Manual Ponce - Berkshire Guitar Society

Manuel Maria Ponce:
A Guitarist's Guide
for Berkshire Guitar Society
Gary Jordan, 14 April 2013
Note:
This presentation includes links to examples of
Ponce's music on Spotify's music streaming service: Click the icon to find out more.
Why ?
I wanted to know:

Who was he

What else did he write

How did Segovia persuade him to write

What is the background behind his
distinctive styles
The next 30 mins

Ponce's life – brief history

Compositions for guitar

Musical styles

What if...
Adiós mi bien
Aleluya
Alevántate
Cerca de tí
Cinco poemas chinos
Cuatro poemas de F.A. de Icaza
Dos poemas alemanes
Dos poemas de B. Dávalos
Estrellita (1912)
Forse
Ho bisogno
Insomnio
Isaura de mi amor
La pajarera
Lejos de tí
Lejos de tí II
Marchita el alma
Necesito
Ofrenda
Poema de primavera
Por tí mi corazón
Romanzeta
Sperando, sognando
Seis poemas aracáicos
Serenata mexicana
Soñó mi mente loca
Tal vez
Toi
Tres poemas de E. González Martínez
Tres poemas de M. Brull
Tres poemas de Lermontow
Tres poemas de R. Tagore
Tres poemas franceses
Tú
Último ensueño
Una multitud más
A busy chap
Quatro Danzas Mexicanas
Intermezzo
Balada Mexicana Version for Piano solo and Piano and Orchestra
Mazurcas
Concierto romántico
Scherzino a Debussy
Scherzino mexicano
Estudios de concierto
Elegía de la ausencia
Tema mexicano variado
Suite cubana
Concerto para piano
Rapsodia Cubana
Rapsodias Mexicanas
Preludio y fuga sobre un tema de Handel
and a few others
Canciones populares mexicanas, La pajarera, Por ti mi Corazon, La valentina
Sonata mexicana (1925)
Thème varié et Finale (1926)
Sonata III (1927)
Sonata clásica (1928)
Sonata romántica (1929)
Suite en la Mineur (1929)
Variations and Fugue on 'La Folia' (1929)
Valse (1937)
Sonatina meridional (1939)
Variations on a Theme of Cabezón (1948)
Dos Vinetas' (post-humous)
Source: wikipedia 4April 2013
Guitar Rules!!
Survey of Ponce recordings available on Amazon
(April 2013)
piano
violin
guitar
The Person
●
Doors always open
●
Hospitable & generous host
●
●
Enthusiastic conversation in five
languages
Travel and financial hardship
Manuel's Map
Berlin
Paris
Bologna
Havana
Aguascalientes
Mexico City
Montevedeo
Manuel's Map T
Berlin
Paris
Bologna
Havana
Aguascalientes
Mexico City
Montevedeo
Early Years
Berlin
Piano studies with Martin Krause
Lots of Bach
- WTK in different keys!
Paris
Encouraged to use Mexican
folk heratige
Fugue On A Theme Of Handel
Bologna
Bossi
refused
tuition:
Style - too
old
fashioned!
New York
Havana
Aguascalientes
Dance For The Left Hand
1st
composition
at 6
Piano
lessons at
4
Born
in
Fresnillo,
Mexico City
but regarded
Aguascaliententes
as 'home'
Montevideo
Organist at
SanDiego at
13
Studied piano, Entered
harmony Conservatoire
& voice
Paris
Mexican influence
Bologna
New York
Montevideo
taught at Conservatoire
Nacional.
toured with string quartet
"opening phrase of
nationalisitc music in
Mexico"
Mexican Revolution
1910 – 1920:
Left for Cuba to
escape
Political unrest
19
23
19
09
Mexico City
Estrellita,
19
17
Composed
Estrallita
Aguascalientes
19
14
1st
performance of
piano concerto
19
12
Havana
“does not demand
extended consideration.”
Professor of piano at Conservatoire,
Conductor of National
Symphony Orchestra,
Married Clema
Heard
Segovia
play
Serenata
and
La valentina
"To hear the notes of the guitar played
by Andres Segovia is ..
...to evoke remote and tender emotions wrapped in the mysterious enchantment of things of the past;
...to open the spirit to dreams, and to
live some delicious moments in the surroundings of pure art that the great
Spanish artist knows how to create..
Sonata Mexicana - 3. Intermezzo.
Met
Segovia
after recital in
Mexico
Segovia suggested
the theme in 1929
but with a far simpler set of variations.
Studied Post-romantic techniques and orchestration with Paul Ducas at
Ecole Normale de Musique
Heitor Villa-Lobos & Joaquin Rodriigo in same class
comission renewed, but eventually ran into financial difficulties
Developed unique harmonic language through counterpoint and
chromatisism
Collaboration with Segovia: 5 sonatas, 2 suites, 2 sets of vars, 24 preludes,
& many others short pieces
19
32
19
33
Prelude & Ballet (Weiss)
Sonata Meridionale
Suite Antiqua (A. Scarlatti)
19
31
Folia d'Espange
Theme, vars & fugue
19
29
19
30
Sonata (Paganini)
Sonata Romantica (schubert)
19
28
Suite in A minor (Weiss)
spotify:track:5SWGPQUUM1ydP1gjxL9uPX
Started as arrangement
of Grand Sonata:
“truly unplayable”!
Rewritten, but:
1st mvmt “annoying”
3rd recorded in 1952
Romanza in 1967
Return to
Mexico
Also know as:
Suite in D
Classical Suite in D
Suite Classica.
19
36
Joke on violinist Kriesler:
“...found in the same place
as one of your pieces by Corelli”
Sonata Classica
(Homage a Fernando Sor)
19
27
Sonata III
Theme, Varie et finale
Sonata Mexicana
Serenata and La valentina
19
23
Paris
19
26
19
25
the spirit of dreams...
Spanish Civil war damaged Segovia's house
in Barcelona:
Original scores lost including Homenaje a
Bach, 'Weiss' Prelude,
and possibly Sonata II.
Also Ponce's letters.
Return to Mexico
Studied
Post-romantic techniques and
orchestration with Paul Ducas
at Ecole Normale de Musique
Heitor Villa-Lobos & Joaquin
Rodriigo in same class
Comission renewed, but
eventually ran into financial
difficulties
Collaboration with
Segovia
5 sonatas
2 suites
2 sets of vars
24 preludes
&
many others short pieces
Met
Segovia
Awarded 6 month
Comission to
study composition
in Paris
Returned to
Conservatoire Nacional,
Concentrated on orchestral works
& teaching children
Completed
violin concerto
First
performance
Concierto del
sur
MMP Remembered
●
Segovia:
I more than anyone else owe gratitude
to Ponce because he responded with
the deepest sympathy to my ceaseless eagerness to metamorphose the
guitar.
Tomb in Mexico City
●
●
Festivals, buildings, institutions,etc
named in his honour
..and his music
Salle Manuel M. Ponce, Belles Artes, Mexico City
Stylistic Development
Compare his first
and last concerti !
Piano concerto
1912
1st movement: Allegro non troppo
Violin concerto
1943
1st movement: Allegro non troppo
2nd movement: Andante espressivo
3rd movement: Vivo giocoso
What if?
●
●
●
●
Ponce had not heard Segovia in Mexico
City
Segovia's collection of manuscripts had
not been destroyed
Castlenuovo-Tedesco had not
completed his concerto
Of Ponce's 64 years, only 8 were spent
composing guitar music, yet his guitar
works are far better known that his other
output. What if he'd met Segovia earlier?
References

Manuel Ponce and the guitar, Corazon
Otero, 1994

Kevin Manderville Treatise

Guitar Magazine Biog

Wikepedia
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Spotify
Thank you for
listening!