Emmanuel Chabrier
España
Emmanuel Chabrier’s family intended him to be a lawyer, and he dutifully studied, passed his exams, and worked in the Ministry of the Interior for eighteen years. But his passion was always music, and he began composing on the side, publishing many minor works and two operettas before finally abandoning his ministry post in 1880 to devote his time to composition.
He loved the stage and wrote many comic operas as befitted his generally sunny personality. These works were popular at the time, but his musical influence was deeper than mere public fancy. His colorful musical palette and adept compositional ability brought him admirers such as Maurice Ravel, who later wrote that “all of contemporary French music stems from [Chabrier’s] work.”
It was España that established Chabrier as a composer of serious works. In 1882 he visited Spain with his wife and family, and was enchanted by the energy of Iberian music. He described the dancers at the café concerts to a friend: “If you could see them wiggle, unjoint their hips, contort, I believe you would not want to get away! At Malaga I was compelled to take my wife away…” Returning to Paris, he promised the conductor Charles Lamoureux he would write a Spanish-themed piece that would cause audience members to leap up and embrace each other. Though the first performance in 1883 may not have ended in a group hug, the piece did catch fire with the public, and its themes were so memorable that the main melody was a hit again 73 years later in a 1956 ditty called “Hot Diggity” (with the chorus: “oh hot diggity, dog ziggity, boom what you do to me”).
Though he first wrote España for piano, Chabrier quickly realized it needed the thrust and brilliance that orchestration could give it, and he makes full use of his resources. Written in a traditional sonata form, the two main themes contrast the tempestuous Spanish jota with the slower, lyrical malagueña. The kinetic first theme, by means of repeated hemiolas, seems to be in three and two simultaneously (much like “America” in West Side Story). In the development, Chabrier hints at the “endless variety of rhythms” that he heard superimposed on the basic 3/4 pattern of the dance. A new theme is introduced by the trombones, punctuated by references to the opening theme. The conventional recapitulation is followed by an exciting coda that brings back the trombone theme for a brilliant conclusion. If we are not left dancing in the aisles, it is only because we have suppressed Chabrier’s delicious enticement.
April 1, 2001