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... “.