The tonadilla, a type of satirical musical skit that enjoyed great popularity in Spain during the Enlightenment, has only relatively recently begun to receive the attention it deserves, despite its importance in Spanish culture and history. Studies by Begoña Lolo, Germán Labrador, Elisabeth Le Guin and Aurèlia Pessarrodona, the author of the edition under review, have contributed greatly to our understanding and appreciation of this fascinating and amusing genre. (See, for example, Lolo, ‘La tonadilla escénica, ese género maldito’, Revista de musicología 25/2 (2002), 439–469; Lolo and Labrador, with the collaboration of Albert Recasens, La música en los teatros de Madrid 1: Antonio Rosales y la tonadilla escénica (Madrid: Alpuerto, 2005); Le Guin, The Tonadilla in Performance: Lyric Comedy in Enlightened Spain (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014); and Pessarrodona, Jacinto Valledor y la tonadilla (1744–1809): un músico de teatro en la España ilustrada (Sant Cugat del Vallès: Arpegio, 2018).) Pessarrodona's volume of tonadillas by Jacinto Valledor de la Calle (1744–1809) is not only a valuable contribution to this growing field of enquiry, but also a long-awaited source for singers and instrumentalists eager to explore this repertory, as editions of works in this genre are still scarce.
An important composer of tonadillas, Valledor worked in the theatres of Madrid, Murcia, Cádiz, Valencia and Barcelona. Twenty-four of his works in this genre have been located, and the critical edition of both the music and the texts of the first thirteen – produced between 1768 and 1778 – are included in this volume. The remaining tonadillas, we are told, are expected to appear in a second volume to be published in the same series, Monumentos de la música española, by the Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas. Like all works in this genre, the characters in these tonadillas are drawn from everyday life, and the protagonist is often a woman. Mundane situations, many of which involve the main character having to trick an unwanted or untrustworthy suitor in order to escape his advances, are treated with humour or sarcasm. These first thirteen works, all in the galant style, exhibit a local flavour derived from the influence of popular dances both elevated and popular, and ‘a certain tendency towards the use of strophic songs typical of the Spanish musico-theatrical tradition’ (‘cierta preponderancia de formas estróficas, típicas de la tradición dramatúrgico-musical hispánica’) (xxx).
This handsome, well-bound volume is divided into two main parts. The first is an excellent introductory essay (‘Estudio’) offering a biography of the composer; a list of all known works by Valledor in chronological order, with all extant sources for each work, as well as dates of performances, whenever possible; and a description of the thirteen tonadillas edited in this volume together with commentary on their musical style and literary traits. Here the works are grouped into four categories: those written for his wife, Gabriela Santos (1768–1772), those associated with his years in Barcelona (c1773–1775), those written for the singer Francisca Laborda (1775) and, finally, his other tonadillas written between 1775 and 1778. In addition, Pessarrodona describes the primary sources she has used for the edition and the general editorial criteria, including a clear discussion of her musical and literary choices. These include using the text found in the musical rather than the literary sources for her edition of the librettos, departing from the oldest manuscript of a given work for the transcription and offering in the critical notes a description of the modifications found in later sources. Another example concerns her adding a second oboe to the tonadilla Bellos apasionados, which she believed missing owing to the fact that all other tonadillas that contain oboes use two. A lengthy section entitled ‘Fuentes, edición de los textos y notas críticas’ (Sources, Edition of the Texts and Critical Notes) offers more than its title suggests, as we also find here for each tonadilla a summary of the circumstances surrounding its composition and/or performance, the dramatis personae, the plot and earlier modern editions of the music (wherever applicable).
The second part of this volume is a high-quality edition of the following works: Las seguidillas del apasionado (1768), Los majos satisfechos (c1771–1773), Bellos apasionados (1772), La ramilletera (c1773–1775; premiered in Barcelona and accompanied by its Madrid version), La naranjera del Prado (1778?), El valiente Campuzano y Catuja de Ronda (1774), El desafío de las majas y soldados (1774?), La españolizada (1774?), Ya ha venido, mosqueteros (1775), Señores, señoras (1775), La rosquillera (c1775–1777), La buena consejera (1776?), Buenas tardes, señores (before 1778) and El sargento Briñoli, oficial y criada (1778?). These neat scores, from which both scholars and performers will enjoy reading, are the result of Pessarrodona's meticulous work. She has reconstructed each of these tonadillas using several sources, including the scores for voice and bass, the orchestral parts (for violins 1 and 2 and, depending on the piece, for horns (trompas), oboes or flutes) and the librettos. The editions here represent the fruit of over twenty years of research on the subject, expertise that is evident in the numerous scholarly contributions by Pessarrodona listed in the bibliography, and which is also demonstrated through her own experience performing these pieces (as well as being a musicologist, Pessarrodona is an accomplished singer). Earlier versions of these editions first appeared in the third volume of the author's doctoral dissertation (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, 2010), and one of them (La ramilletera) is published in a volume on the tonadilla edited by Pessarrodona (La ‘tonadilla’ del segle XVIII i Catalunya: Pla-Misson-Esteve-Valledor (Barcelona: Tritó, 2008)).
Pessarrodona's vast knowledge of both genre and composer shines through this outstanding study and edition. That said, a brief introduction to the genre, covering its origins, function and main characteristics, would have aided the reader unfamiliar with the tonadilla, and with Spanish music in general, while also perhaps increasing interest in this genre – for Pessarrodona tells us that these tonadillas ‘form part of the universe of small-scale genres’ (‘forman parte del universo de los géneros breves’ (xxxi)) without further discussing this claim. In addition, a slight change in the organization of the material presented in the edition would have been helpful – that is, offering information such as the circumstances of the composition and/or performance, dramatis personae and plot before each tonadilla instead of presenting it in aggregate in the section ‘Fuentes, edición de los textos y notas críticas’. This would have served two useful purposes: to help clear up what is the only cluttered and thus hard-to-read section in the entire edition, and to help users find this information more easily, thus sparing them the trouble of having to flip through this weighty tome to locate the relevant material. Notwithstanding these minor points, Pessarrodona's is a finely produced volume that makes it possible for scholars and performers to appreciate the music of Jacinto Valledor, the tonadilla as a genre and Spanish music of the period altogether. It is my hope that this edition will encourage more performances and recordings of this amusing and entertaining repertory. I eagerly await the publication of the second volume, which, based on the quality of this first volume, promises to be an outstanding one.
