Manuel Blancafort (1897-1987)
Complete Piano Music, Vol. 1
Manuel Blancafort i de Rosselló was born on 12th August 1897
in the spa town of La Garriga, near Barcelona, into an educated, middle-class
Catalan family. His parents owned a famous hotel in the town which was
frequented by many artists, intellectuals and politicians. An enterprising man,
and an enthusiast for technological innovation, his father had also set up a
factory in La Garriga to produce pianola rolls, and this in effect became
Blancafort’s music school.
Blancafort studied music first with his father, and then
with Joan Alsius, who taught him the basics of composition. Then, as a
teenager, he began to work in the family factory. It was his job to examine
music scores in minute detail and convert the notes into series of perforations
on rolls of paper. He was therefore able to learn all about different styles of
writing, from the classical composers to the latest works by Debussy, Ravel and
Schoenberg, among others, and to complete his musical education — to all
intents and purposes he was self-taught. Life at the hotel also gave him the
opportunity to meet a number of musicians and composers, including Joan Lamote
de Grignon and Frederic Mompou, both of whom gave him advice and looked over
his early compositions.
It was his meeting with Mompou, in 1914, that was to prove
the most significant for the young Blancafort, not only musically but also
aesthetically and spiritually. Mompou took on the rôle of elder brother,
supporting Blancafort and guiding him as he took his first steps as a composer,
as well as helping him find his way around the rich and innovative musical
scene of 1920s Paris.
The première of Blancafort’s El parc d’atraccions (The
funfair), given by the pianist, Ricardo Viñes, in Paris in 1926, was
enthusiastically received by that city’s demanding public, and Maurice Sénart,
one of the leading French publishing houses, took an interest in the young
composer and went on to publish most of his works.
Unfortunately, a promising career was soon brought to an
end: the demands of family life (he was to have eleven children), the closure
of his father’s factory (caused by the growing success of the gramophone), and
problems arising from the Spanish Civil War combined to oblige Blancafort to
set up home in Barcelona and spend most of the rest of his life working for an
insurance company. Despite the restrictions this entailed, he was nevertheless
able, with the support of his remarkable wife, to find a few precious moments
in which he could compose, eventually building up a sizeable catalogue of works
which represent “the living synthesis of Catalan musical culture” (Manuel
Valls).
Spanish isolation during the Franco years, and in particular
the closure of the French border, made it difficult for Blancafort to achieve
any international fame for his work, but he won prizes and official
distinctions in his native country from 1949 until his death in Barcelona on
8th January 1987.
Blancafort’s work is clearly rooted in Catalan traditions,
and its emotional and aesthetic content is always bound to a stable formal
structure. This “classical” approach, in the strict sense of the word, where
intellect reigns over sentiment, is present in even his earliest works. In
these, despite numerous touches of Romanticism, the composer succeeded in
creating, in his own words, “something that stands up”. His music has a clarity
and simplicity far-removed from the German transcendentalism in fashion at the
time, his aim being to compose music which was “tonal, logical and concise”. To
this end he took French music as his model, although he believed it was not a
question of “giving Catalan music a French flavour … it has to speak of things
Catalan in a European idiom”.
Blancafort’s choice of the piano for his first compositions
was quite natural, given his years of close contact with the pianola, his
feeling for French aesthetics and his friendship with Mompou, a fine pianist.
The early works (1915–19) recorded for this first volume
demonstrate Blancafort’s preference for short pieces, either complete in themselves
or as sections of a cycle, and for the simple form of the Lied, as well as his
interest in everyday subjects and intimate feelings, influenced by the natural
world and by a sense of nostalgia and longing: “I have always loved silence and
isolation … I grew up in a world of melancholy which I myself created”. The
young composer was setting his imagination to music as he searched for a
personal idiom.
The seven Peces de joventut (Youthful pieces), most of which
are written in minor keys, are a good example of this fundamentally romantic
attitude, and are a direct introduction to the composer’s world. His first
work, Record (Memory), was probably written and rewritten many times before
reaching this final version. It brings together the aspects typical of his
later production, simplicity of language, and a fine melodic and harmonic
sensibility within a well-structured framework, and owes a clear debt to
Grieg’s Lyrische Stücke.
The mysteries of nature were an inexhaustible source of
inspiration for Blancafort, as can be seen for instance in the nine Cançons de
muntanya (Mountain songs — genuine songs without words) in which we hear the
gentle lullaby of the wind caressing the branches (I) and a soothing snowfall
on to a frozen landscape (III); we are present at sunset (VI and VIII) and in a
valley covered by a dawn mist (II); we feel the sadness of remembrance and
farewell (IV and VII) and the joy of reaching the summit in the dazzling light
of day (V and IX).
The eight pieces that make up Notes d’antany (Notes from
years gone by) are steeped in the same introspective atmosphere as the previous
works and are strikingly mature. Lament (Lamentation) and La lluna brilla
(Moonlight) anticipate the Nocturns (written 20 years later), Record
d’infantesa (Childhood memory) expresses nostalgia for a bygone age, while the
autumnal light which opens the cycle, En arribar la tardor (When autumn comes),
with a russet carpet of fallen leaves, Al jardí (In the garden), dissipates and
is swept aside by the merriment of friends in Els joiosos companyons (The happy
friends) and the spring birdsong of Ocells al cel d’abril (Birds in the April sky).
Blancafort often turned to song in his early days, attracted
by its miniature structure and popular nature. This can be seen in his 12
Cançons, as can his interest in traditional Catalan tunes. He believed strongly
in the importance of nationalism in music and was keen to follow in the
footsteps of Albéniz, Granados and Falla, but with a Catalan bias. The last
four songs, like the Tema popular from Notes d’antany (which takes its theme
from the traditional Catalan song La filla del carmesí), are full of rich and
inventive harmonies. Cançó en la solitud, Cançó del capvespre, Cançó en
l’ermita and Cançó a la platja (Song of solitude, Song of twilight, Song of the
hermitage and Song of the beach) once again set to music the poetic vision of a
young man inclined to solitude and with a love of nature.
The composer was also fascinated by the theme of childhood.
In the same way as Debussy’s Children’s Corner, Cançó de la canalla (Children’s
song) and Cançoneta per adormir (Lullaby) take us back to our younger days,
using the carefree joy of a children’s round and the soporific effects of a
gently monotonous song, while in Cançó del pastoret (The little shepherd’s
song), the shepherd plays his flute in harmony with the echo from the
mountains.
Miquel Villalba
English version: Susannah Howe
