Analysis of Goyescas by Granados. (with subtitles)

[@scores.22]

Thank you so much for the in-depth video! I absolutely fell in love with this music a couple of months ago, only knowing that it was some kind of love story and was related to Goya's paintings. After watching this video, all the leitmotifs and repeated harmonic progressions that were fleeting over my head suddenly all became clear now. I've also listened to Iberia before, but I think Goyescas definitely has a more straightforward and romantic texture that non-Spanish classical music lovers could also easily follow.

[@chrisswider]

Thank you for this wonderful lecture. I've loved Goyescas for many years and recently come upon the opera, which is truly amazing. This lecture will expand your understanding of both Goyescas.

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thank you. Glad you like it!

[@yunxie6984]

I am sincerely grateful for this wonderful video, together with the great research, interpretation, and editing behind it. The video is such a rare find as it really dives deep into the score and context of the music. I sincerely appreciate your generosity and serious musicianship of organizing and sharing your fabulous understanding of Goyescas.

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thank you very much for your kind words!

[@kenforfia5067]

Thank you for enabling a deeper level in appreciating this wonderful music.

[@lindalindab3284]

What a brilliant and fantastic presentation! And such gorgeous playing. Thanks

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thank you for your kind words! I am glad you like it!

[@lindalindab3284]

I am attempting to learn this great work and find you and your fine playing immensely inspiring.

[@arkrowitz]

An absolutely great video. Goyesas has been one of my favorite pieces for a long time (to listen to, not to play lol). Alex Alguacil's analyses added so much understanding to my love for this music. Thank you so very much Alex. Your video brought tears to my eyes many times.

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thank you for your kind words! I am glad you like it!

[@pabloortiz4916]

Estos videos son una maravilla y deberían de ser de obligada visualización para todos los pianistas aficionados a la música española. No sólo el contenido es muy bueno, además es muy didáctico, muy trabajados y es una pasada como tocas. Ya llevo varios y me encantan. Eres un crack, sigue asi

[@AlexAlguacil]

Muchas gracias por tus ánimos y palabras! Me alegro mucho de que te gusten estos videos. Gracias!

[@Xzy_158]

Thank you so much for this video, you really make it easy to understand the complexities of this amazing work :) This piece intrigued me when I first heard it on Ashish Xiangyi Kumar's channel,,, its moving melodies and harmony really connected with me, and I'm glad to have a better understanding of them now I'm amazed at the passage you showed at 18:41, the motifs are so cleverly interwoven! I also didn't realise so much of the harmony was based on the same chord progression, very cool :)

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thank you. Glad this video is helpful. I think there are still many things to be discovered in Goyescas. The use of Granados of two popular tunes unfortunately casted this work into a certain “nationalistic”, somehow “lower” category. But as we hear closer we see it goes beyond that. Los Requiebros, for example, is still nowadays described by some as variations on a popular theme and it is however a clear transformation on thematic material with all its dramatic and operatic elements.

[@CaminoTrader61]

Muchísimas gracias Alex! What a great video and analysis ... I have been in love with Enrique Granados and the Goyescas for many years, and had figured out some parts and pieces myself, but I had no idea of the depth that you are revealing in this video ... genial!

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thank you!! Glad the video is helpful!! Gracias! :)

[@adeemuff]

What a nice analysis! Thank you for this video. After watching this, I've immediately opened the Sabater's rendition to listen to. For a long time, Fernando Рerez's recording was my gold standard of this suite. Let's see if I change my mind :)

[@AlexAlguacil]

According to her daughter, Rosa Sabater was not happy about her own recording of Goyescas. There are indeed mistakes here and there since it is a live recording. But to me there is such a deep connection between her elegant, charming way of playing, her articulated “spanish” sound with the spirit of the music of Granados, that makes her performance very unique.

[@eumago75]

Bravo,. Magnífica explicación con todo lujo de detalles. Gracias Alex, enhorabuena y sigue haciendo videos como este.

[@AlexAlguacil]

Gracias!!

[@yssubed2]

I’ve always liked these pieces. Now I understand the back story and musical foundation. Perhaps a project for when I have more time! Great lecture. I hope you continue on with these lectures and analysis.

[@violinstudyingpiano8352]

Wonderful playing and excellent information about the beautiful Goyescas!!!!!!!

[@AlexAlguacil]

Many thanks!!

[@ScottLamMusic]

Thank you very much for this video Alex! It is very helpful for us to learn more about this masterpiece. 👏👏👏👍👍🙏🙏🙏

[@AlexAlguacil]

Glad you enjoyed it!

[@wlf7917]

Excellent analysis and interpretation, congrats! I discovered this suite from an Aldo's Cicollini album, amazing....

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thanks a lot!

[@OnurYemisen]

¡Estupendo analisis, muchas gracias!

[@DaochengSun-y1w]

I have always loved Granados' works, thank you very much for sharing! Do these ideas have a theoretical basis? Or did you think about it yourself?

[@AlexAlguacil]

Thanks. Glad you like it. As I mention in the description, some ideas are well-known and generally accepted and some others are my own subjective and personal ones.

[@plusjeremy]

Alex! This is an incredible analysis of Goyescas. I love how you connect your motivic and harmonic analysis to the emotions and drama of the piece. Of course we pianists "know" these themes, but you have gone to the next level by connecting them in a deep way through the entire cycle. I was surprised that you didn’t mention what I have always called the “fate" or "death" motive. I think it is part of what you called ‘lament’ but it has a very specific voice-leading, harmony, and metrical qualities. (This is the most explicitly Wagnerian motive in the piece; it is very similar to the "fate" motive from Die Walküre, in fact.) Granados's "fate" motive is absent from Requiebros (although more on that later). It appears first in the Copla of Coloquio en la reja. There are flirtations of the harmony around the barlines of m108 and m112, and then in the middle of 114. The first full appearance is at the climactic barline of 117: the melody, 1-7-5, and the harmony, bIImaj7, Vb43, I. It's even clearer in the variation at m123, where a quartet of "horns" play the theme in the middle register. I believe this motive is the prefiguration of the death of the Majo, hence "fate". Once the motive has been introduced, it infuses the remainder of the cycle. There are some beautiful transformations at the end of Quejas (mm55-58) and El amor y la muerte (m172). It is reduced to a bare fourth in the Lento at the end of El amor y la muerte, which perhaps suggests that the descending semitone at the start of the motive represents longing or hope that is now gone. (This is how I have always emotionally understood the melody of the fate motive: the descending semitone has a feeling of holding on, and the subsequent fall of a third has a feeling of fate and inevitability.) Dramatically, it makes sense that this motive does not appear until near the middle of Coloquio. But one can see that the seeds of this motive do appear in Requiebros and the beginning of Coloquio. The harmonic crux of the motive is underscored by the descending semitone in the bass line (2b-1), and the dominant 7th chord with a flatted 5. Once we know this, chromatic alterations in the rest of the music takes on a richer meaning. For example, the first page of Requiebros introduces a fundamental "circle of fifths" progression that you have linked to the "Spanish cadence". This progression is flirted at (literally) in the harmonization of the main theme: V7-I. By the end of the first page, he spins this cadential motion into a large sequence: G half dim, C7, F7 Bb7, Eb7, Ab. But a few pages later, in the section marked "con gallardia", this sort of circle-of-fifths progression takes a chromatic detour into an unexpected E7 in m68. A similar surprise chromatic detour happens in m88. The "flatted 5th" flavor of the fate motive similarly colors the tritone harmonic motion in the Tonadilla (m139). In mm162-163, we even hear the opening of Tristan in the left hand (D-Bb-A-Ab), ending on the characteristic dominant 7th with flatted 5th. The difference between these early occurrences of the theme and the full fate motive is the resolution: In the fate motive the bass line resolves chromatically, while in these early occurrences Granados maintains movement by 5th or tritone in the bass - we are still in the world of flirtation, not death! Okay, I have gone on long enough. It's difficult to put my thoughts into a KZbin comment, but I wanted to add something to your marvelous discussion. All best!

[@AlexAlguacil]

Dear Jeremy. Thank you for your comment and sharing your ideas on Goyescas. Big contribution! I know how it feels to have so much to say in a bit of space. I myself had more ideas that I discarded in order not to make a too length video or break the flow of it. Wonderful you mention about those "detours". i give them a meaning with the fact that Requiebros means indeed flirtations or compliments, bu according to Spanish dictionary it can also mean to break something, or metaphorically, to interrupt it. That's the meaning we hear it mostly nowadays. I see your "detours" as Requiebros, "breaking" and interrupting not only the harmony as you well pointed out, but also the melody and the rhythm, in many spots during the first piece. To me they are the equivalent to the image of sudden moves or glances of a flirtatious Goyesque Maja, wonderfully expressed in those sudden musical changes. Granados' "highlighted by all its ornaments, but these "detours" are important too, and should be brought up in performance. You're quite right abput the chromatic coloration that brings Goyescas to a richer level. It is there in m. 25-29 of Requiebros (E, Eb, D, Db, C) and will be there all along until Serenata del Espectro. as I mention in the video 17:15, to me those measures are the seed of the "embracing motive", which contains, implied, the chromaticism, and which will transform into many others. Thank you for expanding on the "lament" or "fate" motive. I purposely avoided any reference to Tristan or Wagner since in Spain some people have written about it and I didn't want to feel I was copying anyone. Goyescas is a true piano opera and drama that because of the improvisatory nature of Granados' way of composing and the similarities between some motives with the popular tunes 10:07, has left some truly wonderful things to be said or even discovered. Thank you again for pointing out some of those!

[@plusjeremy]

@@AlexAlguacil Aha, perhaps the motive I'm talking about has already been written about. Sadly I have never seen any in-depth analysis of Goyescas attempted until your video!