The roots of Spanish Zarzuela: The Jácaras and the raise of the Stage Tonadilla (Tonadilla escénica).

The tonadilla is a traditional Spanish song developed from jácaras during the Spanish Golden Age (Siglo de Oro). The Golden Age was a period of flourishing in arts and literature in Spain, coinciding with the political rise and decline of the Spanish Habsburg dynasty, and encompassing from 1492 to 1659. 

Jácaras were Spanish songs of Arab origin, which were accompanied by instruments and were performed during the break of a theatrical performance. The words of a secular jácara are often about a prankster and his adventures and frequently use vulgar language. Dramatists Calderón de la Barca, Francisco de Quevedo cultivated the genre.

Tonadillas continued to be successfully represented during  the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the breaks of the plays. The name ‘género chico’ comes from that fact. They were also an accompaniment to many types of dance.

In this video you can watch a jácara entitled Al arma, al arma valientes, for 8 voices, by Juan de Araújo. It is dedicated to Saint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSHLG0OsXlA

During the second half of the eighteenth century tonadillas came into fashion.  Tonadilla was a Spanish musical song form, not danced. The genre was a type of satirical musical comedy, very popular during the XVIII century, that as time went on became a mini opera (10 to 20 minutes).

Its themes were palatine, judgmental, loving and customs. It drew its personages from everyday life and included popular and folk music.

 The music was very important, alternating sung and recited texts. The number of characters between one and six. The composer used folk themes inspired many times by Andalusian lifestyle. The tonadilla is characterized by  being more "Spanish" in contrast to other musical expressions that were far more foreign influence, its duration was approximately 20 minutes.

  
 Original libretto cover of Las jardineras, por Luis de Misón.    

 Composers

The first represented tonadilla we keep record of was the Spanish musician, born in Mataró in 1727, Luis de Misón, his debut in this genre, was in 1757 with the work entitled A waitress and a drover ( Una mesonera y un arriero).

Another composer who addressed this genre was Manuel Garcia, also held in his role as interpreter.

An example of Late Barroque Tonadilla, by Manuel García.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYzGrBvn87Y  

By 1820 the tonadilla disappears as theatrical and lyrical genre and is replaced by the Italian opera that comes to monopolize the theater for about half a century. But the tonadilla as a song or couplet, resists greatly favored by the Court.

Spanish Baroque religious music

Religious music during the baroque in Spain wasn’t as innovative as rich as secular forms, due to the conservativeness of the Catholic Church. The main composers of religious music during the baroque in Spain were Joan Cererolls and Francisco Valls.

Joan Cererols was a Catalan musician and Benedictine monk born in Martorel, in 1618. He entered the school choir Choir of Montserrat in around 1626. His musical production includes a Requiem composed in the mid-seventeenth century during the great plague that left Barcelona completely destroyed, and a mass, the Missa de Batalla (Battle Mass) which celebrates the conquest of the Kingdom of Naples. The polychoral dialogue texture with a slight gap between the vocal entries within each choir which lightens his style.

He also composed this Magnificat - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTnds3it5wU

Francisco Valls was a composer and music theorist of the Spanish Baroque, one of the greatest exponents of baroque music in Catalonia. He was born in Barcelona in 1671, studying with the master of the cathedral John Barter. He was appointed choirmaster of Santa Maria del Mar in 1696 and 7 December of the same year he replaced in the cathedral of Barcelona to John Barter, who was retiring. Francisco Valls has been considered a key songwriter in Catalan and Spanish music in general at the time, both in the place where he was (the Cathedral) and by the knowledge he had of the new musical currents in France, Italy and Germany.

He wrote the influential music manual Mapa Armónico Práctico. Valls, and his musical production reached more than 600 compositions of which some 320 have been preserved in the Library of Catalonia. Just over half of his works are in Latin and other romance compositions, primarily carols. Most of his work is religious in nature.

Here is an example of his music: O Gloriosa Virginum - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7FJaJZql3HY

Baroque opera in Spain

During the baroque period the Italian influence spanned all European countries, especially in the field of opera. In Spain there were some baroque operas composed by Spanish musicians which were based on a libretto written by famous writers: Lope de Vega, with La jungla sin amor (1629), and Calderon de la Barca, with Celos aún de aire matan (1660). However, the truth is that they were actually a rarity because this genre was not destined to prosper as it did in Italy, France, Germany and even England. 

These pictures show, from top, to bottom, two pictures of both Calderón and Lope, respectively. Opera in Spain developed more slowly than in the rest of Europe. At the time, most critics disregarded it as being less worthy due to a strong tradition of spoken drama in Spain. That being said, mixing spoken drama and music had a long history in Spain. For example, in the 16th century Juan del Encina, a composer, poet and playwright from Salamanca, known as the founder of Spanish drama, was already incorporating songs into his plays.

One of the main opera composers with which Calderón de Barca and Lope de Vega worked was Juan Hidalgo de Polanco. However, the truly musical theatre that succeeded in Spain was similar in style to the English ballad opera and the French opera comique. Their influence, along with the particular features of Spain’s culture opened the door for Spanish composers to develop their own style of opera which would be known as “zarzuela”. The main difference between an opera and a zarzuela is that a zarzuela includes spoken parts (such as the ballad opera and the opera comique), whereas an opera is totally sung

This is an excerpt from Celos aún del aire matan, by Juan Hidalgo and Calderón de la Barca.

Celos aún del aire matan - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HMLU643qLUQ

Spanish secular vocal music and the Spanish Zarzuela

The Zarzuela is a musical genre that only exists in Spain. It is a form of Spanish opera, having spoken dialogue and usually a comic subject. The name derives from the name of a Royal hunting lodge, the Palacio de la Zarzuela.

In 1657 at the Royal Palace of El Pardo, King Philip IV of Spain, Queen Mariana and their court attended the first performance of a new comedy by Pedro Calderón de la Barca: El Laurel de Apolo. It mixed mythological verse drama with operatic solos, popular songs and dances. The characters in these early, baroque zarzuelas were a mixture of gods, mythological creatures and rustic or pastoral comedy characters.

   

There were two forms of zarzuela: the Baroque (1630-1750), which is the oldest style, and Romantic zarzuela.

Sometimes is called Género Chico, being as it is the small sort, a type of zarzuela rather small, in an act, other than the big Zarzuela, in two or three acts. Its basic structure remained intact: dialogue scenes, songs, choruses and comic scenes, usually played by actor-singers.

  The main composers were:

Sebastián Durón (Guadalajara, 1660 - 1716).  He was, with Antonio de Literes, the greatest Spanish composer of stage music of his time. Some of his zarzuelas were Salir el amor del mundo, Selva encantada de amor and Veneno es de amor la envidia. 

Here is an example of his music: Ay, que me abraso.

 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQwk-bKSspU).

Antonio de Literes (Mallorca, 1673 –1747), was also one of the main authors of baroque zarzuela. He is recognized as one of the most skilled musicians of the Royal Chapel. Some of his most famous zarzuelas are Júpiter y Dánae  and Acis y Galatea: Here is an excerpt: 

José de Nebra Calatayud, (1702 –  1768) was a Spanish musician and composer of villancicos and other musical forms, such like the zarzuela. In 1724 he was appointed second organist of the Chapel Royal. After the fire of the Royal Palace of Madrid in 1734 was dedicated, along with Antonio de Literes, to recompose works.

Some of his zarzuelas were Viento es la dicha de amor and Donde hay violencia no hay culpa. Here we can listen to Los halagos se mezclan, a ‘seguidillas’ from the zarzuela Donde hay violencia no hay culpa (1744).

(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tt3ZfKUABs)

There were other important composers that cultivated different musical forms.

One example is José Marín (1618-1699). He was a singer and composer that sang as tenor in the Capilla  Real de la Encarnacion, for Felipe IV.

He cultivated musical forms such as:

-  The seguidillas, a type of Spanish songs accompanied by dance of the regions of Castilian origin.

-  The romance, a Spanish Renaissance musical genre, based on popular origin poetic romances of popular origin are polyphonic with vocal accompaniment and deep thematic.

-  Human tone, a musical composition with a profane character, religious thematic and contraposition of tones. This is an example, entitled Ojos, pues me desdeñáis.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1NcckYjL_0

-  Villancicos, a musical and poetic form with chorus, of popular origin.

-Letrilla, originally a brief poetic composition, divided in simetric strophes in which the end is repeated, from the XVI century. It was cultivated by important literary authors, such as Francesco de Quevedo. Here’s an example of a very famous one. 

A powerful horseman
is Mr. Money.

Mother, because of gold I make a fool of myself,
It is my lover and my beloved
because it is purest love.
it walks a path of yellow.

Whether complicated or simple
It does all that I want
A powerful horseman
is Mr. Money.

Lope de Vega and the Zarzuela

Lope de Vega (1562 - 1635) was one of the first authors who contributed to this new style of musical theater that was the zarzuela. Lope de Vega wrote a play titled La selva sin amor, a comedy with orchestra. Along with Cervantes, he was one of the best Spanish writers of all times. According to the author was "nothing new in Spain. In regards to zarzuela, he said that "The instruments occupied the first part of the theater, unseen, whose harmony singing verses figures, making it the music composition admirations, complaints, anger and other affections... “.