Spanish Dance No. 4: Villanesca

Main page for Granados’ Danzas espagñolas

• “Villanesca” is actually an Italian term meaning “rustic.” ¹ Granados marked this piece “alla pastorale,”² so even if the title “Villanesca” is editorial, we know he intended a country feeling for this dance.
• The term villanesca originates as an early identifier for Renaissance Neapolitan pieces called villanellas, which were vocal pieces on rustic topics.³

1. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4^th ed., s.v. “Villanesca” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).
2. “12 Danzas españolas (Granados, Enrique),” IMSLP, accessed October 15, 2019, https://imslp.org/wiki/12_Danzas_espa%C3%B1olas_(Granados,_Enrique).
3. Harvard Dictionary of Music, 4^th ed., s.v. “Villanella” (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2003).