Phonograph Monthly Review, Vol. 1, No. 5 (1927-02)

212 The Phonograph Monthly Review companiment another, and the castanets still another, giving an effect not found elsewhere. Soledades (2) is an interesting song by Alvarez, of a character well indicated by its name (Solitudes). Two rather engaging songs of Moorish deriva- tion are A Mi Sultana, (3) in serenade style, and La Bayadera Cristiana (4). Oriental chroma- ticism is not so monotonously apparent in these two songs, which are really quite pleasing to the Occidental ear. One might go on and on enumerating these attractive songs, but time and space forbid. We must now pass to THE MUSIC OF SPANISH AMERICA While much of the music of Spain is popular in the Spanish-American countries, nevertheless they have their own musicians whose composi- tions are far from lacking in beauty and attract- iveness. Naturally, Spanish rhythms are much employed, but both melody and rhythm are in- fluenced by those of the original inhabitants: the Aztecs of Mexico, the Incas of Peru, the gauchos of Argentina, the Indians of Porto Rico, etc. While perpetuating Spanish and native traditions, the modern Spanish-American composer has not failed to inject much originality into his work. Here in itself is a broad field for study which will repay the investigator richly in interest and enjoyment. We are most familiar, perhaps, with Mexican music, that country being our near neighbor. Our own Frank La Forge, by his arrangements of Mexican folk-tunes, has done much to make several of them known to us. Among them is El Cefiro (1), a bright and spirited song; and Preguntale a las Estrellas (7), a beautiful melody most interestingly arranged, with that hint of pathos which one finds in many Mexican songs, and which is achieved by melody and rhythm, without the usual recourse to the minor mode. Miguel Lerdo de Tejada, a popular and prolific Mexican composer, has written many attractive songs, among them La Per jura (8), a danza, in which we find the ubiquitous Habanera rhythm. Alfonso Esparza Oteo is another well-known Mexican composer and musician, from whose pen we have a most effective composition, Mi Viejo Amor (9), with its contrasting legato and stac- cato passages, and a hint of heartbreak in the melody. # La Tristeza de Pierrot (5) is a song representa- tive of the work of Belisario de Jesus Garcia; and Tomas Ponce Reyes, among other composi- tions, has given us La Chanda (6), a danza which well illustrates his style. In Porto Rico, J. Morell Campos stands first among composers. He has been especially suc- cessful with the danza, an instrumental form most characteristically Porto Rican, to which words are frequently adapted. His danza, Laura y Georgina (7), named after and dedicated to the Misses Laura and Georgina Capo, is a melo- dious composition in which syncopation has been employed with good effect. The words for the representative song of Porto Rico have been written by Manuel Fernandez Juncos to a danza by Felix Astol, La Borinqjiena (1), so named from Borinquen, the Indian name for Porto Rico. Here we again find the charac- teristic Spanish rhythm of a dotted eighth note followed by a sixteenth, which also occurs in the habanera and tango. In South America, Argentina has given us in- numerable tangos. Senor Carlos Valderrama has spent much time among the Incas of Peru, and has collected and transcribed many of these “Inca Rhythms” (2), as he calls them; and their decidedly Asiatic character bears out the theory of the Mongol origin of these people. In the more modern music of Peru we find the waltz form illustrated in such songs as La Alondra and Lucia (3). The guitar accompaniments to these two songs are especially interesting. El Cantar Eterno and La Constancia (4) are from Chile, the first a duet in tonada form, the second a cancion (song in ballad style) for soprano. Ay, Ay, Ay (5) is also from Chile, and is a song rather out of the ordinary. Again, space forbids a further exposition. How- ever, I do wish to touch briefly on the adaptation of Spanish music to our modern North American dances. These will come as a revelation to those of us accustomed to an instrumentation dominated by saxophone and tenor banjo; and to an orches- tration, the attempted super-syncopation of which destroys whatever beauty and originality the composer may have achieved. But so long as we in the United States are satisfied with this, we shall be given nothing better. Our American composers have written melodies of considerable beauty and originality; and their ingenuity in rhythmic invention cannot be surpassed. We should, therefore, demand an adequate instrumen- tation and orchestration. In the Spanish forms of the fox trot, waltz, and tango, beauty is always paramount in melody, orchestration and instrumentation, and the rhy- thm leaves nothing to be desired. Take, for in- stance, the fox-trot arrangement of La Cruz de Mayo (1), an Andalusian song. In the minor mode, with interesting modulations, this dance, with its stateliness and beautiful counter melo- dies, and its clicking castanets, is both good to hear and dance to. Another tango-fox trot of similar style is an arrangement of a Spanish cancion, La Copa del Olvido (9), unusually fine for the parts given to the strings, and for its splendidly accented rhythm. (1) Victor 69551 (2) Victor 63678 (3) (4) Victor 72757 (5) Victor 73726 (6) Vocalion 14914 (7) Victor 69791 (8) Victor 69555 (9) Victor 73707 (1) Victor 67619 (3) Victor 65631 (5) Victor 74774 (7) Victor 67619 (2) Edison 51011 (4) Victor 69855 (8) (9) Victor 73506