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2006 AHS Capstone Projects AHS Capstone Projects

4-1-2006

The Jewish-Spanish Connection: A Thesis and Reflection in Musical Form

Benjamin Donaldson
Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, Benjamin.Donaldson@alumni.olin.edu

Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahs_capstone_2006 Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation
Donaldson, Benjamin, "The Jewish-Spanish Connection: A Thesis and Reflection in Musical Form" (2006). 2006 AHS Capstone Projects. Paper 14. http://digitalcommons.olin.edu/ahs_capstone_2006/14

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AHS Capstone Annotation

Ben Donaldson

I. Background
Personal Upbringing
The idea for this Capstone project began as the search for a connection between my musical interests and religious upbringing. I was raised a conservative Jew and attended the same synagogue my entire life. The congregation of that synagogue was exceptionally conservative, reflected by a heavy emphasis on the traditional performances of liturgical music during our services and after-school programs. The most spiritual hours of my week were spent reciting Jewish melodies and prayers with the guidance of experts. By middle school I was reading Torah for the congregation on numerous occasions including special styles for several important holidays, and the time I spent training and studying gave me an intimate knowledge of Jewish music. At age 6 I began to formally learn piano and have continued until the present. I spent all of my high school years performing at classical recitals, jazz concerts, concerto competitions and other venues, and including practice I was playing piano several hours a day. When I had some extra time and energy beyond those obligations, I was playing Spanish pieces for nothing but my own enjoyment. I wasnt asked to play them, nor did I study them with anyone, because I loved the style of Spanish music and wanted to keep it separate from my formal work. In particular I spent the most time playing and listening to the works of Enrique Granados, wondering why his music spoke to me so much. It had the same effect on me as Jewish music, but it was from Spain, and I didnt know of any connection between the two.

Finding Connections the Roots of Granados In the spring semester of my freshman year at Olin College, I had the chance to explore this connection in a class with Prof. Diana Dabby. I went through the libraries of Wellesley and Brandeis colleges and learned that the Spanish Nationalist music of Granados and his contemporaries was inspired by a single composition teacher. According to Encyclopedia Britannica, that teacher, Felipe Pedrell, devoted his life to the development of a Spanish school of music founded on both national folk songs and Spanish masterpieces of the past. Pedrell was one of the pioneers of folk musicology and his work in the roots of Spanish music was his greatest contribution. Classical music of Spain around the end of the 19th century was actually dominated by Italian and other non-Spanish composers, which inspired a call for Spain to revive its own cultural style. Pedrell was able to convince several of his pupils to incorporate the folk spirit into their works, heralding the Nationalist movement of Spanish classical music.1 Those pupils included such famous artists as Enrique Granados, Isaac Albniz, and Manuel de Falla. Since I identified with Granadoss work the most, I searched which of his compositions have been cited as containing folk elements, and found that my favorite pieces were said to have Andalusian influences.2 I now found a solid connection between Spanish folk music (Andalusian specifically) and the music of Enrique Granados. The second step was to see how Jews influenced the Spanish folk style.

Finding Connections Moorish Spain Upon further research I learned that Andalusia was one of the artistic centers of Muslim Spain during the Middle Ages. In 711 the Islamic Moors conquered the majority of

the Iberian peninsula (now Spain and Portugal), renaming the area al-Andalus and ruling until Christians reclaimed the areas from the 13th to 15th centuries.1 While the Muslims were clearly the dominant culture, they were much more tolerant of other groups, especially Jews, than previous Christian-governed periods of Spain. This unusual freedom allowed the different communities to share ideas and develop rich, diverse art forms. Jewish music in particular was primarily orally transmitted and lacked any written form of notation, but the environment helped the Jews transcribe their repertoire.1 Eventually the Catholic areas of Spain grew in power and took back al-Andalus, bringing back Christian control and with it a movement of religious conversion known as the Spanish Inquisition. The biggest victims of the Inquisition were the Jews, who were formally expelled from the area in 1492; anyone caught practicing after that date was interrogated and tortured into confession, and those that refused were often put to death. Despite this religious persecution, many Spanish Jews secretly continued to exercise their beliefs, creating a group known as the Crypto-Jews. Instead of having services in public houses of worship, prayers were hidden as Spanish folk songs in a language called Ladino and became popular around the Crypto-Jewish communities.3,4,5 These folk songs were the most prominent transmission of the Jewish musical style, and when Felipe Pedrell explored Spains folk roots he would be deeply engaged with that style. Therefore Jewish music had a significant, traceable influence on Spanish Nationalist music and there was a good reason for my love of both. I still lacked significant knowledge of Jewish and Spanish history, so I took two classes at Wellesley College to solve that problem. The first class focused on Jewish, Christian and European history from the Egyptian dynasties to the Dark Ages, and the second class continued that history until the present day. The second class focused especially

on Spain and its cultural interactions, including the Jews and how they continued to influence Spain even after the Inquisition. I learned in detailed ways about the JewishSpanish folk songs that inspired Felipe Pedrell; now I finally had a satisfying explanation of the connection I began searching for in high school. I do know enough to establish that connection in a very general written form, but attempting to prove the connection in a thorough paper would be far too ambitious for an AHS Capstone. In my research I have been unable to find any sources that deeply describe the entire connection I was looking for. First, the most important Jewish-Spanish interactions occurred from the Dark Ages until the Inquisition, during which time Spain was under Islamic control and Western literature does not have detailed records of what occurred. Second, Jewish music in Spain was almost completely oral and only started to be transcribed in the last few centuries. Finally, the Inquisition forced most Jewish music to hide itself and change forms so it would be unrecognizable, separating it from openly popular Spanish music and the eyes of scholars. During all of my research I have found detailed explorations of specific areas, but only superficial coverage of the entire historical and musical path. If I were to attempt to write my own account, with my restricted expertise, time and resources, I wouldnt make a significant or satisfying improvement to the literature. In addition, the one area I expected to focus on the most was an exploration of Granadoss individual songs for Jewish elements. However, in August 2005 a doctoral thesis was written on Granadoss piano works which already includes a section on this exploration.2

II. Justification
My Thesis
The connection between Jewish and Spanish music is difficult to show in writing, but I believe it is much easier to use music itself to show the connection. I personally only began research on the subject because the music sounded so similar, and I think I can use my experience as a musician to showcase the similarities. I can take aspects of Jewish and Spanish Nationalist musical styles and combine them in a single piece. I can also contrast the two styles with clearly separate Jewish and Spanish themes. I do not know of a musical composition (at least for the piano) that tries to explain the relationship of two distinct musical styles in such an academic way, only written explanations, and I believe that nothing explains music as well as music. I also wanted this composition to serve as a reflection of how Jewish and Spanish music have influenced my individual style. The overall structure of the piece will consist of three movements, each movement with its own set of moods that I experienced from the two cultures. The Jewish and Spanish themes will also begin quite separately and come together over the course of the movements in the same way that they have in my research and musical style. My hope is that I can frame my final piece as story rather than just a set of examples. I believe this piece will be an original contribution in the following ways: Most obviously, the piece is a reflection on my unique musical background and a story of how two of my influences combined to form my current style;

The piece tries to demonstrate the connections between Jewish and Spanish
music in a way that can be understood by someone without a musical background or an extensive historical education.

Background Research
My research has covered a wide range of academic disciplines, and although I am not an expert in any one area, I have unusually deep knowledge of the connection that spans the disciplines. In the areas of Jewish and Spanish history I was able to find Wellesley College courses to give me an academic education; and in Jewish-Spanish folk songs I have read the major books and paper I could find in my three years of searching.4,5 I have also studied the biographies and musicographies of Felipe Pedrell, Isaac Albniz and Enrique Granados.1,6,7 Finally, I read a discussion of how folk songs and cultural themes are used in composition, and how their use affects the originality or impact of the piece.8 I decided to use folk themes as the foundation for my piece, since they are the foundation of the JewishSpanish musical connection. Much of my reading has discussed themes that are copied directly from folk songs, but my themes are instead inspired and derived from the countless Jewish and Spanish pieces I have experienced. This allows me to create original melodies that still evoke the spirit of the cultural styles, since I do not define each style as a set of particular melodies but instead an overall spirit.

Composition
In order to write such a large and complicated composition effectively, I used several stages of development. The first stage was organizing the overall layout of the piece into movements and creating the main themes I wished to use. Meanwhile I played through and listened to many Jewish religious songs, Spanish Jewish folk songs and Spanish Nationalist musical pieces, refining the themes so they better captured the cultural idioms. The second stage was exploring the themes- deriving variations, finding ways to transition between them, and seeing what possible ways they could be coordinated. The third stage was generating an

intermediate layout for each of the movements- defining each section of the piece and determining what themes will be present. The fourth and ultimate stage was notating the details and making sure the final sections smoothly flowed together. The development process listed above sounds completely linear, but completing some stages actually required a number of smaller design cycles. I would begin by playing piano to gather musical ideas, then trying to visualize and organize the ideas on paper through words or diagrams. I then worked in music notation software, putting down the notes as I heard them in my mind, without restricting myself by what was easiest to play. Finally I would return to the piano and play the music, adjusting notes that didnt sound right on the piano (or were virtually impossible to play correctly). The end result: music that was a compromise of my imagination, my goals and my physical limitations.

Balancing Objectivity and Personal Style

It seems like an obvious problem with my thesis is the conflict between my two goals: How can I clearly demonstrate the link between Jewish and Spanish music, when I am trying to tell it using my own personal style? I admit that any fully original piece (or explanation) I make is somehow subjective, and I know my themes will never be of purely a single source. However I have spent the last several years dissecting my influences and believe that I can explain what separates them in my mind. Therefore my first goal of personal reflection is the most important, and my second goal of elucidating connections will be substantially (but never fully) reached.

Overall Layout of the Piece

My composition is for solo piano, since that is the instrument I have used the most to develop my personal style and discover Jewish-Spanish musical connections. Since my discovery has primarily taken place at the piano for the last several years, I will retell it using the same medium but in the tight span of twenty minutes. I have separated the story into three separate movements. In the first movement I am introduced to Spanish Nationalist music, and play through it to better understand its unique style. Eventually I start to hear a connection and I think it might be Jewish, so I begin playing a Jewish theme and looking for Spanish elements. Unfortunately when I try to explore the theme, I cant isolate the Jewish influences from my other personal influences (jazz and modern) so the music quickly becomes diverse and unstable. Eventually I try to gather the theme again and see a final hint of the Spanish elements I was playing before. In the second movement, I take a breath and begin to play another Spanish theme. This time, however, I specifically try to find Jewish elements and have some clear success. I take another breath and start a second Jewish theme, hoping that if I can change individual aspects of the music, I can slowly and methodically develop it into a Spanish Nationalist style. My attempt works and I make a satisfying transition that demonstrates the connection. In the third movement, I continue with the theme from the second movement and turn it into a fast, rhythmic Spanish style. Then I use it as a base for tying in all of the previous themes. By that point I feel like I have isolated the two distinct musical styles and have a strong understanding of their combined character. Finally I reintroduce my jazz and modern influences, adding them to the Jewish-Spanish combination and showing how everything synthesizes into my current personal style.

Major Stylistic Techniques

As I explained earlier, my composition is fundamentally built upon the illustration and development of folk themes. In order to do this I have continuously evoked the themes in my piece in order to establish them firmly in the audiences minds. Such an approach has a trade-off, as I have less freedom to quickly move away from a melody, harmony and rhythm or the themes will lose continuity. With an entire story to tell in a single piece, with several themes to compare, contrast and coalesce, with an audience of assumedly no relevant background, I wouldnt be able to get my message fully across unless I stay focused on my themes. To guide the listener through my story as effectively as possible, I am keeping the themes as uninterrupted as I can. The aim is to keep interest on the music and not breaking the train of thought, and I try to accomplish my aim through waves of momentum. The movements are a series of themes that start very simply but build to climactic levels. The gradual increase in emotion and power creates regular cycles of tension and resolution. On a smaller scale, a themes development is a sequence of phrases that barely change but gradually build, so the few parts that do change catch the listeners attention. By designing each phrase to surge in tension but not resolve, the mind gets pulled through the thematic development in anticipation of some closure. When a section ultimately concludes, there is a deep satisfaction and the mind can re-gather its stream of consciousness around the coming theme. By keeping focused on a particular approach, I am not trying to remove my own style from this piece. The stream of consciousness and delayed resolutions are exactly what I experienced and to change the delivery for my audience would be even worse than sacrificing displays of musical virtuosity. Although I am capable of adding impressively

diverse melodic, harmonic and rhythmic content, exceeding amounts of embellishments would conflict with how I received the messages in the piece and how I can convey them in a similarly memorable way. In the end the audience follows me through my personal expedition and learns what I learned, how I learned it, since that is the best way I can teach them.

III. Reflection
The Original Idea and Why I Chose Only to Compose
When I first started planning for my AHS Capstone in the spring of freshman year, I planned to take my current research on the Jewish-Spanish musical connection and write a definitive paper on the subject. In the meantime I had planned two side projects which would not be part of my coursework but supplement it: Recitals of Spanish Nationalist Music including works by Enrique Granados and Joaquin Turina, used to present the genre to Olin and show my skills; An original composition showing how I discovered the musical connection and how it became an integral part of my own style. During my sophomore and junior years, as explained before, I took classes and continued research to prepare for my final paper. The amount of knowledge necessary to understand my topic of interest was absurd (for someone who wasnt doing it as a major or minor, not to mention as an undergraduate). Ironically, the more I knew about the connection, the more lacking I knew my education was for a definitive scholarly work. The historical side of things was the most complicated and I began to lose interest at times because, although required background to grasp the musical changes, it still wasnt musical. I cared most about the music and research made it hard to bring the music with me. In the meantime I learned a variety of songs that I polished to what I knew was performance-level, so I could return to them in the spring of my senior year and get back to speed in my free time. I had a long collection of Enrique Granadoss compositions, including a suite of pieces called Goyescas which pushed me to new technical levels over my years of practicing at Olin. I also included the more modern style of Joaquin Turina,

whose style I thought served as a transition between Spanish Nationalism and more modern, richer harmonies. Most importantly I spent many late nights at the piano developing themes inspired by my research and practicing, slowly making phrases out of them. After a while I noticed similarities between them and that really inspired me to connect them; before long I saw the true possibility of my work. I had initially intended to write a series of many small, interlocking pieces like all of the Spanish Nationalist composers had done, but to explain my story I decided that the audience couldnt have me putting on a show and tell of various styles. Instead I designed my composition to literally carry the listener through everything so they didnt have to sit back and analyze, but ride a wave of emotional momentum. That approach quickly gathered momentum of its own, and without deadlines or outside knowledge, most of my work funneled into my composition. When the AHS Capstone finally appeared this semester, I was still optimistic about pulling off all three of my deliverables, but I then learned about the short timeframe and numerous deliverables, which would make my plans near impossible. I had always put the paper first when talking about my Capstone, but like I said my passion centered around my composition. I tried for hours to fit things into my syllabus but in the end everything had to make room for my piece.

Finishing the Research

With the burden of writing significantly lifted (15 pages instead of 40), I was a little more enthusiastic about wrapping up the research. I found reputable sources on Jewish music, Spanish history, Jewish-Spanish folk music, and Spanish Nationalist music so much that I wouldnt be able to use all of it in this Annotation. By the time every source was read

and commented, I could have synthesized a pretty worthy paper but I just wouldnt have had the time for anything else (and I wouldnt have enjoyed it). Instead, I have citable justifications for my compositional choices.

Completing the Second Movement

I came into the Capstone semester with the first movement composed and the second movement halfway done. I was personally most worried about the remainder of the second because it was the thesis within a thesis, where I slowly transformed a Jewish theme into a Spanish theme. Such a delicate operation required a lot of planning, and I spent over a month getting the steps down. I never wrote a piece longer than maybe a dozen pages, but having to put a musical note in the context of 30+ other pages of musical notes? Everything was so dependent and interconnected that I felt each measure taking longer and longer to reconcile with the rest of the piece. The final page of the second movement easily took me 20 hours. If I had to do it again, Id set smaller deadlines and be willing to compromise. I never had to compromise before the spring because the piece was never on a deadline, and the fast pace was expected but rather unwelcome. If I hadnt decided to maintain a detailed song layout, I would have obsessively rearranged the measures for weeks on end. The lesson learned: if youre a perfectionist, know it and leave traps so you can get the job done.

Writing the Third Movement

I always looked forward to the third movement because I could unleash the jazz and modern influences I had been forcefully removing from the first two-thirds of the piece. I should have known that when I finally let go, it would be very difficult to control myself and

keep the movement from turning into an irrelevant free-form fusion improvisation. Luckily Sibelius is a great way of making compromise, as you go through plenty of effort to notate music and messing around is not worth the time. I also had trouble with rhythms in the third movement, because they were much more complex than Spanish or Jewish rhythms. On piano, every beat has to become a note, and the pitches have to fit together as well as the rhythm. I tried repeatedly to share the work between my hands but it was taking forever to split the rhythms in half. Eventually I just put the hardest work on my left hand so I could concentrate on making changes with my right. Its not as entertaining to play, yet quicker to create and more understandable for a listener. Overall I wanted to throw more technical tricks into the third movement but the timeframe really constrained me and I am thankful for that. I have plenty of chances to compose songs that show off various skills; I dont know when Ill have the chance to tell a story like this.

Future Work
I was expecting to have room in my Annotation for justification of the composition in extensive detail, but that is not the case. I still intend to write the justifications after graduation and include them with the rest of my deliverables, including references to the wealth of sources that can support my choices. There was also hope that the piece would be finished with enough time to perform it in the Spring; whether or not I can perform it before graduation, I will definitely work hard to polish and record the piece and send it to everyone who wants a copy of my personal musical journey. Finally, I have learned much about my style and methodology, so I will use this work as both inspiration and guidance for my future musical compositions.

References
1. Fineman, Yale. Alhambrismo!: The Life and Music of Isaac Albniz. 2005. Online. http://www.lib.umd.edu/PAL/YALE/albeniz1.html.

2. Kurihara, Harumi. Selected Intermediate-Level Solo Piano Music of Enrique Granados: A Pedagogical Analysis. Doctoral Thesis. 2005. Online.

3. Abraham Z. Idelsohn. Jewish Music: Its Historical Development. Dover, 1992. 4. Seroussi, Edwin. De-gendering Jewish music: The survival of the Judeo-Spanish folk song
revisited. 2005. Online. http://www.research.umbc.edu/eol/MA/ma_stg/altri/seroussi.htm. 5. Armistead, Samuel G. Folk Literature of the Sephardic Jews, Volume II: Judeo-Spanish Ballads from Oral Tradition. University of California Press, London, 1986.

6. Granados, Enrique. Enrique Granados: Piano Solo. Paris: Salabert Editions, 1997. 7. Albniz, Isaac. Iberia and Espaa: Two Complete Works for Solo Piano. Dover, 1987. 8. Gilbert, Henry F. Folk Music in Art Music A Discussion and a Theory. The Musical
Quarterly. 1917, p. 577-601. Oxford University Press.