Spanish Dances (Danzas españolas)

Composer: GRANADOS, Enrique
  • Granados composed these pieces for his own performances as a piano recitalist. 1
  • These dances were some of Granados’s first works to be published. They were published individually, starting in the early 1809s.2
  • A critic in 1892 compared (favorably) Granados’s use of Spanish folk music in these pieces with Edvard Grieg’s use of Norwegian folk music in his piano music.3
  • One of Granados’s influences was the pioneering Spanish musicologist Felipe Pedrell. The young Granados studied with Pedrell while he was also studying piano in Barcelona.4
  • The individual names of the Spanish Dances did not appear in the first editions. They were added later by editors.5
  • The complete set of Spanish Dances appeared in 1900.6 In this edition they were separated into 4 volumes of 3 pieces each, the same structure as Albeniz’s Iberia.7

“Thank you for your Danzas españolas, they are excellent, charming as much for the melody as for the harmonization. It is strange that all these rich, authentic examples of certain nations have an air of family resemblance.”

César Cui8

Sources

  1. Rovi Staff, “Enrique Granados: Spanish Dances (12), in 4 volumes for piano, Op. 37, H. 142, DLR 1:2,” AllMsuic, accessed October 15, 2019, https://www.allmusic.com/composition/spanish-dances-12-in-4-volumes-for-piano-op-37-h-142-dlr-12-mc0002369784.
  2. Mark Larrad, “Granados (y Campiña), Enrique,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed October 15, 2019, accessed October 15, 2019, http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000011603.
  3. Staff, “Enrique Granados: Spanish Dances (12), in 4 volumes for piano, Op. 37, H. 142, DLR 1:2,” AllMsuic.
  4. Larrad, “Granados (y Campiña), Enrique,” Grove Music Online.
  5. Ibid.
  6. John Gillespie, Five Centuries of Keyboard Music (New York: Dover, 1972), 321.
  7. Antonio Iglesias, liner notes to Granados, E.: 12 Spanish Dances, Rosa Torres-Pardo, Naxos 8.554313, CD, 1998.
  8. Enrique Martinez Miura, liner notes to Enrique Granados: Spanish Dances (Orch. R. Ferrer), Barcelona Symphony and Catalonia National Orchestra, Salvador Brotons, Naxos 8.555956, CD, 2002.

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