Appendix: Meditación

This work, Meditación, is found in a printed edition of three pages without place, date, or plate number, with no title-page but with a heading on the first page which reads “Meditación escrita para el célebre Huertas por Fernando Sor” (‘Meditación, composed by Fernando Sor for the celebrated Huertas’). The Spanish title and the appearance of the music suggest that it was published perhaps in Madrid in about 1850. I have based this edition on a copy in the collection of the late Robert Spencer. That copy may be a late printing, and possibly further details of the publisher may once have existed on the plate but were erased by the time of this printing, something which was not uncommon at that time. The work, which purports to have been written by Sor for the famous guitarist Trinidad (or Trinitario) Huerta (1804-75), may or may not be authentic. It has similarities to Sor’s Le Calme, op. 50. Because Huerta and Sor were in Paris at the same time in the 1830s, it is indeed possible that the work is authentic and that it was written by Sor for Huerta. Against authenticity, however, are the title, which is not very like the title of any other work of Sor’s, and the fact that the similarities to Le Calme are suspiciously close; if the work had been authentic, one might have expected it to be more original. If it is not by Sor, then there are various other possibilities: either it could be a forgery, or, for example, it could have been written in good faith by someone else in the style of Le Calme, and then later published in Spain, perhaps by someone else again in good faith, as a piece by Sor when it fact it was not. The piece was discussed by Stephen Kenyon in an article in Classical Guitar, February 1995. The notation of the original is poorly printed and there are passages which present problems. Some editorial changes have been made, for example in bar 85 where an extra B and an extra rest at the end of the bar threw the time out and have here been omitted; and again at bar 93 where extra notes threw the time out and have here been omitted. In bar 73 the D is sharp in the original. The work was later published by Daniel Fortea, and by Anzaghi in his Anthology for guitar, 1962. An early manuscript of Meditación is referred to as follows in the Catálogo Breve, the catalogue of the collection of guitar music of the late Eleuterio F. Tiscornia, which was published in Buenos Aires in 1948: Mi ejemplar de Meditación, dedicada por Sor al famoso Huerta, procede del Archivo del Dr. Martin Ruiz Moreno, y está impreso en Madrid. En el de D. Juan Valler (sevillano que murió en Buenos Aires en 1926 a los 93 años de edad) existe una copia manuscrita de esa obra, que mi buen amigo D. Antonio Valler, hijo de D. Juan, me ha permitido examinar. En ella hay una nota de gran interés que copio textualmente: “Meditación para guitarra sola. Pieza sencilla pero expresiva, compuesta para D. T. Huerta por su amigo F. Sor. En prueba de que hallo en V. otra cualidad mas preciosa que la agilidad, y sin la cual se pueden ejecutar mis notas, mas no mi música. Esta cualidad es sin duda la espresión tierna, afectuosa y delicada que posee Huerta, y el tono claro, limpio, sostenido y vibrante, en lo que se cifra o compendia todo el secreto y arte de tocar.” (‘My copy of Meditación, dedicated by Sor to the famous Huerta, comes from the collection of Dr. Martin Ruiz Moreno and was printed in Madrid. In the collection of D. Juan Valler (a native of Seville who died in Buenos Aires in 1926 at the age of 93) there is a manuscript copy of this work, which my good friend D, Antonio Valler, the son of D. Juan, has allowed me to examine. In the manuscript is a note of much interest which I here copy exactly: Meditación for guitar solo, A simple but expressive piece, composed for T. Huerta by his friend F. Sor. In proof that I find in you a quality more precious than agility, and without which my notes can be played but not my music. This quality is no doubt the tender, affectionate and delicate expression which Huerta possesses, and the clear, clean, sustained and vibrant tone in which is counted and comprised the whole secret and art of playing.’) According to Domingo Prat’s Diccionario de Guitarristas (Buenos Aires, 1934), article “Valler”, Juan Valler knew Huerta personally, so there is a direct connection. However, it is hard to tell exactly what the inscription means. If it is indeed an accurate transcription of the writing on the manuscript in the Valler collection, then who wrote which part of it? Was the paragraph beginning “En prueba” written by Sor on this manuscript? Or is this manuscript a copy from another on which Sor might have written such a dedication? If he did write it, then did he write it in Spanish, or was it perhaps in French, since if it were authentic, then he and Huerta would both have been in Paris at the time? And did this Valler manuscript include the textual problems which are found in the printed version? Until such time as it may be possible to examine the Valler manuscript or until another source is found, it is not possible to be sure. On Huerta, Soriano Fuertes wrote as follows in his Historia de la Música Española, IV, Madrid, 1859, page 214: Don Francisco Trinidad Huerta, natural de Orihuela, debe su habilidad a su ingenio. La prensa periódica ha hecho el apoteósis de este tocador de guitarra, que habiendo corrido gran parte de Europa, y lucido delante de príncipes y reyes, la que lo es de España, Isabel II, le concedió en premio de su merito la cruz de caballero de la órden de Carlos III. El principal mérito de Huerta consiste en la dulzura de los sonidos que produce cantando sobre una cuerda. Hace con primor las terceras, y un arpegio sumamente complicado, que se debe a su invento. Su música se resiente de falta de conocimientos armónicos. Con sus pasos mas delicados mezcla continuamente una especie de rasgueo, a que da el nombre de Tutis, con los cuales apaga la ilusión que inflama cuando pulse las cuerdas con halago. Este contraste de bueno y malo, fue causa de que Sors le definiese con el nombre de sublime barbero, y de que Aguado dijese, que ultrajaba el instrumento. Si Huerta aventase su música, como el labrador avienta su mies trillada para dar el grano a los racionales y la paja a las bestias, no cabe duda de que sería admirado de los profesores más severos, porque cuando canta encanta. (‘Francisco Trinidad Huerta, a native of Orihuela, owes his dexterity to his own genius. The periodical press has raised to an apotheosis this player of the guitar, who when he had travelled through much of Europe, and had shone before princes and kings, she who is now the Queen of Spain, Isabel II, decorated him with the order of Knight of the Order of Carlos III. Huerta’s chief merit is the sweetness of the sounds which he produces in a singing fashion on one string. He plays thirds exquisitely, and a highly complicated arpeggio which is owed to his invention. His music suffers from a lack of harmonic knowledge. He continually mixes with his most delicate passages a kind of rasgueo which he calls Tutis with which he dampens the enthusiasm which he arouses when he strikes the strings caressingly. This contrast of good and bad was the reason why Sor called him a ‘sublime barber’, and why Aguado said that he abused the instrument. If Huerta were to fan his music, as a farmer fans his threshed grain in order to give the seed to humans and the chaff to animals, there is no doubt that he would be admired by the severest of professors, for when he sings, he enchants.’). Also, a long and detailed biography of Huerta is in Saldoni’s Diccionario de Efemérides de Músicos Españoles, volume 2, Madrid, 1880, pp. 519 ff., who took it from the Boletín Oficial de la provincia de Málaga of 24 September 1835. It includes the following passage: En Nueva York dió varios conciertos que le produjeron montones de plata, y aún cantó en El Barbero [the Barber of Seville of Rossini], con Garcia [Manuel Garcia the famous singer], durante una enfermedad del bajo de la compañía italiana de aquella ciudad. (‘In New York he gave various concerts which produced mountains of money for him, and he even sang in the Barber of Seville with Garcia during an illness of the bass of the Italian company of that city.’) So if Sor did indeed call Huerta a sublime barbero, a sublime barber, then perhaps his comment may have had an ironic side to it. On the one hand, it might mean that Huerta was like a barber playing a guitar in a barber’s shop, for in Spain it was normal for a guitar to be kept there to be played either by the barber or else by people waiting for their appointments. (Incidentally, while that may perhaps no longer be so in Spain, I have myself seen and heard it in Mexico where older traditions often survive.) But on the other hand perhaps it was also a reference to Huerta’s having sung in the Barber of Seville, in which the character of Figaro, although after all a top-rank musical role, is still a rogue. (That is, assuming that the role which Huerta sang, replacing a bass who was ill, was indeed that of Figaro and not either of the basses Dr. Bartolo or Don Basilio. Garcia will have sung the role of the Count.) I am not sure whether or not it helps us in deciding whether or not Sor might have written a piece for Huerta. Personally I should think that if Sor did make that remark, then it is rather less likely that he would have composed a piece for him. In the passage which Saldoni copied from the Boletín Oficial de la provincia de Málaga is a letter which the French poet Victor Hugo is supposed to have written to Huerta: Puesto que da V. algun valor, señor de Huerta, a una opinión tan poco importante como la mía, me contemplo feliz al explicarle hasta que punto me ha encantado su habilidad. La guitarra, ese instrumento tan circunscrito, no conoce límites entre sus manos. Usted le hace producir todos los sonidos, los acordes todos, todos los cantos. Usted sabe sacar de esas pocas cuerdas las notas más variadas, las que hablan al alma, al entendimiento, al corazón. La guitarra de V. es una orquesta, Gusto mucho de la España y de los españoles, señor de Huerta, y por consiguiente de la guitarra; pero sobre todo en las manos de V: en ellas no es ya solamente una cuerda que suspira; es una voz, una verdadera voz que canta, que habla y que llora: una de esas voces profundas que hacen pensar a los que son dichosos y que inclinan a la meditación a los que están tristes. Crea V., señor de Huerta, que tengo el mayor placer en comunicar mis ideas a V. en este particular, ya acepte las seguridades del deseo que tengo de servirle. Paris 16 de Febrero de 1834. - Victor Hugo. (‘Sr. Huerta, since you give some value to an opinion as unimportant as my own, I am happy to explain to you how far your skill has enchanted me. The guitar, that so limited instrument, recognizes no bounds in your hands. You make it produce all sounds, all chords, all melodies. You know how to obtain from those few strings the most varied notes, those which speak to the soul, to the understanding, to the heart. Your guitar is an orchestra. Sr. Huerta, I very much like Spain and the Spanish, and therefore also the guitar, but above all in your hands, in which it is not only a string which sighs, it is a voice, a true voice which sings, which speaks and which weeps: one of those profound voices which cause to think those who are happy, and incline to meditation those who are sad. Please believe, Sr. Huerta, that I take the greatest pleasure in communicating my ideas about this to you, and be assured of the desire which I have to serve you. Paris, 16 February 1834. — Victor Hugo.’) No doubt it would originally have been in French, but its French version is not known. The texts by Soriano Fuertes and Saldoni, by the way, are both reproduced in Prat’s Diccionario de Guitarristas. One’s suspicions are aroused by the presence in this text of the word meditación (“que inclinan a la meditación”), the same word as the title of this piece. It makes it only too easy to imagine that possibly the musical piece was written after the text, as a kind of justification or illustration of the words. Moreover, the text attributed to Hugo and the text in the Valler manuscript are suspiciously close in their sentiments, making it at least possible that it was not in fact Sor who wrote the piece itself or the Valler words, but rather someone else who knew the Hugo text and was influenced by it. If we now look again at the piece in the light of the above, we see that it has passages which not only are unlike Sor’s style but seem to suit particularly well the style in which Huerta is said to have excelled. For example, towards the end at bars 77-81 there are two bars with just a single line of music, quite unlike Sor’s style but suitable for Huerta’s style of playing (“El principal mérito de Huerta consiste en la dulzura de los sonidos que produce cantando sobre una cuerda”). And the arpeggios or rasgueos in bars 82-84 are again quite unlike Sor’s style but suitable for Huerta. I don’t think it at all likely that Sor changed his style especially to accommodate Huerta’s way of playing. Rather, my own guess is that Meditación is not by Sor but rather was probably composed by Huerta or someone else starting from Sor’s Le Calme op. 50 as a model. If it was originally composed by Sor, then it seems likely to me that someone made major changes to it before it was printed. But in the present state of evidence we cannot yet know for certain. This edition comes from the new 2019 second edition of Sor’s New Complete Works for Guitar edited by Brian Jeffery. The Introduction and Index to the entire series are here in nkoda. This new edition is copyright © by Brian Jeffery 2019. Your cooperation is requested in not making illegal copies for other people. Brian Jeffery