2

Canciones, Memories of Spain

Manuel de Falla (1876 – 1946): Siete canciones populares espanolas

1. I El paño moruno [1’24] 2. II Seguidilla murciana [1’26] 3. III Asturiana [3’03] 4. IV Jota [3’28] 5. V Nana [2’12] 6. VI Canción [1’09] 7. VII Polo [1’41]

Ernesto Halffter (1905 - 1989): Três Canciones Portuguesas

8. I Aestrelinha d'alva [2’47] 9. II Gerinaldo [2’56] 10. III Ai que linda moça [3’48] Enrique Granados (1867 – 1916)

11. La maja dolorosa 1 [3’34] 12. La maja dolorosa 2 [2’49] 13. La maja dolorosa 3 [3’44] Joaquin Turina (1882 - 1949): Poema en forma de canciones

14. I Dedicatoria [3’33] 15. II Nunca olvida [2’41] 16. III Cantares [2’03] 17. IV Los dos miedos [3’12] 18. V Las locas por amor [1’31]

3

Federico Mompou (1893 -1987) 19. I Pastoral [3’16] 20. II Llueve sobre el rio [3’08]

Xavier Montsalvatge (1912 – 2002): Cinco canciones negras

21. I Cuba dentro de un piano [5’00] 22. II Punto de Habanera [2’10] 23. III Chévere [2’25] 24. IV Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito [2’57] 25. V Canto negro [1’04]

total timing [67’21]

Clara Mouriz mezzo-soprano Joseph Middleton piano

Recorded 25-28 May 2009, at Champs Hill, Sussex, England Producer John Fraser Recording engineer and editor Paul Segar Executive Producer Paul Segar Photos José Manuel Bielsa (Clara Mouriz) Ben Harte (Joseph Middleton) ℗ & © 2010 Sonimage Ltd

4

Manuel de Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas came about in a curious way: while preparing the Paris production of La vida breve, the composer received two requests – one from a member of the cast who wanted something Spanish for an imminent recital, the other from a Greek singing-teacher who wished to harmonise some Greek folksongs. Falla set about harmo-nising one of the songs himself and, realising that he had achieved something considerable, continued the experiment with folksongs from his own country. ‘El paño moruno’ is based on ‘El paño’ from José Inzenga’s Ecos des España, and Falla actually added his alterations onto the score of the song with minimal changes to the melody. For ‘Nana’, he based his song on a melody from another ‘Nana’ which appeared at the end of Las flores, a play by Serafín and Joaquín Quintereo. The model for ‘Polo’ was the ‘Polo gitano o flamenco’ from Eduardo Ocón’s Colección de aires nacionales y populares.

Like Ravel’s Cinq mélodies populaires grecques of 1907, which Falla knew, the Siete canciones populares españolas are not strictly a cycle but wonderfully contrasted songs – in mood and key – that need to be performed in their entirety to make their full effect. A Seguidilla is a dance in 3/8 or 3/4 time, faster than a Bolero and often accompanied by castanets; the Jota is a dance (usually in a fairly fast 3/4 time and frequently accompanied by castanets) dating from the twelfth century and deriving its name perhaps from the Moor, Aben Jot. The Polo is an Andalu-sian dance of Moorish origin in a fast 3/8 time, often syncopated with periodic ornamental phrases on words such as ‘Ay’ and ‘Olé’.

The Siete canciones populares españolas have held the recital stage since their appearance in l9l6, and the recording of them by Maria Barrientos, accompanied by Falla (Columbia Dll70l) is still regarded by many as the definitive performance. Falla’s own playing is revelatory and high-lights the importance he attached to the piano part. There are wonderful moments to savour: the appoggiatura chords which usher in the voice in ‘El paño moruno’, the canon descant in ‘Canción’, the unexpected off-beats of ‘Nana’ and his playing of the ninths on a pedal of the dominant in ‘Asturiana’. The vocal line is frequently independent of the accompaniment and displays many of the characteristics of Spanish popular song: strepitoso outbursts, portamenti, triplet vocalising and the cante jondo exclamations (‘Ay!’) that derive from flamenco traditions. The songs form a synthesis of original art and folklore, and come from various regions of Spain: ‘El paño moruno’ and ‘Seguidilla murciana’ from Murcia, ‘Asturiana’ from northern Spain, ‘Jota’ from Aragon, ‘Nana’ from the Moorish south and ‘Polo’ from Andalusia. The first performance was given in Madrid on 14 January 1915 by Luisa Vela and the composer.

5

Ernesto Halffter (1905-1989) composed his first work, Crepúscolos for piano, at the age of 13, and by 1922 had made such progress that Adolfo Salazar, the leading Spanish music critic of the day, sent Halffter’s String Trio (1922) to Manuel de Falla. A life-long friendship developed between teacher and pupil (Halffter later spent seven years completing Falla’s posthumous Atlántida). Falla introduced his pupil to the publishing house of Eschig who brought two of his early songs, the Dos canciones de Rafael Alberti. Piano-accompanied song continued to play an important role in Halffter’s life: Cuatro canciones de Denise Cool were composed between 1928 and 1935, Canciones del Niño appeared in 1931 and the Canciones portuguesas in 1943.

Halffter had married the Portuguese pianist Alicia Cámara Santos in 1928 and settled in Lisbon, where he was professor at the Instituto Español de Lisboa from 1942-1952. His great love of Portugal’s folklore and rich musical tradition is mirrored in his Rapsodia portuguesa (1940, rev. 1951) and the Canciones portuguesas, three of which we hear in this recording. ‘Aestrelinha d'alva’ is a delectable lullaby to a poem by Branca de Gonta Colaç, which describes how the little star changes position at daybreak to see the little girl wake up, while the evening star turns into a night light to see her asleep. This lovely song, composed in the early years of his mar-riage, was probably inspired by the birth of his son Manuel. The folksong ‘Gerinaldo’ tells of the love of a page for the infanta – all ends happily, and the song illustrates as well as any Halffter’s lifelong belief in tonality. ‘Ai que linda moça’ sets another anonymous poem, this time about a beautiful blonde shepherdess who is seen leaving her lowly home in a crimson calico dress. As she tends her flock, we are struck by the sorrowful tone of her song. Composed in 1940, this celebrated fado has become Halffter’s best-known song.

Enrique Granados’s Colleción de tonadillas, settings of poems by the Valencian journalist Fernando Periquet, were premiered in 1916, the year in which Granados was torpedoed on board the HMS Sussex in the English Channel on his way home to Europe from America on 24 March. When President Woodrow Wilson invited Granados to give a recital at the White House, following the success of Goyescas at the Met, Granados cancelled his berth on board a neutral Dutch ship, and booked his transatlantic passage on board HMS Sussex instead. The songs (a ‘tonadillo’ is a theatre song, originally accompanied by a small orchestra or a guitar) were to a great extent inspired by the paintings of Francisco Goya – Granados was an excellent painter and owned some of Goya’s works.

The range of mood in this cycle, which was influenced by the songs of Schumann, is wide: passionate, despairing, coy and teasing. Only one of the songs is written in the bass clef, and

6

three of them were dedicated to the celebrated Catalan soprano Maria Barrientos, whose re-cording of these wonderful songs is still available. Composed in Paris in 1914, the tonadillas were written ‘in the old style’, and are a nostalgic evocation of the working-class neighbour-hoods in nineteenth century Madrid. The word ‘majo’ (and its feminine ‘maja’) refers to the artisans living in such districts of Madrid as Lavapiés and the area around the church of San Antonio de la Florida. The word simply means ‘pretty’, except when it is applied, as in these songs, to the lower-class characters who lived in these places.

These three Maja dolorosa songs (numbers 9-11 in the set of twelve) are wonderfully expressive miniatures – laments of love that reveal the composer’s emotional depth and sensitivity. It is tempting to see these laments as a symbol of Granados’s fate: when his ship was torpedoed by a German submarine he was rescued by a lifeboat, but jumped back into the water to save his wife – in the course of which they both drowned. The songs are extraordinarily concentrated expressions of grief – unlike his contemporary Albéniz, Granados rarely indulged in brilliance and virtuosity. The Mentidero, referred to in the third song, was a small eighteenth-century square in Madrid – now the entrance to the Calle del Léon. Florida was the district around the church of Antonio de la Florida in Madrid, where Goya painted in the cupola his frescos of the Miracle of Saint Anthony.

Joaquín Turina (1882-1949), principally a composer of piano music, wrote a large number of songs, many of which (particularly the song cycles) contain movements for piano solo: the first, fourth and seventh movements of Canto a Sevilla, for example, and the opening ‘Dedicatoria’ from Poema en forma de canciones. The four poems of this cycle, which dates from 1918, are by Ramón de Campoamor (1817-1901) who, having abandoned plans for a career in the church, turned to literature. After two unremarkable early collections, he became famous with the publi-cation in 1845 of Doloras which, reacting against the bombastic rhetoric of the Romantics, contained concise poems, mostly short, often dramatising a universal truth with a faintly ironic close, as in ‘Los dos miedos’ and ‘Las locas por amor’.

Turina’s music reveals a mixture of styles that reflects the influences he experienced early in his career. Like Falla and other Spanish musicians, he studied in Paris where, although indoctri-nated with Franckian musical thinking, he fell under the influence of Debussy. At the same time, he was urged by Albéniz to seek inspiration in folk music – easy advice to follow for one who remained steeped throughout his life in the atmosphere of his native Sevilla. ‘Cantares’ is overtly Andalusian with its guitar-like alternations of adjacent notes, which also appear in the

7

introductory piano ‘Dedicatoria’ and ‘Los dos miedos’. The final ‘Las locas por amor’, however, is utterly French in feel.

Frederic Mompou (1893-1987), like Manuel de Falla, lived for a time (1911-1914 and again between 1921 and 1941) in Paris; his mother was of French descent, and Paris was for many Catalans not only a cultural Mecca, but also a haven from the repressive centralist Spanish state in the early years of the twentieth century. Many of Mompou’s forty or so songs – some of them composed to French texts by Paul Valéry and others – were published in Paris by Editions Sala-bert, and the first set of his Comptines were dedicated to Jane Bathori, the French soprano who created Ravel’s Schéhérazade and Histoires naturelles. Mompou returned to his native Barce-lona with the fall of France, and died there in 1987. Most of his songs are to Catalan texts, but he also set Spanish poetry, including two lovely settings of poems by Juan Ramón Jiménez, the Andalusian Nobel prize-winner, performed in this recording: ‘Llueve sobre el río’ and ‘Pastoral’.

Xavier Montsalvatge’s Cinco canciones negras have reached a wider audience, thanks to the universal popularity of the charming lullaby, ‘Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito’. The cycle appeared in 1946, and has become one of the most frequently played works of the com-poser, who was born in Gerona in 1912 and wrote – apart from songs, operas and ballets – several fine orchestral and instrumental pieces. Graham Johnson, writing in The Spanish Song Companion, sees in Montsalvatge a new direction in Spanish music: “Hardly avant-garde, he nevertheless acknowledged the need to look outside Spain to find a means of bringing new blood to the overworked concept of folksong and nationalism. His elegant compromise was to look to the colonial Spanish world of the Caribbean, which had developed its own lively music. Montsalvatge proceeded to import this style back to the land of its very distant genesis. This West Indian manner found, in the composer’s words, ‘a place at the periphery of our traditions as a new, vague and evocative manifestation of musical lyricism’”.

The most important work for singers and accompanists in this style is the Cinco canciones negras. The set seems all of a piece from the poetic point of view, a cleverly chosen anthology, beginning with a distinguished poem by Rafael Alberti which bemoans the all-pervasive influ-ence of the United States on the dying cultures of Central America. In a very subtle way, the work addresses various issues of colonialism and racialism – a roundabout but clear message from a Catalan humanitarian living in Franco’s Spain.

Richard Stokes © 2009

8

Clara Mouriz mezzo-soprano

Spanish born Clara Mouriz is rapidly establishing herself as one of the most exciting mezzo-sopranos of her generation. She was awarded the End of Studies Extraordinary Prize from the Escuela Superior de Canto in Madrid, before settling in London and graduating from the Royal Academy of Music-Opera Course with an Outstanding Diploma. During her studentship, she received the Vice-Principal's Award, the prestigious Richard Lewis Award, the Friends of the RAM Wigmore Award and the audience price in the Handel Competition.

Clara has studied with Josephina Arregui in Spain, Noelle Barker in the UK, at the Accademia Rossiniana with Alberto Zedda, the Sir George Solti Academy with Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, the Cardiff International Academy of Singing with Dennis O’Neill and the Samling Foundation with Sir Thomas Allen.

She recently made a critically acclaimed debut as Rossini’s Cenerentola at Malmö Opera. Other roles have included Rosina in ‘Il Barbiere di Siviglia’ at Opera St. Moritz, La Marquesa Melibea in 'Il Viaggio a Reims' at the Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro, Olga in Tchaikovsky's 'Eugene Onegin' for British Youth Opera, Tirinto in Händel´s 'Imeneo' for the Cambridge Händel Opera Group. Appearances have also included Mozart's 'Die Zauberflöte' and Monteverdi's 'L’Incoronazione di Poppea’ at the Spanish Mozart Festival under Alberto Zedda.

Clara’s concert engagements include Berlioz’s ‘Les Nuits d’été’ under Alexander Shel-ley, Mozart’s ‘Requiem’ under Daniel Harding, Falla’s ‘El Amor Brujo’ under Thierry Fisher as well as Ravel's ‘Schéhérezade’, Haydn’s ‘Arianna a Naxos’, Montsalvatge’s ‘Canciones Negras’, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and Handel’s ‘Il trionfo del tempo e del disinganno’. She has appeared at the Cheltenham, Spitafields and London Handel Festivals, Cadogan Hall, Padova’s Auditorium Pollini, New York’s Gilder Lehrman Hall and Tokyo Opera-city.

A committed recital singer, Clara is a Kirckman Concert Society Artist and made her debut in Wigmore Hall in 2007, returning in 2009 and again in 2010. She has broadcast for BBC Radio 3, and led workshops for the Wigmore Hall's Education Department in Latin and Spanish. Else-where in UK, Clara has appeared at Oxford Chamber Music Festival, Leeds Lieder+, the recital series of Westminster School and the Oxford Lieder Festival, and appears regularly in Europe.

In addition to her partnership with Joseph Middleton, Clara performs in recitals with pianists Alvarez Parejo, Miguel Zanetti, Julius Drake and Malcolm Martineau, and alongside guitarist

9

Morgan Szymanski. Clara has recently been distinguished with an Independent Opera/ Wig-more Hall Voice Fellowship. She gratefully acknowledges the support and guidance of Juven-tudes Musicales de Madrid, Peter Moores Foundation, Kirckman Concert Society, Independent Opera and Wigmore Hall.

Joseph Middleton piano

Born in Gloucestershire, Joseph Middleton enjoys a busy and varied career as a chamber musi-cian and accompanist. He graduated with an MPhil from the University of Birmingham before studying piano at the Royal Academy of Music with Michael Dussek and Malcolm Martineau on an EMI Scholarship. Graduating with Distinction, he was also awarded the DipRAM, the Acad-emy’s highest award for postgraduate study and was subsequently appointed the Hodgson Junior Fellow.

Since leaving the Academy, he took up a residency as College Musician at Pembroke College Cambridge, was invited to be the inaugural pianist Samling Scholar, and has held a Junior Fel-lowship to the vocal faculty at the Royal College of Music. He joined the Steans Institute at the Ravinia Festival in Chicago as a staff accompanist, playing for the masterclasses of Matthias Goerne, Christoph Eschenbach and Dmitri Hvorostovsky.

Joseph’s competitive successes include the Accompaniment Prizes at the Wigmore Hall Inter-national Song Competition, Kathleen Ferrier Awards and Royal Over-Seas League Competition and the Geoffrey Parsons Memorial Award. In Germany, he recently won the Lied-Pianist Prize at the Internationaler Schubert-Wettbewerb LiedDuo 2009.

Joseph has given recitals with internationally established singers of the opera world, as well as rising stars from the younger generation. Recent performances have seen him appear alongside Sir Thomas Allen, Ann Murray DBE, Joan Rodgers, Amanda Roocroft, Katarina Karnéus, Andrew Kennedy, Geraldine McGreevy, Toby Spence, Clara Mouriz, Robert Murray, Katherine Broderick, Sally Burgess, Sophie Bevan, Allan Clayton, Ronan Collett, Robin Tritschler, Anna Leese, Sylvia Schwartz, Benedict Nelson, and Stephen Varcoe. Work with instrumentalists includes concerts with cellist Alexander Baillie, clarinettist Emma Johnson MBE and oboe player Nicholas Daniel.

He has devised programmes for Wigmore Hall (‘Colours of Spain’ with Lucy Crowe, Clara Mouriz, Allan Clayton and Ronan Collett), King’s Place (for a Samling residency), the National Portrait Gallery and the Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

10

In recent seasons, he has appeared at major music centres, including the Aix-en-Provence, Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Edinburgh, Three Choirs and Ravinia Festivals. He gives frequent recitals at such venues as the Wigmore Hall, Royal Opera House, Royal Festival Hall, Purcell Room, St. John’s, Smith Square, the Millennium Centre in Cardiff, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall, Bristol’s Colston Hall and The Sage Gateshead, as well as venues throughout Italy, Austria, Denmark, Belgium, Spain, Germany, France and the USA. Joseph has also made numerous live broadcasts for BBC Radio 3.

www.josephmiddleton.com

We at Sonimage would like to take this opportunity to thank you for purchasing this recording, and very much hope you have enjoyed it. As a small company, we value our customers highly, and welcome your feedback with comments or suggestions. For information about upcoming releases, or to join our e-mailing list, please visit our website at; www.sonimage.co.uk

11

Fragment of the original manuscript of Ai que linda moça by Ernesto Halffter (1940)

12

Manuel De Falla: Siete canciones populares espanolas / Seven Spanish folksongs

1. I El paño moruno / The Moorish cloth

Al paño fino, en la tienda, On the delicate fabric in the shop una mancha le cayó. there fell a stain.

Por menos precio se vende, It sells for less, porque perdió su valor. for it has lost its value. ¡Ay! Ay!

2. II Seguidilla murciana / Seguidilla from Murcia

Cualquiera que el tejado People who live tenga de vidrio, in glass houses no debe tirar piedras shouldn’t throw stones al del vecino. at their neighbour’s. Arrieros semos; We are drovers; ¡puede que en el camino, it may be nos encontremos! we’ll meet on the road!

Por tu mucha inconstancia, For your many infidelities yo te comparo I shall compare you con peseta que corre to a peseta passing de mano en mano. from hand to hand Que al fin se borra, till finally it’s worn down y creyéndola falsa and believing it false nadie la toma! no one will take it!

3. III Asturiana / Asturian song

Por ver si me consolaba, To see if it might console me arrimeme a un pino verde. I drew near a green pine. Por verme llorar, lloraba. To see me weep, it wept. Y el pino como era verde; And the pine, since it was green por verme llorar, lloraba! wept to see me weeping!

13

4. IV Jota / Jota

Dicen que no nos queremos, They say we’re not in love porque no nos ven hablar; since they never see us talk; A tu corazón y al mío, let them ask se lo pueden preguntar. your heart and mine.

Ya me despido de ti, I must leave you now, de tu casa y tu ventana your house and your window Y aunque no quiera tu madre, and though your mother disapprove, Adiós, niña, hasta mañana. goodbye, sweet love, till tomorrow.

5. V Nana / Lullaby

Duérmete, niño, duerme, Sleep, little one, sleep, duerme, mi alma, sleep, my darling, duérmete, lucerito, sleep, my little de la mañana. morning star. Nanita, nana, Lullay, lullay, duérmete, lucerito sleep, my little de la mañana. morning star.

6. VI Canción / Song

Por traidores, tus ojos, Since your eyes are treacherous, voy a enterrarlos. I’m going to bury them; No sabes lo que cuesta, you know not what it costs, «del aire», ‘del aire’, niña, el mirarlos, dearest, to gaze into them. «Madre, a la orilla». ‘Mother, a la orilla.’

Dicen que no me quieres, They Say you do not love me, ya me has querido. but you loved me once. Váyase lo ganado, Make the best of it «del aire», ‘del aire’.

por lo perdido, and cut your losses, «Madre, a la orilla». ‘Mother, a la orilla’.

14

7. VII Polo / Polo

¡Ay! Ay! Guardo una pena en mi pecho I have an ache in my heart que a nadie se la diré. of which I can tell no one.

¡Malhaya el amor, malhaya A curse on love, and a curse y quien me lo díó a entender! on the one who made me feel it! ¡Ay! Ay!

Ernesto Halffter: Três Canciones Portuguesas / Three Portuguese Songs

8. I Aestrelinha d'alva

Aestrelinha d'alva The small star at daybreak mudou de lugar, has changed its position, p`raver a memina to see the little girl lo go a cor dar when she wakes up

Ea estrela datarde, And the evening star, tremula, a sorrir, trembling, smiling, fez selamparina turned into a night light para aver dormir. to see her asleep.

9. II Gerinaldo

Gerinaldo, Gerinaldo Gerinaldo, Gerinaldo. Pagem d’Elrey tão querido Beloved vassal of the King Bem puderas Gerinaldo You could so well, Gerinaldo, Dormir a noite comigo! Spend the night with me!

I de abrir a minha porta Open my door Que elrey não seja sentido So the King does not sense it, Anda cá ó Gerinaldo Come here, Gerinaldo, Podeste deitar comigo! You can lay down with me!

Acordai ó bela Infanta Wake up, beautiful princess, Acordai que estou perdido Wake up, for I am lost,

15

O punhal d’oiro d’Elrey The king’s golden dagger Entre nós está metido! Lies between us.

O castigo que te dou The punishment that I give you Por seres meu pa gem querido For being my beloved vassal E’ que a tomes por mulher is that you take her as your wife E ela a ti por marido. and she takes you as her husband.

E as sim fiene bem feliz Like this, all ends happily Gerinaldo atrevido. For the impudent Gerinaldo.

10. III Ai que linda moça

Ai que linda moça Ah what a lovely young girl sai dá quela choça, is leaving that hovel, loi ra e engraçada blond and graceful. Le va arre gaçada Her crimson calico a saia en carnada dress is all de chita grosseira bunched up

E canta ro tando And the pretty thing vai gentil guiando, goes humming seu ditto sogado, guiding her herd. seu rebanho amado her beloved flock, sempre enamorado always enthralled da canção fagueira by her flattering song.

Tudo são tristezas, All is sorrow, tristezas e dôr sorrow and pain tudo são tristezas All is sorrow para o meu amor for my love

Enrique Granados

11. La maja dolorosa 1 / The grieving maja No. 1

¡Oh muerte cruel! O cruel death! ¡Por qué tú, a traición, Why didst thou treacherously

16

mi majo arrebataste a mi pasión? snatch away my majo from my desire? ¡No quiero vivir sin él, Without him I have no wish to live porque es morir, porque es morir for it is death, it is death así vivir! to live thus!

No es posible ya It is not possible sentir más dolor: to feel greater pain: en lágrimas deshecha ya mi alma está. my heart is dissolved in tears. ¡Oh Dios, torna mi amor, Oh God! Restore to me my love, porque es morir, porque es morir for it is death, it is death así vivir! to live thus!

12. La maja dolorosa 2 / The grieving maja No. 2

¡Ay majo de mi vida, Ah, majo of my life, no, no, tú no has muerto! no, no, you have not died! ¿Acaso yo existiese How could I go on living si fuera eso cierto? if this were true? ¡Quiero, loca, Demented, I desire besar tu boca! to kiss your mouth! Quiero, segura, I want, reassured, gozar más de tu ventura. to relish your fortune more, ¡Ay! de tu ventura! ah, your fortune!

Mas, ¡ay!, deliro, sueño: But alas!, I rant and dream mi majo no existe. my majo lives no more. En torno mío el mundo The world all around me lloroso está y triste. is weeping and sad. ¡A mi duelo no hallo consuelo! For my grief I find no solace! Mas muerto y frío But though dead and cold siempre el majo será mío my majo will ever be mine, ¡Ay! Siempre mío! ah, ever be mine!

13. La maja dolorosa 3 / The grieving maja No. 3

De aquel majo amante That loving majo que fue mi gloria who was my glory

17

guardo anhelante I remember with dichosa memoria. breathless happiness. El me adoraba He adored me vehemente y fiel. ardently and loyally. Yo mi vida entera My whole life Di a él. I gave to him. Y otras mil diera And a thousand more I’d have given, si él quisiera, if he had so wished: que en hondos amores for when love is deep, martirios son flores. torments are sweet. Y al recordar mi majo amado, And when I remember my beloved majo, van resurgiendo ensueños dreams of former days de un tiempo pasado. come flooding back.

Ni en el Mentidero Neither in Mentidero ni en la Florida nor la Florida majo más majo did a finer majo paseó en la vida. ever walk forth. Bajo el chambergo Beneath his sombrero sus ojos vi I saw his eyes con toda el alma fixed on me puestos en mí; with all his soul;

Que a quien miraban Whosoever they gazed on enamoraban, was filled with love for him. pues no hallé en el mundo I have nowhere in the world mirar más profundo. seen so profound a gaze.

Y al recordar mi majo amado, And when I remember my beloved majo, van resurgiendo ensueños dreams of former days de un tiempo pasado. come flooding back.

18

Joaquin Turina: Poema en forma de canciones / Poem in the form of songs, Op. 19 Poem by Ramón De Campoamor

14. I Dedicatoria

15. II Nunca olvida… / Do not forget…

Ya que este mundo abandono, Since this world I leave, antes de dar cuenta a Dios, before the final reckoning with God, aquí para entre los dos, here between the two of us mi confesión te diré. I shall make my confession.

Con toda el alma perdono With all my soul I forgive hasta a los que siempre he odiado. even those I’ve always hated. ¡A ti, que tanto te he amado, But you, whom I have loved so much, nunca te perdonaré! I shall never forgive!

16. III Cantares / Songs ¡Ay! Más cerca de mí te siento Ah! I feel you closer to me, cuando más huyo de ti, the more I flee from you, pues tu imagen es en mí, since I bear your likeness within me, sombra de mi pensamiento. as a shadow of my thoughts.

Vuélvemelo hoy a decir, Tell me again, pues, embelesado, ayer, since yesterday, spellbound, te escuchaba sin oír I listened to you without hearing y te miraba sin ver. and looked at you without seeing.

17. IV Los dos miedos / The two fears

Al comenzar la noche de aquel día, At nightfall on that day, ella, lejos de mí, far from me she said, ¿por qué te acercas tanto? me decía. why come so close? Tengo miedo de ti. I am afraid of you. Y después que la noche hubo pasado, And after the night had passed, dijo, cerca de mí, close to me she said, ¿por qué te alejas tanto de mi lado? why move so far away? Tengo miedo sin tí. I am afraid without you.

19

18. V Las locas por amor / Frantic for love

‘Te amaré, diosa Venus, si prefieres ‘I shall love you, goddess Venus, if you wish que te ame mucho tiempo y con cordura.’ me to love you long and wisely.’ Y respondio la diosa de Citeres: And the goddess of Cythera replied: ‘Prefiero, como todas las mujeres, ‘I wish, like all women, que me amen poco tiempo y con locura.’ to be loved fleetingly and frantically’.

Federico Mompou

19. I Pastoral / Pastorale (1945) Poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez

Los caminos de la tarde The paths of evening se hacen uno, con la noche. merge into one at night. Por él he de ir a tí, Upon that path I must go to you, amor que tanto te escondes. my love, who always hides.

Por él he de ir a tí, Upon that path I must go to you, como la luz de los montes, like the light of the mountains, como la brisa del mar, like the breeze of the sea, como el olor de las flores. like the scent of the flowers.

20. II Llueve sobre el río / It rains on the river (1945) Poem by Juan Ramón Jiménez

Llueve sobre el río . . . It rains on the river . . .

El agua estremece The water stirs los fragantes juncos the fragrant reeds de la orilla verde . . . on the green shore . . . ¡Ay, qué ansioso olor Ah, what an uneasy scent a pétalo frío! of cold petals!

Llueve sobre el río . . . It rains on the river . . .

Mi barca parece My boat seems to be mi sueño, en un vago my dream in a hazy mundo. ¡Orilla verde! world. Green shore!· ¡Ay, barca sin junco! Ah, boat adrift!

20

¡Ay, corazón frío! Ah, cold heart!

Llueve sobre el río . . . It rains on the river . . .

Xavier Montsalvatge: Cinco canciones negras / Five Negro songs (1945)

21. I Cuba dentro de un piano / Cuba in a piano Poem by Rafael Alberti

Cuando mi madre llevaba un sorbete de When my mother wore a strawberry ice fresa por sombrero for a hat y el humo de los barcos aún era humo de and the smoke from the boats was still habanero. Havana smoke.

Mulata vueltabajera… Mulata from Vuelta Abajo… Cádiz se adormecía entre fandangos y Cadiz was falling asleep to fandango habaneras and habanera y un lorito al piano quería hacer de and a little parrot at the piano tried to sing tenor. tenor. . . . dime dónde está la flor . . . tell me, where is the flower que el hombre tanto venera. that a man can really respect. Mi tío Antonio volvía con aire de My uncle Anthony would come home insurrecto. in his rebellious way. La Cabaña y El Príncipe sonaban por los The Cabana and El Principe resounded in patios de El Puerto. the patios of the port. (Ya no brilla la Perla Azul del mar de las (But the blue pearl of the Caribbean Antillas. shines no more. Ya se apagó, se nos ha muerto.) Extinguished. For us no more.) Me encontré con la bella Trinidad… I met beautiful Tninidad… Cuba se había perdido y ahora era de verdad. Cuba was lost, this time it was true. Era verdad, True no era mentira. and not a lie. Un cañonero huido llegó cantándolo en A gunner on the run arrived, sang Cuban guajiras. songs about it all. La Habana ya se perdío. Havana was lost Tuvo la culpa el dinero . . . and money was to blame . . . Calló, The gunner went silent,

21

cayó el cañonero. fell. Pero después, pero ¡ah! después But later, ah, later fué cuando al SI they changed SI lo hicieron YES. to YES.

22. II Punto de Habanera / Habanera rhythm Poem by Néstor Luján

La niña criolla pasa con su miriñaque blanco The Creole girl goes by in her white crinoline ¡Qué blanco! How white!

Hola crespón de tu espuma; The billowing spray of your crepe skirt! ¡marineros contempladla! Sailors, look at her! Va mojadita de lunas She passes gleaming in the moonlight que le hacen su piel mulata. which darkens her skin. Niña, no te quejes, Young girl, do not complain, tan sólo por esta tarde. only for tonight Quisiera mandar al agua do I wish the water que no se escape de pronto not to suddenly escape de la cárcel de tu falda, the prison of your skirt. tu cuerpo encierra esta tarde In your body this evening rumor de abrirse de dalia. dwells the sound of opening dahlias. Niña, no te quejes, Young girl, do not complain, tu cuerpo de fruta está your ripe body dormido en fresco brocado. sleeps in fresh brocade, Tu cintura vibra fina your waist quivers con la nobleza de un látigo, as proud as a whip, toda tu piel huele every inch of your skin is gloriously alegre fragrant a limonar y a naranjo. with orange and lemon trees. Los marineros te miran The sailors look at you y se te quedan mirando. and feast their eyes on you. La niña criolla pasa The Creole girl goes by con su miriñaque blanco. in her white crinoline. ¡Qué blanco! How white!

22

23. III Chévere / The dandy Poem by Nicolás Guillén

Chévere del navajazo, The dandy of the knife thrust se vuelve él mismo navaja: himself becomes a knife: pica tajadas de luna, he cuts slices of the moon, mas la luna se le acaba; but the moon is fading on him; pica tajadas de canto, he cuts slices of song, mas el canto se le acaba; but the song is fading on him; pica tajadas de sombra, he cuts slices of shadow, mas la sombra se le acaba, but the shadow is fading on him, y entonces pica que pica and then he cuts up, cuts up carne de su negra mala. the flesh of his evil black woman!

24. IV Canción de cuna para dormir a un negrito / Lullaby for a little black boy Poem by Ildefonso Pereda Valdés

Ninghe, ninghe, ninghe, Lullay, lullay, lullay, tan chiquitito, tiny little child, el negrito little black boy que no quiere dormir who won’t go to sleep.

Cabeza de coco, Head like a coconut, grano de café, head like a coffee bean, con lindas motitas, with pretty freckles con ojos grandotes and wide eyes como dos ventanas like two windows que miran al mar. looking out to sea.

Cierra los ojitos, Close your tiny eyes, negrito asustado; frightened little boy, el mandinga blanco or the white devil te puede comer. will eat you up. ¡Ya no eres esclavo! You are no longer a slave!

Y si duermes mucho, And if you sleep soundly, el señor de casa the master of the house promete comprar promises to buy

23

traje con botones a suit with buttons para ser un ‘groom’. to make you a ‘groom’.

Ninghe, ninghe, ninghe, Lullay, lullay, lullay, duérmete, negrito, sleep, little black boy, cabeza de coco, head like a coconut, grano de café. head like a coffee bean.

25. V Canto negro / Negro song Poem by Nicolás Guillén

¡Yambambó, yambambé! Yambambó, yambambé! Repica el congo solongo, The congo solongo is ringing, repica el negro bien negro; the black man, the real black man is ringing; congo solongo del Songo congo solongo from the Songo baila yambó sobre un pie. is dancing the yambo on one foot.

Mamatomba, Mamatomba, serembe cuserembá. serembe cuserembá.

El negro canta y se ajuma, The black man sings and gets drunk, el negro se ajuma y canta, the black man gets drunk and sings, el negro canta y se va. the black man sings and goes away.

Acuememe serembó, Acuememe serembó aé; aé; yambo, yambo, aé. aé.

Tamba, tamba, tamba, tamba, Bam, bam, bam, bam, tamba del negro que tumba; bam of the black man who tumbles; tumba del negro, caramba, drum of the black man, wow, caramba, que el negro tumba; wow, how the black man’s tumbling! ¡Yamba, yambo, yambambé! Yamba, yambo, yambambé!

Translation: © 2009 Richard Stokes / Clara Mouriz