Ponce's Variations for Guitar | Peter Kun Frary

Index | Prior 123

Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue. Edited by Andrés Segovia. Mainz: Schott, 1932.

Timing: 24'

Grade: 10

In 1928 Segovia asked Ponce to write a large set of variations: "I would like you to make some brilliant variations on the theme of the Folias of Spain. . . If you don't want to sign it we can ascribe it to Giuliani, of whom many things remain to be discovered."4 Although this letter implies that Segovia may have expected a pastiche in the early nineteenth-century style of Giuliani, Ponce, in 1929, created a powerful contemporary work comparable in technical demands to Bach's famous Chaconne from the Partita No. II for solo violin.

The folias originated in the Iberian peninsula, probably Portugal, during the late fifteenth-century. Like its relatives the chaconne and passacaglia, the folias is in triple meter and is based on a repeating harmonic pattern. The folias pattern consists of two eight-measure periods. Although sixteenth-century and seventeenth-century examples of the folias utilized alternations of 3/4 and 6/8 meter, Ponce's setting of the theme, like those of the nineteenth-century such as Giuliani's opus 45, remains in 3/4 meter throughout.

This work consists of a theme, twenty variations and a fugue—twenty pages of single-stave notation. Because this work is in D minor, a scordatura tuning of D-A-d-g-b-e1 is utilized to maximize the use of open basses. According to correspondence between Segovia and Ponce, this work originally included a prélude: "Whenever I write I am tempted to explain why I haven't offered the Prélude, Folias and Fugue to Schott"; and, in another letter concerning a performance at the Paris Opera during 1931, "I am thinking of including the Variations on the Folias, without the Prélude, but with the Fugue."5

Duarte, writing on this set of variations, comments that "Segovia deemed a few of the many variations Ponce produced as unsuitable, either to the guitar or to the work as an entity."6 In fact, one of these unpublished variations was recorded by Segovia under the title of Postlude on Andrés Segovia: The EMI Recordings 1927-39 (Angel ZB-3896). Thus, considering the cutting of the prélude, the new setting of the theme and the various unpublished variations, Segovia exercised considerable influence on the final form of this work.

The setting of the theme has gone through at least one major revision before arriving at its published form. After recording this work in the late 1920s, Segovia asked Ponce to rewrite the setting of the theme.7 Thus, the published score utilizes chromatic and nontraditional harmonies in the theme not heard on Segovia's early recording of this work. The following excerpt is taken from the published score (Schott, 1932):

Ex. 62. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue, Theme, p. 3, mm. 1-4

Although space does not permit discussion of all twenty variations, key characteristics of the work will be considered. The general style of this work is an amalgam of neoclassic treatment of form, neoromantic lyricism and expression, and a mixture of neoromantic and impressionistic harmonies. Each of the variations derive from various combinations of the melodic, rhythmic or harmonic traits of the theme. There is marked contrast between variations in terms of tempo, meter, texture and melodic figuration; thus, each variation has a distinct character of its own. This work departs from the D minor mode only three times: in Variation VI, in A major; Variation IX, in D major; and Variation XI, in C major.

Variation II, in 6/4 meter and marked Allegretto mosso, is based on scale and arpeggio figuration in running eighth notes. Common practice harmony predominates in this variation.

Ex. 63. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue, Variation II, p. 4, mm. 1-2

Variation VII, in 3/4 and marked Andante, utilizes nontraditional harmonies in block chord fashion and is reminiscent of the Baroque with its opening mordent and use of a neighboring tone group in the V7 i cadence at m. 4:

Ex. 64. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue, Variation VII, p. 8, mm. 1-4

Variation XIII, a canon at the octave, recalls the Baroque in its use of contrapuntal technique:

Ex. 65. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue, Variation XIII, p. 13, mm. 1-3

Variation XVI, in 6/8 meter and marked moderato, features the tremolo technique within a common practice harmonic setting:

Ex. 66. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue, Variation XVI, p. 15, mm. 1-2

The fugue, marked moderato and in three voices, is based on a four-measure subject derived from the theme:

Ex. 67. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue, Fugue, p. 20, mm. 1-8

Organized according to eighteenth-century conventions, the exposition consists of an initial presentation of the subject, a real answer at the fifth (with countersubject), a bridge and a restatement of the subject at the octave. Likewise, the rest of the movement conforms to Baroque fugal convention: a series of developmental and modulatory episodes follow the exposition and a three-voice stretto and an extended dominant pedal passage appear near the end. The dominant pedal passage is particularly exciting (mm. 81-90): a motive from the countersubject, over an open A pedal, ascends with mounting tension to a high B2-flat and, in like manner, descends to a final statement of the subject harmonized in fortissimo block chords and a coda based on the second counterpoint.

Ex. 68. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue, Fugue, p. 22, mm. 81-85

As a self-contained entity the fugue is a pleasant and well-conceived work, although somewhat academic. However, as an ending for a lengthy set of virtuosic variations the fugue is anticlimactic and somewhat exhausting for both listener and performer.

Despite Ponce's skillful composition of individual variations, this work as a whole lacks both spontaneity and structural unity. Although the use of the sectional variation form is successful in Ponce's shorter variation sets, the manner in which it is used in this work strikes the listener as a lengthy succession of attractive pieces—i.e., each variation is a balanced musical entity in itself—rather than a continuous and dramatically controlled whole.8 While Ponce's character pieces show an excellent control of dramatic tension and formal organization, longer works such as Suite Antigua and the Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue show that Ponce sometimes had difficulty maintaining dramatic balance in extended sectional compositions.

Footnotes

4Corazón Otero, Manuel M. Ponce and the Guitar (London: Musical New Services, 1983), p. 33.

5Ibid., pp. 39 and 41.

6Jacket notes from the record Andrés Segovia: The EMI Recordings 1927-39, (Angel ZB-3896).

7Ibid.

8It is possible that the unedited version of this work—i.e., prélude, twenty-plus variations in original placement and fugue—may have had a significantly different musical impact than the published version.

Source Materials

Otero, Corazón. Manuel M. Ponce and the Guitar. Translated by J. D. Roberts. Dorset, England: Musical New Services, 1980. 85 pages.

Ponce, Manuel M. Thème varié et Finale. Edited by Andrés Segovia. Mainz: Schott, 1926. 7 pages.

Ponce, Manuel M. Variations on a Theme of Cabezón. Edited by Miguel Alcázar. London: Tecla Editions, 1983. 7 pages.

Ponce, Manuel M. Variations sur >>Folia de España<< et Fugue. Edited by Andrés Segovia. Mainz: Schott, 1932. 22 pages.

Segovia, Andrés: The EMI Recordings 1927-39. Angel ZB-3896.

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