Jesús Arámbarri (1902-1960)
Eight Basque Songs • In Memoriam • Spanish Fantasy
Jesús Arámbarri is a significant figure in the history of
twentieth-century Basque music. A romantic, scholarly and sensitive musician of
extraordinary insight and finesse, he drew not only on the tradition
established by Felipe Pedrell, Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albéniz, but also on
the work of his fellow Basque composers José María Usandizaga, Jesús Guridi and
Father José Antonio de Donostia. Although his fame rests primarily on his work
as a conductor, he also composed a series of stylish and expressive pieces,
earning him a rightful place of honour within the ranks of Basque composers.
Arámbarri
was born in Bilbao in 1902 and began his musical education there before
travelling to Paris, where he stayed until 1932, to study composition with
Dukas and conducting with Golschmann. He then went on to further conducting
studies with Felix Weingartner in Basle. Some of his most important works date
from his student years: the Four Impromptus, the orchestral prelude Gabon-zar
sorgiñak, the String Quartet in D, the Canto elegíaco for piano written in
homage to Juan Crisóstomo de Arriaga, and the Eight Basque Songs for soprano
and orchestra (1932).
On
his return to Bilbao Arámbarri worked almost exclusively as a conductor and
only wrote a few more works, most of which were conceived as tributes to those
who had most influenced his career: Ofrenda (1946) for Manuel de Falla, In
memoriam (1939) for Juan Carlos de Gortázar, and Dedicatoria (1949) for Javier
Arisqueta. His only other compositions are the ballet Aiko-Maiko, the zarzuela
Viento Sur and the orchestral works Fantasía española and Castilla. As well as
taking charge of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, he also appeared as guest
conductor with all the major Spanish orchestras, introducing audiences to a
large number of new works. He was appointed permanent conductor of Madrid’s
Banda Sinfónica in 1953 and died in 1960 while conducting the ensemble at the
Parque del Retiro.
Arámbarri’s
sound academic background, his feeling for the folk-music of his native region
and his ability to give form and colour to any kind of musical image, enabled
him to create music characterized by its elegance and restrained Romanticism,
with celebratory as well as dramatic and sombre resonances in his tribute
pieces. He excelled above all in orchestral writing and had a sharp sense of
the practicalities of performance, acquired through his long experience of
conducting other people’s works and composing his own from the perspective of
the performer-composer relationship.
Short
orchestral pieces have a special place in Arámbarri’s production - even his
earliest works demonstrate his predilection for melodic, transparent writing
which draws its inspiration from existing material, such as the Basque
folk-songs which lie behind Gabon-zar sorgiñak (Witches on New Year’s Eve) and
the Four Impromptus. He was known for the way in which he isolated different
orchestral timbres: his motifs almost always pass from one instrument to
another within a relatively small ensemble. Exchanges between different
sections then produce very clearly defined colour contrasts, with very little
blending. There is something playful, childlike and joyous in this search for
opposing or contradictory sounds (the harmonic progressions are controlled with
greater precision in the more lyrical Impromptus).
The
Eight Basque Songs, taken from love-songs and lullabies collected by
Resurrección María de Azcue and Padre Donostia, show Arámbarri’s development as
a composer. The influence of Falla’s Siete canciones populares españolas can be
discerned, although Arámbarri’s treatment is very different. Rather than
transforming the songs into anything more sophisticated, he allows them to
speak for themselves, with the accompaniment of gentle rhythms and subtle,
velvety strings, always within a moderate dynamic range. The harp plays a major
rôle throughout the cycle and the winds are employed with great wit towards the
end.
A
sense of pent-up emotion is woven through the tributes to Manuel de Falla -
Ofrenda (Offering) - and Juan Carlos de Gortázar - In memoriam. The former,
written one day and first performed the next, borrows the rhythm of the farruca
from the older composer’s Three-Cornered Hat, over which the sorrowful voice of
the cor anglais gradually unfolds a tune that develops motifs taken from
Falla’s music. The latter quotes from the chorus of Guridi’s Así cantan los
chicos, whose text was by Gortázar, and from the Gregorian Dies irae.
Although
the Fantasia española - Arámbarri’s contribution to the Parisian trend for
Spanish-flavoured pieces - is not lacking in the colours traditionally
associated with that country’s music, castanets included, the composer did not
strictly adhere to the idea held in Paris of “Spanish atmosphere”. Once again
his preference for isolating the melodies and entrusting them to the more
lyrical instruments (the oboes among the wind, and cellos among the strings) is
evident, giving the “local colour” motifs derived from the tonadilla and the
seguidilla a different treatment. Lyricism also lies at the heart of the
intermezzo from the zarzuela Viento Sur (South Wind, 1952) which dramatises a
true story dating from 1890, when bets on a race between the fishing-boats of
Ondárroa and San Sebastián caused the ruin of the village of Ondárroa. This is
a brief episodic fragment for reduced forces, in which the zarzuela’s principal
themes are initially introduced by the string and woodwind sections, then given
to solo oboe and violin, creating a dialogue whose restrained expressiveness
helps establish an oppressive, dramatic atmosphere.
Santiago Gorostiza
English version: Susannah Howe
