El trío con piano en españa en los siglos XIX y XX

Abstract

This doctoral thesis deals with the study of the tradition of Piano Trio written by Spanish composers in the 19th and 20th centuries. To ensure the whole vision is as complete as possible, more than one hundred works for violin, cello and piano have been included in the research —from an almost similar number of composers— to which an analysis has been carried out at different levels of depth, regarding their relevance and contribution to clarify the evolutionary path and trajectory of this chamber music genre —in itself and as a prominent group among the different approaches that the pieces composed for this particular ensemble take—. Along the main body of the text, three sections have been established according to their content. In the first one (chapter I), the history and background of the Piano Trio in Spain in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries are considered, where the lack of a compositional practice in the genre contrasts with the solid tradition displayed by areas of Germanic or French influence. The entry of the harpsichord in the Court of Fernando VI (1713-1759) thanks to his wife María Bárbara de Braganza (1711-1758) and Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1757), as well as chamber music written by both padre Antonio Soler (1729-1783) and Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805), serve as a starting point to contemplate the union of strings and keyboard within a single instrumental group in a relatively balanced way. However, although the composition of original works specifically for violin, cello and piano was almost non-existent, the interpretative practice of this instrumental ensemble was already established. The proximity of France, the wealthier economy of a society that abandoned the rural area and the incipient piano manufacturing industry seem to have contributed to the fact that the first Spanish work within this genre appeared in Catalonia, the Piano Trio in F major (c1856 - c1863) by Pedro Tintorer y Segarra (1814-1891), when the composer, like many others of his generation, returned from abroad to settle again in Spain. The second block (chapter II) represents a journey across the output for violin, cello and piano in Spain, from its emergence (around 1850) to its dissolution (1980-1990), alluding to the creative framework of each composition —within each composer’s life and the socio-cultural context in which it was conceived—, the difficulties associated to the manuscript location and its edition, the premiere and reception and other aspects of importance in order to show how each piece represents a particular link of the long chain this research explores. The third part of the text (chapters III to VI) presents a deep formal and aesthetic analysis of selected works among the previous chapter ones, from the pioneers in Spain (1850-1875), going through the first impulses (1879-1904) and the development and blooming of the genre (1917-1937), up to the wide diversity of creative approaches for violin, cello and piano after the Spanish Civil War (1940-1990) due to a progressive more personal attitude of Spanish composers, which forces to reconsider the scope of this investigation the closer it gets to the final stages of the 20th century. Among all the characteristics that can be analyzed, the features that most clearly conform a traceable evolutionary line have been further considered: the use of elements from national folklore, the alternatives to the great forms as a strategy to accommodate the popular music elements within the classical structures, the use of cyclic procedures, the number of movements, the dialectical relationship between the instruments, the texture or the language —more conservative or avant-garde—. According to these features, three large groups can be formed: the Piano Trios belonging to the tradition of the genre —on which this research is focused—; the works that, based on tradition, suggest structural alternatives (ending up, in many cases, in suite-like forms); and compositions that use the ensemble as canvas on which crystallizing a personal perception of a place, a situation, a feeling, a symbol or a person. The research shows how, despite the limited number of pieces and the late start (compared to other countries such as France or Germany), the trajectory of the Piano Trio in Spain has both its own national features —as a readjustment of the great classical forms proportional to the inclusion of elements related to the popular music or national folklore and a subsequent search for coherence and cohesion through different cyclical procedures— and also characteristics in common with the works for violin, cello and piano in the international framework. In short, the Piano Trio in Spain represents an important page for the understanding of Spanish chamber music, since the lack of a consolidated tradition enables, somehow, a high degree of versatility and variability that needs to be studied both synchronously and as part of a unique evolutionary line that encompasses almost two centuries from its origin to its dissolution within a renewed scope of approaches.