Felip Pedrell: Catalonia's Mark on Romantic Music

Felip Pedrell

The Romantic Era of Western Music encompasses some of the most prolific composers of all time. Even non-musicians will know who Chopin, Schubert, and Beethoven are. Because of this, though, it was especially hard to break through as a composer and musician.The Romantic genre dominated Germany and Austria, so it makes sense that these two countries/nationalities are commonly associated with it. However, Felip Pedrell is an outlier; he composed out of Catalonia, Spain, and absolutely made his mark as a Romantic composer. Pedrell’s compositions are demonstrative of the freedom of melodic form, dense textures, and homophonic presence that define the Romantic Era of Western Music. These are all characteristics of Pedrell’s Gallarda,

The cadence begins with all the strings in chromatic cadences, and after the third repeat the violin’s part is taken down a few notes. The chromaticism demonstrated in just the beginning is also a large part of the Romantic Era of Western Music. The melody is almost overwhelmingly homophonic and the strings are all in the same rhythmic pattern. The second variation that takes place with an unclear transition and returns to the same melody at the beginning - this time in an echoing duet between the violin and the rest of the orchestra. There is a sudden caesura at around 2:32, which lasts a few beats before carrying over to the next part of the piece. Gallarda has a consistently thick texture and this is present throughout. After the caesura, it’s full orchestra with lots of rise and fall and the introduction of a new cadence and melody. This cadence changes a second time at 3:27, and the melody returns in an echoing duet between the violin and the rest of the orchestra. Though there are clear transitions in the song, there is no set pattern or form. The melodic phrases are long, and lyrical, which is also very defining of Romantic music. There are high contrasts in dynamics throughout and every crescendo and decrescendo is bold and extreme. Builds are less gradual and more sudden. It leaves the listener waiting for completion. Romantic Music is also noted to be “programme music” (meant to tell a

The title is a nod to a town at the border of France and Spain, obviously in the Pyrenees Mountains. Ai, Tolosa opens with a cadence that then allows the vocalist to sing without any accompaniment, then repeats and gives the vocalist a solo a second time. Where the orchestra was very integrated into Al Santo, Ai Tolosa very much has the orchestra as accompaniment. The singer is very much the feature of this piece. The piece begins thick in texture and continues to be thick in texture. The dynamic is consistently forte until a rest at 1:25, where the singer returns and is once again followed by the cadence and melody that opens the song. The opening phrase repeats with the full orchestra twice, and then changes into its own variation. This piece is much more systematic and less freeform than the others, though it is important to note it was composed at the turn of the century in which there is a transition in musical genres/periods. There’s very present nationalism in the song as well as references to nature which still push this to be a very romantic era piece. The melodic phrases are very long and consistent. There is more repetition to this than in Al Santo, which makes it very much a composition all of its own. The texture thickens dramatically at 4:46 with the introduction of a full choir which is also very significant to the Romantic Era of Western Music. The song is homophonic