Albeniz, from the piano to the wind

Celia Matamoro

Albéniz was one of Celia’s favorite composers from her childhood and always felt a special connection to his work. However, in the fifteen long years that she has been studying music, she has never been able to play any of his pieces on the bassoon. Now that she has finished her master's degree -and she had to reflect on where she comes from and, ultimately, who she is-, she decided to investigate the composer in depth with the aim of arranging his Spanish Suite, originally written for piano, so that at the end of so many things, she can interpret it with her reed quintet. Thanks to its flexibility and wide palette of colors, sound, and articulation, the combination of reed instruments achieves a greater range of register and color, and provides Albéniz's music, inspired by elements of flamenco and Spanish folklore such as cante jondo, a texture and expressiveness that evokes the human voice. Caire Reed Quintet was formed in 2020, in the midst of the Covid19 pandemic crisis. The five of them are from Spain and they share the same passion for Albéniz. With this work the author wishes to offer other composers and performers the opportunity to discover, learn and experience how much the reed quintet's sonority can contribute to certain styles of music such as Spanish nationalist, reaching a greater range of register and color, and endowing this style of music from a new perspective.

1.Introduction

I grew up surrounded by art.

My father is a painter and a fanatic of music, films and literature. Music was always played at home, even when we were not there. My dad would play many different records, from classical to rock, jazz, folk and funk; but an artist that would appear in our living room every single day was Isaac Albéniz, sometimes together with Turina, Granados or Falla. I consider his works the music of my roots, even though I never had the chance to interpret it, since it is music mainly written for piano. He also has several works for large ensembles (zarzuela, opera) but they are not as common as his piano works and they do not belong to a standard repertoire for orchestra.

I never thought it was even a possibility to play his works, but two years ago Caire reed quintet was born and the five of us happen that are from Spain and share this passion about nationalistic music from the early 20th century, so I thought this was the perfect moment to give this idea a try.

My knowledge about arranging was very basic, only from some lessons I took in my last year of bachelor. I remember I used to enjoy it a lot and somehow I could easily imagine how the music could sound when I was working on my arrangements. I’m learning a lot thanks to arranging this music for my own ensemble, and not only about arranging techniques, but about music in general and how to interpret it. This was a big discovery for me, since learning how to arrange for my instrument and others from the woodwind family is making me become a better musician and artist.

The aim of this research is to bring the repertoire from the early 20th century Spanish nationalist music closer to woodwind instrumentalists in order to give another sonority and interpretive approach to the repertoire; to contribute to the growth of the scarce original repertoire for reed quintet; to encourage other interpreters and composers; to learn more arranging skills in order to make my own adaptation of the music I’d like to play and overcome the barriers of orchestration.

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Celia Matamoro - Albeniz, from the piano to the wind - 2023