IV. El Amor y la muerte (Balada) - E. Granados (1867-1916)
Michael de Huy, pno.
The fifth movement marks the beginning of Part II of the Goyescas and is entitled El amor y la muerte: balada (Love and Death: Ballade). Granados’ addition of the word “Ballade” to the title alludes to the programmatic element of epic Romantic musical and poetic works in that genre.
Here, Granados provides some clarification perhaps, as to the reason for the maja’s lament in the previous movement—the death of her lover. The Capricho No. 10 by Goya with the same name adds more weight to the narrative, as it depicts a maja whose face is contorted with the agony of grief supporting in a strong embrace a dying majo, pale and lifeless, his arm hanging limp and a sword lying at his feet.
There is not much new material in this movement. Granados instead uses a collection of various themes heard in all four previous movements that listeners will recall and recognize and he combines and develops them in ingenious ways. According to Granados: ‘All of the themes of Goyescas are united in El amor y la muerte…intense pain, nostalgic love and the final tragedy – death”.
Granados indicates with text several times where melodies are quoted from El Coloquio , Requiebros and Fandango and although Quejas is not marked in the score, it constitutes a powerful melodic presence in many places throughout the work. The importance of the Quejas melodic quote in this movement is that it underscores the “bitterness of the grieving maja “ in Granados’s own words as pictured in Goya’s Capricho holding her dying majo.
This tragic shift in the narrative of the Goyescas which begins in movement 4 and climaxes in El Amor y La Muerte is clearly revealed in the texts for the trilogy of La maja dolorosa which form part of Granados’s song set, .and which are intimately connected with the creation of Goyescas. These texts are filled with pathos, depicting a lamenting maja in the throes of intense grief and emotional suffering and are overwhelmingly tragic in mood. Granados, in El Amor y la Muerte makes frequent use of the motive, ‘0 Muerte Cruel’ from the Tonadillo, La maja dolorosa No. 1.
This important motive is introduced immediately after the opening dramatic gesture where he sets it over low, descending chromatic octaves in the bass. It makes several reappearances throughout the work in very different settings, contributing to a musical landscape of extreme moods and desperate tragedy.
The G major Coda ’s beautiful melody, which starts in unison octaves, is based on the Quejas nightingale theme from the second movement of Goyescas and gives way to the dramatic Recitativo and “la muerte del majo”, the death moment. This is followed by a brief silence then long slow Italian 6th chords in the bass alternating with G minor in the treble imitating church death bells.
© Program notes by Natalia Ricci, 2022