Ponce, Manuel M.
Suite en la mineur. Edited by José
Luis González. Paris: Éditions
Musicales Transatlantiques, 1983.
Weiss, Silvius
Leopold. Suite in la. 6th ed. Edited by
Miguel Ablóniz. Ancona, Italy:
Bérben, 1980.
Weiss, Silvius
Leopold. Suite in A minor. Edited by
Laurindo Almeida. N.p.: Brazilliance Music
Publishing, n.d.
Timing:
18'
. . . this
time Segovia wanted to play a joke on Kreisler,
who put in the first part of his concerts works
by Pugnani . . . which were in fact his own.
Segovia was going to share a concert with him
and asked Ponce to write a piece in the style of
Bach; Ponce composed this marvelous
suite.7
The famous Suite en
la mineur was written in Paris during 1929 in
response to Segovia's request for a work in the
style of Bach. Fearful that his Kreislereque prank
would be obvious if the suite was attributed to
Bach, Segovia persuaded Ponce to use Weiss as a
pseudonym. However, its success as a "Weiss Suite"
was due to the public's slender knowledge of the
Baroque style rather than Ponce's quasi-Baroque
techniques. Although Ponce used the Baroque forms
and techniques in a masterful manner, his
personality is evident in the obvious stylization
of Baroque devices, the use of romantically tinged
lyricism, an idiomatic and sometimes virtuosic use
of the guitar, and modern twists of harmony. In
spite of its pretentious beginnings, this suite is
one of the masterworks of 20th century guitar
literature.
Unlike Suite
Antigua, the Suite en la mineur is often
performed and has been recorded in its entirety by
major performers such as Segovia (Angel ZB-3896),
Masayuki Hirayama (Resco 66.21537) and Alice Artzt
(Meridian E77041). The suite has been published
several times as a "transcription" of
eighteenth-century lute tablature by
profiteers.8 Significantly, Segovia's
manuscript copy served as the basis for the first
publication of this work under Ponce's name by
Éditions Musicales Transatlantiques in
1983.
Closely modeled
after the binary dances of the Baroque suite, this
work is in five movements: Preludio, Allemande,
Sarabande, Gavotte and Gigue. The courante,
normally after the allemande in the Baroque suite,
is omitted. Although there are no thematic
connections between the movements, the stylistic
unity of the quasi-Baroque technique and the well
balanced sequence of dances creates a dynamic and
musically coherent whole.
While light in
texture, predominantly a single melodic line
supported by slow moving basses, the Preludio is
rhapsodic and tense due to the avoidance of
cadences and extensive use of pedal tones: e.g., 26
out of 53 measures use an A or E string
pedal.
This movement is
organized according to the outlines of an A B A'
form: mm. 1-18, ascending scales over a tonic
pedal; mm. 19-34, an arpeggio pattern featuring
passing modulations and chromatic harmony; and mm.
34-53, an abbreviated restatement of the first
section.
Ex.
12. Suite en la mineur, Preludio, p. 1, m.
1-4
The Preludio ends
with a feeling of urgency and anticipation achieved
with the use of an extended arpeggio passage over a
tonic pedal preceding the final cadence of
viio/I pedal I.
The Allemande is
largely based on a four-note motive:
Ex.
13. Suite en la mineur, Allemande, p. 3, m.
1-2
While pedal tones
in the bass are not used, idiomatic use is made of
other open strings. For example, in m. 14-15 a
pleasing succession of dissonant arpeggios are
created as the chord changes against the open b and
e1 strings:
Ex.
14. Suite en la mineur, Allemande, p. 3, m.
14-15
Like the gigue,
this movement has a virtuosic character and
requires a formidable technique to do justice to
the constant sixteenth note motion, sudden position
shifts and difficult barré
positions.
The Sarabande, in
the major mode, is based largely on a neighboring
tone motive. In contrast to the homophonic textures
and style brisé of the other movements, the
Sarabande features more contrapuntal techniques,
especially imitation, and maintains three distinct
voices. While the bass has little melodic
involvement in the Preludio, Allemande and Gavotte,
the bass in the Sarabande participates in the
thematic discussion and maintains a polarity with
the soprano.
Although simply
entitled Gavotte, this movement is structured in
the manner of a gavotte I and II, i.e., two binary
structures with a Gavotte I da capo at the end of
Gavotte II. A highly idiomatic work, Ponce utilizes
a slow moving bass predominantly made up of open
strings which correspond to the tonic, dominant,
subdominant chords and their inversions (e.g., the
E, A and d strings): of the 68 total bass notes in
the first gavotte, 46 of them are played on open
strings. The first gavotte is in the minor mode and
features arpeggiated textures and style
brisé in eighth note motion:
Ex.
15. Suite en la mineur, Gavotte, p. 6, m.
1-4
In contrast, the
second gavotte is in the major mode and features
quarter note motion, block chords and a melodic
bass.
In spite of its
French title, the Gigue, in 6/8 time, is
stylistically analogous to the Italian giga and is
an exciting finale with its rapid arpeggios and
running scales. Here I play the Gigue while still a smooth faced lad in 1990:
The head motive, heard periodically
throughout the movement, consists of five repeated
notes in a quarter note and eighth note
alternation. For example, after a virtuosic ascent
to an a2, via the melodic minor scale,
the head motive is stated and, in echo fashion, is
heard in several lower voices:
Ex.
16. Suite en la mineur, Gigue, p. 12, m.
150-61
Although
open basses are utilized extensively, the bass not
only participates in thematic discussions, but
sometimes dominates musically. In the example
below, running scales alternate with an upper voice
arpeggio in the manner of style
brisé:
Ex.
17. Suite en la mineur, Gigue, p. 8, m.
5-8
Ponce
probably wrote other pastiches besides those
discussed in this survey. In 1939, after his music
library had been destroyed in the Spanish Civil
War, Segovia wrote Ponce and asked for copies of
several unpublished manuscripts. Among the
requested items were two sarabandes, one in E minor
and another in A minor.9 The sarabande
in A minor may belong to the Suite en la mineur;
however, there are no sarabandes by Ponce in E
minor, pastiche or otherwise, known
today.
Footnotes
7Corazón
Otero, Manuel M. Ponce and the Guitar
(London: Musical New Services, 1983), p.
30-31.
8Ironically,
Miguel Ablóniz, writing in the notes of his
third edition of this suite (Ancona: Bérben,
1971), comments that a certain Swiss editor
plagiarized his first edition in 1954! Moreover,
Ablóniz admits to having transcribed this
work from an early Segovia recording and that
someone other than Weiss wrote it. Although hinted
at, Ablóniz does not directly admit that
Ponce wrote this piece and, in the three subsequent
editions (1973, 1979 & 1980), continued to
published this work as a Weiss suite.
9Otero,
p. 55-57.
When the author is not busy playing, teaching or writing music, he hugs trees in Northern California.
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