letter written in January 1916 she said, “It was critical that Papa perform

before leaving, in order to prepare for next season's concerts; the first performance was

17
161: “Although he had not planned to give concerts during his stay in New York . . .”

59
for a distinguished society (the Friends of Music), but I've been wanting him to perform

for the general public, since it is they who judge and who pay . . .”

Amparo Gal had lived an austere life with Granados. The daughter of a well-to-do

businessman, Amparo supported her husband throughout their married life, with the

common goal of achieving economic freedom so as to live comfortably, something they

would not achieve until their visit to New York, and in a wicked twist of fate, they lost it

all during their return voyage. Based on his previous success in Paris, Granados had made

a name for himself on the international music scene, but this had not yet translated into

financial success. During their stay in Madrid between 1894 and 1895, Amparo had

proved to be a pragmatic woman, attentive to the most important practical affairs, and

this endured throughout the years, as can be seen in her letters from New York. It would

be Amparo who would attend to Granados’s future projects resulting from the Goyescas

premiere in the American city, and it would be she who would ensure the couple’s desired

financial success. It could even be said, using Amparo’s own words, that she caused a

“seed” to be planted, one that later bloomed months later on account of the Goyescas

premiere in Buenos Aires, as well as the requests received from Havana and Germany;

however, these last two would never be realized, on account of the composer’s death:

. . . speaking of money, there is little to report, but we are staying another twenty days in
order to consolidate arrangements so that everything will be settled for the coming year; the opera
has now been requested by Buenos Aires, Havana, and by the representative of the Russian theater
in New York, and—Surprise!— Germany also, for when the war ends, . . . but as you might guess,
nothing is definitively settled yet, and this is why we are staying a few more days, to make sure we
leave everything squared away. To sum it all up, everything is now set for Papa to become an
indispensable moneymaker. . . . All else you hear are pipe dreams. (New York, February 1916)

60
 On March 6, the couple signed a contract to premiere Goyescas at the Teatro

Colón in Buenos Aires, and in her March 7th letter, Amparo announced that “the opera has

also been requested in Los Angeles, California,” for a May 1916 performance. But lack

of time would ultimately make it impossible for them to premiere the work in California,

since a May performance would not leave enough time for them to depart for Argentina

by June 2nd. Amparo appeared satisfied, yet due to her prudent nature, she showed

misgivings: “. . . what I am telling you, my children, is that the initial seed planted here

has been of the highest quality, yet the harvest has come up a bit short. We are in the

midst of negotiations with Russia and Germany . . . but when will those happen?” (Letter

of March 7, 1916).

This “seed” resulted from the success and aftermath of the Goyescas opera

premiere. If indeed Clark recounted in his chapter “A World of Ideas” the mishaps and

negative reviews Granados received, especially concerning the opera’s libretto, for which

Granados was also responsible, then Amparo's account in her letters demonstrates that the

Granados couple stayed above the critical fray and relied on the support of friends,

especially Schelling and Paderewski.

American society gave Granados a warm reception. In a letter to Eduardo

Granados, New York socialite Malvina Hoffman wrote that she met the composer “for the

first time at pianist Ernest Schelling's house, who was giving your father a grand

reception. All the great artists and personalities of high society were there, and later,

several of my friends invited him to their homes. The welcome was spontaneous and

61
enthusiastic.” (May 8, 1916, letter). Amparo confirmed, “Visiting us has become all the

rage,” and described a busy social calendar:

About the frenetic life we are living I wouldn't like to write anything; we will tell you all
about it upon our return. People are competing for our attention, and we have to decline half our
invitations, because otherwise, they would finish us off in four days. (New York, February 1916)

In her letters, Amparo also made reference to Goyescas, since this was a logical

area of concern, informing her children about the events surrounding the premiere. In her

January 21st letter, she wrote that Lucrecia Bori was unable to sing, “but in her place,

Anna Fitziu will perform, and even though she is American, she has a lovely voice and is

extremely pretty.” She also demonstrated musical knowledge by commenting on the

artistic qualities of various personalities surrounding the concert: “Giovanni Martinelli,

the tenor, is young. He has an exquisite voice and an artist's air about him—Giuseppe de

Luca as well; and Pepa, even though the range of her singing voice is limited, is quite

graceful, and her role is minimal, after all.” 18 In a letter to her children, 19 Amparo showed

herself to be overjoyed by the success of the January 28 premiere. However, in a display

of perspicacity, she also noted that the premiere might have been boosted by both the

presence of the extremely famous singer Enrico Caruso, who performed Pagliacci that

same day, and by the Spanish colony. Amparo considered the possibility that these factors

18
For details concerning the premiere, refer to the “World of Ideas” chapter in Enrique Granados,
by Clark, 156–57. The role of Rosario was played by Anna Fitziu, Fernando by Giovanni Martinelli,
Paquito by Giuseppe de Luca, and Pepa by Flora Perini.
19
“. . . Papa's triumph was overwhelming; the public gave him innumerable encores; they went
crazy for Him (sic). The company gave him a silver crown, and Schirmer publishers gave him another very
handsome one. The Spanish Ambassador, representing the King, sent His Majesty a telegram at the end of
the concert, and the Ambassador sent me a magnificent flower bouquet bearing a ribbon in our nation's
colors.” Letter from Amparo Gal to her children. (New York, January 1916)

62
may have favored the ballyhooed success of the first performance, 20 though in her letter

following the second performance on February 2, Amparo’s tone was calmer, asserting

that the concert indeed enjoyed great popular appeal:

The second performance . . . was truly the day that the work was presented to the public, and
it was an overwhelming success; just telling you that they made Papa come to the stage between
the first and second parts and between the second and third parts several times says it all, since the
encores for the composer are typically reserved for the conclusion of the final acts.

We can generally conclude that the Granados couple considered their visit to New

York to have been an overwhelming success, and, even though they were aware of the

critiques, they were caught up in a spiral of success. They were finally earning significant

money for the very first time in their professional lives, and they faced future prospects

that guaranteed them a secure future and economic well-being for their family.

Granados’s Reception in New York and Goyescas

Both Clark and the Spanish biographer Antonio Fernández-Cid 21 contrast the

tremendous success Goyescas enjoyed among the general public with the stark fact that

the work was performed a mere five times. 22 Clark points to several reasons, such as an

unfortunate comment Granados made about Georges Bizet’s Carmen upon his arrival in

New York, and the opera’s own libretto and structure, the premise of which was

20
“The second Goyescas concert has been an even greater success than the first, since at the first
performance, the company put Goyescas together with Pagliacci, featuring Caruso, who is an idol here, and
some say we would not have packed the house so fully had it not been for the tenor's presence here. The
second performance was another superpremiere and quite a success, if you can imagine one greater than the
first, since there was no longer any anxiety on the part of the Spanish colony.” Letter from Amparo Gal to
her children. (New York, February 1916).
21
Granados (Madrid: Samarán, 1956): 274.
22
The performances took place between January 28 and March 6: January 28, February 2, 10, and
26, and March 6, 1916.

63
considered “puerile” by one critic.

Granados’s declarations (“The world knows nothing of Spanish music if it

believes that Georges Bizet’s opera Carmen is Spanish. Goyescas will show the way.”) 23

were misinterpreted by the press, which inferred that Granados believed his opera to be

superior to Bizet’s. Even Gatti-Casazza, artistic director of the Metropolitan, viewed the

comments with disfavor. According to Fernández-Cid, the Metropolitan director berated

Granados for believing himself of a higher caliber than Bizet: “Granados was full of

himself. He believed he had created an opera superior to Bizet’s Carmen. I strongly

disagree.” 24

Clark considered Granados’s comments a demonstration of patriotic pride,

reflecting exasperation with the incessant Andalusian stereotypes thrust on Spanish music

by foreigners. I share this opinion, but only to a certain degree, because Granados clearly

identified his opera Goyescas as a model of Spanish music based on Pedrellian principles,

or as “authentic” opera, which, according to Pedrell’s manner of thinking, were one and

the same. The letters Granados wrote to Pedrell, and which are preserved at the

Biblioteca de Catalunya, manifest the progression of Granados’s assimilation of Pedrell’s

teaching. This is also evident in the letters he wrote to his wife during his stays in Madrid

23
Quoted in Fernández Cid, Granados, 269. Clark reproduced the pronouncements printed in the
article in Musical America 23 written by Herbert F. Peyser, “Granados Here for Production of Goyescas”
(December 25, 1916): “For you, like so many other people, . . . know nothing of the real musical
contributions of Spain. The musical interpretation of Spain is not to be found in tawdry boleros and
habaneras, in Moszkowski, in Carmen, in anything that has sharp dance rhythms accompanied by
tambourines or castanets.” 155.
24
Fernández-Cid, Granados, 274.

64
(1894 and 1895), where Granados consistently invoked the teachings of Pedrell to justify

his actions. The letters written before 1900, when Granados was still a young musician,

clearly demonstrate his admiration for the work of his maestro, which, in turn, were

translated into admiration for Pedrell’s theories. Granados also produced transcriptions of

popular songs for himself and for Pedrell. Clearly evident was his attempt to rediscover a

Spanish musical past, especially when it concerned Tomás Luis de Victoria or Cristóbal

de Morales. The Goyescas opera displayed a “new, genuine Spanishness” [nuevo

españolismo] that followed guidelines of historicism united with popular folklore. The

work eschewed the Andalusian style boldly personified by Carmen. Historicism is

evident in Goyescas through the use of a Goya theme, through the inclusion of “La tirana

del Trípili,” a tonadilla possibly composed by Blas de Laserna, and through the folkloric

inclusion of a Valencian song in “La maja y el ruiseñor” (“The Maja and the

Nightingale”).

An examination of the progression of Granados’s Pedrellian thinking leads to the

identification of a wide range of stylistic variety throughout Goyescas that make it

impossible for Granados to be labeled only as a nationalist Spanish composer. If it is

indeed true that the work enabled Granados’s entry into the pantheon of international

musical history, identified among other Spanish nationalist works, Granados’s musical

reality is far more complex, a fact supported by principles based on theories of his master

Felipe Pedrell. As affirmed by Francesc Bonastre, the Pedrellian method is not just valid

for Catalonia, but for the whole of Spain, a fact that was viewed with disfavor by

65
Granados’s Catalan countrymen and by Spaniards, who considered him principally a

Catalonian composer. Bonastre continued, “This supposed ambiguity was nothing more

than the fruit of his ideological independence and a reflection of his open-minded,

generous approach. . . .” 25

Granados indeed followed this path. By being presented in Paris as a composer,

he was able to expand his image beyond a narrow presentation as merely a “Spanish”

composer. His April 1911 concert program included an arrangement of a [Domenico]

Scarlatti sonata he would later perform in 1915, Valses poéticos, the Allegro de concierto,

some Danzas españolas, and Azulejos (“Tiles”)—a piece begun by Isaac Albéniz, but

finished by Granados upon receiving an explicit request from the family—and finally, the

first tableau of Goyescas.

Even in the earliest stages of composing Goyescas, Granados intended for it to be

performed for the French public. It was therefore no coincidence that Granados chose a

similar repertoire to present at his New York premiere, also at the February 22, 1915,

Aeolian Hall concert, and at the White House, where President Wilson invited him to

perform, along with Julia Culp, on March 7th. 26 At his performance for the Friends of

Music, Granados performed some Goyescas, as well as pieces for piano and cello such as

25
Francesc Bonastre and Francesc Cortés, Introduction to Por nuestra música (Bellaterra:
Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 1991), 8.
26
On February 23, 1916, Granados performed one of his Scarlatti sonata adaptations, a Danza
lenta, a Danza valenciana, and Allegro de concierto. In addition, together with Anna Fitziu, they performed
some Tonadillas, as well as the aria from Goyescas, “La maja y el ruiseñor.” The Tonadillas had also been
performed at the April 4, 1914, concert. At the White House concert, he added a Chopin Nocturne to the
program, a choice not made lightly, since Granados was known to be an outstanding interpreter of this
composer’s work.

66
Danza andaluza, Trova (Ballad), and Madrigal, among others. These last two pieces defy

categorization within the Spanish musical genre and are more closely tied to archaic

sonority, as is the case of Madrigal; Trova, on the other hand, was considered by Richard

Aldrich, in his January 24 New York Times review, to possess “introspective charm,” with

the character of an improvisation. At the same time, we should recall the recital at which

the Chicago Symphony performed Dante, as well as the performance of Danza de los

ojos verdes (“The Dance of the Green Eyes”), an orchestral work performed February 10,

1916, at the Maxine Elliot Theater, performed by the dancer known as “La Argentina,”

Antonia Mercé.

In his concerts, Granados presented a broad cross-section of his work, while at the

same time refusing to renounce the very trait that led to his fame by including works of a

picturesque nature, such as Danzas. He utilized similar criteria in selecting the scores he

decided to leave behind for G. Schirmer publishers, although financial considerations

were foremost in the decision of which works were to be commercialized. In September

1913, Granados decided to send the American publishing house two Danzas españolas

(“Valenciana” and “Catalana”), a “Danza a la cubana,” a “Marcha militar,” and a “Valse

de concert.” In his September 24 letter to Schelling, Granados announced that he was

finishing “a set of poetic scenes and Goyescas (‘El Pelele’).” It was in this manner that

Granados decided to publish his first collection of picturesque works in salon style, in

other words, music that could be easily sold. Schirmer also edited his orchestral work

Dante, and later, in 1915, Granados signed a contract for the publication of Canciones

67
amatorias (Love Songs): “Gracia [mía]” (“My Graceful One”), “No lloréis ojuelos”

(“Don’t Cry, Little Eyes”), “Descúbrase el pensamiento de mi secreto cuidado” (“Let Me

Unveil the Thought of My Secret Love”), and “Mañanica era” (“It Was Daybreak”). Also,

he sent Schirmer “La canción del postillón” (“Song of the Postilion”) for publication, but

this was a piece of far less interest than the aforementioned Amatorias.

In his book, Clark copiously describes Granados’s reception as a Spanish

composer by the New York press, explaining that Granados was perceived as embodying

two presumably Spanish, yet diametrically opposed stereotypes, of both languid and

stalwart character. 27 Periquet contributed to the perpetuation of this stereotype of the

Spaniard of strong disposition, applied to Granados. Periquet, both a journalist and

Customs official, would later fight for the Nationalist cause in the Spanish Civil War,

despite his advancing age. He unapologetically held a preconceived notion of what

embodied the Spanish nationalist ideal, and from his pronouncements one can infer the

basis of his ideology. The articles he clipped, which are now preserved in the private

archive of his grandson Rodolfo Vogel Periquet, frequently mention national “victory,”

considering the loss of the Spanish colonies in 1898, and thereby implying that redress

was achieved by means of the triumph and success of the Goyescas opera in the United

States. As recounted by Clark, this would become a common topic of discussion in the

Spanish press, culminating in what they would describe as Granados’s “mission” to

27
Clark, 154.

68
regain the nation’s lost honor. 28

Granados’s own pronouncements notwithstanding, the public’s interest in him

focused almost exclusively on his music. As written in my doctoral dissertation, 29 it is not

altogether clear that Granados held any clearly defined political opinions, or that he had

too much interest in politics at all. Although it appears that he did entertain political

beliefs resembling Spanish nationalism—without defining precisely which strain—his

residency in Barcelona and his closeness to personalities associated with Catalan

nationalism, coupled with his fluency in Catalan, still do not define Granados’s ideology

in any clear way. Conversely, it appears that politics did indeed interest him, but only to

the extent that they could influence the advancement of his work, as evidenced by

Amparo’s comments in a January 1916 letter, which carry no political implications:

“Believe me, it would be disgraceful if the government did not honor him, because

Spain’s value has increased one hundred percent.”

Conclusion

Clearly, the driving force behind Granados’s visit to New York was Ernest

Schelling, who not only accompanied the composer and his wife around the city, but

promoted the premiere of Goyescas at the Metropolitan Opera, as well as the publication

of Granados’s work by the G. Shirmer publishing company. As evidenced by Amparo

28
Ibid, 155.
29
Miriam Perandones Lozano, “La canción lírica de Enrique Granados (1867–1916):
microcosmos estilístico elaborado a partir de un nuevo epistolario.” (PhD diss., Universidad de Oviedo,
Department of Art History and Musicology, 2008).

69
Gal’s letters, the Granados couple got the most out of their successful trip, despite the

rough start they experienced due to Granados’s illness, which resulted from a harrowing

voyage and the composer’s general malaise. Granados also began his visit clumsily with

his comments concerning Carmen by Georges Bizet, which, as we have seen, were

misinterpreted by the press and by the Metropolitan’s artistic director Gatti-Casazza. In

fact, Granados was defending a new Spanish nationalism whose essence he derived from

Pedrellian theories. However, this misstep did not keep New York society from becoming

enthralled with the composer, which culminated in his receiving the Silver Medal of Arts

and Letters from the Hispanic Society of America. As evidenced by his wife Amparo Gal

in the series of letters I have studied, these factors contribute to the study of this portion

of the composer’s life from the family’s perspective.

70
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 “Enrique Granados en París: La construcción de un icono español

en el ámbito musical internacional”

Revista de Musicología (ISSN 0210-1439) 34, no. 1 (2011): 203–32

Miriam Perandones Lozano

Universidad de Oviedo

76
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS:
LA CONSTRUCCIÓN DE UN ICONO ESPAÑOL
EN EL ÁMBITO MUSICAL INTERNACIONAL

Revista de Musicología, XXXIV, 1 (2011) Miriam PERANDONES

Universidad de Oviedo

Resumen: La relación de Granados con París plantea varios interrogantes al investiga-

dor que se acerca a estudiar la vida de este compositor. Al contrario de lo que podría parecer,
Granados no aparece en la prensa musical francesa hasta los últimos años de su vida, mien-
tras otros intérpretes españoles, como sus íntimos amigo Ricardo Viñes o Pablo Casals, en
1900 ya son intérpretes reconocidos o aparecen asiduamente en los conciertos parisinos.
Ante este hecho inmediatamente surge una pregunta: por qué Granados, una de las figu-
ras universales del nacionalismo español junto a Isaac Albéniz y Manuel de Falla, falta en la
prensa especializada de París hasta prácticamente 1909, apenas siete años antes de su muerte.
En este artículo pretendemos explicar la relación de Granados con la ciudad y las razo-
nes por las cuales encuentra un éxito internacional tardío, pero que le convierte en un icono
nacionalista español y universal. Se ha realizado a partir de una recopilación sistemática de
la prensa1, estudiando por qué aparece Granados en la vida musical parisina y cómo recibió
Francia su obra. El trabajo se completa con la revisión del epistolario inédito de Granados,
elaborado en nuestra tesis doctoral.
El compositor residió casi dos años en París entre 1887 y 1889 como alumno de piano
del importante profesor Charles de Bériot. Veinte años más tarde, Granados orientaría su
llegada a París primero como intérprete (1909) y después como compositor (1911 y 1914)
buscando el reconocimiento internacional.

Palabras clave: Granados, París, crítica, Goyescas, nuevo españolismo.

1. Existe una transcripción de fragmentos de algunos artículos en Enrique Granados. Algu-

nas opiniones de prensa sobre sus conciertos. Musicografía Wagner. Barcelona, Tipografía «La
Moderna», 191-.
204 MIRIAM PERANDONES

ENRIQUE GRANADOS IN PARIS: THE FORGING OF A SPANISH ICON IN THE

INTERNATIONAL MUSIC SCENE

Abstract: Researchers interested in studying Granados’s life are faced with sev-
eral unresolved issues surrounding the composer’s connection with Paris. Contra-
ry to what it might seem, Granados does not appear in the French musical press until
his late years, while other Spanish artists, such as his close friends Ricardo Viñes and
Pablo Casals, were already acknowledged performers who regularly appeared
in Parisian concerts by 1900.
In view of this situation, one question immediately arises: why was Granados,
one of the universal figures of Spanish nationalism together with Isaac Albéniz and
Manuel de Falla, absent from the specialized press of Paris until 1909, just seven
years before his death?
The objective of this article is to explain Granados’s connection with this city and
why his international success came so late in his career, yet made him a universal
and Spanish icon. It is based on a systematic compilation of the press, examining
the reason for Granados’s appearance in Parisian musical life and the manner in
which his work was received in France. The article is completed with a revision of
Granados’s unpublished collected letters, which formed part of my Ph. D. thesis.
The composer lived in Paris for almost two years between 1887 and 1889 as a
pupil of the important piano teacher Charles de Bériot. Twenty years later, Grana-
dos appeared in Paris as a pianist (1909) and subsequently as a composer (1911 and
1914), in search of international recognition.

Keywords: Granados, Paris, criticism, Goyescas, new Spanishness in music.

Estancia y formación (1887-1889)2

La etapa de formación en París es un apartado vital con muchas som-

bras que hasta ahora se conocía principalmente a partir de la detallada
descripción que realiza Ricardo Viñes en la Revista Musical Hispano-Ame-
ricana3. En este trabajo hemos completado el relato biográfico a partir de
la tesis doctoral de Nina Gubisch sobre el diario de este intérprete leri-
dano4 y de la revisión de documentos oficiales del Conservatorio de París.

2. Para una revisión más detallada consúltese nuestra tesis doctoral La canción lírica de
Enrique Granados (1867-1916): microcosmos estilístico elaborado a partir de un nuevo epistolario. Tesis
inédita. Oviedo, Departamento de Historia del Arte y Musicología de la Universidad de Oviedo,
2008.
3. VIÑES, Ricardo. «Granados íntimo o Recuerdos de su estancia en París». Revista Musi-
cal Hispano-Americana, 7 (31-VII-1916), pp. 2-6.
4. GUBISCH-VIÑES, Nina. Ricardo Viñes à travers son journal et sa correspondance (contribution
à l’histoire des relations franco-espagnoles à l’aube du xXe siècle). París, tesis doctoral en París 4, 1977.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 205

Granados es uno más de los jóvenes estudiantes que durante el siglo

XIX deciden abandonar su lugar de residencia para estudiar en París,
sumándose a una larga lista de pianistas españoles y catalanes que de-
ciden mejorar sus estudios de interpretación en la capital de Francia. La
afluencia había comenzado, según Bergadà5, tras la restauración en el
trono de Fernando VII, momento en que un número importante de ar-
tistas se refugian en el país vecino. Entre los pianistas en París de esta
primera oleada se encuentra Santiago de Masarnau o Pedro Pérez Albé-
niz, y ya más adelantado el siglo, Joaquín Malats o Ricardo Viñes, ami-
gos íntimos del compositor.
No se conoce la fecha exacta de llegada del compositor a París. Se-
gún Granados en sus memorias6 habría llegado en 1885, pero sus inves-
tigadores se inclinan por 18877, aunque algunos sugieren 1888. Carol Hess8
y Walter Clark9, los dos investigadores de referencia en el estudio del
compositor, se inclinan por 1887, fecha que ratificamos. Ambos se basan
en el testimonio de Ricardo Viñes, amigo íntimo del compositor desde
la estancia de ambos en París, tal como relata en el citado artículo de 1916
dedicado a Granados en la Revista Musical Hispano-Americana. Viñes na-
rra con fechas concretas las peripecias de su amistad con el compositor,
posiblemente basándose en los datos que él mismo tomó en su diario10.
Uno de los puntos controvertidos de su estancia estudiantil es su ac-
ceso al Conservatorio. Según el propio Granados, después de llegar a París
unas fiebres le mantuvieron inconsciente unos 15 ó 20 días en el hospi-
tal y después estuvo algunas semanas convaleciente, por lo que no pudo
presentarse al examen de acceso, que tuvo lugar el 7 de noviembre:

5. BERGADÀ, Montserrat. «Les pianistes espagnols au Conservatoire de Paris au XIXe siècle».

Échanges musicaux franco-espagnols, XVIIe-XIXe siècles. Actes des Rencontres de Villecroze (15 au 17
octobre 1998) réunis par François Lesure. Paris, Klincksieck, 2000, pp. 195-233.
6. VILA SAN-JUAN, Pablo. Papeles íntimos de Enrique Granados. Barcelona, Amigos de Gra-
nados, 1966.
7. Por ejemplo, COLLET, Henri en Albéniz et Granados (Paris, Libr. Félix Alcan, 1925); RUIZ
TARAZONA, Andrés en Enrique Granados, el último romántico (Madrid, Real Musical, 1975) o
IGLESIAS, Antonio en Enrique Granados: (su obra para piano) (Madrid, Alpuerto, 1985-1986).
8. HESS, Carol. Enrique Granados. A Bio-Bibliography. Nueva York, Greenwood Press, 1991.
9. CLARK, Walter A. Enrique Granados. Poet of the piano. New York, Oxford University Press,
2006.
10. El entonces jovencísimo pianista comenzó este documento en el momento en que inició
el viaje con sus padres hacia París el 12 de octubre de 1887. Este diario lo custodia actualmente
Nina Gubisch, a partir del cual realizó su tesis doctoral ya citada, que desgraciadamente no se
nos ha permitido consultar. Es por esta razón que las fechas que manejamos del diario de Viñes
se han extraído del libro The Musical Kaleidoscope de BRODY, Elayne. The Musical Kaleidoscope, 1870-
1915. New York, Braziller, 1987. Elayne Brody aparentemente pudo consultarlo.
206 MIRIAM PERANDONES

Lo primero que hice al llegar a París fue perderme y estar durante más de
media hora dando vueltas al hotel «Cologne et d’Espagne» donde me había alo-
jado [...] Una terrible enfermedad [...] a poco, muy poco, acaba con mi vida. Una
tarde fui sacado en coche del hotel y conducido a la «Maison de la Santé». [...]
Mi convalecencia duró más de tres meses durante los cuales perdí todo derecho
a entrar en el Conservatorio, pues cumplí la edad reglamentaria y el plazo que
se concedía para la admisión sin poder presentarme a las oposiciones11.

El relato de Viñes corrobora que Granados estaba convaleciente cuando

llegó a la ciudad: «[...] hace veintiocho años y medio, cuando el pobre
comenzaba a reponerse de una gravísima dolencia –un tifus maligno–
que, apenas llegado de Barcelona, le tuvo algunas semanas entre la vida
y la muerte [...] Tenía Enrique a la sazón veinte años y sólo doce conta-
ba yo [...]»12.
Sin embargo, en la declaración de convalecencia de Granados hay una
serie de contradicciones implícitas que no ayudan a esclarecer por qué
no entró como alumno. Según acabamos de leer, Granados excedió la
edad reglamentaria al cumplir años mientras estaba enfermo, pero la edad
máxima de acceso al Conservatorio de París era de 22 años13, y Grana-
dos tenía 20 cumplidos, tal como atestigua Viñes. Según Bergadà y Ca-
rol Hess, la razón fue que sólo se admitían dos alumnos extranjeros por
clase14, y por esta razón Granados no fue aceptado, como tampoco lo fue
Viñes por esta causa según su diario15. Gracias a la revisión de los docu-
mentos del Conservatorio sabemos que Granados no llegó a presentar-
se al examen de acceso16, probablemente porque ya estaban cubiertas las

11. VILA S AN-JUAN, P. Papeles íntimos de Enrique Granados..., pp. 69-70.

12. Este párrafo del artículo de Viñes ya citado de la Revista Musical Hispano-Americana
podría parecer un tanto vago en su afirmación «veintiocho años y medio». Sin embargo, pare-
ce completamente exacto con las fechas que maneja: siguiendo el diario, Viñes llegó a París el
13 de octubre de 1887 y el 17 de octubre se instalaba en el Hotel Cologne de la rue de Trévise,
exactamente 28 años y seis meses después de que Viñes escribiera sus recuerdos sobre la estancia
de ambos. Aunque en el artículo se da como única referencia «primavera de 1916» podemos
aventurar que fue escrito en abril, mes en que se conoció que Granados y su esposa habían fa-
llecido.
13. Cuando Granados pretende acceder al Conservatorio en 1887 éste se regía por el Règle-
ments géneraux de 1878, el cual, en el Capítulo II (Des Éleves, de leur admission, de leur droits et
de leurs devoirs) establece en el artículo 39 la edad máxima en 22 años.
14. Eso es una modificación que se incluyó definitivamente al Règlements géneraux citado
el 6 de agosto de 1894.
15. BRODY, E. The Musical Kaleidoscope..., p. 170.
16. En los Inventarios del Conservatorio de París (AJ/37) y en la lista de aspirantes revi-
sada (AJ/37/329/2) Granados no aparece entre ellos. En Le Ménestrel del 13 de noviembre se
publican los admitidos entre quienes se encuentra Édouart Risler, y en las clases preparato-
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 207

plazas para extranjeros y no por la enfermedad que menciona en sus

memorias17.
Durante el curso 1888-1889 no hubo posibilidad de incorporarse a las
clases del Conservatorio porque no se abrieron plazas para estudiantes
de piano ese año18, aunque Granados estuvo preparando intensamente
su examen de acceso en 1888, según apunta Bergadà19.
Viñes y Granados asistieron como oyentes a las clases en el Conser-
vatorio. Respecto a este aspecto guardamos pocas dudas gracias al tes-
timonio de Viñes, aunque Granados no aparece tampoco en las listas
oficiales de oyente. Según Ricardo Viñes, el profesor Charles de Bériot
les daba clases en el Conservatorio, en la Academia Schaller20 y en su casa.
Al año siguiente, y tras cumplir la edad límite para el acceso a las clases
oficiales, Granados regresa a España.
En París no recibió una formación musical más allá de la interpreta-
tiva. Asistió a clases de armonía21, pero no se sabe con quién. Podría tra-
tarse del mismo profesor de Viñes, Gaspard Villate, aunque es una mera
especulación. Según Rafael Mitjana22, Granados estudió piano con
De Bériot y composición con Jules Massenet, lo que no es cierto. El 15
de noviembre de 1888 Ricardo Viñes señala en su diario que Granados
tenía una cita con Massenet («Esta mañana, Granados ha venido a ver-
nos y dijo que iría luego a casa de Massenet») y sin embargo no se
conocieron entonces, ya que según la carta de Massenet a Granados
del 15 de julio de 1896, Massenet espera aún conocerle personalmente
(«¡Sería tan feliz de conocer personalmente a un artista, a un maestro
como Ud.!»).

rias, Raoul Laparra y Alfred Cortot. Con los tres pianistas tendría más tarde una relación cer-
cana, especialmente con Risler y Cortot.
17. La enfermedad también se explica en la biografía de Granados que escribe Le Monde
Musical el 30 de junio de 1914. Esta justificación de Granados prestaría una coartada a la so-
ciedad francesa, dando una salida elegante a esta «falta de cortesía».
18. Le Ménestrel anunció que presumiblemente el Conservatorio no abriría nuevas plazas,
por lo que no se podría concursar de nuevo para entrar como alumno oficial. Este hecho se
ve corroborado en la revisión de los Inventarios del Conservatorio (AJ/37/333/1) en que se
certifica que no hay examen de admisión para alumnos activos de piano en 1888.
19. Bergadà se basa en un extracto de la memoria de musicología del Conservatorio Na-
cional de París (1971) que realizó Nina Gubisch-Viñes titulada Les années de jeunesse d’un pia-
niste espagnol en France (1887-1900). Journal et correspondance de Ricardo Viñes.
20. El cours Schaller era una escuela privada. El 4 de noviembre de 1888 en Le Ménestrel se
habla de la reapertura de las clases de diferentes escuelas y profesores, en los que se encuen-
tran el cours Schaller (5, rue Geoffroy-Marie) donde De Bériot imparte clases de piano.
21. VIÑES, R. «Granados íntimo o Recuerdos de su estancia...», p. 5.
22. MITJANA, Rafael. «Pro Patria». La Dinastía. Barcelona, 10-VII-1894.
208 MIRIAM PERANDONES

A las mismas clases de De Bériot asistía Ravel, por lo que Gubisch se

pregunta si el propio Granados pudo tener una relación de amistad con
él. En el artículo «Le journal inédit de Ricardo Viñes (Ravel, Debussy et
Duparc)»23 Nina Gubisch señala que el jueves 11 de abril de 1889 Gra-
nados estaba con Viñes en casa de la madre de Ravel junto con Malats,
entre otros. Aun así, la relación entre ambos en los años de estudiante
es mera conjetura.
Como es sabido, Granados residió el primer año en la Rue de Trèvi-
se, calle muy cercana al Conservatorio, y al año siguiente, según Viñes,
sufrió una «crisis de montmartrismo», trasladándose al barrio de Mont-
martre, en la rue Fontaine, 48. El barrio estaba en pleno auge, y segura-
mente fue un movimiento cultural y social difícil de resistir para un jo-
ven de 20 años en un París lleno de atractivos.
Granados no sabía francés antes de ir a París, tal como asegura él
mismo en sus memorias, y éste es un punto interesante mencionado en
la tesis de Gubisch, ya que, aunque el grupo español se iría ensanchan-
do, se mantendría cerrado al mundo parisino. Este hecho, unido a que
Granados tenía un carácter tímido e inseguro, ocasionaría que no apro-
vechara su residencia en París para hacer amistades francesas del mun-
do musical, aunque sí para ir a conciertos y oír a los grandes pianistas
de la época que habían sido primeros premios en el Conservatorio24.
Respecto a los conciertos que Granados pudiera haber ofrecido en París
en esa época, sólo queda el testimonio de Viñes, porque no se encuen-
tran referencias de los mismos con Granados como intérprete. El prime-
ro es una audición de alumnos del Conservatorio en la Salle Érard el 24
de mayo de 1888, donde ambos habrían tocado el Rondó en Do mayor
de Chopin, del que no se encuentran referencias. El segundo no parece
que tuviera lugar: se trata de un concierto de Granados acompañando
al virtuoso violinista húngaro Ernö Hubay (Budapest 1858-Viena 1937)
el 4 de mayo de 1889, según Gubisch. En Le Ménestrel del 12 de mayo se
señala que, con Hubay, tocaron Mme. De Serres y M. Jules Delsart, y no
se cita a Granados en ningún momento.

23. Revue Internacional de Musique Française, 2 (junio 1980), pp. 154-248.

24. Por ejemplo el martes 28 de febrero de 1888 Viñes y Granados fueron juntos al con-
cierto de Monsieur Isidore Philipp (primer premio del conservatorio de París), que más ade-
lante sería un admirador de su obra, tal como atestigua el epistolario. Incluso en una postal
posiblemente fechada en 1912 Philipp afirma que incluyó el Allegro de concierto de Granados
en un concierto suyo en Holanda.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 209

Posibles viajes a París

Desde su regreso en 1889 hasta 1905 hay indicios de viajes brevísimos

del compositor a París, aunque son datos que no se han podido contrastar.
Según la carta de Granados a Viñes del 15 de enero de 1894, el compo-
sitor habría estado en París seguramente a primeros de 1894 o a finales
de 1893 para reunirse con De Bériot, sin encontrarle. Quizá pretendiera
enseñarle personalmente sus últimos cuadernos de Danzas, ya que su
maestro había juzgado uno de sus álbumes de Danzas en el verano de
1892. A juzgar por la epístola a Viñes, Granados tenía pensado volver a
París en octubre de 1894, pero debió de cambiar sus planes, ya que en
septiembre se había trasladado a Madrid con el objetivo de aprobar las
oposiciones a profesor de piano del Conservatorio.
Según el testimonio de Borrás de Palau25, en 1898 Granados realizó
un viaje a París en el que estrenó una obra sinfónica llamada Desolació,
aunque no se conservan manuscritos de esta obra ni hemos encontrado
ninguna fuente hemerográfica o de cualquier otro tipo que corrobore este
dato. Finalmente, según Joaquín Nin en «Evocaciones sobre Enrique
Granados»26, en 1904 Granados fue a París y presentó al compositor fran-
cés Leon Moreau su obra lírica Follet. Granados conocía a este composi-
tor por haber dirigido su orquesta, la Sociedad de Conciertos Clásicos,
el 4 de noviembre de 1900 en Barcelona, y en marzo de 1901 Granados
dio un concierto con Moreau, también en Barcelona. Asimismo, éste in-
terpretará algunas Danzas en París. Ésta es toda la relación que se cono-
ce entre ambos pianistas y compositores.

La recepción de Granados como compositor-intérprete en la ciudad a

través de sus conciertos, su obra y sus relaciones personales

Tal como ya se ha señalado, en las publicaciones musicales contem-

poráneas prácticamente no hay referencias a Granados hasta 1909. Úni-
camente algunos pianistas incorporan alguna obra de Granados en su
repertorio, y siempre se reduce a las Danzas, su obra característica por

25. BORRÁS DE PALAU, Joan. «Enrique Granados». La Ilustración Musical Hispano-America-

na, (junio de 1899).
26. NIN, Joaquín. «Evocaciones sobre Enrique Granados». Revista Musical Hispano-Ameri-
cana, 5 (31-V-1916), pp. 2-5.
210 MIRIAM PERANDONES

antonomasia hasta que es sustituida por las Goyescas en el repertorio

internacional.
Según Bergadà27, Joaquín Malats fue el primer pianista que tocó una
Danza de Granados en un concierto público en París, el 14 de febrero de
1896, aunque, tal como menciona Granados a Viñes en la carta que le
escribe el 15 de enero de 1894, es muy posible que el pianista leridano
interpretara en audiciones privadas algunas de sus obras, presumible-
mente las Danzas. Viñes será el principal difusor de Granados, aunque
el repertorio se limita únicamente a una selección de esta suite pianísti-
ca hasta 1913.
En los festivales de música catalana de la Schola Cantorum de 1900
y 1905 también interpretaron algunas Danzas españolas28. El martes 11 de
diciembre de 1900 en la Schola Cantorum se ofreció el primer concierto
de música extranjera de la asociación, consagrado a la música catalana;
en esta ocasión Henri Duparc interpretó Granados y Albéniz. Viñes tam-
bién interpretó las Danzas I, II, V y VI el 9 de enero de 1904 en la Sala
Érard bajo los auspicios de la Société Nationale. Leon Moreau es otro
introductor de las Danzas en París, ya que dio un concierto con cuatro
Danzas españolas en 1901, y Marie Panthès en 1906.

Concierto en la Sala Pleyel de 1905

En 1905 Granados realiza el primer concierto confirmado en París

en la sala Pleyel. Lo lleva a cabo junto al violinista belga Mathieu Crick-
boom29 el 31 de marzo. Granados interpretó seis sonatas de Scarlatti trans-

27. BERGADÀ, Montserrat. Les pianistes catalans à Paris entre 1875 et 1925. Contribution à l’étude
des relations musicales entre la France et l’Espagne. Tesis doctoral. Tours, Universidad de Tours,
1997, II parte: «Les pianistas catalans à Paris (1895-1925)»; III: «Les trois figures de proue»:
Capítulo 11: «Enrique Granados»; 2. «Diffusion de l‘œuvre en France».
28. En 1905 Blanche Selva interpretó los Cantos de España y la Vega de Albéniz; Viñes in-
terpretó dos Danzas de Granados y de Albéniz (Torre Bermeja y la Sevillana); Marie Gay, «de
voz siempre maravillosa», cantó canciones populares y lieders de Joan Gay y de J. Civil. Tam-
bién participó Llobet, el guitarrista, al que dedicaron encendidos elogios («intensidad y diver-
sidad de sonoridades»; «Es simplemente prodigioso y emocionante al más alto grado, y de-
seamos vivamente que Llobet haga escuela, incluso en Francia»). Le Ménestrel, 6-V-1905.
29. Este violinista belga (Hodimont –Lieja– 1871 / Bruselas, 1947) fue discípulo de Eugè-
ne Ysaÿe, de cuyo cuarteto fue segundo violín hasta 1894, cuando pasó a ser primer violín del
Cuarteto de la Sociedad Nacional de París. Tras su viaje a Barcelona en otoño de 1895 se ins-
tala en la ciudad, donde funda en 1897 la Sociedad Filarmónica, y, según el epistolario de
Enrique Granados, forman la Academia de la Sociedad Filarmónica junto a Pablo Casals. Ese
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 211

critas por él mismo, y algunas obras de Chopin como solista (Nocturno

en Do # menor, Polonesa nº 2 y Balada nº 3); con Crickboom interpretó
la Follia, una sonata de Corelli y la Sonata de César Frank. En los bises
Granados tocó dos obras propias. Según Le Monde Musical30 se trataría
de un Estudio y una Danza española y, según Le Guide Musical31, dos Es-
tudios.
Ricardo Viñes, en su diario, el 31 de marzo de 1905 afirma que «Gra-
nados ha tocado muy bien y ha tenido un gran éxito». En una carta de
E. Risler a Granados de 1905 el pianista se muestra entusiasta: «Por fin
un artista, después de tanto farandulero y de tantas nulidades. Hacía ya
largo tiempo que yo no había experimentado tal impresión. Sus Scarlat-
tis y Chopins quedarán inolvidables para mí»32.
La crítica de Le Monde Musical realizada por Jean Huré continúa en
la misma línea:

Enrique Granados, que es uno de los compositores más deliciosos que hayan
jamás existido [...] se hizo oír, en la Sala Pleyel, como pianista. Él iguala incon-
testablemente a los más grandes por un virtuosismo audaz, elegante, siempre
impecable, a veces endiablado... él sobrepasa casi todos los que he oído por su
extraordinaria personalidad, y sin embargo siempre respetuosa hacia la obra
interpretada.
Esta interpretación distinguida y encantadora concierne particularmente
a Chopin. [...] Granados saca de su piano unas sonoridades variadas y pasa
con una simplicidad increíble de los acentos enérgicos a las dulzuras más exqui-
sitas33.

Le Guide Musical también menciona sus cualidades como intérprete

español, aunque haciendo hincapié en que «hace honor a la escuela fran-
cesa» por haber sido alumno de De Bériot. También destaca su labor como
intérprete de Chopin, el «poète du piano», sobrenombre que también se
le da frecuentemente a Granados:
mismo año conforman un trío con el que hacen una gira por el Norte de España. A pesar de
la escisión de Granados en 1900 para crear su propia Academia, ambos pudieron solventar sus
diferencias y mantener una relación cuando menos profesional el resto de su vida.
30. HURÉ, Jean. «Salles Pleyel. Concert Granados-Crickboom». Le Monde Musical. París, 15-
IV-1905. Parte del artículo está traducido en Enrique Granados. Algunas opiniones de la prensa...,
pp. 4-5.
31. T. Le Guide Musical. París, 9-IV-1905.
32. VILLALBA, Luis. Enrique Granados. Semblanza y biografía. Madrid, Imprenta Helénica, 1916.
La carta está publicada en la Revista Musical Catalana de 1905: «Una carta d’en Risler a n’en
Granados» (p. 109). Cit. en CLARK, W. A. Enrique Granados..., p. 221.
33. HURÉ, Jean. «Salles Pleyel. Concert Granados-Crickboom». Le Monde Musical. París, 15-
IV-1905.
212 MIRIAM PERANDONES

Buscaremos en vano las cualidades que le faltan; las tiene todas: la fuerza y
la delicadeza en la sonoridad, la rectitud de la medida, la firmeza y la anchura
de estilo y el dominio de sí mismo que da seguridad a su interpretación y al
auditorio [...]. [Granados] supo desempeñar el nocturno con el encanto que es
posible obtener cuando no se recibió la transmisión directa del pensamiento de
Chopin mismo34.

Granados se presenta como intérprete ante el público francés, ya que,

a pesar de que estrena las transcripciones de las sonatas de Scarlatti en
las cuales incorpora «floridos adornos típicos del romanticismo de fina-
les del siglo XIX»35, las escasas críticas que recibe sólo se refieren a la parte
interpretativa. Sólo las dos publicaciones mencionadas se hacen eco del
concierto, por lo que, pese a las buenas crítica y al éxito que menciona
Viñes y que certifica el crítico de Le Guide, apenas tiene repercusión36.

El año 1909, comienzo de su carrera internacional

El año en que se conoció y se despertó el interés por Granados fue

1909, a partir de los dos conciertos que dio con el violinista Jacques
Thibaud a principios de junio en la Salle des Agriculteurs37. Previamen-
te Granados había sido invitado por Fauré a formar parte del jurado en
el prestigioso Premio Diémer, que tuvo lugar los primeros días de mayo,
donde se codeó con grandes pianistas contemporáneos38. En 1912 Gra-
34. T. Le Guide Musical. París, 9-IV-1905.
35. HESS, C. Enrique Granados..., p. 24.
36. En Le Courrier Musical, por ejemplo, el 15 de marzo se anuncia el concierto Crickbo-
om-Granados, pero no se hace mención a ellos en los números siguientes. Sí se cita, en cam-
bio, a Viñes, quien realiza su serie de cuatro conciertos de música para teclado desde la músi-
ca antigua hasta los días de sus contemporáneos, empezando el 27 de marzo hasta el 17 de
abril. No aparece el programa de Crickboom-Granados y tampoco hay una crítica del concierto.
37. En el concierto del 2 de junio se interpretó la Sonata nº 3 en Mi mayor de Bach, Sona-
ta en Do menor de Beethoven y Sonata en Re menor de Schumann; en el del 9 la Sonata en Si
b mayor de Mozart, Sonata para violín y piano de César Frank y la Sonata Kreutzer de Bee-
thoven.
38. El jurado del premio Diémer estaba formado, además de Granados, por Fauré, Raoul
Pugno, C. Chevillard, Rosenthal, Moszkowski, Leroux, Lavignac, Vidal, A. de Greef, H. Bauer,
A. Pierret y Batalla. El 30 de abril de 1909 Le Monde Musical afirma: «Por tercera vez se va a
disfrutar en París el 3 y 4 de mayo a las 9 de la mañana, en la sala del Conservatorio, del con-
curso Diémer reservado, como se sabe, a los titulares de los primeros premios de piano del
Conservatorio durante los diez últimos años». La segunda vez que fue invitado a participar,
en 1912, el jurado fue el siguiente: Gabriel Fauré, Lavignac, Chevillard, Risler, Moszkowski,
Emil Sauer, Pierret, De Greef, Granados, Staven-Hagen, Lortat, y de nuevo Bourgeat como
secretario.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 213

nados sería invitado de nuevo como jurado del mismo concurso, que en
este caso tuvo lugar el 1 y 2 de mayo. Además, en una fecha no deter-
minada de 1910 fue nombrado jurado del claustro de Doctorado de Pia-
no del Conservatorio de París39 junto a Dubois, Fauré, Paderewski, Planté,
Pugno y Saint-Saëns. Por esta causa se le tributa a Granados un home-
naje oficial que tuvo repercusión en toda España, desde el periódico gi-
jonés El Noroeste a la Ilustración Artística.
Esta considerable actividad parisina se contradice con los hechos
anteriores a 1909 y hace que nos preguntemos por qué un pianista des-
conocido internacionalmente es invitado a formar parte de un prestigioso
premio por uno de los compositores y personajes musicales más influ-
yentes de París, Gabriel Fauré. La respuesta que parece más evidente es
que el compositor francés conociera personalmente a Granados en el viaje
que realizó a Barcelona en marzo del mismo año para participar en los
conciertos III y IV de Cuaresma y una Sesión íntima (11, 12 y 14 de marzo
de 1909). Previamente tenían contacto gracias a Isaac Albéniz, amigo
íntimo de ambos, ya que Granados iba a estrenar la Balada de Fauré en
Barcelona40. Otra posibilidad más es que Granados había tomado con-
tacto con Saint-Saëns a partir de su concierto conjunto en el «Festival
Saint-Saëns» en abril de 1908 en Barcelona, y a continuación con Jacques
Thibaud también en Barcelona el 8 de noviembre del mismo año. La
concurrencia de los tres grandes músicos en Barcelona y la coincidencia
con Granados pudieron motivar su invitación al año siguiente, primero
como jurado y después como intérprete. Según Mangeot en Le Monde
Musical del 15 de junio de 1909, «M. Granados no hubiera osado quizá
jamás presentarse a un concierto si los mejores consejeros, y especialmente
Saint-Saëns, no le hubieran empujado. Hoy su reputación se afirma como
una de las más asentadas». Aunque Saint-Saëns había ido frecuentemente

39. Según Fernando Periquet en un artículo de 1910 sobre el Premio Diémer, «Poco des-
pués ingresó en el claustro del «Doctorado de piano», fundado por la «Sociedad de músicos
de Francia»» (PERIQUET, Fernando. «Granados, y el premio Diémer». El Imparcial. Madrid, 16-
XII-1910). Según Juan Riera (RIERA, Juan. Enrique Granados (Estudio). Lleida, Instituto de Estu-
dios Ilerdenses, 1967) fue nombrado Jurado permanente del Conservatorio de París. La única
referencia que encontramos sobre este tema en el epistolario del compositor es la tarjeta que
envía Granados a Joan Borrás de Palau, sin fecha, en la que Granados ha impreso: «Del comi-
té de exámenes de París para la enseñanza del piano y Doctorado musical en Francia. Del Jurado
del Conservatorio de París para el Gran Premio Diémer».
40. «En una palabra: yo tenía que tocar la Balada de Fauré; para mí una de las más altas
honras de mi vida. Pues bien: por diferencias habidas con dicha sociedad, diferencias algo serias,
mi dignidad no me ha permitido presentarme en público dependiendo de esos señores». Car-
ta de Enrique Granados a Isaac Albéniz. Barcelona, 15-I-1909.
214 MIRIAM PERANDONES

a España, no es hasta 1908 cuando conoce realmente al Granados intér-

prete y compositor. En 1909 Granados dedica a Saint-Saëns su concierto
para piano que aparentemente iba a estrenar con la Asociación Musical
de Barcelona pero que, por problemas con ésta, no se lleva a cabo41.
Este apoyo francés se debió en gran medida a que la sociedad musi-
cal espera que Granados retome el lugar que dejó en París Albéniz tras
su muerte, como compositor español. Mangeot en junio de 1909 da la
clave: «¿Hablaremos del compositor? Es uno de los más interesantes de
la joven España y hoy toma el lugar que se ha quedado vacío tras la
muerte desastrosa de Albéniz»42. En portada Granados aparece al lado
de Albéniz, quien acaba de morir. Debajo de Granados se lee «Pianista-
compositor español que acaba de dar dos conciertos con Jacques Thi-
baud», y por primera vez aparece un repaso de la obra de Granados que
va más allá de las Danzas españolas, al mencionar gran parte de su pro-
ducción:

12 Danzas españolas, de un sabor exquisito; un Álbum de seis piezas: Preludio,

Ecos de la parranda, etc...; un Álbum de la juventud, digno de ser comparado con el
de Schumann; seis Estudios expresivos, fáciles; los Valses poéticos; un Allegro de
concierto, coronado por el Conservatorio de Madrid y ejecutado en los exámenes
de las clases de piano; las Escenas Románticas; Oriental y Jota, piezas de concier-
to. Los pianistas descubrirán en estas obras verdaderas joyas, que habrá que hacer
conocer en París [...] He aquí las grandes obras: Una Sonata para piano y violín;
un Concierto para piano y orquesta; cuatro obras dramáticas: María del Carmen (3
actos), Follet (2 actos); Petrarca (1 acto), Gaziel (1 acto); dos poemas sinfónicos: Dante
(en dos partes) y Romeo y Julieta43.

La crítica musical del concierto con Thibaud de la misma publicación

transcurre por los mismos derroteros. Después de alabar la interpreta-
ción de ambos, especialmente la de Granados, hace hincapié en su es-
cuela francesa de piano:

¡Cómo decir, en términos suficientes, la poderosa emoción creada por los dos
maravillosos protagonistas! [...] Thibaud está habituado a los laureles y sin em-
bargo, hay que decir que jamás su arte fue más grande, más puro ni más subli-
me. Granados es de la raza de los grandes músicos, de los maravillosos intér-

41. «Yo estaba escribiendo un concierto de piano y orquesta, el que debía yo mismo es-
trenar y como podrás suponer, me hacía una ilusión inmensa el presentarme en esa forma: pero
en vista de la [charranada] (digámoslo así) que me hicieron, me disculpé de tomar parte en
ningún concierto más de ellos [...]». Ibid.
42. MANGEOT, André. «Enrique Granados». Le Monde Musical. París, 15-VI-1909.
43. Ibid.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 215

pretes, de los que produce los Albéniz, los Casals, los Malats y los Viñes. Habien-
do, como los dos últimos, pasado por la escuela de De Bériot44.

En el mismo artículo se presenta a Granados como músico, y se insta

a que se presente en el futuro como compositor: «Las colosales ovacio-
nes [...] comprometerán a M. Granados a presentarse, la próxima vez,
como compositor».
Las críticas de los conciertos de la Salle des Agriculteurs, además de
en Le Monde Musical encontraron eco en Le Courrier musical del 15 de junio
de 1909, en Comœdia con referencias el 4, 7 y 11 de junio; y en Le Guide
Musical del 27 de junio45. Hubo unanimidad a la hora de elogiar la in-
terpretación de ambos, y excepto esta última revista, las demás menta-
ron la «sorpresa» que supone encontrar la figura de Granados en el pa-
norama parisino. De Stoecklin afirma: «Estoy encantado de constatar el
enorme éxito conseguido por Granados puesto que no es de ningún modo
banal ver que un pianista se presenta al público parisino con obras de
música de cámara»46. En Comœdia se señala:

M. Granados, en efecto, se ha creado rápidamente una notoriedad de buena

ley. Este pianista, que, por mi parte, no había tenido aún la ocasión de apre-
ciar, puede ser comparado con los más destacados. Su virtuosismo es grande
y la calidad de su sonido, muy bonito. M. Granados es –según se ha dicho–
generalmente conocido en España como compositor. Numerosas son las obras
que ya ha escrito para su instrumento [...] [y] ha producido también obras
dramáticas. [...] Se ve que la personalidad de Granados es extremadamente
interesante. Esperamos que se haga conocer en París como compositor un día
cercano47.

Según Bergadà, a Granados se le conocía como intérprete, pero tam-

poco parece del todo cierto a tenor de las críticas que acabamos de ver.
Asimismo, en una carta de junio de 1909, J. Saint-Jean afirma: «Hasta
ahora el Sr. Granados no era conocido en nuestra casa más que como
compositor: todos los músicos franceses en efecto, conocen y gustan sus
adorables piezas de piano, tan coloristas, tan originales, y tan pintores-
cas», evidentemente refiriéndose a las Danzas. Continúa:

44. L.R. «MM. Jacques Thibaud et Granados». Le Monde Musical. París, 15-VI-1909.
45. Curiosamente no aparece nada en el Bulletin Français de le SIM, la misma publicación
que en 1914 lo ensalzará como uno de los mejores compositores de todos los tiempos.
46. DE S TOECKLIN, Paul. «MM. Granados et Jacques Thibaud». Le Courrier Musical. París,
15-VI-1909.
47. L.V. «2º Séance Jacques Thibaud-Granados». Comœdia. París, 11-VI-1909.
216 MIRIAM PERANDONES

Pero no conocíamos más que por reputación su talento de pianista virtuoso.

Hace algún tiempo, el Sr. Granados fue escogido por Gabriel Fauré para formar
parte del jurado del premio Diémer, en compañía de los más ilustres maestros
de piano; y esto había atraído hacia él la atención del París musical. El anuncio
de sus conciertos con Jacques Thibaud terminó de provocar la curiosidad: Thi-
baud tiene la reputación de rodearse sólo de artistas dignos de él.

Por tanto, el hecho de que Granados fuese invitado por Fauré para
ser jurado y que tocase un concierto con Thibaud atrajo sobre él la aten-
ción de la sociedad musical.
En la carta de Saint-Jean se asegura que «todas las notabilidades
musicales de París brillaban en la primera fila de los espectadores. La
espera del público no fue decepcionada, el Sr. Granados no solamente
confirmó, sino que incluso sobrepasó su gran reputación [...]. Deseamos
verlo de nuevo pronto entre nosotros».
Como vemos hay una atmósfera inmejorable que aguarda ansiosa la
llegada de un nuevo compositor español que se pretende que sea Gra-
nados. Dejando un resabio estupendo como intérprete que destaca en una
de las cualidades francesas por excelencia, el sonido48, remarcado por su
ascendencia pianística francesa a través de sus estudios con De Bériot,
queda el camino preparado para su presentación como compositor.

Aceptación en la sociedad parisina como compositor:

el concierto de 1911

Según señala Alfonso Albéniz49, Granados se sintió transformado ante

la muerte del compositor gerundense y decidió reorientar su vida pro-
fesional a partir de los últimos consejos del finado. Durante el mismo
verano de 1909 Granados comienza a componer Goyescas, obra que pre-
sentará en la parisina Sala Pleyel el 1 de abril de 1911. Con las Goyescas
confirmará su valía a nivel compositivo, y cumplirá con las expectativas
puestas en él: Granados se afirma como el sustituto de Albéniz, el futu-
ro musical de España. Este concierto supone su consagración y entrada
definitiva en la sociedad parisina y en la historia musical.

48. Le Guide Musical destaca la calidad en sus «menores matices» y Stoeklin en Le Courrier
señala que Granados «es un admirable pianista que no golpea». Jean Huré, completamente
extasiado por la interpretación de Granados en Le Monde Musical, menciona que Granados tiene
un «color» de sonido que le es propio.
49. ALBÉNIZ, Alfonso. Revista Musical Hispano-Americana, 4 (30-IV-1916), p. 7.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 217

El compositor se presenta con un programa únicamente basado en su

obra, interpretando dos Danzas españolas, Valses Poéticos, Allegro de Con-
cierto, Azulejos, una transcripción de una sonata de Scarlatti y el primer
cuaderno de Goyescas. Según Le Guide du Concert, el programa estaba
pensado para presentar la obra de Granados al público francés desde sus
comienzos, de manera que se viera su evolución, que culmina con las
Goyescas.
Al concierto asistieron numerosos artistas, lo que se califica como algo
«extraño» («Raramente tantos artistas habían asistido a la Sala Pleyel,
raramente el auditorio fue más vibrante, más entusiasta, verdaderamente
transportado por el gran artista barcelonés»50). Parece que un gran nú-
mero de artistas quieren apoyar el futuro éxito de Granados, y en su
concierto las facciones musicales parisinas se unen y reciben con entu-
siasmo su música. Según Turina:

Gran éxito, entusiasmo general, sala llena, coro de virtuosos (Cortot, Lan-
dowska, Lévy, Viñes, etc.) [...] Una de las suertes de este compositor es que todo
el mundo musical lo toma tal como es, sin análisis y sin autopsias malintencio-
nadas en sus obras. No ha oído, como Malats, los silbidos de un envidioso del
poulailler, ni la crítica de partidos se ha ensañado con él como suele acontecer a
un scholista o a un conservatorial. Granados se sienta al piano y empieza su «Danza
española en mi menor». ¡Ved las caras del auditorio: ni un d’indysta está ceñudo,
ni un debussysta afila las uñas, todos reflejan una gran satisfacción [...]51.

La crítica del concierto en Le Monde Musical, firmada por A. M. [An-

dré Mangeot] comienza de la siguiente manera: «La personalidad de
Granados es grande desde dos puntos de vista: como pianista y como
compositor»52. Goyescas se toma como «la obra de música de cámara más
importante que España haya producido»53 y «no hay duda de que pue-
de ser el estilo moderno español»54. Comœdia considera que dentro de las
obras de los jóvenes compositores españoles las Goyescas «merecen una
mención especial por su originalidad y su inspiración»55.
El concierto fue apoyado por la crítica de gran parte de la prensa es-
pecializada, lo que contribuyó evidentemente a la consecución del éxi-

50. A.M. «M. E. Granados». Le Monde Musical. París, 15-IV-1911.

51. TURINA, Joaquín. Joaquín Turina corresponsal en París y otros artículos de prensa. Escritos
de un músico. Granada, Junta de Andalucía, 2002, p. 44.
52. A.M. «M. E. Granados». Le Monde Musical. París, 15-IV-1911.
53. J.M. «Las Goyescas d’Enrique Granados». Le Monde Musical. París, 30-VI-1912.
54. GUERILLOT, F. Revue musical mensuelle SIM, 15-IV-1911, p. 89.
55. Enrique Granados. Algunas opiniones de prensa..., pp. 7 y 8.
218 MIRIAM PERANDONES

to. En una primera revisión a las publicaciones que se hicieron eco del
concierto (Le Monde Musical, Le Guide Musical, Le Courrier Musical, Revue
Musicale SIM, Le Guide du Concert y Comœdia) llaman la atención tres as-
pectos importantes que detallamos a continuación.
El primero, la insistencia en encontrar en Granados al sucesor de Al-
béniz, hecho que Bergadà ya había hecho notar en su tesis doctoral. El
propio Turina lo menciona («en Goyescas se ve la enorme influencia de
Albéniz»56). Es un punto de vista que también fomenta Granados de forma
consciente, ya que incluye la obra Azulejos –comenzada por Albéniz y
completada por Granados tras su fallecimiento a petición propia del
malogrado compositor– en el repertorio del concierto («[Granados] pasa
con toda la razón por ser el continuador del añorado Albéniz»57. «Goyescas
[es] una obra singularmente atractiva que podemos poner en paralelo con
la Iberia de Albéniz»58. «Granados en las Goyescas hace recordar a Albéniz,
pero aunque sea tan profundamente nacional como éste, Granados es
menos brillante, [...] menos «popular» podría decirse. [...] Pero [Granados]
es más elegante, más aristocrático [...] más fino y más sensible»59).
Las Goyescas son el centro de las críticas. Según Clark, una de las ra-
zones por las que la obra tuvo tan buena acogida fue la fascinación fran-
cesa por Goya que había empezado a comienzos del siglo XIX, y en nuestro
estudio confirmamos que uno de los puntos significativos de la caluro-
sa acogida es que las Goyescas satisfacen al público parisino porque ven
en la obra el pintoresquismo que buscaban en un compositor español.
El nacionalismo español es el segundo aspecto a destacar en la recepción
de la obra de Granados. La ligazón directa con Albéniz es una prueba,
aunque la crítica francesa encuentra una música española con caracte-
rísticas diferentes a las del compositor gerundense. Según el crítico de
Le Guide Musical, en las Goyescas dominan el ritmo y los acentos locales
y están marcadas por una fantasía delicada y un sentimentalismo
expresivo. El corresponsal de Le Monde Musical considera que las Goyes-
cas son el resultado de la evolución técnica en el tiempo del compositor,
pero la esencia pintoresca de las primeras obras, es decir, las Danzas, se
mantiene. No obstante, según señala el mismo autor, las mencionadas
danzas están desprovistas de todo ornamento, mientras que las Goyes-
cas tienen una escritura «polifónica, sólida, recia, [...] coloreado de pre-

56. TURINA, J. Joaquín Turina. Corresponsal..., p. 44.

57. Ch.C. Le Guide Musical. París, 9-IV-1911, p. 287.
58. J.M. «Las Goyescas d’Enrique Granados». Le Monde Musical. París, 30-VI-1912.
59. Ibid.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 219

ciosas armonías, muy modulante y muy tonal al mismo tiempo [...] y

admirablemente pianístico»60. Incluso Federico Lliurat en «Barcelona» (la
Revue Musicale SIM, julio de 1911) repite el mismo comentario al men-
cionar el estreno de Goyescas y Cant de les estrelles. Según Lliurat, la re-
ceta para la composición de las Goyescas es el color nacional unido al
lirismo y el todo coloreado, poético, pianístico.
El tercer punto común a la crítica es la forma «narrativa» de las Go-
yescas. Todas las publicaciones, a excepción de la Revue Musicale SIM,
hacen la misma descripción, lo que confirma que estas indicaciones fueron
facilitadas por el propio compositor. Las Goyescas quieren ser una suer-
te de pintura de la vida española en la época de Carlos IV y

[...] evocan el amor entre dos majos: el majo siguiendo a la maja a través de las
calles estrechas de Madrid murmura: Los Requiebros, los mil cumplidos discre-
tos, delicados, compases que llenan de contento a la que se dirigen. A continua-
ción sigue el dúo de amor Coloquio en la reja, amor doloroso, grande de presenti-
mientos nefastos. Y, en efecto, siguen las quejas de la Maja abandonada a quien
responde el Ruiseñor cuando cae la noche calma y misteriosa. El fandango termi-
na esta primera parte61.

Le Guide du Concert además anticipa el argumento de la segunda par-

te de Goyescas, que no se incluye en el programa: «En la segunda el Majo
muere después de una fiesta y aprendemos en un epílogo que su espíri-
tu vuelve para darle una serenata a la Maja abandonada». Recordemos
que el segundo cuaderno de Goyescas se compone de dos obras, El amor
y la muerte, y la Serenata del espectro.
Como consecuencia del interés que suscita el compositor, ese mismo
año dos publicaciones musicales, Le Guide Musical y Le Monde Musical
hacen referencia a la obra lírico-teatral Liliana, estrenada en Barcelona en
septiembre de 1911. Le Monde Musical incluso le dedica un artículo de-
tallado escrito a partir de las propias indicaciones de Granados y con los
mismos ejemplos musicales62.

60. Ibid.
61. «Oeuvre de M. Granados». Le Guide du Concert, 1-IV-1911.
62. En la carta de André Mangeot a Granados del 3 de octubre de 1911, Mangeot pide
información al compositor sobre Liliana. En la Pierpont Morgan Library de Nueva York se
conserva la respuesta. Es una contestación de Granados a Mangeot con fecha del 22 de octu-
bre de 1911 en la que Granados hace una descripción detallada de la misma que se transcribe
casi literalmente en un artículo de Le Monde Musical («»Siliana [sic] de Granados à Barcelo-
na», 15-XI-1911). En él, Paul Martineau transcribe casi todos los ejemplos musicales que apor-
ta Granados, excepto los breves fragmentos sobre los que se canta: «per qu’ils aucells refilan»,
fragmento sobre «per qui les flors esclatan» y sobre «mes enllá de la selva, mes enllá».
220 MIRIAM PERANDONES

Granados dejó París precipitadamente tras su concierto de 191163. La

carta de Wanda Landowska lo confirma, al tiempo que muestra el inusi-
tado interés que levantó Granados:

¡Usted se nos fue tan precipitadamente! Estábamos muy inquietos por esta
causa. Todos nuestros amigos se han entusiasmado por su arte y por usted. He
aquí dos cartas que acabo de recibir: El Sr. y la Sra. Pollet, que a menudo dan
grandes sesiones musicales en su casa, le invitan a cenar para el Domingo. El
Conde Béranger de Miramon querría que tocase en casa de sus suegros, que pagan
muy bien a los artistas. ¿Tiene la intención de volver a París? Y sobre todo tén-
ganos al corriente de su salud, que es muy querida para nosotros64.

Incorporación inmediata de las Goyescas al repertorio pianístico inter-

nacional

Según explica en una carta escrita el 7 de abril de 1911 en catalán un

personaje sin identificar65, las críticas son fieles a la repercusión que tuvo
su concierto: «Todo el mundo habla no más que de ti. Todos esperan el
verano para empezar a trabajar tus obras. Veremos quién es el primero
que las hace oír». Según parece, Cortot es el más afectado por sus obras.
El propio Thibaud se lo repite en otra carta del 5 de mayo de 1911 («¡Usted
tuvo en París un espléndido éxito desde todos los puntos de vista! Toda
la gente que conozco que estaba allí ha estado entusiasmada, ¡Cortot está
loco por usted!»).
Alfred Cortot, dedicatario de la Serenata del espectro, fue uno de los
primeros pianistas que interpretaron las Goyescas en París después del
propio Granados. Según Bergadà, sólo Cortot y Montoriol Tarrés presen-
taron en París las Goyescas, pero el epistolario certifica que muchos de
los pianistas contemporáneos más importantes del momento incluyeron

63. Según la carta del entonces joven pianista José Iturbi a López-Chavarri del 5 de abril
de 1911, lo hizo porque se encontraba enfermo. Epístola transcrita con el número [262] en DÍAZ
GÓMEZ, Rafael y GALBIS LÓPEZ, Vicente. Eduardo López-Chavarri Marco. Correspondencia. Valen-
cia, Edición Generalitat Valenciana, 1996.
64. Carta de Wanda Landowska a Granados. París, [ca. 7-IV-1911]. Reproducimos a conti-
nuación el texto en su idioma original: «Vous nous avez quitté si brusquement! Nous en étions très
inquiets. Tous nos amis ont été enthousiasmés de votre art et de vous. Voici deux lettres que je viens de
recevoir: M. et Mme. Pollet qui donnent souvent de grandes séances musicales chez eux, vous invitent
á dîner pour Dimanche. Le Comte Béranger de Miramon voudrait que vous jouiez chez ses beaux pa-
rents, qui payent très bien les artistes. Avez-vous l’intention de revenir à Paris? Et surtout tenez nous
au courant de votre santé qui nous est très chère».
65. Creemos que pueda tratarse de Lluís Millet.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 221

inmediatamente después de este concierto Goyescas en su repertorio a lo

largo del mundo, no sólo en Francia, sino en el resto Europa, EEUU y
Rusia. Empezaron a hacerlo en 1912, año en que las Goyescas se publi-
can. Además, Granados a partir de 1911 comienza a mantener un con-
tacto regular con intérpretes de prestigio internacional que empiezan a
estudiar e interpretar esta obra.
Harold Bauer es otro de los pianistas que estudia las Goyescas y que
las toca en concierto, pero las critica e incluso las «recorta». Las cartas
que se conservan en este epistolario dan testimonio de que Bauer pide
permiso a Granados para hacerlo y que éste se lo concede66. Granados
le dedica El amor y la muerte de Goyescas. Le había dedicado también su
Rapsodia aragonesa. En la carta de Bauer a Granados del 12 de abril de
1913, Bauer muestra su agradecimiento y le anuncia que toca las Goyes-
cas en sus conciertos: «Sé con gran placer que usted me dedicó el epílo-
go de sus bellas Goyescas. ¡Supongo que es El Amor y la Muerte del que
hablamos hace tiempo y lo espero con impaciencia! Toqué mucho el
Fandango y el Ruiseñor el último invierno y todavía [cuento con] tocar-
los en América la temporada próxima».
Édouard Risler, a quien dedica Coloquio en la reja, escribe a Granados
el 22 de abril de 1912 certificando que incluye las Goyescas en su reper-
torio de concierto: «Lee Vd. el programma ci-joint. Le tocare el año próxi-
mo en París, Jebe, Laussane, Lyon, Bordeaux y Madrid (Soc. Filarm.). Vd.
vee que el progr. comprende las Goyescas (complètes) de Vd, que esta una
obra que me gusta mucho [sic]». La relación de Granados con este pianista
es anterior a 1912, tal como atestiguan otras cartas del epistolario. Ade-
más, en 1906 participaron juntos en dos conciertos a dos pianos en Bar-
celona, en 1907 uno de los sponsors del concierto de Risler sobre las
sonatas de Beethoven fue la Academia Granados, y este gran pianista
formó parte del jurado del concurso de piano que organizó la Academia
en 1911.
Arthur Rubinstein también interpretó las Goyescas poco después de
publicarse. En dos cartas de Pablo Casals a Granados de los años 1913 y
1914 se menciona que este gran pianista polaco incorpora las Goyescas

66. Carta de Harold Bauer a Granados escrita desde Suiza el 1 de julio de 1912: «[D]esde
hace quince días trabajo sus Goyescas, que encuentro exquisitas, y querría poder añadirlas a mi
repertorio para tocarlas mucho y por todas partes. Pero [...] yo los encuentro demasiado lar-
gos (hablo de tres primeros solamente, el cuarto es una joya perfecta) y le pregunto si no hay
medio de hacer cortes. Desde luego, jamás me permitiré aportar el menor cambio sin su auto-
rización y su entera aprobación».
222 MIRIAM PERANDONES

en sus conciertos67. El pianista francés Francis Planté no interpreta las

Goyescas en concierto porque entre 1900 y 1915 está retirado de la vida
pública, pero las aplaude:

Querido y eminente amigo.

Acabo de recibir la visita de nuestro amigo M. Moullé, y para hacerle honor
y celebrar musicalmente su presencia, he creído que no podía hacer nada mejor
que hacerle oír Los requiebros y el Fandago del candil de su maravillosa colección
Goyescas. [...] Su color, su acento, vibrante, y su aspecto elegante, seductor, lán-
guido si se da el caso [...] Mont de Marsan, 27 de marzo de 1913.

Este mismo Édouard Moullé que se cita en la carta de Planté había

mostrado su inclinación a favor de las Goyescas «contra» la Iberia de Al-
béniz. En la carta escrita al compositor desde París el 18 de julio de 1912
se muestra a favor del compositor leridano («Oímos las grabaciones de
Albéniz, le aviso que su música no me fascinó mucho, y tampoco a los
oyentes que estaban presentes en la audición que no fue sensacional. Y
sin embargo se tocó la Iberia. Hay mucha afectación en esta obra. Fue una
desilusión para todos. Preferimos sus Goyescas, y mucho»).

El concierto en la SMI de 1914

Entre los pianistas que incorporan Goyescas en su repertorio, Enrique

Montoriol Tarrés jugará un papel importante sobre la recepción de Gra-
nados en París. El 3 de mayo de 1913 este pianista interpreta La maja y
el ruiseñor y Requiebros en la sala de la Sociedad de Conciertos (Antiguo
Conservatorio) en París, recital del que se hacen eco Le Courrier Musical,
Le Guide du Concert y Le Guide Musical.
El 1 de noviembre de 1913 Montoriol escribe un artículo para la Re-
vue Musicale SIM («À Barcelona: Une visite à Granados»), que presenta
al compositor en su casa, destacando la austeridad de su vida y ponién-
dola en contraste con la importancia de su obra. En 1914, poco antes del
concierto de Granados en París, Montoriol Tarrés toca las Goyescas en la

67. Arthur Rubinstein (Lodz 1887- Ginebra 1982). Pianista polaco, más tarde nacionaliza-
do americano. Debutó en Londres con Casals en 1912 en el Queen’s Hall. Fue un entusiasta
de la música de Granados, Falla, Albéniz y Villa-Lobos. Como podemos ver, toca Goyescas en
Rusia en 1913 y en París en 1914. En 1916, el día antes de que se conociera la noticia de la muerte
de Granados en Barcelona, este pianista había interpretado en el Palau de la Música La maja y
el ruiseñor según Antonio Fernández-Cid (véase Granados. Madrid, Samarán ediciones, 1956,
p. 53).
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 223

Salle Érard, en la última quincena de marzo. En el concierto, según la

Revue Musicale, Montoriol explica el argumento subyacente a la obra,
seguramente preparando al auditorio para el concierto de Granados.
Pocos días más tarde, Granados concede una entrevista antes del con-
cierto, a la que acude con Montoriol Tarrés como introductor. La presen-
tación del concierto la relatará extensamente Jacques Pillois en la Revue
Musicale SIM («Un entretien avec Granados») el 15 de abril de 1914.
Montoriol Tarrés es uno de los artífices de la presentación de la ópe-
ra sobre Goyescas al director de la Ópera M. Rouché en su primera visita
en 1914. En la carta a su mujer del 5 de abril Granados afirma: «Maña-
na me reúno en casa Montoriol con el director de la ópera para hacerle
oír lo que tengo hecho de los Majos. Hay una atmósfera magnífica a fa-
vor». Según el propio Montoriol68, Granados le envió sus Goyescas a Pa-
rís en 1913. Asombrado por la calidad de la obra, se puso en contacto
con Émile Vuillermoz, redactor jefe de la Revue Musicale SIM, para que
hiciese reconocer la valía de la obra en París. Hasta esa fecha Montoriol
Tarrés se confiesa un desconocedor de la música de Granados.
Si fue de esta manera en que se dio impulso al concierto, esto no signi-
fica que Vuillermoz no conociera ya la obra de Granados. A partir de una
petición directa de la revista de la SIM (Société Internationale de Musi-
cologie) a Granados, Vuillermoz se hizo con la partitura en 1911, y, por
extensión, la Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI), sociedad de la que
Vuillermoz también formaba parte, y bajo cuyos auspicios Granados toca
por última vez en París. En el epistolario familiar se conserva la carta
de la Revue Musicale SIM con fecha del 30 de octubre de 1911, en la que
se le solicita a Granados una copia de Goyescas para hacer referencia a
la obra en su revista.
Desgraciadamente apenas sabemos nada del pianista catalán Enrique
Montoriol Tarrés. En Le Monde Musical del 30 de marzo de 1898 aparece
una reseña de su primer concierto en París en marzo de 1898. Por el
artículo de Nin «Evocaciones» sabemos que era esposo de la pintora fran-
cesa Isabel Beaubois de Montoriol y por la Revista Musical Catalana de
abril de 1915 conocemos su traslado a Barcelona a consecuencia de la
Gran Guerra69. Ambos estuvieron en casa de Nin en París en una reunión
musical con Falla y Granados en abril de 1914, donde Granados inter-
pretó parte de su ópera, y Falla su recién estrenada La Vie Brève. Berga-
68. MONTORIOL-TARRÉS, Enrique. «Enric Granados». Revista Musical Catalana, XIII, 150 (junio
de 1916), p. 195.
69. Revista Musical Catalana, XII, 136 (abril de 1915), p. 116.
224 MIRIAM PERANDONES

dà escribe una pequeña voz sobre este pianista en el Diccionario de la

música española e hipanoamericana en que no explica cuáles eran sus rela-
ciones o inclinaciones artísticas en París, pero por esta anécdota pode-
mos intuir que Montoriol era más cercano a la facción innovadora que
se organizó a partir de 1910 de la que la SIM y la SMI formaban parte.
Vuillermoz, redactor jefe de la Revue Musicale SIM, toma las riendas
del concierto de Granados, también porque en ese momento a la SMI le
era favorable. Las críticas que recibe en que, de alguna forma, se com-
para a Granados con Strawinsky –que estaba en ese momento en París
presentando Le Sacre du Printemps–, las realiza el propio Vuillemoz en las
publicaciones Comœdia y Musica, ni siquiera en su propia revista. Por esta
razón no parece extraño que una persona –posiblemente M.
d'Écorcheville– de la Revue Musicale SIM le pida a Granados que
reconozca públicamente el apoyo del redactor de dicha revista francesa
en la carta escrita el 1 de julio de 1914. En ella incluso se sugiere que
Granados re-cibe la Legión de Honor francesa en parte gracias a
70
Vuillermoz .
En el concierto del 4 de abril de 1914 Granados toca bajo los auspi-
cios de la Société Musicale Indépendante (SMI), sociedad escindida de
la Société Nationale (SN). La SMI acoge a Granados y le invita a partici-
par en un concierto de presentación de la segunda parte de Goyescas. Le
Monde Musical con André Mangeot al frente, que hasta entonces parece
que fue el máximo impulsor de Granados en París, se queda en un se-
gundo plano, aunque la crítica al concierto de 1914 es muy favorable,
siguiendo la misma línea que las críticas y artículos de años anteriores.
El ambiente de la música seria parisina se había dividido desde 1909
en dos facciones, los conservadores y los innovadores. La causa fue la
escisión de la Société Nationale en 1909 y la inmediata fundación de la
Société Musicale Indépendante. La facción conservadora representada en
la SN estaba capitaneada por Vincent d’Indy, fundador de la Schola
Cantorum en 1896, que había convertido la Société Nationale en una
«sucursal» de su escuela. Esto era criticado por las nuevas generaciones
de compositores, especialmente por Ravel, quien censuraba el bloqueo
sistemático a la audición de obras que se alejaban de las técnicas com-

70. «Es usted condecorado, es recibido en la Ópera, todo esto, gracias a la agitación que
hicimos alrededor de usted y al trabajo que se tomó nuestro buen Vuillermoz. Sé que le sería
muy agradable si pudiera ser recompensado por sus penas, es decir, si usted pudiera escri-
birle una pequeña palabra que él se apresurara a publicar en nuestro S.I.M., [...] Vuillermoz
es extremadamente discreto y sé que jamás pediría la menor cosa, es por eso que su Director
se pone en su sitio». París, 1 de julio de 1914.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 225

positivas de la Schola. Como resultado de las disensiones internas, Ra-

vel dimite en 1909 y se funda la SMI. La SN y la SMI cohabitarán desde
1910 hasta 1935, al desaparecer la SMI71.
D’Indy era un ardiente defensor de la música francesa pero ligado a
la tradición musical germana del siglo XIX y al formalismo. Según Du-
chesneau «es innegable que la importancia primordial se refiere a las
formas tradicionales y a las técnicas de composición heredadas del si-
glo XIX»72. El comité fundador de la SMI había sido conformado por L.
Aubert, André Chalet, Roger-Ducasse, J. Huré, Koechlin, Ravel, Schmitt
y Vuillermoz, quien jugó, como acabamos de ver, un papel primordial
en la recepción del último concierto de Granados en París. El secretario
fue Mathot y el presidente Fauré, quien no volvió a las reuniones pero
sí dio apoyo público a la institución en su movimiento de rebelión que
parecía justificado. Debussy se mantiene al margen, pero gracias a la
intervención de Fauré también dará obras para estrenar en la institución.
Entre 1910 y 1914 se dieron principalmente estas diferencias entre am-
bas sociedades y, aunque había algunos compositores que se tocaban en
las dos sociedades, eran los menos.
El concierto de Granados encajaría en una programación donde pre-
dominaba la música de cámara por la insuficiencia de medios financie-
ros, donde destaca la música para instrumento solista (piano), cuartetos,
quintetos, así como mèlodies para voz y piano. La estética de la SMI se
basa en una «nueva tradición musical» fundada por Chabrier, Fauré y
Debussy, en que las bases son nuevas inspiraciones temáticas y forma-
les y de una armonía renovada. Utilizan sobre todo dos fuentes de re-
novación: exotismo y folclore. El exotismo viene de España, de oriente,
de la música francesa antigua, del folclore y del jazz73.
Estas bases ideológicas de la SMI favorecieron que se realizara el con-
cierto de Granados. En primer lugar, en la SMI se permitía acoger com-
posiciones de compositores extranjeros –no era tan sencillo en la Société
Nationale, dado que no se solían programar más que extraoficialmen-
te– y en segundo lugar, la SMI impulsaba, por así decirlo, la obra extran-
jera que no se sometiera a parámetros clásicos. Así, la nueva sociedad

71. La SN tendrá una programación regular, lo que hace que tenga un impacto sobre el
medio musical. Entre 1914 y 1917 las actividades de ambas sociedades se paran, pero las de-
más instituciones musicales parisinas también, a consecuencia de la guerra.
72. DUCHESNEAU, Michel. L’avant-garde musicale et ses sociétés à Paris de 1871 à 1939. Spri-
mont (France), Pierre Mardaga, 1997, p. 36.
73. El folclore francés regional también lo usaba la SN, pero no el resto.
226 MIRIAM PERANDONES

permitió hacer conocer en Francia obras del extranjero que se juzgasen

importantes por la mutación del lenguaje, de género o de forma que
presentasen. Granados cumplía estas condiciones en la medida en que
se trata de un compositor español que escribe una obra nacionalista es-
pañola, y que utiliza una estructura musical no convencional en una obra
camerística.
Según Duchesneau, la obra de compositores extranjeros y especialmen-
te Granados, «abre una vía a una nueva música francesa que debe una
buena parte de la eclosión de su sensibilidad musical a las influencias
exteriores»74. Considera que Granados, con su abandono de formas es-
tructurales preestablecidas –el autor está pensando en Goyescas, inevita-
blemente– influyó también en los compositores franceses, nombrándolo
junto a Schoenberg, Kodály o Casella en la influencia que tuvo en Fran-
cia además de contribuir al ambiente «españolista» de las obras france-
sas. Seguramente estas afirmaciones son exageradas y sería necesario
contrastar convenientemente esta opinión, aunque evidentemente sí con-
tribuyó a la expansión del españolismo en París, especialmente en el
repertorio pianístico, y por supuesto Granados fue «adoptado» por la SMI
para mostrar las posibilidades de expansión del lenguaje musical.
Por estas cuestiones podemos deducir que el público que recibió la
segunda parte de Goyescas era distinto del que acogió a Granados tres
años antes. Aunque hubo representantes de la música francesa del cam-
bio de siglo, por lo que probablemente se recibió a Granados una vez más
sin escisiones, en el concierto predominó «un gran número de jóvenes
notabilidades musicales»75. Según el propio Granados en una carta a su
esposa Amparo Gal,

El Embajador de España estuvo durante todo mi concierto, aplaudiéndolo

entusiasmado. La Sala llena. Todo París de grandes hombres, allí. Strawinski [sic]
[¿], Smith, Huré, Casella, Lazare-Levy, Ecorcheville, Vuillermoz, y tantos y tan-
tos que no sé ahora.
Ayer al acabar el concierto me acompañaron al café más de 60 artistas que
estuvieron conmigo hasta las dos. París, 5 de abril de 1914.

La recepción del concierto del «Festival Granados» no pudo ser me-

jor. Tuvo lugar en la Sala Pleyel, y en él Granados presentó el segundo
libro de Goyescas, dos Danzas españolas, la Serenata para dos violines y
piano (con Costa y Zighera) y las Tonadillas con Mm. Polack como intér-
74. DUCHESNEAU, M. L’avant-garde musicale..., p. 155.
75. A.G. «Festival Granados». Le Monde Musical. París, 15-IV-1914.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 227

prete. Le Monde Musical, la única crítica consultada no dependiente de

la SIM o SMI, presenta a Granados como un «reputado» compositor. Es
decir, según esta publicación Granados se reafirma en su cualidad de
compositor español. Le Monde insiste en su comparación con la Iberia de
Albéniz, aunque, matiza, sin parecido entre ambas. En la crítica sobre las
Tonadillas, donde «rejuvenece la antigua canción española», se afirma que
Mme. Polack se vio obligada a repetir las Currutacas modestas, aunque
según Granados en la misma carta «Las Tonadillas a pesar de ser canta-
das con desgracia gustaron mucho; sobre todo las Dolorosas y las Curru-
tacas que se repitieron, luego tuve que tocar dos obras más fuera de pro-
grama teniendo que salir a saludar diez o doce veces. Más éxito que
nunca».
En el suplemento de la Revue Musicale SIM, Pillois considera las to-
nadillas originales como «una fuente fresca e inagotable, sobre la que se
concibe que él [Granados] tenga orgullo». En la charla de presentación
de su concierto Granados interpreta algunas, canturreando, pero dando
la expresión que merece cada una: lánguida o vehemente, apasionada o
nostálgica. El piano suena como una «guitarra lejana o canta como ro-
zado por un invisible arco» y Pillois compara estas piezas con la senci-
llez de los lieder de Schubert. Estas canciones son «de una línea meló-
dica [...] ideal» con «apoyos armónicos voluntariamente exentos de todo
exceso, es realmente sorprendente». Le recuerda a «Schubert y tan alto
como éste», aunque lo compara con la Vida de una mujer y El amor de un
poeta de Schumann.
Otra cuestión interesante en la descripción de esta entrevista es lo que
Pillois define como «punto sensible», el momento en que se trata del
ritmo, ya que, según Granados, más que la melodía la diferenciación
regional se basa en las diferencias rítmicas. Pone ejemplos al piano, de
manera que utiliza una danza bretona que en valores aumentados se
convierte en un villancico de Navidad catalán.
Granados vuelve a París en junio de 1914 para recibir la condecora-
ción de la Legión de Honor y tener la última entrevista con M. Rouché
el 15 de junio, donde se concretará el estreno de Goyescas en la Ópera de
París.
El 16 de junio Granados escribe a su familia, explicando que es gra-
cias al pianista norteamericano Ernest Schelling por quien ha consegui-
do finalmente que se admitan las Goyescas en la Ópera de París, y ade-
más otro posible estreno en Boston, aunque no se vuelve a saber nada
acerca de esta última posibilidad.
228 MIRIAM PERANDONES

El pensamiento noventaiochista en las Goyescas

En la entrevista relatada por Pillois, Granados insiste en una concep-

ción musical de una España diferenciada, que no hostil, haciendo una
metáfora con los vientos que recorren la península. Parece que, según
Granados, las corrientes pasan por toda España, tanto las septentriona-
les como las meridionales o africanas. Montoriol completa la disquisi-
ción del compositor explicando tres corrientes musicales en España: la
norteña (Asturias, Galicia, Cataluña), la hispano-árabe (Murcia, Valen-
cia, Andalucía) y la más pura que no ha sido «mancillada» por ninguna
mezcla, la realmente ibera, la castellana, que es la que toma Granados
para expresarse. Esta idea está claramente vinculada a la generación del
98. En el mismo artículo Pillois señalará que Castilla es lo que a Francia
la Île de France: una lengua pura, sin mezclas.
Esta visión sobre España y su música se repite en todas las revistas
musicales francesas. Esto nos hace plantearnos si es posible que Grana-
dos creyera que Castilla es el único lugar de España donde se puede
encontrar «pureza» en los cantos. La cuestión se complica si pensamos
que las Tonadillas no están basadas en cantos populares en sí, sino en la
tonadilla española, lo que su maestro Felipe Pedrell llama folklorismo
accidental. En cualquier caso, no hay contradicción entre la aplicación de
las teorías pedrellianas con la supuesta pureza castellana descrita. Vui-
llermoz en la revista Musica en mayo de 1914 afirma:

Enrique Granados representa en su país el ser de la raza pura, el creador que

inspira el alma de un pueblo. [...] La música española no es siempre una heren-
cia sin mezcla. Sin hablar de los aluviones europeos de todo tipo que recubrie-
ron la tierra vasca y catalana [...] es cierto que los dominantes del arte de Anda-
lucía, de Murcia y de Valencia –el único, en el fondo, que sea artículo de
exportación y en el que el color nos es familiar– donde origen extranjero provie-
ne de la herencia árabe y morisca recogida por las provincias. Solas, las voces
de Castilla y de Aragón nos hacen oír el auténtico canto ibérico.

Vuillermoz repite la idea el 6 de abril de 1914 en Comœdia, dedicando

el artículo también a Strawinsky. Según Vuillermoz, Strawinsky y Gra-
nados son representativos de la tierra originaria de cada uno y destaca
la osadía del lenguaje de ambos, a pesar de las diferencias evidentes entre
ellos. En Granados se señala, como siempre, la sensibilidad de su obra.
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 229

El «moderno» estilo de Granados

En general el moderno estilo español mostrado en Goyescas y Tonadi-

llas gustó a la sociedad musical francesa. En los dos casos Granados abre
una línea historicista y castellana en la composición en lo que se ha
llamado «nuevo casticismo». Asimismo, se incorpora al importante
movimiento instru-mental y vocal internacional –es decir, alejado del
género operístico– al componer una obra para piano y canciones de
concierto en oposición a la canción de salón.
En general se ha venido repitiendo que la falta de forma en la pro-
ducción de Granados es una de las características débiles de la misma.
Así, ya Turina en la crítica al concierto de abril de 1911 en la Revista
Musical de Bilbao comenta a propósito de las Goyescas su «ausencia de
construcción y de trabajo temático, modulaciones escasas y por lo tanto
alguna monotonía»76. Sin embargo debemos tener en cuenta que la for-
mación scholista de Turina, basada en la observancia de la forma, influ-
yó negativamente a la hora de la valoración de Goyescas. Esta misma
opinión también la repite el francés Henri Collet en su monográfico so-
bre Albéniz y Granados, y, siendo ésta una de las referencias más impor-
tantes para los posteriores biógrafos españoles que, en su mayoría, no
estudiaron la obra de Granados sobre partitura, o bien tenían una for-
mación musical escasa, se acogieron a esta opinión del francés repitién-
dola de forma que se convirtió en un lugar común a la hora de valorar
su obra en general.
Muy al contrario, como acabamos de ver, la falta de forma conven-
cional es considerada por los integrantes de la SMI un valor positivo. Sin
embargo no sería ésta la lectura que predominaría en la historiografía.
Clark, prácticamente el primer biógrafo que se acerca neutral y deteni-
damente a la partitura de Goyescas, considera que la repetición de los
temas en esta obra no proviene de una carencia de técnicas compositi-
vas sino de las necesidades expresivas de la propia obra77.
Otro de los puntos interesantes es que el compositor descubre a los
franceses «una nueva España»78, alejada por completo de los parámetros
a los que hasta entonces estaban acostumbrados los franceses: presenta
la historia musical española reescrita en un lenguaje en el que el elemento
arábigo no es lo predominante, como había ocurrido hasta Albéniz. Tam-
76. TURINA, J. Joaquín Turina. Corresponsal..., p. 45.
77. CLARK, W. A. Enrique Granados..., p. 125.
78. LADMIRAULT, Paul. «Festival Granados». Revue Musicale SIM. París, 15-IV-1914.
230 MIRIAM PERANDONES

bién Le Guide Musical el 12 de abril de 1914 menciona este aspecto al

señalar que su lenguaje musical está alejado de «panderetas y tambores».

Conclusión

No es éste el lugar en el que se estudiará qué causas histórico-musi-

cales hicieron que en 1905 la soberbia actuación de Granados pasara sin
pena ni gloria, y sin embargo la de 1909 sea esperada con emoción y se
vuelquen en ella esperanzas sobre la música española en París. Sería
necesario hacer otro tipo de estudio. Sin embargo podemos concretar
algunos aspectos que, a la luz de la revisión biográfica realizada, acla-
ran puntos sobre esta cuestión. Su brillante intervención de 1905 no tuvo
apenas transcendencia en primer lugar por el repertorio que presentó
como compositor, que no interesó al público francés (Scarlatti) y en se-
gundo lugar, porque como intérprete tenía en 1905 una dura competen-
cia con la propia colonia española afincada en París, empezando por
sus amigos Ricardo Viñes y Joaquín Malats que triunfaban en las salas
de conciertos. No obstante, las razones más significativas son que
Granados no tenía el apoyo de grandes figuras musicales francesas,
y que no había la necesidad de llenar el vacío que sí hubo en 1909
tras la desaparición de Albéniz. Granados hasta entonces no estaba
dentro de los círculos musicales ni en círculos sociales parisinos y, por
tanto, no tocaba en conciertos públicos o privados ni estaba en contac-
to con la sociedad musical francesa ni internacional. Su relación con
Francia, que había comenzado muy tímidamente en 1905, despega de-
finitivamente en 1909. Granados es desconocido u obviado hasta 1909 en
la prensa francesa, momento en que se ponen las esperanzas sobre él
como el futuro musical «español», confirmado en su concierto de 1911;
y es a partir de 1911 cuando sus relaciones con la contemporaneidad
musical internacional se reflejan en una rica relación epistolar, hasta
entonces inexistente.
Otro de los puntos importantes de esta cuestión es, como ya se ha
comentado, el fallecimiento del carismático compositor Albéniz en 1909.
Granados se deja presentar en la prensa como compositor, creando una
expectación sobre su obra y sobre su propia persona como futuro de la
música española. No parece casual que justo entonces nuestro composi-
tor decidiera comenzar sus Goyescas, cuando el mundo francés buscaba
en él un sustituto del compositor gerundés. Granados compone enton-
 ENRIQUE GRANADOS EN PARÍS 231

ces una suite pianística al estilo albeniciano, aunque personalísima en la

forma y en el fondo.
En 1911 Granados cumple las expectativas puestas en él mediante la
presentación su obra, pues aunque incluye a Scarlatti y su Allegro de con-
cierto, la mayor parte del programa está limitado a un repertorio «expor-
table» en Francia: los Azulejos, que vinculan a Granados directamente con
Albéniz, dos Danzas y las Goyescas. Evidentemente la repercusión y el
impacto crítico de estas últimas fue mucho mayor que el resto de las obras
del programa, unas por ya conocidas, otras simplemente porque no in-
teresan al mundo musical francés, que demanda de un compositor
español música «española», aunque en el caso de Granados fuera «in-
novadora», «el estilo moderno español»79. Apenas se discuten las carac-
terísticas de su música. Las Goyescas ante todo se consideran «españo-
las», se hace una descripción de su argumento y se felicitan por el
descubrimiento del nuevo compositor español, sin apenas entrar en más
disquisiciones.
Las críticas de 1914 ya entran en cuestiones de tipo estético y estilís-
tico. La modernidad de Granados se mide en el nuevo concepto de música
española vinculado a Castilla en contraposición a Albéniz, y a su vincu-
lación con la música histórica española, sobre todo a través de las Tona-
dillas, mostrando una modernidad española alejada de las «castañuelas»
y el orientalismo que predominó en el siglo XIX.
Aunque Granados en 1914 es impulsado por la SMI, lo que eviden-
temente era favorable para dicha sociedad, con Vuillermoz, también
parece cierto que Granados no entra en ninguno de los dos bandos que
en ese momento partían a la sociedad musical parisina. Le Monde Musi-
cal escribe también una elogiosa crítica y en el número del 30 de junio
le dedica un artículo y la portada de la revista. Por otro lado, el hecho
de que Fauré lo invitase a formar parte del jurado Diémer hace que re-
tome o comience relaciones con pianistas prestigiosos contemporáneos,
además de que, según consta en las cartas recibidas tras su muerte por
la Ilustración Musical Hispano-Americana figuras tan distantes en pensa-
miento estético musical como D’Indy, Fauré, Saint-Saëns o Debussy le
dedican elogiosos comentarios.
La presentación de Goyescas en París es, sin duda, el origen de su fama
como compositor universal. El repertorio que le dio la fama será el que
perdure en el tiempo y el que se interprete y acepte mundialmente, (Dan-

79. GUERILLOT, F. Revue musical SIM. París, 15-IV-1911, p. 89.

232 MIRIAM PERANDONES

zas, Goyescas y Tonadillas) incluyendo su propio país de origen, España,

a pesar de sus esfuerzos por presentar y difundir música alejada de los
patrones españolistas80.
El hecho de que Granados fuese considerado un «hijo» de la escuela
francesa de piano a través de sus estudios con De Bériot favoreció el
proceso de «acogimiento» de Granados por la sociedad musical france-
sa. Apadrinado por Saint-Saëns y posiblemente Fauré, algunos compo-
sitores utilizaron su figura y sobre todo su trágica muerte para enarbo-
lar la bandera francesa con fines políticos. D’Indy en su carta de
condolencia muestra su antigermanismo a través de Granados:

Quería mucho a Enrique Granados y estoy triste por saber que no lo veré más.
Ya un gran número de nuestros artistas franceses ha sucumbido gloriosamente
en esta lucha épica de nuestra bella civilización latina contra la pesada barbarie
germánica. Y estos allí cumplieron bien su deber dando su vida por Francia. [...]
creo bien que nuestros amigos de España estarán con nosotros en el momento
del «ajuste de cuentas» final de todas las infamias teutonas. Carta de V. D’Indy.
París, 14 de abril de 1916.

También Collet a la hora de valorar su obra lírica quiere justificar el

evidente wagnerismo (lo que equivaldría a decir «germanismo») de
Granados con términos de guerra, tal como «la ofensiva musical germá-
nica, victoriosa en la península como en las otras naciones europeas [...]»81,
de forma que también otras naciones estaban bajo el influjo de Wagner.
Así parece que Granados fue adoptado por la nación francesa como «ahi-
jado francés», utilizando su vinculación a Francia no sólo en el aspecto
musical sino también político82.

80. En el mismo concierto que presentó las Goyescas en Barcelona también estrenó el Cant
de les estrelles, obra en catalán para piano, órgano y coro editada por la Naxos gracias a la re-
cuperación de la partitura y su edición por Douglas Riva en la editorial Boileau y su interpre-
tación y grabación por la Naxos. También sus esfuerzos por la difusión de su Dante son lla-
mativos en este sentido: el 25 de mayo de 1915 en el Palau la Sinfónica de Madrid interpretó
Dante y el 5 y 6 de noviembre de 1915 la orquesta Sinfónica de Chicago había hecho el estre-
no americano de Dante con la solista contralto Sophie Breslau, contralto de la compañía del
Metropolitan.
81. COLLET, H. Albéniz et Granados..., p. 216.
82. Seguimos la tesis de LLANO, Samuel. El hispanismo y la cultura musical de París: 1898-
1931, leída en 2007 en el departamento de Historia del Arte III de la Universidad Compluten-
se de Madrid.
“Estancia y recepción de Enrique Granados en Nueva York (1915–1916)

desde la perspectiva de su epistolario inédito”

Revista de Musicología (ISSN 0210-1439) 32, no. 1 (2009): 281–95

Miriam Perandones Lozano

Universidad de Oviedo

106
 Estancia  y  recepción  de  Enrique  Granados  en  Nueva  York    
(1915-­1916)  desde  la  perspectiva  de  su  epistolario  inédito.

Miriam  Perandones  Lozano

Resumen
El compositor Enrique Granados ha suscitado en el mundo anglosajón un interés que
comenzó ya desde su estancia de apenas tres meses en Nueva York entre 1915 y 1916.
Esta curiosidad se ha traducido en una detallada descripción de este último viaje del
compositor realizada en los dos estudios de referencia hasta el momento, ambos de
procedencia norteamericana1 . La localización y el estudio de las cartas familiares
custodiadas en el archivo privado de la familia Granados nos ha permitido estudiar en
detalle por primera vez este viaje a Nueva York desde el punto de vista del compositor y
sobre todo de su esposa, Amparo Gal. Su mujer será quien describa detalladamente sus
impresiones sobre el estreno de Goyescas y los objetivos y proyectos que surgen como
consecuencia del estreno de la ópera. Completaremos este punto de vista con cartas de
otros personajes contemporáneos también localizadas en el epistolario familiar,
principalmente del pianista Ernest Schelling.
Asimismo analizamos la proyección de Granados como referente de un nuevo
españolismo musical en Nueva York, y su negativa a alinearse en los estereotipos
andalucistas que se esperaban de un compositor español en la segunda década del siglo
XX en Nueva York.

Abstract
North America has been attracted by the composer Enrique Granados since his stay for
three months in New York along the years 1915 and 1916, a trip lavishly detailed in two
North American works of international recognition at the moment. The study of the
family letters, kept in the private family archives, allowed me to revise for the first time

1 Se trata del trabajo de Carol Hess Enrique Granados. A Bio-Bibliography (Nueva York: Greenwood
Press, 1991) y de la biografía de Walter A. Clark, Enrique Granados. Poet of the piano. (New York:
Oxford University Press, 2006).

1
in detail this trip to New York from Granados’ point of view and especially his wife’s,
Amparo Gal.

In these letters, his wife describes her impressions on the premiere of his opera
Goyescas and the aims and projects that arise as a result of the opening night. This point
of view is completed with the study of some other letters from contemporary prominent
figures -also located in the family archives-, mainly from the pianist Ernest Schelling.

I shall analyze here the projection of Granados as a model of the new musical
Spanishness in New York and his denial to line up with the andalusian stereotypes
expected from a Spanish composer in the second decade of the 20th century.

Palabras clave:
Granados, epistolario, revisión biográfica, nuevo españolismo.

Key words:
Granados, family letters, biography, new musical Spanishness.

2
Introducción
Enrique Granados realizó un viaje transoceánico con destino a Nueva York en 1915 con
motivo del estreno mundial de su ópera Goyescas o Los Majos Enamorados en enero
del año siguiente. El compositor, que era un desconocido en el mundo internacional
musical apenas cinco años antes de su llegada a Nueva York, había sido aceptado en los
círculos musicales franceses, y, por tanto, internacionales, a partir de 1911 gracias al
estreno y presentación del primer cuaderno de Goyescas en París. Este hecho se ve
corroborado en el epistolario familiar, ya que desde 1911 hay un número altísimo de
cartas de personalidades extranjeras -prácticamente inexistentes hasta entonces en el
epistolario- que dan muestra de la rápida progresión de este compositor en apenas siete
años, entre 1909 y su muerte en 1916, pero que tiene lugar especialmente tras la citada
presentación en París. La reputación que consigue a partir del concierto parisino permite
que Granados llegue a Nueva York acompañado y apoyado por amigos de relevancia
internacional, como Ignaz Padereweski –perteneciente a la junta directiva de la
Metropolitan Opera- o Ernest Schelling.
Granados levantó enormes expectativas ante el estreno de su ópera, lo que se tradujo en
una acelerada vida social neoyorquina. Esto ha supuesto que cuatro archivos americanos
guarden documentos de inestimable valor sobre el compositor, a pesar de haber residido
sólo tres meses en la ciudad. Estas instituciones son la Hispanic Society de Nueva York,
que conserva una partitura manuscrita de la parte vocal de Goyescas; la Pierpont
Morgan Library, que conserva dos valiosos documentos: una carta destinada a André
Mangeot2 –director de la revista quincenal parisina Le Monde Musical- describiendo su
obra lírico-dramática Liliana; y la libreta manuscrita “Apuntes para mis obras”,
manuscrito autógrafo del compositor que resulta crucial para la comprensión acerca de
la génesis de las Tonadillas y del sainete Ovillejos; la editorial Schirmer, con la que
Granados firmó sus últimos contratos editoriales, y finalmente el International Piano

2 Se conserva una única carta en la Pierpont Morgan Library con remite de Granados. Según esta
biblioteca, un posible destinatario sería Jean Aubry. Sin embargo estamos seguros de que se trata de una
carta a André Mangeot. Es una contestación a una epístola de éste último con fecha de 3 de octubre de
1911 en la que Mangeot solicita al compositor información sobre la obra Liliana. Granados hace una
descripción detallada de la misma que se transcribe casi literalmente en un artículo de Le Monde Musical
titulado “Siliana” [sic] de Granados a Barcelona” del 15 de noviembre de 1911. En él, Paul Martineau
transcribe casi todos los ejemplos musicales que aporta Granados.

3
Archives de Maryland (IPAM), donde se encuentran cartas de Granados al pianista
Ernest Schelling, responsable del éxito de Granados en Nueva York.
La llegada del compositor a la ciudad tuvo una enorme repercusión mediática, siendo
recogida profusamente por diferentes fuentes hemerográficas. El estudio de su estancia
desde su llegada en diciembre de 1915 hasta su partida en marzo de 1916 ha sido
llevado a cabo a través de una exhaustiva revisión publicaciones periódicas americanas
y fuentes secundarias basadas en los testimonios de terceras personas. En primera
instancia este estudio fue realizado por Carol Hess en 1991 en su trabajo Enrique
Granados. A Bio-bibliography3 y en segundo lugar por Walter Clark en el capítulo “A
World of Ideas” de su biografía Enrique Granados. Poet of the piano4. En este apartado
Clark describe las peripecias del viaje y del estreno de Goyescas, por lo que remitimos a
éste para el conocimiento minucioso de las noticias de este capítulo vital del
compositor. Nosotros en este estudio aportamos nuevos datos y ofrecemos un punto de
vista diferente sobre la estancia en Nueva York ya que lo realizamos principalmente a
través de la revisión del epistolario inédito de Granados, elaborado en nuestra tesis
doctoral La canción lírica de Enrique Granados (1867-1916): microcosmos estilístico
elaborado a partir de un nuevo epistolario 5.
Este epistolario se construyó a partir de la localización y estudio de las cartas familiares
que se encontraban en el domicilio del nieto del compositor Antoni Carreras i Granados,
algunas de las cuales están localizadas hoy en la Biblioteca Nacional de Catalunya. A
partir del redescubrimiento de estas cartas que se creían perdidas 6, y teniendo en cuenta
la aportación biográfica que suponen, abrimos el campo de investigación a otros centros
de documentación, consultando también otras publicaciones donde se encuentran
originales, facsímiles o copias de cartas escritas o dirigidas a Granados, constituyendo
de esta forma el primer epistolario del compositor.

3 HESS: Enrique Granados. A Bio-Bibliography… op. cit.

4 CLARK: Enrique Granados… op. cit.
5 La lectura de la tesis doctoral tuvo lugar en la Facultad de Geografía e Historia en el Departamento de
Historia del Arte y Musicología de la Universidad de Oviedo en octubre de 2008 obteniendo la máxima
calificación.
6 El propio Clark menciona en la página 21 de su biografía: “The few extant letters from Granados to
Amparo reveals an intense adoration (none of hers have survived)”. CLARK: Enrique Granados. Poet…
op. cit.

4
Las cartas que se han trabajado para estudiar el viaje de Enrique Granados a Nueva
York son principalmente las que se encontraron en el archivo familiar. Se trata de las
epístolas de su esposa Amparo Gal a sus hijos y las cartas del pianista americano Ernest
Schelling al compositor, y, así, cambiamos la perspectiva externa del viaje realizada por
los investigadores anglosajones por la personal del propio compositor. Asimismo,
veremos cómo el estudio de las cartas del compositor con su maestro Felipe Pedrell
localizadas en el fondo Pedrell de la Biblioteca de Catalunya (Ms. 964) nos ha
permitido sostener una tesis sobre el pensamiento estético de Granados basado en su
ascendencia pedrelliana. A través de ellas constatamos cómo Pedrell influye
decisivamente en la manera en que el propio Granados se presenta musicalmente en la
ciudad de Nueva York.

Preparación del estreno de Goyescas

Ernest Henry Schelling (Belvedere (New Jersey), 1876 – Nueva York, 1939) es un
personaje decisivo en los últimos años de la vida musical de Granados. Fue el
introductor de la obra de Granados en EEUU y uno de los gestores de las empresas
musicales en París y en Nueva York. Las cartas que hemos localizado dan testimonio de
las gestiones que realiza Schelling entre Granados y la editorial Schirmer y según Vila
San Juan7 también fue el impulsor del estreno de Goyescas en el Metropolitan, algo que
ya había realizado en París en la Gran Opéra8 según carta de Granados a su esposa del
16 de junio de 1914. Como es bien sabido, el estreno no tuvo lugar en la capital francesa
debido al estallido de la Primera Guerra Mundial y por esta razón se realizó en Nueva
York. La carta de Guilio Gatti-Casazza, director del Metropolitan, escrita en 1915 que
se conserva en el archivo familiar da cuenta de la relación entre Schirmer y el
Metropolitan. Clark incluso menciona que el propio Schelling persuadió a Schirmer
para hablar de una posible representación de la ópera Goyescas con Gatti-Casazza:

7VILA SAN-JUAN, Pablo. Papeles íntimos de Enrique Granados. Barcelona: Amigos de Granados,
1966, p. 83.
8 “Queridísimos míos: hemos de empezar por bendecir a Schelling. De un golpe me he colocado en la
cima. La ópera está admitida con gran entusiasmo para la G. Ópera este invierno”. Carta de Granados a su
familia. París, 16 de junio de 1914.

5
 “Ciertamente la casa Schirmer, su editor de Nueva York, ya le habrá informado que yo, en calidad de
Director general de Metropolitan Opera Company de Nueva York, adquirí los derechos de
representaciones de su bella e interesante ópera Goyesca [sic] para la temporada 1915/1916”9 .

No sabemos exactamente cuándo se conocieron pianista y compositor, pero, dado que la

primera carta que se conserva en el archivo familiar de Schelling a Granados está
fechada el 13 de marzo de 1912, es posible que se conocieran en la gira de conciertos
del pianista americano en Barcelona en 1912. Aparentemente, Schelling habría quedado
impresionado por el compositor, y poco después, el 26 de marzo de 1913, el pianista
presenta Goyescas 10 en el Carnegie Hall de Nueva York por primera vez, abriendo
camino a Granados en EEUU11. En una apresurada carta que fechamos en marzo de
1913, el americano afirma: “Querido amigo, (…) algunos de los críticos han visto
Goyescas. El Times y el Evening Post son los periódicos más grandes y serios de Nueva
York y los Estados Unidos”. Efectivamente, el New York Times dedica el subtítulo de la
columna sobre el recital de Schelling a anunciar que las “Obras españolas del
compositor español, Granados, [han sido] oídas por primera vez”12. Granados se lo
agradece en una carta fechada el 9 de mayo de 1913, así como sus primeras gestiones
con la editorial americana Schirmer:

“Mi muy querido amigo: le estoy muy agradecido por todo lo que usted me ha enviado respecto a
Goyescas en América. Su entusiasmo hacia mis obras que se refleja en los dos grandes periódicos de
Nueva York, es para mi futuro en América de una importancia enorme y usted me ha prestado un servicio
que jamás olvidaré.
Del mismo modo aprecio el otro servicio que usted quiere prestarme presentándome al editor Schirmer
durante su paso por Ginebra”.

Según Amparo Gal a su llegada a Nueva York “hay una atmósfera muy favorable a la
obra [Goyescas], dicen que [Granados] es el hombre del día y que su estreno es el que
trae el interés de la season” (diciembre de 1915). Efectivamente, en EEUU se preparó la
llegada de Granados con audiciones previas de su obra, lo que facilitó su favorable

9 Carta de Giulio Gatti- Casazza a Enrique Granados. Nueva York, [¿] 1915.
10 Interpretó Los requiebros, Coloquio en la reja y El fandango del candil.
11 Schelling también estrenará las Goyescas en Londres el 10 de diciembre de 1913 según carta del 1 de
diciembre de 1913. Granados agradece a su amigo su ayuda: “¡Leí los periódicos Ingleses [sic] y estoy
encantado de pensar que mi obra ya pasea gracias a mi gran amigo y artista, entre los [primeros públicos]
del mundo! ¡Es demasiado para mí! ¡Gracias, mil veces gracias!” 4 de febrero de 1914.
12 “Mr. Schelling Recital”. New York Times. 27 de marzo de 1913, p. 11.

6
acogida en Nueva York. Percy Grainger estrenó El Pelele el 8 de diciembre de 1915 en
la Sala Aeolian de Nueva York y George Copeland interpretó algunas piezas de
Goyescas el 6 de diciembre de 1915, en la misma sala. El barítono Emilio de Gogorza
había interpretado algunas Tonadillas el 8 de noviembre de 1915, también en la Sala
Aeolian, y Sophie Braslau el 5 y 6 de noviembre había estrenado Dante con la orquesta
Sinfónica de Chicago13.
A esta buena preparación del auditorio se une el repunte de hispanofilia que se dio
alrededor de 1915 en Nueva York del que, tal como apunta Clark, Granados sacó buen
provecho. Así, en el momento en que Granados está en la ciudad norteamericana, otros
intérpretes españoles buscan su hueco en las salas de conciertos neoyorquinas, como
Antonia Mercé (“La Argentina”), Rosa Culmell (esposa del pianista Joaquín Nin),
Miguel Llobet, quien hizo el viaje con Granados y su esposa, Paquita Madriguera,
alumna del compositor, María Barrientos y Pablo Casals. La colonia española parece
que se veía frecuentemente, tal como apunta Amparo Gal en una carta a sus hijos: “(…)
una caja de bombones fenomenal (…) ha hecho las delicias de los niños de Rosa Nin, de
Paquita Madriguera, Llobet y toda la españolada que nos visita por aquí”.
Amparo, mujer inteligente y práctica, aprovecha este momento favorable para el ámbito
hispano buscando salidas profesionales para su propia familia y otros amigos, como el
literato Gabriel Miró, amigo íntimo de la familia, o la jovencísima cantante Conchita
Badía. Así, dice a sus hijos en febrero de 1916:

“De Miró me ocupo mucho estos días aunque es muy difícil hacer nada por Él [sic] (…). De todas
maneras un día de estos saldrá un artículo hablando de Miró como literato y después veré si puedo hacer
traducir Las Cerezas (…). Para Conchita Badía (…) María Gay me hace las siguientes proposiciones:
pagarle el viaje, indumentaria, manutención, etc., encargarse de Conchita que vivirá con Ellos [sic] como
hija y Ella [sic] la hará debutar durante el primer año que empezaría en Septiembre”.

Estancia en Nueva York y estreno

Tal como conocemos por el epistolario, Granados y su esposa embarcaron a finales de
noviembre de 1915 en el Montevideo en Barcelona, e hicieron varias escalas a lo largo

13 Sophie Braslau escribe a Granados una carta a modo agradecimiento, sin fecha: “¡Querido señor
Granados! He querido escribirle hace ya tiempo, pero he estado enferma. Espero me perdonará. Mil
gracias por la dedicatoria encantadora y gentil de Dante. Yo estaba orgullosa de ser capaz de cantar su
magnífica música de “la Francesca”. Estoy esperando tener el honor de conocerle pronto”.

7
de la costa, la última en Cádiz 14, donde recogieron a Fernando Periquet, libretista de la
ópera Goyescas. La llegada a Nueva York está bellamente narrada por la esposa del
compositor e incluye sus impresiones ante las comodidades de una sociedad
industrializada y moderna, como el uso de la calefacción15 . Granados y su esposa
llegaron a Nueva York el 15 de diciembre de 1915 y se alojaron en el Hotel Claridge
hasta aproximadamente mediados del mes de febrero, cuando se trasladaron al Hotel
Wellington, en la Séptima Avenida. El viaje fue muy accidentado, ya que incluyó dos
inspecciones de guerra y fortísimas tormentas que según Amparo pusieron al buque en
situación de “verdadero peligro”. Granados, que tenía negros presagios acerca de su
muerte en barco ya desde su juventud, sufrió intensamente durante el viaje y esto
ocasionó que enfermase durante las primeras semanas de estancia en Nueva York. Clark
recoge la actitud aterrorizada de Granados durante su estancia en Nueva York
testimoniada por diferentes personajes16. A la luz de las cartas creemos que ésta fue
consecuencia de la exacerbada sensibilidad de Granados complicada con las
consecuencias físicas y psíquicas de un sufrimiento continuado a lo largo de la travesía.
En una carta del 8 de enero Amparo narra el sufrimiento a sus hijos:

“Al principio de estar aquí, entre las angustias que pasó durante el viaje que estuvo 15 días sin
alimentarse casi ni tomar leche ni nada, se le había exacerbado la neurastenia de tal manera, y estaba tan
anémico que llegué a temer que le diera una [consumación?] y que no pudiera ni ocuparse de la ópera
siquiera…”

Aunque aparentemente Granados comienza a mejorar físicamente en enero, este

sufrimiento le afectaría enormemente y puede ser una de las causas por las que se ocupó

14 Según José Lasalle, el director de orquesta, zarparon de Cádiz en el Montevideo el 29 de noviembre, y

el 30 les paró el buque de guerra francés Cassard. Sin embargo, el sello de diciembre de 1915 de una
postal enviada desde Cádiz parece desmentir este hecho.
15 “Estamos en un hermoso hotel que tiene 16 pisos a la vista y 3 subterráneos, tenemos el número 500
para sala de recibo y el 501 dormitorio magnífico y cuarto de baño. El edificio no vale como la mayor
parte de esta grande y feísima ciudad más que por su magnificencia, no por su belleza, no os podéis
imaginar país más feo, pero con más atractivo y se puede decir lo que los catalanes “Deu nos en guart de
enamorament de dona lletcha”, pues es tanto lo que subyuga que yo siento que me acostumbraría y me
aficionaría a estar aquí en menos de 4 días. Lo que es de una belleza pocas veces superada es la vista de
Nueva York al entrar en el puerto, cuando se ven las siluetas de sus grandes edificios y las villas y chalets
de sus alrededores; vistas entre la bruma al llegar parecen aquellas leyendas de las orillas del Rhin con los
enormes castillos sobre las escarpadas rocas… en fin, hijitos, un espectáculo único”. Carta de Amparo
Gal a sus hijos. Nueva York, diciembre de 1915.
16 Pablo Casals en sus memorias Joia i Tristor. (Reflexions de Pau Casals tal com les va relatar a Albert
E. Kahn. Barcelona: Bosh, 1977) menciona el terror de Granados, y Juan Ramón Jiménez, quien también
estaba en Nueva York en 1916, en sus Españoles de tres mundos menciona que Granados estaba
permanentemente asustado, aterrorizado por todo.

8
con muchas dificultades de los ensayos de su propia ópera. En una carta de Fernando
Periquet a M. Rouché el 21 de septiembre de 1919 poco antes del estreno de Goyescas
en la Opera de París, el libretista “confiesa” que Granados “dejó a cargo de la dirección
musical del Metropolitan la solución de todo lo relativo a la instrumentación de la obra,
hasta el punto de que escenas enteras fueron instrumentadas por el maestro Bavagnoli”.
Aunque a la luz de los diferentes testimonios es evidente que Granados no pudo
ocuparse convenientemente de los ensayos de Goyescas, esta última afirmación debe
tomarse con cautela dada la manifiesta enemistad de Periquet con la familia Granados
en aquellos años.

En cualquier caso, su enfermedad le imposibilitó la realización de los conciertos que

Schelling había programado para su presentación en EEUU, contrariamente a lo que
afirma Clark, quien arguye que no había preparado ninguno17. Al contrario, el estado
enfermizo del compositor le impide realizar los previstos en diciembre, pero una vez
repuesto se realizan dos, el primero con Casals para los Amigos de la Música de Nueva
York el 23 de enero, y el segundo ya en audición pública el 22 de febrero en la Sala
Aeolian. Su mujer Amparo es quien organiza su agenda profesional y quien decide qué
tipo de conciertos convienen más, velando por la economía familiar. En una carta escrita
en enero de 1916 escribe: “era preciso que Papá tocara antes de marcharse para preparar
los conciertos del año que viene; el primero lo dio en una sociedad muy distinguida (los
amigos de la música), pero yo he querido que se los haga con el público, que aquí es
quien juzga y quien paga…”.
Amparo Gal había llevado una vida austera junto a Granados. Hija de un burgués
acomodado, Amparo apoya a su marido durante toda su vida conyugal en el objetivo
común de lograr una holgura económica que les permita vivir cómodamente, algo que
no consiguen hasta su estancia en Nueva York, y en una jugarreta del destino, lo pierden
todo al fallecer ambos en el viaje de regreso. Granados se había labrado un nombre en el
mundo musical internacional con su éxito en París, pero esto no se había traducido en
beneficios económicos. Ya durante la estancia de Granados en Madrid entre 1894 y
1895, Amparo se muestra como la mujer pragmática que se ocupa de las cuestiones
vitales prácticas, y esto se prolonga a lo largo de los años, tal como muestran sus cartas

17 CLARK: Enrique Granados… op. cit., p. 161: “Although he had not planned to give concerts during
his stay in New York (…)”.

9
escritas desde Nueva York. Así, en la ciudad norteamericana será ella quien se ocupe de
los proyectos futuros que surgen a partir del estreno de Goyescas y que garantizan el
ansiado éxito económico. Se puede decir, en sus propias palabras, que Amparo lleva a
cabo la “siembra” que florecería meses después con el estreno de Goyescas en Buenos
Aires, además de recibir peticiones para la Habana y Alemania, pero que finalmente no
se consumarían por la muerte del compositor:

“de dinero poca cosa, pero nos quedamos unos 20 días más para afianzar la siembra y que quede bien
arreglado todo para el año que viene; la ópera ya la han pedido en Buenos Aires, Habana, el representante
del Teatro ruso en NY y ¡asombraos! Alemania para cuando acabe la guerra… pero como podéis suponer
nada hay arreglado definitivamente y por eso nos quedamos algunos días más para dejarlo todo a [?] y
clan. Resumen, por ahora todo se presenta muy bien para que Papá sea el indispensable que es cuando
aquí se hace dinero… lo demás son cuentos chinos.” Nueva York, febrero de 1916.

El 6 de marzo firman el contrato para estrenar Goyescas en el teatro Colón de Buenos

Aires, y en la carta del 7 de marzo anuncia que en “los Ángeles, California, también
han pedido la obra” para mayo de este mismo 1916. Por falta de tiempo no pueden
estrenarla, ya que el 2 de junio tendrían que salir hacia Argentina y el estreno en
California sería en mayo del mismo año. Amparo se muestra satisfecha, aunque con su
carácter precavido muestra sus reservas: “esto que os digo hijos míos, la siembra ha sido
de primera aunque la primera recolección haya sido escasa; también estamos en tratos
para Rusia y Alemania… pero, ¿cuándo será esto?” (carta del 7 de marzo de 1916).

Esta “siembra” se da como consecuencia del éxito y la repercusión de la ópera

Goyescas. Si bien Clark muestra en su capítulo “A World of Ideas” los inconvenientes y
críticas negativas que recibió esta ópera, sobre todo el libreto -del que también es
responsable Granados-, el relato de Amparo en las cartas muestra que la pareja
Granados vivió al margen de estas críticas, amparados por sus amigos, especialmente
Schelling y Paderewski.
La acogida por la sociedad norteamericana fue calurosa. Malvina Hoffmann, personaje
de la alta sociedad neoyorquina, afirma en carta a Eduardo Granados que conoció al
compositor “la primera vez en casa del Sr. Ernest Schelling pianista, que daba una gran
recepción para su padre. Todos los grandes artistas y la alta sociedad estaban allí; más
tarde varios de mis amigos le invitaron a su casa. La acogida era espontánea y

10
entusiasta” (carta del 8 de mayo de 1916). Amparo afirma que “viste el visitarnos” y
describe una agitada agenda social:

“De la agitadísima vida que llevamos no os quiero decir nada; todo os lo contaremos a nuestra llegada; se
nos disputan de unos a otros y tenemos que rehusar la mitad de las invitaciones que nos hacen pues de lo
contrario nos liquidarían en cuatro días”. Nueva York, febrero de 1916.

En las cartas de Amparo también se encuentran referencias acerca de Goyescas, ya que

era motivo lógico de preocupación, por lo que va informando a sus hijos acerca de las
contingencias del estreno. En la carta del 21 de enero informa de que Lucrecia Bori no
puede cantar “pero hará su papel la Fitziu que aunque americana tiene una bonita voz y
es guapísima”. También valora las cualidades artísticas del resto de los protagonistas,
mostrando conocimientos musicales: “el tenor Martinelli tiene preciosa voz, es joven y
muy artista. D. Luca también y la Pepa aunque no posee una voz muy extensa es muy
graciosa y al fin y al cabo su papel es pequeño”18 . Amparo, en una carta a sus hijos19, se
muestra pletórica por el éxito del estreno del 28 de enero, pero, en un alarde de
inteligencia, también se muestra consciente de que el estreno hubiera podido estar
condicionado por la presencia del famosísimo cantante Enrico Caruso, quien
interpretaba Pagliacci el mismo día, y de la colonia española. Amparo se plantea la
posibilidad de que estos hechos hubiesen favorecido el ruidosísimo éxito de la primera
representación20, aunque en la carta escrita tras la segunda representación el 2 de
febrero Amparo se tranquiliza afirmando que tuvo un enorme éxito de público:

“La segunda representación (…) fue verdaderamente el día en que la obra se encontró frente al público y
tuvo un exitazo; sólo con decir que hicieron salir a Papá entre el primer y el segundo cuadro y entre éste y
el tercero muchísimas veces queda dicho todo, puesto que las llamadas no acostumbran a ser más que en
los finales de los actos”.

18 Sobre todos los detalles del estreno remitimos a la consulta del capítulo “A World of Ideas” de Enrique
Granados op. cit., de Clark, pp. 156- 157. No obstante apuntamos que el papel de Rosario fue llevado a
cabo por Anna Fitziu, Fernando por Giovanni Martinelli, Paquiro por Guiseppe de Luca y Pepa por
Flora Perini.
19 “(…) El triunfo de Papá fue ruidosísimo, le hicieron salir infinidad de veces, se volvían locos con Él.
La empresa le ha regalado una corona de plata y la casa Schirmer otra muy hermosa; estuvo en la
representación el embajador de España que mandó un telegrama al Rey después de la representación y me
mandó a mí un magnífico ramo de flores con un gran lazo con los colores nacionales”. Carta de Amparo a
sus hijos. Enero de 1916.
20 “La segunda representación de Goyescas ha sido un triunfo todavía mayor que la primera, pues como el
primer día la empresa puso junto con Goyescas Pagliacci con Caruso que es un ídolo aquí, algunos
dijeron que había habido el lleno brutal gracias a que cantaba dicho tenor. La segunda representación fue
otro entradón [sic] y un éxito si cabe mayor que el primero, puesto que no había ya la ansiosidad[sic] de
la colonia española”. Carta de Amparo Gal a sus hijos. Nueva York, febrero de 1916.

11
En general podemos decir que el matrimonio Granados consideró un éxito rotundo su
viaje a Nueva York, y que, si bien pudieran ser conscientes de las críticas negativas,
estaban envueltos en una espiral de éxito, dinero -por primera vez en su trayectoria
vital- y futuros proyectos que garantizaban un futuro y estabilidad económica a su
familia.

La recepción de Granados y Goyescas

Tanto Clark como el biógrafo español Antonio Fernández Cid21 hacen notar la
contradicción entre el gran éxito que obtuvo entre el público y el hecho de que la obra
se represente únicamente cinco veces 22. Clark apunta varias razones, como la
desafortunada declaración sobre la Carmen de Bizet a su llegada a Nueva York, el
libreto y la estructura de la ópera, que llegó a ser considerada por algún crítico incluso
“pueril” en su planteamiento.
Las declaraciones sobre Carmen, la ópera de George Bizet (“El mundo no tiene idea de
lo que es la música española, cuando considera española Carmen, la ópera de George
Bizet. Goyescas enseñará el camino”23) fueron malinterpretadas por la prensa al
presuponer que Granados creía que su ópera era mejor que la de Bizet. Incluso Gatti-
Casazza, director artístico del Metropolitan, no acogió favorablemente este comentario
de Granados. Según recoge Fernández-Cid, el director del Metropolitan incluso censuró
a Granados por considerarse mejor que Bizet: “Granados era un presumido. Él mismo
creyó que había hecho algo superior a la Carmen de Bizet. No lo creo… 24” .
Clark considera la declaración de Granados como una demostración de orgullo patrio y
exasperación por la persistencia del estereotipo andalucista de música española por los
extranjeros. Compartimos esta opinión, pero la matizamos en la medida en que

21 FERNÁNDEZ-CID, Antonio. Granados. Madrid: Samarán ediciones, 1956, p. 274.

22 Las representaciones tuvieron lugar entre el 28 de enero y el 6 de marzo: 28 de enero, 2, 10 y 26 de
febrero, y 6 de marzo de 1916.
23 FERNÁNDEZ-CID: Granados... op. cit., p. 269. Clark reproduce las declaraciones en prensa en la
revista Musical America 23 (25 de diciembre de 1916) en el artículo escrito por Herbert F. Peyser
“Granados Here for Production of Goyescas”: “For you, like so many other people, … know nothing
about of the real contributions of Spain. The musical interpretation of Spain is not to be found in tawdry
boleros and habaneras, in Moszkowski, in Carmen, in anything that has sharp dance rhythms
accompanied by tambourines or castanets”. CLARK: Enrique Granados. Poet… op. cit., p. 155.
24 FERNÁNDEZ-CID, Granados... op. cit., p. 274.

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Granados identifica claramente su ópera Goyescas con el modelo de música española
basado en los preceptos de Pedrell, o lo que es lo mismo, como “auténtica” ópera.
En las cartas que escribe Granados a su maestro conservadas en la Biblioteca Nacional
de Catalunya, se hace evidente la ascendencia pedrelliana de su pensamiento, así como
en las que escribe a su mujer desde su estancia en Madrid (1894 y 1895), donde Pedrell
es referencia constante para sus acciones. Las cartas escritas antes de 1900, cuando
Granados aún es un joven músico, muestran a las claras su admiración por la obra de su
maestro, lo que se traduce en una admiración a sus teorías; Granados también realiza
recopilaciones de cantos populares para sí mismo y para Pedrell, y es patente su
preocupación por el redescubrimiento del pasado musical español, especialmente por
Tomás Luis de Victoria o Cristóbal de Morales. La ópera Goyescas es exponente de un
nuevo españolismo que sigue los parámetros del historicismo unido al folclore popular,
sin la recreación andalucista del tipo de la Carmen. En Goyescas el historicismo se hace
evidente en la utilización del tema goyesco y en la inclusión de “La tirana del Trípili”,
tonadilla quizá de Blas de Laserna, y el folclorismo con la inclusión de una canción
valenciana en la obra La maja y el ruiseñor.
La asunción del pensamiento pedrelliano hace que en la obra de Granados podamos
rastrear una amplitud de miras que se traduce en una variedad estilística que hace
imposible etiquetar a Granados únicamente como compositor nacionalista español. Si
bien es cierto que la obra que ha permitido a Granados entrar en el panteón de la
historiografía musical internacional ha sido la nacionalista española, la realidad musical
de Granados es mucho más compleja y la creemos sustentada esencialmente en los
principios basados en las teorías de su maestro Felipe Pedrell. Tal como afirma Francesc
Bonastre, el método pedrelliano no es válido sólo para Cataluña sino también para toda
España, y esto no estuvo bien visto por sus paisanos catalanes, ni en España por
considerarse catalán, y añade: “Esta pretendida ambigüedad no es otra cosa que el fruto
de su independencia ideológica y de su planteamiento abierto y generoso (…)”25.
Granados sigue este camino. Su presentación en París como compositor ya había
pretendido ir más allá de su presentación única como compositor de música española al
incluir en su programa del concierto del 1 de abril de 1911 un arreglo de una de las

25BONASTRE, Francesc y CORTÉS, Francesc. Introducción a Por nuestra música. Publicacions de la

Universitat Autónoma de Barcelona. Bellaterra, 1991. p. VIII.

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sonatas de Scarlatti que había realizado en 1905, los Valses poéticos, el Allegro de
concierto, algunas Danzas españolas, Azulejos –la obra que terminó de Isaac Albéniz a
petición expresa de la familia- y el primer cuaderno de Goyescas.
El programa estaba pensado para presentar la obra de Granados al público francés desde
sus comienzos, y no por casualidad escoge un repertorio muy similar para su
presentación ante el público neoyorquino en el concierto del 22 de febrero en la Sala
Aeolian, así como en la Casa Blanca, a donde fue invitado por el presidente Wilson
junto a Julia Culp el 7 de marzo 26. En el concierto destinado a los Amigos de la Música
de Nueva York había incluido también algunas Goyescas y obras destinadas a piano y
cello, como son los arreglos de la conocida Danza andaluza, Trova y el Madrigal. Estas
últimas obras se desmarcan del españolismo y se vinculan a un arcaísmo sonoro en el
caso del Madrigal, mientras que la Trova fue considerada por Richard Aldrich en la
crítica del New York Times del 24 de enero de 1916 como “de introspectivo encanto” y
con carácter de improvisación. Asimismo, debemos recordar el concierto de Dante con
la Sinfónica de Chicago y la interpretación de la Danza de los ojos verdes, obra
orquestal, el 10 de febrero de 1916 en el Maxine Elliot Theater danzada por Antonia
Mercé “La Argentina”.
Granados, por tanto, ofrece una visión general de su obra al tiempo que no renuncia a la
consecución de la fama incluyendo piezas de estilo pintoresquista, como las Danzas.
Ocurre algo similar con las partituras que decide entregar a la editorial Schirmer,
aunque en este caso también influye el factor mercantil en las obras que escoge para la
edición. Granados decide enviar en septiembre de 1913 a la editorial americana dos
Danzas españolas (Valenciana y Catalana), una Danza a la Cubana, una Marcha
Militar; y un Vals Concierto. En la carta a Schelling del 24 de septiembre le anuncia que
está terminando “un cuaderno de escenas poéticas y Goyesca (El Pelele)”. Así,
Granados decide hacer el primer envío incluyendo música pintoresca y en estilo de
salón, de manera que puedan venderse fácilmente. La Schirmer también edita su obra
sinfónica Dante y más tarde, ya en 1915, firmará un contrato por algunas Canciones

26 El 22 de febrero de 1916 Granados interpretó una de sus adaptaciones de una Sonata de Scarlatti, una
Danza lenta, Danza valenciana y el Allegro de concierto. Además con Anna Fitziu se interpretaron
algunas Tonadillas y el aria de Goyescas La maja y el ruiseñor. Las Tonadillas se habían interpretado
también en el concierto de París del 4 de abril de 1914. En la Casa Blanca añadió un Nocturno de Chopin,
lo que no fue una decisión tomada a la ligera puesto que Granados era un gran intérprete de este
compositor.

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amatorias: Gracia [sic], No lloréis ojuelos, Descúbrase el pensamiento de mi secreto
cuidado y Mañanica era. También la Canción del postillón, obra de mucho menos
interés que las citadas Amatorias, se envió a Schirmer para su publicación.
Clark también hace una descripción prolija de la recepción de Granados como
compositor español en la prensa neoyorquina. Respecto a los comentarios surgidos en
torno al compositor, Clark explica que se muestra a Granados siguiendo dos
estereotipos supuestamente españoles, aunque antagónicos: bien como hombre lánguido
o bien como persona de fuerte carácter 27. Periquet contribuye a la perpetuación de este
último estereotipo aplicado al hombre español. Este periodista y funcionario de Aduanas
que lucharía años después en el bando nacional en la Guerra Civil pese a lo avanzado de
su edad, tenía una inclinación evidente hacia el ideal nacional españolista, y en estas
declaraciones se puede intuir la base de su pensamiento ideológico. Los artículos
recortados por él y conservados hoy en el archivo privado de su nieto Rodolfo Vogel
Periquet, mencionan frecuentemente la “victoria” nacional y por tanto el desagravio que
supone el triunfo y éxito de la ópera Goyescas en EEUU, con la vista puesta en la
pérdida de las colonias de 1898. Tal como recoge Clark, éste sería un lugar común en
general en la prensa española, llegando a estar Granados en una “misión” que trataría
de recuperar el honor perdido28.
Por el contrario, el interés y las declaraciones de Granados en Nueva York se refieren
casi exclusivamente a la música. Tal como hemos podido rastrear en nuestra tesis
doctoral29 , no parece que Granados tenga una postura política concreta, ni siquiera que
le interesase en demasía el mundo político. Aunque parece tener un ideario político más
cercano al españolismo –sin poder definir de qué tipo-, su residencia en Barcelona, su
contacto con personajes cercanos ideológicamente al nacionalismo catalán, y su
dominio de este idioma no permite ser categórico en ningún sentido. Por el contrario,
parece que la política le interesa en la medida en que afecta a su obra y por esta razón
creemos que el comentario de Amparo “Creed que si el Gobierno no le premia con la

27 Ver CLARK: Enrique Granados. Poet… op. cit., p. 154.

28 CLARK: Enrique Granados. Poet… op. cit., p. 155.
29PERANDONES LOZANO, Miriam. La canción lírica de Enrique Granados (1867-1916):
microcosmos estilístico elaborado a partir de un nuevo epistolario. Tesis doctoral, Universidad de
Oviedo, 2008.

15
condecoración será muy desagradecido pues el valor de España ha subido un ciento por
ciento” en una carta de enero de 1916, no tiene implicaciones políticas.

La estancia de Granados en Nueva York está catalizada a través de su relación con

Ernest Schelling, quien no sólo acompaña al compositor y su esposa en la ciudad, sino
que también gestiona la edición de su obra con la editorial Schirmer y el estreno de
Goyescas en el Metropolitan. El matrimonio Granados sacó provecho de una estancia
exitosa, tal como hemos visto a través de las cartas de Amparo Gal, pese al mal
comienzo con la dolencia de Granados, que fue consecuencia de un viaje terrorífico y
un estado general enfermizo. También Granados comenzó con mal pie en sus
declaraciones sobre la Carmen de Georges Bizet, que como ya hemos visto, fueron
malinterpretadas por la prensa e incluso por el director del Metropolitan Gatti-Casazza,
ya que Granados defendía un nuevo españolismo que tenía su base en las teorías
pedrellianas. Sin embargo, esto no fue obstáculo para que la sociedad neoyorquina se
volcara con el compositor, hecho que tiene su exponente en la obtención de la Medalla
de Plata de las Artes y las Letras otorgada por la Hispanic Society of America, y
testimoniado por su mujer Amparo Gal en la serie de cartas que hemos estudiado para la
descripción de este apartado de la vida del compositor desde el punto de vista familiar.

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