Traces of the past in José Luis Turina’s piano music: Homenaje a Isaac Albéniz (I. Jaén)

Abstract

Isaac Albéniz (1860-1909) is one of the leading Spanish musical nationalism representatives. His catalogue, in its musical language, displays the ideology formulated by Felipe Pedrell (1841-1922) in his speech Por nuestra música (1891). This nationalist thought suggests the modernization of the musical language –through reclaiming the historical legacy and the renewal of our vision of folklore. The suite Iberia (1906-1909) is the best example of these approaches. It is a landmark of national piano literature which takes a truly paradigmatic nature, due to its quality that goes beyond Spanish borders. In recent decades, there have been many composers who have been interested in passing the aesthetic ideas from the past through the postmodern filter. In the Spanish case, Albéniz’s Iberia has been a model frequently visited. An example of this tendency is Homenaje a Isaac Albéniz (I. Jaén) (2001), by José Luis Turina Santos (1952). Written as an image of the original model, this Homage aims to be a hypothetical continuation of the suite. From this standpoint and using a technically very demanding pianistic vocabulary for the interpreter, this work belongs to Turina’s aesthetic discourse, where he recreates the historical repertoire by means of processes related to quotation, allusion, and musical intertextuality. The analytical study of Homenaje a Isaac Albéniz (I. Jaén) reveals the different bridges that Turina has built to Iberia: formal correspondences, instrumental technique, and direct allusions as much as the aesthetic approach of the composition show how Albéniz’s postulates, properly updated, certainly remain in full force for musical creation.