Customer Reviews

Nin-Culmell: Tonadas Volumes 1-4 for Piano

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A useful review of this CD on the Internet by J Scott Morrison led to a purchase and hours of enjoyment for me here in Australia. Three things are remarkable. Firstly, all the piano pieces in the collection are very short; nothing exceeds three minutes in duration. Secondly, every rhythm, thread of melody, progression and harmony will recall Spanish music you have heard before, whether written by Spaniards or others. Joaqu?n Nin-Culmell seems to have discovered the basic elements of whatever it is that gives Spanish music its life. Thirdly, the piano writing is simple, spare and unpretentious. These are not virtuoso piano pieces; they present a sound picture such as might emanate from a guitar.

Joaqu?n Nin-Culmell, son of Cuban composer Joach?n Nin, was brother to writer Ana?s Nin. His Tonadas were written between 1956 and 1961. Barcelona born Maria Luise Cantos is the pianist, the sound quality is excellent, and Keith Anderson's notes are useful for identifying the forms of the dance songs arranged and collected here, and the regions of Spain from which they derive.

As I write this I am saddened to have learned of the death six weeks ago of Joaquín María Nin-Culmell (1908-2004), composer, long-time professor of music at the University of California - Berkeley, son of Cuban composer Joaquín Nin, brother of famed writer Anaïs Nin. This CD, issued in 1994, has long been in my collection and I am a little surprised to find it was never reviewed here at Amazon.

The four books of Tonadas were written between 1956 and 1961. 'Tonada' simply means melody in Spanish. And these tonadas are Nin-Culmell's arrangements for piano solo of tunes from all over the Iberian peninsula. They include traditional forms like the Basque zortziko (what Alkan called the 'zorcico'), the seguidillas, muiñeira, baile, vaqueirada, jota, and even the mateixa from the Baleraic Islands, and more. Nin-Culmell studied for a time with Manuel de Falla and these pieces are influenced by the style of Falla's similar works. They are fairly simple in construction but have exceedingly subtle and imaginative harmonic treatment. If you know the piano music of Federico Mompou you may have some idea of what these pieces sound like, although they are in general more outgoing and markedly more rhythmic that Mompou's canciones and even his danzas.

The pianist here is Maria Luisa Cantos, a Catalan who specializes in Spanish piano music. She certainly is able to imbue these 48 short pieces with the appropriate rhythmic feeling and characteristic turns of phrase.

TT=70:39

Scott Morrison