Classical Music | Violin Music

Recorded on 03/02/2011, uploaded on 08/16/2011

Musician's or Publisher's Notes

I. El paño moruno -- II. Nana -- III. Canción -- IV. Polo -- V. Asturiana -- VI. Jota

Manuel de Falla wrote a set of seven mininature pieces for voice and piano entitled Siete Canciones Populares Espanoles in 1914, shortly before his departure from Paris where he had lived since 1907 and met various composers that influenced his style, including Claude Debussy, Paul Dukas and Maurice Ravel.  Six of the seven songs were later transcribed for violin and piano by the Polish violinist Paul Kochanski and the composer himself under the title Suite Populaire Espagnole. The ordering of the songs did not follow de Falla´s original order from the version for voice. All of the pieces are either de Falla´s arrangements of pre-existing melodies from popular sources (El pano moruno, Nana, Cancion and Asturiana) or original compositions of his, deeply inspired by folk tradition (Polo and Jota). The accompaniment of the melodies often sounds modal and Kochanski added pizzicatos, harmonics and other idiomatic violin techniques for flair.    Hulda Jonsdottir

Courtesy of International Music Foundation.