Spanish dances by Félix Máximo López (1742-1821)
Updated: Oct 13
Spanish dances by Félix Máximo López, almost all of which are contained in my two editions, “Integral Music for Harpsichord and Pianoforte” and the opera in three acts “El Disparate O La Obra De Los Locos” (LOS LOCOS).
- Minuets (and Afandangados Minuets)
- La Cachucha
- Macarronica Contradanza
- Spanish Fandango (variations)
- Stracto de la Polaca (variations)
- Vals de la Marica
- In voleras (note that he does not write bolero, nor boleras or seguidillas)
- Seguiriyas [Seguidilla - Andante in the Tonadilla “La Conversación” - see at the end of this article]
- Rondos
- Pastoral “Malbruk”
-Canzoneta for solo and 4 players
- 1st and 2nd Prayer
- Spanish Jota (?? In hypothesis)
[Folia? For the folía a single strike was enough, since it was a well-known music and it was usual for musicians to have in their particular repertoire multiple strikes of specific folías to serve as support for the dance that could be applied at the moment.]
In general, almost all the numbers (although the name of the dance or dance is not specifically specified in the manuscript) of the work have a character between dynamic and humorous, for example the beginning of the 3rd. Act from the opera/nonsense/first modern zarzuela, "Los Locos", with the Andantino and the following Tercet (Ciego, Sordo y Mudo) where he mentions the cumbé -a certain dance of blacks introduced in Spain in the 18th century-, the Allegro no mucho and the Piú Allegro, also seem to have a pastoral sense, or a more lively spirit. Or, La Fiesta de Toros could be a rondo in 6/8 and later 2/4, which goes from Andante to Allegro Maestoso and Vivo [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=98E7yz5gN_M]
Dance was fundamental in the 18th century stage Tonadilla (a distinctly Madrid musical manifestation that reached its peak with the reigns of Charles III and Charles IV from the second half of the 18th century), a clear example is this title: El Maestro de Baile, by Mison (1761). Composers of dances in the Tonadilla escénica of the time of Félix Máximo López: Luis Misón, Esteve, Anónimos, Rosales, Presas, León, Laserna, Pablo del Moral and Marcolini.
The contradanzas, collective dances of loose interdependent couples, constituted a phenomenon in the 18th century of a social and playful nature. They formed part of the current of popular social dances in Europe. Although its etymological origin is “Country Dance” and the first place where it was danced was England, it uses links already known in Spain in the 17th century. In the last third of the 18th century, numerous booklets were published with choreographic descriptions and musical notation, such as the Contradanzas Nuevas that were to be danced in the theater of the interim house of comedies of the city of Valencia in the masked dances of the immediate carnival of the year 1769 (Valencia: Benito Monfort, 1769). The famous writers of the time, Minguet and Irol, Ferriol and Boxeraus, included sections dedicated to this type of dance in their treatises.
THE MINUET (Minué) OR MINUET (Minuetto)
Afandangado Minuet with 6 variations in G minor
[Based on the TAN-TIN-TUN of the ancient stick dance of the Aragonese town of Jorcas, as I explained many years ago on my website: https://www.superopera.com/Articles/jorcas2.html ]
6 Variations to the Fandangado Minuet in D minor
Sonata C.A.C. nr. 5 – 2nd Mov. - Tempo di Minuetto - Trio (07:46)
Sonata C.A.C. n. 6 in D M
[2] Minuet - Trio 8:30
(Free transcription of Symphony No. 73 in D major "La Chasse" by Jospeh Haydn)
Sonata C.A.C. n. 7 in C major
[2] Minuetto Tempo 6:55
Sonata C.A.C. nr. 8 in G Major
2nd movement: Minuetto. Allegretto – Trio
Sonata C.A.C. No. 9 in C Major
3rd mov.: Minuet-Trio
Sonata C.A.C. No. 10 in G Major
3rd mov.: Tempo di Minuetto en Canon
[Quite literal transcription of the third movement of Joseph Haydn's Symphony No. 23]
Sonata C.A.C. No. 11 in F Major
3rd. mov.: Tempo di Minuetto - Trio – Minuetto
[Using the beginning of the theme of the third movement of Symphony No. 67 by Joseph Haydn to make a composition of my own]
Sonata C.A.C. No. 12 in C Major
3rd mov.: Tempo di Minuetto - Trio – Minuetto
Sonata C.A.C. No. 13
2nd mov.: Minuetto- Allegro
Sonata for four hands No. 1 in C Major
2nd. mov.: Tempo di Minuetto
Symphony of THE CRAZIES - Act I
Minuet Allegro 7:05
Symphony of THE CRAZIES - Act I
8:10 Tempo di Minuetto (D.C. al Minuetto)
Interlude Symphony – Act I - Scene V of THE CRAZIES
Minuet Pausado - 2:10
SCENE XIII of THE CRAZIES
Minuet of Calle Ordinario 2:21
Atyranized and Voleras Minuet (inspired by Felix Maximo Lopez)
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RONDO
Rondo in F Major (Andante)
Rondo in F Major (Allegretto)
Sonata C.A.C. No. 8 in G Major
1st mov.: Andante Rondo
[Free transcription of the second movement of Symphony No. 73 by Joseph Haydn]
Sonata for four hands No. 2 in C Major
3rd. mov.: Rondo
The rondo (rondeau) is a musical form of French origin elevated to the rank of courtly dance by the composer and dancer Jean-Baptiste Lully.
"Extract from the Polish with 6 variations"
Variations of the Spanish Fandango in D minor
Spanish Jota (I)
Spanish Jota (II)
(? In hypothesis. Composition by Alberto Cobo)
Macaronic contradanza
Interlude Symphony – Act I - Scene V of LOS LOCOS
Cachucha 3:55
Marica Waltz and Dance 1:03
Interlude Symphony – Act I - Scene V from LOS LOCOS
Pastoral “Malbruk”
(A pastoral is a composition of music intended for country dances in villages dedicated to pastoral life)
Scene XVII from Los Locos
Pastoral. Allegretto (Tris-tris, tris-tris, tris-tris...)
Instrumental voleros 3:57
"Extract from the Polish with 6 variations"
In volero (Var. 6) 2:55
Canzoneta a solo y a 4
[Una Canzoneta también puede ser considerada una danza. Ejemplo de ello se aprecia también en la "Canzonetta spagnuola" de Rossini, interpretada por Cecilia Bartoli
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First Prayer 3:54 (St. Peter being in Rome...)
Second Prayer 5:26 (Rita's praises...)
[Since they are in ¾ time, it could be judged that these two prayers also have a danceable rhythmic sense]
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[Capricho, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aCYfyFDU8AY (Nigel Glendinning tells us that in the theatre “capricho” also often meant the same as “tune”, “story” or “idea”, that is, the fictitious picture of customs that was painted in the ditties, but he underlines as more interesting that the word “capricho” apart from having the meaning mentioned above, also has “that of a spectacle from which some moral example could be drawn.” The same author has found a close similarity between the language of the tonadillas and some of the plates of Goya’s Caprichos.
As a committed man of his time, Goya participated with his means of expression in warning, criticizing, moralizing, satirizing, etc. of the dangers that threatened society, among which was “fashion.” From his letter sent to Zapater around 1790, we know of the painter’s interest in tonadilla lyrics. Fashion also participated in this capricious term, and for this reason it could not go unnoticed by the praise or musical criticism reflected in the texts of the tonadillas.
Observe what he says about the 1799 tonadilla entitled La Moderna Educación:
“..Moda, moda, ¿Cuál nos tienes?
¿Cuál nos traes?¿Cuál nos llevas?
Con tus locos caprichos
Y tus quimeras,
Las cabezas conviertes
En calaveras...”
“..Fashion, fashion, which one do you have for us?
Which one do you bring us? Which one do you take to us?
With your crazy whims
And your chimeras,
You turn heads
Into skulls...”
The importance given to that daily practice of dressing and its companion, fashion
is reflected in the multiple orders, prohibitions and continuous references in all the media of expression of the time, to its continuous changes and to all those who followed them,
making them responsible for it “in large part or in whole the whims, inventions and greeds of tailors, shoemakers, valets, dressmakers, confectioners, cooks, hairdressers and other individuals equally useful to the vigor and glory of states...”).
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Dance from "La Sardinera" [The Sardine Factory] for keyboard, versed in Félix Máximo López (1742-1821).
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FIRST WORLD EDITION PUBLISHED
"Ürtext" score edited by Alberto Cobo, of the Seguiriya del Lamento (Seguidilla del Lamento) from the stage song "La Conversación", by Félix Máximo López (1741-1821).
[World Championship of Musicological Editions, International Prize for Best Editor 2024]
Version with solo piano
Seguiriya del Lamento de Cleopatra
De un Aspid poseído
se halla mi pecho.
Oh, qué fatal desgracia,
oh, qué cruel tormento.
[De un Aspid poseído se halla mi pecho/ se halla mi pecho]
Se halla mi pecho,
a sentirlo me obliga.
A sentirlo me obliga,
más no a creerlo.
Entre dudas, temores, ansias,
fatigas, triste y sin esperanza,
hallo el fin de mi vida.
Si a mis pasadas dichas hago recuerdo,
verdugo de mí misma,
más me atormento.
Daré, daré al ayre suspiros.
Me que, me quejaré a los cielos.
Más en vano juzgo sea todo lamento, sí,
más en vano juzgo sea,
en vano juzgo sea,
todo lamento, todo lamento.
Quien así vive,
no pregunte la causa
si es ynfelice.
Sigueria from Cleopatra's Lament
My breast is possessed by an Asp.
Oh, what a fatal misfortune,
oh, what a cruel torment.
[My breast is possessed by an Asp/ My breast is]
My breast is,
I am forced to feel it.
I am forced to feel it,
but not to believe it.
Among doubts, fears, anxieties,
fatigues, sad and without hope,
I find the end of my life.
If I remember my past joys,
I am the executioner of myself,
I am more tormented.
I will give, I will give sighs to the air.
I will complain to the heavens.
But in vain do I judge all lamentation, yes,
but in vain do I judge,
in vain do I judge,
all lamentation, all lamentation.
He who lives like this,
does not ask the cause
if he is unhappy.
copyright © 2024 by Alberto Cobo
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