NEW COMPACT DISC RELEASE OF MUSIC BY SANTIAGO DE MURCIA

Performed by Richard Savino

Excerpts from an Interview with Richard Savino

Please tell me something about this very interesting recording of Mexican baroque guitar music by Santiago de Murcia that you have just released on Koch International Classics:

RS: I think that it's important to know that Murcia was a Spaniard by birth as well as being the guitar teacher to King Philip the V's first wife, Maria Luisa. This alone puts him in a distinct category among Spanish musicians. Furthermore while in Spain he published a wonderful guitar continuo treatise, titled Resumen, that concludes with a collection of dances and three suites. This work was published in 1714 in Antwerp and was later adapted by Juan Antonio Vargas y Guzman as a continuo for six guitar treatises of 1773 (Cadiz).

So where is the Mexican connection?

RS: When Maria Luisa died, Philip V remarried an Italian by the name of Isabella Farnese who was apparently very fond of Italian musicians. While the facts are a bit difficult to put together, Murcia scholar Craig Russell suggests that with the change of culture at the Spanish court Murcia decided to seek his fortunes elsewhere and all the signs pointed to Mexico. It is the only country in which copies of all of his music have been found, these being the published Resume, and the manuscripts Passacalles y Obras and the Saldivar Codex No. 4, the latter having been discovered in Guanajato, Mexico. And, interestingly, there are also additional manuscripts housed at the Mexican National Library that contain works by Murcia. In his book on Murcia (and let me give Craig a plug here since he did such fantastic research) published by Illinois University Press, Russell traces all the Murcia threads, and they all lead to Mexico.

So is there anything in the music itself that gives these works a definitive "Mexican" stamp?

RS: With regard to the Resumen, the answer is no, and we must remember that the Resumen was composed in Spain. But within manuscript collections, there certainly is a link to Mexico. I think that it is important for your readers to recognize that these manuscripts are divided into two volumes, the first being the Saldivar Codex No. 4, and the second being Passacalles y Obras. It is in the Saldivar Codex that we find evidence of the new-world influence. This collection contains a stunning assortment of Latin, as well as European, dances, a number of which Russell documents as having or-iginated in the new world. In fact there are even some that appear to have originated in Africa that were then brought over to the Carribean.

And what of the other volume, Passacalles y Obras?

RS: This volume contains a wonderful collection of passacalles, some of extraordinary beauty and really grand proportions, and suites. Most all of which are pasticcio works, meaning that the dance movements are often arrangements of works by other composers. These included Robert de Visee, Francisco Corbetta and most interestingly Arcangelo Corelli.

Corelli? Really? From which opus?

RS: In particular from the solo violin sonatas, Op. 5, No. 3 in C major. It was quite an interesting find. It has long been known that Murcia had arranged some parts of Corelli sonatas for solo guitar since he actually states it next to the title of some of these movements. But when I first delved into Murcia's music I happened to have also been on tour with my dear friend and performance partner Monica Huggett. On this tour we had been performing Corelli's Op. 5, No. 3, and I was accompanying Monica on the archlute. One night after a concert I was reading through some Murcia in my hotel room and I came across a piece that was incredibly familiar, but I for some reason I just couldn't immediately place it. It was probably due to my post concert dinner with a copious amount of the wine. But after a few minutes I had realized that I had just played the piece a couple of hours earlier! It was the opening Grave of the Op. 5, No.3. What I found so interesting was that when performing the work with Monica I had always focused on the treble line, in part because she always plays such a beautifully ornamented florid part above the bass. In fact, in Corelli's original the treble part is primarily written in whole and half-note durations and it is the bass part that has the more interesting melodic figuration. Since it is essentially im-possible to ornament on the baroque guitar in the same manner, Murcia chose to focus on the bass part as the line of real melodic invention, and it works beautifully.

Is this the only Corelli movement in this Murcia suite?

RS: No, he concludes this rather lengthy eleven-movement suite with a giga from the same Corelli sonata which gives this work a wonderful balance. I played this giga for Monica Huggett to which she responded "it sounds like the bloody thing was written for the guitar!!" I considered this to be an extremely high compliment.

As well you should! It seems that overall, Murcia's collections are quite diverse...

RS: Without doubt, they are a true survey of early 18th-century French, Italian, Spanish and Latin American musical cultures.

In your liner notes you seem to have very definite ideas about the baroque guitar and certain performances. Would you care to share some of these ideas with our readers?

RS: You know, this can be a real can of worms, and while I do have some very definite ideas on this subject, they are based on what I consider to be a thorough examination of the repertoire and performance practices of the period. That being said, rather than restating and paraphrasing my notes why don't we just reprint them here in this interview? Would that be all right with you?

Sure, so long as that doesn't infringe on any copyright...

RS: Well since the copyright for these notes is in my name I don't think that it will be a problem. But before we print these allow me to recite my mantra: "dogma is the antithesis of art."

What do you mean by that?

RS: I mean that whether or not we can find documentation for things being done a particular way in the 18th century does not necessarily mean that it is the only way. I do live in the late 20th century, I drive to the gig, I am sure that I eat a very different diet that that of a typical 18th century court musician and my musical influences are very different from what they would have been had I grown up in the 18th century. And remember, I'm a guitar player, I grew up on Hendrix, Clapton, John McLaughlin, Joe Pass, Ralph Towner, Segovia, etc. One of the problems that I see in the music world today is this cookie-cutter perfection image that has come about during the cd/digital age. I could talk for hours about this but maybe we should return to the issue of my notes.

[The notes can be found in the new CD, recording, released by KOCH INTERNATIONAL, 1999.]

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