Born as Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar in México during 1882, young Manuel learned musical notes before mastering the alphabet. Indeed, at 4 years old he began piano and solfège studies with his sister Josefina. Ponce had an early interest in composition, and wrote La Marcha del Sarampion (March of the Measles) at age 9 after coming down with the affliction.
The international reputation of Manuel María Ponce, outside of his beloved folkloric song, “Estrellita,” rests on his formidable contribution to the guitar repertoire. Andrés Segovia (1893-1987), Ponce's leading interpreter, comments on Ponce's position in the twentieth-century revival of the classical guitar:
He lifted the guitar from the low artistic state in which it had lain. Along with Turina, Falla, Manen, Castelnuovo, Tansman, Villa-Lobos, Torroba, etc., but with a more abundant yield than all of them put together, he undertook the crusade full of eagerness to liberate the beautiful prisoner. Thanks to him—and to the others I have named—the guitar was saved from the music written exclusively by guitarists (Andrés Segovia, "Manuel M. Ponce: Sketches from Heart and Memory," Guitar Review, no. 7, 1948, p. 4).
Within his native country of México, Ponce is a preeminent figure in the music of the early twentieth-century: he initiated musical nationalism during the early years of the Revolution of 1910; he pioneered the scholarly study of Mexican musical folklore; and his works in the larger forms set a precedent for Mexican composers beyond the status quo of salon music.
México | México (green) is located in Central America and adjacent to the United States | Wikimedia Commons
Although the eclecticism of his voluminous musical output has baffled many, Ponce's transformation from Romantic salon pieces to extensive nationalistic and neoclassic works has followed a consistent pattern of growth. Kaphan observed that ". . . the dramatic change in Ponce's compositional style between 1912 and 1940 parallelled the overall change in style of Mexican music composition between those dates." Stevenson credits the stylistic variety of Ponce to his willingness to try new things:
He had a unique ability to speak directly to the masses, and yet also to speak, when he so desired, in a sophisticated idiom appealing to the most advanced mind. Accused by Bossi in 1905 of writing in an 1830 style, Ponce in the 1930s was an avant-garde. He was able to change with the times. His conversion to newer ways of thinking was, moreover, sincerely felt, and unlike others whose modernisms were an unconvincing veneer, he spoke as urgently in his later style as in his earlier (Robert Stevenson, Music in Mexico, New York: Crowell, 1952, p. 235).
Sonatina meridional
The voluminous guitar output of Ponce forms a core part of the instrument's repertory, the best-known works being his Variations and Fugue on 'La Folia' (1929) and Sonatina meridional (1932). Today we sample the first movement of the famous Sonatina meridional.
Both of Ponce's guitar sonatinas, Homenaje a Tárrega and Sonatina meridional, although shorter and easier to play than his sonatas, are of considerable technical difficulty and artistic merit, and utilize full sonata-form. The status of sonatina in these works is not directly related to pedagogic intent as many piano sonatinas are; instead, these pieces are sonatinas due to their relative brevity and availability to advanced students rather than professionals only. Thus, Ponce's guitar sonatinas are a type of less pretentious sonata, and may have been influenced by a similar approach taken in the piano sonatinas of Ravel and Busoni.
This work, written in Paris during 1932 (published in 1939), is the last guitar solo Ponce wrote for Segovia and is an example of the cross-fertilization of musical styles—folkloric, neoclassical, neo-romantic and impressionistic—which characterize Ponce's works of the late 1920s and early 1930s. The predominance of Spanish folkloric elements and the status of sonatina in this work are both due to Segovia's prodding:
. . . why don't you write a Sonatina—not a Sonata—of purely Spanish character? It could be offered to Schott, to go in the series of medium difficulty. Make your mind up. Here you have themes enough, although in reality you don't even need them (Corazón Otero, Manuel M. Ponce and the Guitar, London: Musical New Services, 1983, p.
57.)
Spanish influenced elements are also evident in the titles of the three movements: Campo (country), Copla (popular Spanish song) and Fiesta (festival or party).
The first movement, Campo, marked Allegretto and in D major and 3/8 meter, is in sonata form. The first theme, evocative of Andalusian flamenco, begins with the chord progression of I flat-II and features the Phrygian mode, a mode typical of flamenco:
Sonatina meridional | Campo, page 3, measures 1-6 (Manuel María Ponce, Sonatina meridional. Mainz: Schott, 1939), Peter Frary, guitar
A lyrical second theme is announced in the dominant over an A pedal immediately after a transitional passage of bass notes utilizing étouffé (string mutes):
Motives from the first theme close the exposition; the exposition is repeated. The development section features motivic manipulation of both themes. After a series of passing modulations, the development settles down in the dominant key and climaxes with an extended series of chords in A Phrygian over an A pedal beginning at m. 126:
At measure 142 a full recapitulation—return to the first themes and home key—commences. Now that we have marked off the structural signposts, let's listen to the entire first movement. Listen carefully for the cross-cultural influences of Spanish flamenco, Mexican folk music and French Impressionism.
Ponce's Sonatina Meridional | Valeria Galimova, guitar (9:53). Listen to the first movement, Campo (0:00 to 4:35).
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Sonatina meridional
