The virtuoso Spanish pianist and composer Isaac Manuel Albeniz (1860-1909) is principally remembered through his numerous compositions for piano. From 1889-94 he lived and worked mainly in London where he met Francis Money-Coutts, a member of an eminent banking family who had literary ambitions. Money-Coutts contracted with Albeniz that the composer should set all of his lyrics and libretti for a period of ten years, during which a salary would be paid. In addition to a number of songs, the collaboration resulted in two operas, both of which their creators lived to see performed, and another (the first of a proposed trilogy) which was produced after their deaths. Albeniz's French biographer, Gabriel Laplane, deals with the period of his London residence in a brief chapter entitled "La Parenthese londonienne" ("The London Interlude"). This thesis proposes that the period Albeniz spent in London, far from being an "interlude" (defined by Webster as "an irrelevant change or happening in a course of events"), on the contrary provided the opportunity for him to begin his work with large-scale musico-dramatic forms which was to continue for the remainder of his life, and encouraged him to explore a less overtly nationalistic style than that adopted for his purely instrumental compositions. The extent of Albeniz's success in composing for the theatre is also considered here. Walter Aaron Clark, in his Spanish Music with a Universal Accent: Isaac Albeniz~s Opera "Pepita Jimenez" (Ph.D. diss., University of California, Los Angeles, 1992) and elsewhere, has done much to demythologize the first thirty years of Albeniz's life and to investigate his partnership with Money-Coutts. This present thesis concentrates more on their personal and working relationships, throwing new light on the biographical issues. Formative influences upon their styles and problems arising from the conflicting claims of Spanish and British nationalism are also examined, as are issues arising from the works themselves. In addition, comparisons are made with earlier, contemporary and later musico-dramatic works relevant to the assessment of the quality and significance of the Albeniz/Money-Coutts operas.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:539236 |
| Date | January 1994 |
| Creators | Bevan, Clifford James |
| Publisher | University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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