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PROdigital Program Notes-Mompou

6/21/11 2:33 PM

PRO-5162: Federico Mompou: Music for Piano


Born into an old Catalan family with rich musical antecedents (for centuries one of
the leading makers of church bells in medieval Europe) the composer Federico
Mompou Dencausse can be regarded as the leading composer of his native Catalua.
He himself described his musical style as primitivista and critics knew him as a "poet
of the pianoforte" an appelation also bestowed on Chopin and Schumann. In truth, if
indeed his music does incorporate primitive elements, at the same time it achieves a
subtle sophistication and modernity that retains its freshness and originality and in
the end reveals an immortal composer.
Federico Mompou, born on April 16, 1893 in Barcelona, was to receive his first
musical contact with the piano imitating his brother Jos who was taking piano
lessons. This same brother was to become a painter; it was he who drew the simple
farmhouse sketch which was to grace the title pages of all of Federico's compositions
(here reproduced above). Virtually self-taught at the piano, Mompou's compositional
gifts grew naturally out of the inherently self-effacing introspection of his
personality. By the time he was ready to enter the Paris Conservatory as a piano
student he had already begun composing fragments which were later to be developed
into some of his most well-known works.
In the fall of 1911, at the age of 18, Mompou, having readied himself for serious
study in Paris, went about gathering contacts and letters of introduction to prominent
teachers and musicians in the French capital. Among the more interesting of these
was a letter from Enrique Granados, the great Spanish virtuoso pianist and composer
who was head of a conservatory in Barcelona, to Gabriel Faur, then director of the
Paris Conservatory. According to Mompou's recollections of his interview with the
great Spanish pianist and between the lines of the still-extant letter can be inferred
that Granados was under no illusions concerning the virtuosic potentialities of the
young pianist. But he did speak highly of his talent, especially with regards to his
sensitive touch and already apparent individuality, traits which were soon to manifest
themselves in Mompou's compositions. Curiously, the letter was never recieved by
Faur; although admitted to the Paris conservatory (with another Spaniard, Jos
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PROdigital Program Notes-Mompou

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Iturbi) Mompou's natural shyness and reserve coupled with Faur's absence from
Paris at the time ultimately prevented the letter from arriving at its intended
destination. In later years, Mompou would relish the irony of this non-contact as
almost symbolic in character, quite in accordance with the reticence of his own
personality.
Two years of study in Paris were enough to convince Mompou that, rather than a
piano virtuoso, his greatest gifts lay in composition. Since childhood his personality
had reflected a powerful introspection and playing even his own compositions in
public was a torture that remained unconquered until much later in life. Composition
on the other hand, which in his own view consisted more in the discovery of
harmonies and melodies than in their invention, allowed his musical imagination free
rein. Indeed, many of his most well-loved compositions, the Canciones y Danzas, are
free renditions of traditional Catalan folk tunes. Nevertheless, the difficult economic
circumstances of the life of a composer were not to be completely surmounted until
much later.
Mompou's first success came in 1921. After two years of study in the French capital
he had returned to his beloved Barcelona where he had already written a number of
his more important compositions. When his piano teacher, Ferdinand Motte-Lacroix,
former student and disciple of the founder of the French school of piano playing,
Isidore Philipp, began including compositions by Mompou in his programs in
France, the critical response was instantaneous. Mompou found himself the idol of
artistic and musical Paris. Although initially surprising even to the artist himself, this
success is easier to understand viewed in the context of the times. Debussy had only
been dead for three years and the forces reacting against impressionism were already
at work. Cubism (1909) and the Dadaists (1918) had made their appearances;
Schnberg had written his "Treatise on Harmony" (1911) and Stravinsky had turned
the musical world upside down with his "Rite of Spring" (1913). The instinctive
values pervading Mompou's music resonated profoundly in this environ. Based in
Catalan and Spanish traditional music, the piquant harmonies "discovered" by their
composer, delicately pulsating rhythms, introspective themes; Mompou himself
would write "I make music like this because art has reached its limits...my art is a
return to the primitive...no, not even a return, it is to begin again (recomenzar)."
This recomenzar helps us understand one of Mompou's primary objectives;
simplicity. As he himself would never tire of saying to students, "the maximum
expression with the minimum of means". Like Satie, Mompou searched within
himself seeking nothing less than the very origens of music: the clear and pure
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PROdigital Program Notes-Mompou

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expression of human instinct faced with absolute solitude, in the process touching
within himself the mysterious, the incomprehensible. After all, had not music, in its
origens been a principal instrument of magic and religion?
Always a solitary figure (he did not marry until age 64) Mompou found his artistic
life disrupted for the ten years beginning in 1931. During this time no single
completed work found its way from his pen. These were chaotic years in Spain: the
Republic, civil war and the first dark years of World War II. Non-political,
nevertheless Mompou could only have agreed with Spanish poet Miguel de
Unamuno: "It is not a matter of ideology, there is none of that; and not even
barbarity, boorishness, or evil instincts. Rather only what, at least for me, is
worse...stupidity, stupidity, stupidity." In addition to the horrors swirling around him
on the world stage, Mompou experienced during this time the death of his father and
the serious illness of his brother, with whom he had always been close. His own
personal economic situation, exacerbated by the desperate economic conditions
following the civil war, led him from art into various business ventures including an
attempt to revive the traditional family bell foundry.
Blessed with long life (he lived to the age of 94), Mompou in his later years was
showered with honors and recognition. The National Prize for Composition as well
as the prize "City of Barcelona", honorary doctorates, gold medals and countless
concerts organized in his honor bear witness to the high esteem in which the man and
his music came to be regarded.
Like Chopin, Mompou the composer never ceased to think in terms of the piano.
Even his compositions for voice and piano, guitar and several large works for
orchestra, are thoroughly pianistic in concept and inspiration. None more than so
than his Variations on a Theme by Chopin. Dedicated to Mompou's "great friend
Pedro Masaveu", the banker who generously offered his house in which to compose,
the work had been initiated in 1938 together with cellist Gaspar Casad who wanted
to collaborate with Mompou on a work for violoncello and piano. The joint project
got no further than the sketching out of the first three variations. But in 1957, when
asked to write another ballet to capitalize on the success of his first ballet, La Casa de
los Pjaros, which had been premiered at the IV Festival de Msica y Danza at
Granada, Mompou offered to complete the Variations. Although the ballet was never
produced, the music, including an orchestration by the composer, was eventually
completed at this time.
Consisting of twelve variations (and an epilog) based on the Chopin"s Prelude No. 7,
the work draws on themes and forms used by that earlier "poet of the piano". Thus,
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variation No. V is a Mazurka, No. IX a Valse and No. VI a Recitative, while at the
heart of the work, the Evocation (Variation No. X) quotes directly from the slow
section of the Fantasy Impromptu and Variation No. VIII paraphrases the Prelude
No. 4 in e minor. The third variation is for the left hand alone (although the listener
might never be aware of it) and the concluding gallop is pure Mompou, sparkling
with audacious harmonic disonances (and consonances) and providing the perfect
setting for the concluding epilog marked Lento.
The Quatro Quejas (Four Complaints) which form the first movements of Mompou's
Impresiones Intimas (Intimate Impressions) date from 1911 and thus represent one of
the composer's earliest completed compositions. The exact nature of each complaint
is best left to the listener, although it is known that No. 4 (Agitato) was entitled El
miedo (Fear) in an early version. Pjaro Triste, (Sorrowful Bird) written in 1914, can
almost be seen as a premonition anticipating his ballet score of 1956, La Casa de los
Pjaros (The House of the Birds) based on one of Grimm's Fairy Tales. Four more
movements La Barca (The Boat), Cuna (Cradle), Secreto (Secret) and Gitano
(Gypsy) date from 1912 and 1914. The work as a whole aptly illustrates his selfdenominated style of "primitivism".
The first two movements of Paisajes (Landscapes) date from 1942 and are dedicated
to Carmen Bravo, the young pianist whom Mompou had met in the fall of the
previous year and who, 16 years later would become his wife. La Fuente y la
Campana (The Fountain and the Bell) and El Lago (The Lake) are descriptive pieces
drawn from Mompou's beloved Catalua. The third piece of the set Carros de
Galicia (Oxcarts of Galicia) dates from 1962.
Mompou's Canciones y Danzas were written at various times throughout his life and
represent among the most charactaristic of his compositions. For the most part they
are based directly on traditional Catalan melodies and dances, some of which are
believed to have been in existence at least three centuries before Christ. Although
faithful to the original versions, they are transformed and elevated by Mompou's
treatment. Never intended as a single opus, each one stands alone.
Interestingly, the song which forms the basis for the introduction of Cancin y Danza
N. VIII, (El Testament d'Amlia) is one which has been found not only in Catalua,
Valencia and Mallorca but in the folkmusic of countries as far away as Sweden. It
describes the tragic drama of death from a broken heart of a young woman who sees
her husband stolen from her by her own mother. The sadness and pathos of this
theme is strongly contrasted by the dance which follows. The lighthearted La
Filadora (the knife sharpener) has been sung to countless children by countless
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PROdigital Program Notes-Mompou

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mothers. Its protagonist is the nightingale, eternal delight of maidens, lovers and
heroes since the middle ages and before.
For Cancin y Danza N. VII Mompou uses the song Muntanyes Regalades. It is said
that this song is so well-known in Catalua that there is no single person who has not
sung the melody; if in fact he does not also recall the words. The dance which
follows, L'hereu Riera is found in various regions of Catalua. In walz tempo, it is
traditionally danced over and around a wooden cross placed on the ground. One of
only two original Canciones y Danzas fully-composed by Mompou, Number VI is
probably one of his most widely-known compositions. (PH)

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