PABLO DE SARASATE:

HIS HISTORICAL SIGNIFICANCE

BY GRANGE WOOLLEY1

ALTHOUGH the compositions of the great Spanish violinist Pablo dc

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Sarasate are, like those of Paganini and Wieniawski, brilliant virtuoso
pieces of enduring popularity, Paganini alone of the three has
attracted the continued interest of musical biographers and his-
torians. In the case of Sarasate it has been the general consensus of
critical opinion that his works for the violin, in spite of their un-
deniable concert effectiveness, are of comparatively little artistic
importance; nor has the story of his life been considered a sufficiently
unique or romantic subject to promise great rewards either to author
or publisher.2 Obviously Sarasate's works are not of a nature to
warrant the involved theoretical appraisal which adds so much
interest to the biographies of great composers. But that does not
mean that they are of small artistic value and historically insigni-
ficant; and his biography constitutes an important chapter in the
history of Spanish and French music.
Sarasate was born on i o March 1844 at Pamplona, a picturesque
old fortress city commanding one of the principal passes of the
Pyrenees and renowned in history as the capital of the kingdom of
Navarre.3 He was christened Martin Melit6n Sarasate y Navascues.
It was not until he began his professional career as a young concert
violinist in Paris that he changed his name to Pablo de Sarasate.
Like most violin virtuosos, he was a child prodigy. His father,
Don Miguel Sarasate, a regimental bandmaster, was also an amateur
violinist. The story is told that one day Don Miguel was practising
his violin and having great difficulty with a technically complicated
passage. Little Martin listened for a while with growing and
evident impatience. At last Don Miguel, piqued by his son's
1
Professor Woolle/s essay, here reproduced in a slightly abridged form, was the
outcome of his sabbatical leave from Drew University, Madison (N.J.), U.S.A.
• Two books, both in Spanish, have appeared on Sarasate: ' Pablo de Sarasate ', by
Jose de Altadill, Pamplona 1908, a rather awkward compilation of facts pertaining
to Sarasate's career as a virtuoso gleaned from the collection of Sarasate's papers in the
Museo de Sarasate, Pamplona ; and ' Sarasate', by Leon Zarate (pseudonym of Yvette
Bourget), Ediciones Ave, Barcelona 1945. Miss Bourget, with whom this author discussed
Sarasate during a visit to Barcelona last year, has written an interesting, well-documented
fictional biography. However, she scarcely touches upon the question of his artistic,
historic significance.
* It was during my visit to Pamplona in 1953 that I realized the importance of
Sarasate's Basque origin and of the place which he permanently occupies in the hearts
and minds of the people of Pamplona. They are now planning a more imposing statue
than the present one to honour his memory.
337
238 MUSIC AND LETTERS

attitude, told him to try it himself. Martin, who at the time was
only five, took up his own diminutive violin and played the passage
perfectly and with the greatest of ease. From that day—so goes the
story—Don Miguel never again played the violin. Perhaps also from
that day dated the mild animosity between father and son which
later, when Sarasate had won the Premier Prix at the Paris Con-
servatoire, on his refusal to return to Spain with his father, caused

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a breach which lasted till the latter's death.
At a first triumphal concert at La Corufia in 1852 the little
violinist enlisted the admiration and generous sympathy of the
Condesa Espoz y Mina, who made him an annual grant of 2,000
redes to enable him to continue his studies. In Madrid, where, like
a Spanish Mozart, he became the darling of the royal family, he
soon learnt all that Spain's foremost violin professor, Don Rodriguez
Saez, felt capable of teaching him. Don Rodriguez urged his pupil
to go to Paris in order to study with the famous Alard at the Paris
Conservatoire. Accompanied by his mother, the eleven-year-old
prodigy boarded a train for Paris. But at the French frontier town
of Bayonne Sefiora Sarasate was suddenly seized with a heart attack
and died. Fortunately the Spanish consul at Bayonne, Don Ignacio
Garcia, a wealthy, philanthropic bachelor, immediately took the
grief-stricken boy in charge. Still another calamity was at hand.
The doctor who had been called to attend Sefiora Sarasate dis-
covered that the boy was in the first stage of cholera. In spite of this
and the protests of his two maiden sisters, Don Garcia took Sarasate
to his home, rigged up an " isolation ward " in the attic and there
personally nursed him back to health.
When Sarasate finally arrived in Paris and was heard by Alard,
the latter immediately recognized his unusual promise. Taking from
the outset a paternal interest in his new pupil, Alard arranged for
him to live at the home of a colleague, Lassabathie, administrative
director of the Conservatoire. The Lassabathies were childless, and
it was not long before they came to look upon the young Sarasate as
their own son.
At the age of seventeen Sarasate was awarded the coveted
Premier Prix du Conservatoire. According to all accounts he could
have won it before that, but Alard wisely held him back so that he
should not begin his professional career too soon.
As a man Sarasate was proud and aloof towards strangers, some-
times condescending and sarcastic with his friends who, knowing his
fundamentally generous and affectionate nature, were willing to put
up with his unpredictable moods. Those who had been familiar
with him in his youth in Paris were aware that part of his moodiness
 PABLO DE SARASATE 239

was due to a first and final profound disappointment in love which

he had experienced. He had been desperately enamoured of Marie
Lefe'bure-We'ly, daughter of the well-known organist and composer;
but she had suddenly decided to marry a man whom, it was said,
her parents had chosen for her. Sarasate's tender melody ' Les
Adieux ', which was addressed to Mile. Letebure-We'ly, was also an
elegy on the death of sentimental love in his own heart. Not only

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did he remain a bachelor all his life, he became more and more
cynical in regard to women. In spite of this he always retained, at
least outwardly, the traditional Spanish caballero's attitude of
gallantry towards members of the fair sex. Leopold Auer, who as a
young man knew Sarasate at the height of his fame, observes that the
latter always carried a supply of Spanish fans to present to his lady
admirers.4 That many ladies pined for him in hopeless adoration is
only what one would expect. Although small in stature he was, as
a young man, decidedly handsome and he always bore himself
proudly and dressed impeccably.8 Later he grew somewhat pudgy,
yet his large brown eyes never lost their captivating expressiveness.
The volume of mail from his feminine admirers increased steadily
through the years, but, as Altadill remarks, " the perfumed notes
remained unopened ".
In 1953, at the Academia de Miisica of Pamplona, the director,
Senor Miguel de Echeveste, kindly allowed me to read a manuscript
volume of love letters in the form of a diary addressed to Sarasate.
Entitled 'Souvenirs d'une artiste (1886-1904)', it is a series of
soliloquies and imaginary conversations which the authoress carried
on with Sarasate over a period of eighteen years. • In spite of the
beautiful and obviously sincere sentiments expressed in these pages,
Sarasate is said to have shrugged with indifference when mentioning
it. That, of course, does not necessarily mean that he was entirely
untouched by such wistful, eloquent devotion. One thing which
struck me as particularly interesting was that this French lady,
married to a Spaniard, continually spoke of Sarasate as if he also
were French. Such sentences as " Tu es l'artiste adore", la gloire de
notre France " appear again and again.
Sarasate was decidedly a " man's man " and had many close
friends among the Parisian musicians, many of whom, like him,
were graduates of the Conservatoire. He was, for instance, on
* L. Auer, ' My Long Life in Music ' (New York, 1923).
* I have in my possession a rare photograph of Sarasate as a young man which
Professor Jcai de Huarte of the Pamplona Academia de Miisica kindly gave me. A profile,
it shows the handsome features of a sensitive young Basque artist-
* Feeling that Sefior de Echeveste considers this manuscript as confidential, I refrain
from giving the name of the authoress.
240 MUSIC AND LETTERS

intimate terms of friendship with Bizet, Saint-Saens, Lalo, Massenet,

Diemer and Franck. During the 1870s, already famous, he made
the acquaintance of most of the leading French artists and literary
celebrities.
There is no doubt that Sarasate, by the time he was seventeen
years old and had won the Premier Prix at the Conservatoire, already
considered himself more a Frenchman than a Spaniard. Although

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Spain naturally claimed him as her own, he for his part never ceased
to cast backhanded and disparaging remarks at many aspects of
Spanish life. His particular grievance was that in musical matters
Spain was a tierra de bdrbaros. But this complaint was not his alone:
it was the opinion of many enlightened musicians, both Spaniards
and foreigners. In an article entitled ' Sarasate y el arte musical
en Espafia ', dated Madrid, June 1900, one of Spain's best-informed
musical critics, the Marque's de Alta Villa, writes:
In Madrid, where one would naturally expect to find the most
gifted interpreters of the various arts, including that of the teaching
and practice of music, we have in this last field absolutely no official
education. That of the Conservatorio de Musica y Declamaci6n is
an unbelievable disgrace!7
The French critic Georges Baudin, in an article on " modern "
Spanish music published in 1908, puts it thus:
Spain is a beautiful but indifferent woman . . . And this general,
indolent, indifference is especially fatal to musicians.8
During his long, glorious, international career as a concert
violinist Sarasate always returned to Paris, which was his head-
quarters and only permanent home. For many years he occupied
an apartment in the Rue de Saint-Pe"tersbourg. Then, in 1884, he
signed a long lease on an expensive apartment at 112 Boulevard
Malesherbes and engaged Whistler to decorate it for him. When his
friends told him that he was foolish to spend so much money on an
establishment he could occupy for only a few months a year, he
laughed and ironically remarked that the " harmonies " of Whistler's
colour-scheme would undoubtedly cost him many a pizzicato.
Whistler expressed his desire to do a portrait of Sarasate and,
shortly after moving into his new, modernistic, yellow-and-white
home, the violinist arranged, between concert tours, to pose several
times. There is an interesting reference to this picture, which is
considered one of Whistler's best works, in James Laver's biography
of the painter. Speaking of the lecture which Whistler delivered in
London on modern art before a critical audience in Prince's Hall
' Printed in the ' Reviita Saraiate ' (Pamplona, July igoo).
1
' La Musique erpagnole moderae ' (' Bulletin dc la Soditi Internationale de
Musique', 15 March 1908).
 PABLO DE SARAS ATE 241

on 20 February 1885, Laver says that he appeared on the stage

" immaculately dressed and looking like his picture of Sarasate ".
At approximately the same time that Whistler did this portrait of
Sarasate he also did an etching of Ste'phane Mallarme\ These three
artists were curiously similar in appearance.
Although Sarasate unquestionably understood and appreciated
the fine qualities of his countrymen and the picturesque aspects of

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Spanish life—he was, for instance, an enthusiastic aficionado of the
bullfight—he never felt really at home except in Paris or in his
native town of Pamplona. He went back there every summer for the
Fiesta de San Firmin, and these visits of their idol were looked forward
to by the Pamplonese with joy and pride. To this day his rooms at
the Hotel La Perla are kept just as they were when he occupied them.
The Pamplonese always followed from afar with keen interest
the triumphs of their hero and in February 1900 proclaimed him
hizo predilecto (favourite son) of the city.
However, that spring, on his way to fulfil an engagement in
Madrid, he suffered an insulting wound to his pride in the form of
an article in a Madrid newspaper. The writer, commenting on
Sarasate's forthcoming concerts in Spain, attacked him for his lack
of patriotism and declared that vanity alone brought him back
yearly to Pamplona, where he enjoyed being worshipped as a demi-
god. In spite of the wonderful reception given him in Madrid, when
the time came for him to go to Pamplona, he insisted upon arriving
there incognito. At the Pamplona railway station he drew his hat
down over his face and rode alone in a cab to the Hotel La Perla.
However, as soon as he descended at the hotel he was recognized.
Immediately the news of his arrival spread. The gun salutes which
had been ordered for his welcome were fired. Friends rushed to
La Perla to surround their hero.
For many years it had been his custom to spend a month or six
weeks at San Sebastian or Biarritz following the end of the Fiesta de
San Firmin at Pamplona. In December 1901 he bought a seaside
villa at Biarritz which he named Villa Navarra. It was there that
he passed the seven summers which remained to him and there, on
20 September 1908, that he died of the chronic bronchitis which had
plagued him for years.
• • •
It is not generally known that Sarasate was one of the first violin
virtuosos to make gramophone recordings. I happen to have in my
possession two R. C. A. Victor records which, I presume, were made
from the oldfashioned cylinders used in those days. On one of them
—an abridged version of ' Zigeunerweisen'—Sarasate's voice,
242 MUSIC AND LETTERS

barely audible, is heard in a quick remark to his accompanist. The

other record, made, if I remember correctly, for the celebrations
connected with the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sarasate's death and
designed particularly for Spain and South America, has on one side
the ' Zortzico (Miramar) ', Op. 42, and on the other the ' Habanera '
Op. 21 No. 2. This record, which unfortunately proved to be very
perishable, is made, I believe, of transparent plastic on a cardboard
base and is decorated with floral designs and a photograph of

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Sarasate holding his violin in playing position. In spite of the age
of these recordings they undoubtedly give a very good idea of his"
style, which reminds me of that of Kubelik, Ysaye and Thibaut, all
three of whom were renowned for the ingratiating sweetness of their
tone and the phenomenal yet casual brilliance of their technique.
During the three years I spent at the University of Paris pre-
paring a doctoral thesis on Richard Wagner 9 I regularly took
advantage of the reduced-price concert tickets which were available
to students. Hardly a week passed without my hearing at least two
violin recitals. I always noted the enthusiastic applause which
followed compositions by Sarasate.
It was to learn more about Sarasate and his compositions that I
decided to visit Pamplona during my sabbatical leave in the spring
of 1953. I also hoped that in Madrid and possibly at Seville I should
find material on Sarasate not available in the United States. After
Pamplona I planned to visit Paris and to seek further documentation
in the library of the Conservatoire and in the Bibliotheque Nationale.
Arriving at Seville from Gibraltar on 12 February, I quickly
discovered that the beautiful but at that time bitterly cold Andalusian
capital was not the place in which one should expect to learn any-
thing significant about Sarasate or, for that matter, any other
musician. Surprisingly, I fared little better in Madrid where I
came to the conclusion that for documentation I undoubtedly should
have been better off in the Library of Congress. At least I should
have been warm there.
One morning at the Academia Nacional de Miisica I managed
to chat for a few minutes with its very busy director, the Rev.
Federico Sopefia.10 When I hopefully mentioned my interest in
Sarasate I noticed a look of slightly bored impatience on Father
Sopena's face. Sarasate, he somewhat condescendingly informed me,
had written no significant compositions. Even his so-called Spanish
dances were not truly Spanish because he had never really under-
stood Spanish music. If I wished to study a Spanish musician I
•'Richard Wagner et le symbolisme fran^ais' (Presses Univenitaires de France, 1931)>
10
He is the brilliant author of several very stimulating books on modern musicians,
one of which,' Dos anos de miisica en Europa ' (Madrid, 1942), I was glad to have read.
 PABLO DE SARASATE 243

should have done better, he averred, to turn my attention to Falla,

Albe'niz or Granados. He made no objection to my remark that
more competent critics than I had already written quite extensively
on these three composers, but when I attempted to return to the
subject of Sarasate he categorically—I was almost going to say
phalangistically—cut me short. After this wet-blanket treatment I
decided that nowhere in Spain but at Pamplona should the dying

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embers of my enthusiasm have a chance to burst into flame again.
The following day I left Madrid at 2 p.m. in the little single-
coach Auto Via train which provides the fastest service between
Madrid and Pamplona. I had been told that the Auto Via trains
were very modern, and as I followed my porter along the platform
under the big glass roof of the Estaci6n del Norte I rejoiced at the
sight of a long, streamlined aluminium train standing on the track
marked Pamplona. As I put my foot on the step of the first carriage
we reached the porter shook his head and with the air of a tired,
disgruntled father forbidding his trailing son to enter a candy shop,
•dropped one of my bags and impatiently pointed farther down the
track. In the distance I now saw a small, squat carriage, bristling
like some outlandish insect with the arms, shoulders and heads of
passengers. Fortunately I had reserved a seat and was able to squash
in beside a portly priest who was mopping the perspiration from his
heavy jowls with a black cotton handkerchief.
When I arrived at Sarasate's birthplace at 10 p.m. an icy wind
from the Pyrenees was blowing through the deserted streets and the
wintry smell of the air seemed more Canadian than Spanish.
Driving to the Hotel.La Perla I chatted with the friendly driver,
who pointed out Sarasate's monument and the tree-lined boulevard
named El Paseo de Sarasate. The driver's remark that I should
have come to Pamplona during the Fiesta de San Firmin was one
which I heard many times during my visit there. Pamplona during
its Fiesta was so dinned into me as an inexorable " tourist must "
that I shall probably find myself there some hot July day Watching
from the safety of La Perla's balcony, as Sarasate used to do, the
wild hilarity and near panic of the crowd in the Plaza de Castillo
as it scatters before the charging droves of young bulls.
Thanks to the kind hospitality of several distinguished Pam-
plonese musicians, and particularly of Don Jose" Antonio de Huarte,
Don Miguel Echeveste and Don Pedro Turullols, my ten days at
Pamplona were the high-light of my six months' European trip. It
was through Don Pedro Turullols that I met the members of Pam-
plona's famous Agrupaci6n Coral de Camara and was initiated into
the beauty of Basque singing.
244 MUSIC AND LETTERS

Don Jose" de Huarte, who in his youth toured extensively as a

concert violinist, is the son of one of Sarasate's closest friends, Don
Alberto de Huarte. I was delighted to find that Don Jos6 had in
his possession most of Sarasate's original manuscripts. When I told
him that I was interested in ascertaining what popular Spanish
melodies Sarasate had used in the composition of his Spanish dances
he assured me th^it if he could not identify them probably nobody
else could. Actually, as I soon learnt when going through the

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manuscripts with Don Huarte, Sarasate continually mingled popular
and folk melodies with his own, and sometimes it is next to
impossible to say where the one begins and the other leaves off.
We worked in the Professor's studio which, in contrast with the
other rooms he showed me in the large, dark apartment crammed
like a museum of antiquities with relics of bygone days, was at least
partially heated by a little wooden stove. From time to time we
would interrupt our work on the manuscripts and the professor,
taking his place at the grand piano which stood at one end of the
room, would accompany me as I played on his very fine old violin.
The following melodic sources used by Sarasate are the only
ones of which Professor de Huarte felt reasonably certain. The
' Caprice basque ': the introduction is based on several motifs of the
basque zortzico " Desde que nace el dia, hasta que muere el sol ".
The third theme of the ' Caprice Basque ' is from the ancient
zortzico ' Donostiyako iru damatxo ' (' Tres sefioritas de San
Sebastian'). The duet-' Navarra ' is an adaptation of the gaitas
(flageolet melodies) traditionally played during the Fiesta de San
Firmin at Pamplona. The ' Jota Aragonesa ' contains a melody
taken from a song to freedom by the Navarrese composer Brull.
The first theme of the first' Habanera (Op. 21) ' is based on a song,
" De la patria del cacao, del chocolate y del cafe" " from Fernando
Caballero's zarzuela ' La Gallina ciega '. The second ' Habanera '
(Op. 26) shows (first theme) influence of the song " Yo me voy a
Puerto Rico en un cascaron de nuez " and (second theme) of the
habanera ' Nena mia ' by Fernandez Caballero. The ' Zortzico
basco ' (Op. 37), " Adios montanas mias ", is a Basque air, probably
of the nineteenth century. ' Peteneras ' is a composition based on
Andalusian melodies, Professor de Huarte thinks. ' Jota Navarra '
contains motifs from ' El molinero de Subiza ', a zarzuela by Oudrid
and from the jota ' Viva Navarra"" by Larregla. ' Spanish Dances '
No. 11 (Fischer edition) is inspired by the song by Alvarez,
' La Partida ', " Sierras de Granada, montes de Aragon ".
Sarasate's other Spanish dances, ' Miramar (Zortzico) ', Op. 42,
' Romanza Andaluza', Op. 22, ' Malaguefla', Op. 21, and
 PABLO DE SARASATE 245

' Zapateado ', Op. 23, Professor de Huarte believes to be more

completely original, although showing, of course, the general
influence of Spanish traditional music.
It is natural that great romantic violinist-composers of the nine-
teenth century like Paganini, Wieniawski, Hubay and Sarasate
should have used many popular songs, folksongs and folk dances in
composing their violin pieces. The peculiar glory of the violin is

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that it is the singing instrument par excellence. Moreover, thanks to
pizzicato and the various springing bowings it is capable of many
pretty effects delightfully reminiscent of the guitar. Probably no
violinist-composer ever used the pizzicato and staccato to simulate
guitar or mandolin as effectively as did Sarasate. Paganini's
pizzicati are usually purely violinistic. This is also true to some
extent of Bazzini, although in his famous ' Ronde des lutins ', for
instance, the flying staccati and pizzicati are used with specific pro-
grammatic intent. Perhaps Wieniawski more nearly approaches
Sarasate in the use of these technical devices, but he had an especial
predilection for linked staccati used primarily for their decorative
effect. Since Sarasate's time pizzicato and the springing bow have
been used a great deal in violin arrangements of Spanish music. A
good example of this is Kreisler's arrangement of the popular dance
from Falla's ' La vide breve '.
Among Sarasate's Spanish dances, vying in popularity with his
lively ' Zapateado ', Op. 23, is the exquisite ' Malaguefia ', Op. 21.
I should like to discuss this briefly and without going into too many
technical details. As all students of Spanish music know, malaguehas
are essentially Spanish gypsy music consisting of two component
elements, song and dance. Sarasate's ' Malaguefia ' opens with a
nostalgic melody in D major characterized by the typical descending
triplets which lend such poignant sadness to even the gayest of such
Spanish melodies. This melody which, on a register two octaves
higher, concludes the piece, corresponds to the " song ". After the
first statement of this song comes a dance movement, un poco lento, of
alternating right- and left-hand pizzicati interspersed with springing
staccati. Typical of the malaguefia, the accented beat is on the first
note of each bar. This dance movement is followed by a variation
passage in legato demisemiquavers of breathtaking beauty. Like the
graceful flight of a bird, it comes to rest in aritardandoquadruplet of
harmonic semiquavers. The first melody is taken up again, ending
with another series of demisemiquaver runs which reach their climax
on a trill high on the E string and a final pizzicato on the open D.
Borrowing a comparison from the words of a popular song, ' A
Pretty Girl is like a Melody', one might say that Sarasate takes a gypsy
246 MUSIC AND LETTERS

girl from a poor quarter of Malaga and presents her on the concert
stage, richly gowned and sparkling with jewels. These jewels are,
by the way, the technically most difficult passages, which some critics
would no doubt scoffingly dismiss as violinistic pyrotechnics.
There would be little point here in describing or analysing other
compositions among Sarasate's fifty-four works. That he was an
unusually successful adapter for the violin of beautiful popular and

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folk melodies gives him a place, perhaps not sufficiently recognized,
among the great nineteenth-century romantic composers, practically
all of whom found their main source of melodic inspiration in the
traditional songs and dances of European folk music. It is from
this point of view that I shall now discuss Sarasate's historical
significance.
* • *

One of the most important early phases in Sarasate's career was

his winning over of the severest German critics to an appreciation
of himself as a virtuoso and, by implication, of the French school of
violin playing. By 1876 he was already famous in France, Spain,
Belgium, England, the United States and Argentina. His Parisian
friends suggested that it was time for him to accept the challenge of
an offer made to him for a concert tour in Germany. If he could
win recognition in the " country of music ", they said, he would
have established, without question, his world reputation. At the
same time, by playing in Germany the compositions of French
composers he would do a great service musically to France. At
first Sarasate turned a deaf ear to these suggestions. He was too
proud to submit himself to the biased judgment of those Prussians!
However, the insistence of friends like Massenet and Dimmer finally
convinced him. He accepted the invitation of the Germans and
departed for Berlin. Since at that stage of his career he did not have
a regular accompanist but availed himself of the services of first-class
pianists in the cities he visited, he was to be accompanied at his
Berlin concert by the famous German pianist and composer Otto
Neitzel.
It was only five years after the Franco-Prussian war and the
traditional conceit of German musicians had been fanned by their
country's military victory. Moreover, the memory of the ignomi-
nious reception given to Wagner's ' Tannhauser' at the Paris
Ope>a in 1861 still rankled. The belief, fostered by anti-French
critics, that nothing worthy of notice could be expected of the music
or musicians of France had become general. Sarasate's first concert
in Germany took place in a small Berlin auditorium before a select,
extremely critical audience. Among those present were Hans von
 PABLO DE SARASATE 247

Bulow, then director of the Berlin Philharmonic and ardent disciple

of Wagner, the composer Wilhelm Langhans, Woldemar Bargiel,
professor of the Berlin Conservatory of Music, and, already men-
tioned, the pianist-composer Neitzel. The attitude of the audience
was both condescending and unfriendly. Sarasate, accustomed to
enthusiastic receptions and thunderous applause, was at first intimi-
dated. However, as he began to play—he had chosen as his opening

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number his friend Saint-Saens's A major Concerto—his confidence
returned. As soon as they hear me, he decided, they will change
their minds. Alas, although he played with all his usual fire and
technical mastery, the stern Teutons remained unmoved. Moreover,
after the concert they completely ignored him. Although most of
them could talk French quite well, they pretended ignorance of that
language as an excuse for not speaking to him. Only Neitzel and
Langhans paid him any compliment: their enthusiasm, in fact,
knew no bounds.
The following day Sarasate, who read German with difficulty,
eagerly scanned the newspapers. One article, the first he came
upon, was moderately favourable; but the second, a long, critical
essay in one of Berlin's leading dailies, stung him to anger by its
condescending tone and its pointedly insulting panegyric of the art
of the great violinists Joachim and Wilhelmj, who, the author
averred, were the true artists of the violin. They alone were of a
stature to interpret the classical works of the mighty German masters
Bach, Mozart and Beethoven. Sarasate's fury was such that he was
on the point of packing his bags and returning to Paris immediately.
Only after much persuasion by Neitzel, who stressed the argument
that his departure would be interpreted as a defeat for French music
and musicians, did he finally decide to stay and persist in his effort
to win over the German musical public. After several concerts
whose success was but indifferent he at last won a great ovation in
the famous Gewandhaus of Leipzig. From that time on his fame
was secure in Germany, and as the years passed his annual German
and Austrian tours became the artistic high-lights of his concert tours.
Not only did the Germans come to recognize Sarasate as a French
violinist whose playing of the German classics left nothing to be
desired; they also, thanks to him, began to appreciate the works of
French composers like Saint-Saens and Lalo, whose compositions
for violin Sarasate made known throughout Germany and Austria.
Later, when he had composed his Spanish dances, these were
among the most called-for pieces of his German repertory, and
German and Austrian violinists who played them were assured of
their enthusiastic reception.
248 MUSIC AND LETTERS

It is a well-known fact that composers are usually diffident about

admitting that they have received help with the composition of their
works. It is thus particularly interesting that Saint-Saens admitted
the assistance he had received from Sarasate. In an article of the
' Revista Sarasate ' (a publication of the Pamplona Orfeon Society)
for 1 July 1908 Joaquin Larregla quotes the following lines from a
letter Saint-Saens had written to him:

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I wrote for him [Sarasate], at his request, the A major Concerto,
to which is given, I don't quite know why, the name KonzjerlstUck.
Then I wrote for him the ' Rondo capriccioso ' in the Spanish style
and later the B minor Concerto, for which he gave me valuable
advice to which is due, certainly to some extent, the considerable
success of this piece.
Further in this same letter Saint-Saens stated that:
In circulating my compositions throughout the world on his
magic bow, Pablo de Sarasate rendered me the highest of services.
The case of Edouard Lalo is similar in this respect to that of
Saint-Saens. Like the latter he was a close friend of Sarasate. More-
over, as he was of Spanish descent and had a pronounced Iberian
love of rhythmic and melodic brilliance, his musical taste, like that
of Sarasate, was Latin and exotic. Although as far as I have been
able to ascertain Lalo never put his debt to Sarasate in writing, it is
taken for granted by such competent authorities as Georges Servieres
in his biography of Lalo and Gilbert Chase in his volume ' The
Music of Spain '. Discussing Lalo's ' Symphom'e espagnole ' Chase
says that at one time Rimsky-Korsakov thought of writing his
' Capriccio espagnol' in the form of a fantasy for violin and
orchestra, but, he adds:
It is just as well that Rimsky-Korsakov did not carry out his
original intention—because in that case he would have had to com-
pete with Lalo's ' Symphonic espagnole ', one of the most effective
works in the entire violinistic repertoire. Lalo had Spanish blood in
his veins (though he was born at Bordeaux), and writing his
' Symphonic espagnole ' he profited moreover from the help and
advice of Sarasate, who gave the first performance of the work at
Paris on February 7, 1875.
Quite possibly Sarasate even suggested to Lalo the beautiful
Spanish melodies so effectively used in the ' Symphonie espagnole '.
However, Servieres has nothing to say about this whereas, in
speaking of Lalo's ' Rhapsodie norvdgienne', first conceived as a
sort of counterpart to the ' Symphonie espagnole ', he remarks that
its themes had been given to Lalo by Sarasate, who had brought
them back from Norway following a concert tour in the Scandinavian
countries. Whether or not this was the case is probably of slight
importance. Themes used by Lalo in the ' Symphonie espagnole ',
 PABLO DE SARASATE 249

as I have personally ascertained, are remarkably similar to tunes to

be found in collections of Spanish traditional melodies. For instance,
several themes of the ' Symphonie espagnole ', and notably of the
second movement, Scherzando, could easily have been suggested to
Lalo by cantos populates such as those found in the well-known
collection of ' Cantos populares ' by Isidoro Hernandez, especially
the tenth group of cantos, entitled ' Cantos populares gallegos '.

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Gilbert Chase follows Jose" Altadill and others when he states:
Sarasate is also reputed to have had a hand in the composition
of Bruch's second violin Concerto, ' Schottischc Fantasie', and
Mackenzie's ' Pibroch Suite '.
Speaking about Sarasate's original compositions Chase writes:
As a composer, Sarasate wrote with extreme effectiveness for his
instrument, and he was, moreover, one of those who contributed
most efficaciously to popularizing " the Spanish idiom " abroad,
sharing honors with Albteiz in this respect. His numerous Spanish
Dances (both for violin alone and with piano) will long remain in
the violinistic repertoire, for they are full of color and charm, as
well as of technical brilliance.
Until the year i860, approximately, the ignorance and in-
difference of the Parisian public in musical matters was proverbial.
When in January of that year Pasdeloup inaugurated his Concerts
Populaires, they marked a turning-point in French musical history.
In a Parisian newspaper cutting of that period, which I came upon
in a folder of Sarasate papers in the Museo Sarasate at Pamplona,
the author quotes Pasdeloup as having remarked to Sarasate that he
counted on him to help in awakening the public to the worth of
French instrumental music. This is particularly significant when
one takes into account that French music of the first half of the
nineteenth century was almost entirely dominated by opera and the
song recital.
It is worth noting that to an extent perhaps not easily appreciated
to-day Sarasate's glamour as a supreme virtuoso was very influential
in attracting the attention of the Parisian musical public to the works
of the French composers he played. In those days an even larger
part of a concert audience than is the case to-day was more interested
in the artist as a virtuoso than in the music he performed. Indeed,
according to the virtuoso tradition illustrated by such great names
as Paganini, Liszt and Chopin, it had been expected of the virtuoso
that he should play his own compositions almost exclusively. Ger-
many had already broken away more than other countries from that
tradition, and this was, one of the main reasons for the difficulty
Sarasate had experienced in establishing his fame in that country.
We have seen how Sarasate was associated with Saint-Saens and
250 MUSIC AND LETTERS

Lalo, both of whom were important figures in the Socie'te' Nationale

des Musiciens Franc.ais founded by the former and Romain Bussine
in 1871. It is a fact, sometimes overlooked, that it was to the
musicians of this society that French music owed its liberation from
the obsession of German superiority. Although the neo-classicism of
a C&ar Franck and a Saint-Saens did not escape a tinge of Wag-
nerism, in the main it represented a reassertion of the traditional

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French belief in form, simplicity and clarity.
* * •

Since, as is commonly recognized, French folk music played a

relatively small part in the inspiring of French nineteenth-century
composers, it is not surprising that they found much of their
inspiration in the exotic.
One thing clearly stands out, and that is the predominance of
the exotic inspiration provided by Spain. Indeed, this is so evident
as hardly to need demonstration. A glance at a list of famous
French compositions since 1870 should suffice: Chabrier's ' Espafia ',
Bizet's ' Carmen ', Lalo's ' Symphonie espagnole ', Saint-Saens's
' Rondo capriccioso ' and ' Danses espagnoles ', Debussy's ' Iberia '
and ' La Soiree dans Grenade ', Ravel's ' L'Heure espagnole',
' Rapsodie espagnole ' and ' Bolero ', to name only the best-known.
To anyone who has given much attention to the relationship
between music and literature I believe it should be evident that, in
spite of the give and take between these two arts, music has more
often followed the suggestion of literature than vice versa. With
opera, of course, this is almost foreordained. Even Wagner, though
he said that he would like to think of his music dramas as " the acts
of music become visible " n , nevertheless wrote the libretto of his
' R i n g ' long before he composed the music. Obviously, in less
programmatic and more abstract music, as in symbolist poetry, this
order is not so clear.11
Tracing the Spanish suggestion or influence in French literature
one finds, as might be expected, that it follows much the same
evolutionary pattern as does music. Corresponding to the obvious,
popular hispanicism of Lalo and Bizet is that of Hugo in works like
' Hernani' and ' Ruy Bias', of Me'rime'e in his novel ' Carmen ',
of Gautier in his ' Voyage d'Espagne '. Later the subtler, more
profound hispanicism of Debussy and Ravel is paralleled by the poet
Albert Samain's c Au Jardin de l'lnfante ', Maurice Barres's sensitive
and thoughtful description of Toledo in ' Tolede ', etc.
11
" die erskhtlidi gewordenen Taten der Mujik ", Coll. Writings, Vol. IX, ' t)ber
die Bencnnung Musik Drama '.
11
Mallarmi often thought of his poems as an attempt to express muiic'i suggestion
in words.
 PABLO DE SARASATE 251

As we have seen, Saint-Saens, Lalo, Bizet and Sarasate repre-

sented a popular and somewhat superficial Hispanicism. In order
to evaluate Sarasate's historical significance one must understand
the nature and historical function of this Hispanicism. When
Nietzsche turned against his former idol Richard Wagner and
published his famous pamphlet ' The Wagner Case ' (1876), he
wrote an article after hearing a performance of Bizet's ' Carmen '

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in which he says that the Mediterranean clarity of this essentially
Latin music was a revelation to him. The heavy clouds of Wagner's
" decadent " music were suddenly torn apart and he found him-
self basking in the joyful, golden sunshine of this light-hearted and
passionate Spanish music. Realizing how far he had strayed from
simple, wholesome musical beauty, he turned the full battery of his
critical artillery on Wagner and all that he stood for. The " melodic
poverty " of Wagner's music dramas was symptomatic of its funda-
mental decadence. Nothing in Wagner was clear, clean, simple
and noble. His music was a cloying, aphrodiasic welter of sound, a
deleterious bath for the nerves of jaded Untermenschen. Essentially
pretentious and vulgar, it was heavily soaked in the spirit of petty
bourgeois charlatanism.
The personal bias and vehement exaggerations of Nietzsche's
article were, unfortunately, so patent that it was dismissed with a
smile by competent critics. Nevertheless, it contained more than a
grain of truth. Coming from an artistic, intellectual genius of
Nietzsche's stature its importance cannot easily be denied. If one is
ideologically and sentimentally disposed to agree, at least in part,
with Nietzsche and with another denouncer of decadence in modern
art, literature and music, Max Nordau, then it is probable that one
will be sympathetic towards popular, less sophisticated works.
Since the days of Sarasate, Saint-Saens and Lalo, not only have
Spanish composers like Alb^niz and Falla more adequately inter-
preted the Spanish soul, but similarly French composers like Debussy,
Ravel and Aubert have shown a more profound intuition of this soul.
In analysing the reasons why, he thinks, the traditional music of
Spain made a strong appeal to Debussy, Gilbert Chase expresses
himself in a way that suggests interesting psychological implications13:
There were many reasons why the traditional music of Spain
made a strong appeal to him, apart from his innate love of the exotic.
The survival of the medieval modes, the lack of isometric regularity
in the melodies, the shifting and conflicting rhythms, the unorthodox
harmonization, with its frequent recourse to consecutive fourths and
fifths, the strong contrasts of mood—all these were in line with his
own creative instincts.
11
' The Music of Spain ' (New York, 1941).
252 MUSIC AND LETTERS

This list of the characteristics of Spanish music which appealed

to Debussy reads like the perfect recipe for a strictly " modern "
musical composition. It indicates the inspirational happy hunting-
ground which Spain and Spanish music became for many modern
composers. At the same time it suggests that already with Debussy
Nietzsche's far too simple assumption that Spanish music was
synonymous with anti-decadent gaiety, light and form was open to

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many critical reservations. Falla, Alb^niz, Debussy and Ravel looked
at the Spanish soul and at the techniques of Spanish traditional
music through much stronger lenses than did Sarasate, Saint-Saens
and Lalo. And indeed, if one thoughtfully compares the techniques
of this traditional music with the subtle, profound psychological
undercurrents of the Spanish soul curious parallels begin to emerge.
What are some of these psychological undercurrents of the
Spanish soul which only " modern " musicians have been able to
express ? I should say the mystic and paradoxical, the grotesque, the
satanic and the insane. To illustrate, one need only evoke the works
of Saint Teresa, Cervantes, Calderon and Gongora in literature, of
El Greco and Goya (who sketched those terrifying hallucinations of
the Napoleonic war), Picasso and Dali in art, and finally two Spanish
institutions, one of which is still very much alive: the Inquisition and
the bullfight.
I should like to make one last analogy. Probably the musical
critic who glibly states that Sarasate was not a great artist would
deal just as harshly in the field of literature with the great popular
novelist Vincente Blasco-Ibanez. Although obviously any parallel
drawn between these two artists must be severely limited, what can
be said is, I believe, important. Both Sarasate and Ibafiez spent
many years in France and were profoundly influenced by the liberal,
cosmopolitan atmosphere of Paris. Both had the proud, essentially
masculine nature of the typical Spaniard, and both denounced what
diey termed the barbarous backwardness of some aspects of Spanish
life and culture. While on a vastly different plane, their art, un-
tarnished by decadent, self-conscious, intellectual morbidity,
expressed in the idiom of Spain the noble and the eternal.
In Sarasate, haughty violin virtuoso of Pamplona, there was
something of the spirit of the Spanish conquistador. But his conquests
were in the realm of music, his sword a slender violin bow. In 1953
in the cathedral of Saragossa, as I stood gazing at the jewels, the
silver and gold objets d'art of the cathedral treasury, the guide pointed
out Sarasate's bow, upright against a golden chalice. How appropriate
that this graceful bow should have come to its long rest among the
beautiful tokens of adoration in this sanctuary of La Virgen del Pilar!