In 1976 I published twelve of them under the title of Sor’s Seguidillas, which have been widely performed since then. Those twelve were all for solo voice, some with guitar accompaniment and some with piano. Now here is a further collection, this time for two or three voices with guitar or piano, all of them now published for the first time in our own age, and some of them indeed now newly discovered and identified.

Día 17 de gener de 1799. De confusió en la casa, no en parlem. De refresc o agasajo, per tothom n’hi hagué, començant per les senyores, senyors, músics fins a catorze, criats de les cases, amunió de dones, lacaios i d’escalera abajo, mesclant-s’hi rípio-sàpio entre tans i tantes d’estos; portant lo timó del refresc lo doctor Bardolet, a fi que tot ell anás ben servit, com així fou.

La música feia gran tro, ab dos contrabaixos, l’un que el tocava l’Agustí i l’altre lo Jeroniet; així també los demés músics sos violins i instruments de vent, fins a catorze los músics. En lo saló al principi era com olla de cols quan bull, per lo que tots i totes se movien, tamborets a l’aire a arreglar per seure les senyores. En sos trajes i caps hi havia molt que reparar—segons la moda currutaca—, i en la joventud militar, i de nostres paisans no menos Fernando Sors, lo cap de la dansa per lo que sembla en això més prest gavatx que català i fill de Barcelona.

Durant lo ball anaven corrents los jocs de tresillo i altres en vàries taules, … En altra cerca del saló, la banca, i més prest les unces o dobles de quatre corrien per taula, ab alguns durillos, que les pessetes, de les que los aficionats i aficionades ne fan poc cas. … En altres aposentos, retirat, se donava cafè, llet i vins de les botellas. I qui volia sopar s’amagava per allí dins, que ningú lo vegés, baixant-se’n al menjador contiguo a la cuina, com ho fiu jo ab los amigos … per no aguardar a l’última hora a pendre l’agasajo.

En quant al ball, sent tan ple lo saló, se repartiren les parejas en la contradansa i la música en est i en la peça de fora. …

En l’intermedi de les contradanses isqué la filla de madama Padellàs, digo la pubilla donya Mundeta, a ballar un bolero ab castanyoles i ab sola guitarra, que tocava i cantava lo cèlebre militar currutaco Fernando Sors, que en guitarra i en cantar boleros ès catedràtic de prima. … Se conclogué est a dos quarts de quatre de la matinada...

("January 17th, 1799. Confusion in the house—say no more. There was refreshment or supper for everybody, beginning with the ladies and gentlemen, then the musicians (up to fourteen of them), the servants of the houses, and a great many women, footmen and other below-stairs, all mixed together higgledy-piggledy such were the great numbers of them; with Doctor Bardolet holding the helm at the refreshments so that everything should be properly served, as indeed it was.

The music made a great noise, with two double basses, one played by Agustí and the other by Jeroniet, and the other musicians, up to fourteen of them, with their violins and wind instruments. In the salon at first it was like a seething cauldron because everyone was moving around holding chairs in the air in order to put them into place for the ladies to sit down. As for their clothes and their hair, there wasn’t much they could be reproached with—as is the usual currutaco way—and among the young military and our own countrymen not the least was Fernando Sors, the chief of the dance, so much so that in it he seemed more like a Frenchman than a Catalan and a son of Barcelona.

During the dance there were several tables of ombre and other games.3  In another part of the room they played monte, and gold ounces and pieces of four flowed over the table, not to mention durillos and pesetas that the players, men and women, didn’t pay much attention to. In other rooms set apart there were coffee, milk, and bottles of wine. Anyone who wanted supper hid away in there so that no one could see him, going down to the dining room by the side of the kitchen, as did I and my friends, in order not to have to wait until the last minute to take refreshment.

As for the dance, the salon was so full that the couples in the contredanse, and the musicians, overflowed into the next room.

In the interval of the contredanses the daughter of Mme Padellàs, that is to say the young lady Miss Mundeta, danced a bolero with castanets and with a solo guitar, which was sung and played by the famous soldier and currutaco Fernando Sors, who is really the tops when it comes to guitar-playing and singing boleros. The whole thing ended at half past three in the morning.")

(My translation, with the assistance of Josep Maria Mangado’s Spanish translation in La Guitarra en Cataluña. A currutaco, by the way, means a fashionable person, especially a dandy in the French style.)

I have given the account in full in order to show the brilliance and sheer fun of the context in which this dancing, this singing, this first appearance of Sor, took place. The bustle, the refreshments (Baron Maldá liked those), the musicians, the smartness, the gambling and the dancing, come across vividly. It is possible to say a little about the performance details. Baron Maldá mentions only one dancer, donya Mundeta, and does not say whether or not she had a partner (remember that he was recording only what interested him, so the fact that he did not mention a partner for her must not necessarily be construed as meaning that she did not dance with a partner). The music for the bolero was provided by only one man (Sor) who sang with his own guitar accompaniment, and the other musicians did not perform even though there was a small orchestra of them present. There were also castanets but it is not stated who played them. The dancer was a respectable young lady of Barcelona society (not a professional dancer or a gypsy), and the social context was of the most respectable.

Baron Maldá also recorded another event in Barcelona, this time on May 7th 1802, in which Sor played his own compositions on the guitar and also sang a bolero or two. It took place again in a house of the Marqués de Castellbell:

…avisats item tots los senyors tertulians de berenars a fora, en est deliciós temps de primavera i de pau general…, per gaudir i menjar d’un com espècie d’ambigú en taula parada, és dir, berenar i sopar a un temps… a tres quarts de nou de la nit, que la prima fóra acabada en quant a la del gust de la llengua, i entraria l’harmonia als oídos, ab aquella com lira d’Orfeu, los dolços arpegios de la guitarra de Fernando Sors. Est encara no hi era, sí que tot just aquella "amada" i alegre societat, ab lo doctor Anton Bardolet unit a tot aquell bell aparato limpio de la taula, en l’estrado immediat al saló …, ab tot que m’istaren que els fes companyia; mes, com nondum venit hora mea, no en vaig tastar res, esperant a sopar a ma hora en casa, ab tot que molt alló temptava a hom a provar, especialment d’aquells gelats…

Luego de ser fora lo tal ambigú, com escena de teatro, que canvien los bastidors, nos en passàrem tots a l’estrado, después del de l’alcova principal de casa Castellbell, i, enrotllant tots al Fernando Sors, sentats en cadires, oírem sa guitarra—luego de ben trempada—que ens tocà un de sos entusiasmes de música, ab aquella dolçura i destresa de dits, que ens paragué oir un pianofort, en la varietat de punts, ja desmaiats i ja forts, ab certes carretilles que feia, sens discrepar en punt algun de sa ben trempada guitarra en la tocata que ens tocà al principi, ab moltes varietats i estranyeses de música; de seguida cantà algun bolero—que d’estos ne puc ser catedràtic.

("The company was invited to supper outdoors, in this delicious springtime and peacefulness, to enjoy some refreshment, that is, to have supper and dinner at the same time... At a quarter to ten in the evening, when the first part was finished as far as the tastebuds were concerned, harmony could enter into our ears, as with the lyre of Orpheus, with the sweet arpeggios of the guitar of Fernando Sors. He had not yet arrived, and all that agreeable and happy company, with Doctor Anton Bardolet in charge of all the fine equipment of the table in the drawing room next to the salon … asked me to join them; but as nondum venit hora mea [my hour is not yet come], I didn’t want to eat anything as I expected to dine at home, but I was much tempted to taste, especially the ice creams…

When the refreshment was over, we changed the scene as in a play, and we all went to the drawing room beyond the main room of the Castellbell house, and all gathering round Fernando Sors, seated in chairs, we listened to his guitar, after he had well tuned it, on which he played one of his inspired pieces of music, with such sweetness and dexterity of the fingers that it seemed to us that we were listening to a pianoforte in the variety of expression, sometimes soft and sometimes loud, with certain scales that he performed, never missing one note on his well-tuned guitar in the toccata which he played to us first, with many variations and musical modulations; then he sang a bolero or two, in which he is the champion.")

Again it was an occasion of delight, not only with wonderful music but also with gelats (frozen desserts or ice cream, long before refrigeration). This time it seems that there were no dancers, no castanets: only Sor playing and singing to his own guitar accompaniment. What, by the way, was the "toccata" with musical modulations which he played? The description certainly fits the piece which we now know as Sor’s Grand Solo, op. 14.

Don Preciso (to use the name which he himself chose) loved Spain and her traditions, and in his introduction he writes passionately about the wonderful dance of Spain, the bolero. He hated the foreign influences which were all the rage in Spain at that time, especially Italian opera. In his introduction he writes that he does not want all knowledge of the bolero to pass away, as happened with the folias, the gallarda, the chacona, the zarabanda, the zarambeque, the xácara, not to mention, as he says, the cumbé, the zerengue or the canario or many others, of which he says all knowledge has faded so that now no one now remembers what they were. So, in order to do what he could to preserve the bolero, Don Preciso published in his book large numbers of texts of boleros, and he described the dance the bolero in great detail. As a result his anthology is today a principal source of seguidillas boleras, that is to say texts of boleros, and his description of how a bolero was danced is most informative. Here it is, from the 1799 edition:

Luego que se presentan de frente en medio de una sala dos jóvenes de uno y otro sexo á distancia de unas dos varas, comienza el ritornelo ó preludio de la música: despues se insinúa con la voz la seguidilla, cantando si es manchega el primer verso de la copla, y si bolera los dos primeros en que solo se deben ocupar quatro compases: sigue la guitarra haciendo un pasacalle, y al quarto compas se empieza á cantar la seguidilla. Entonces rompen el bayle con las castañuelas ó crotalos continuando por espacio de nueve compases, que es donde concluye la primera parte. Continua la guitarra tocando el mismo pasacalle, durante el qual se mudan al lugar opuesto los danzantes por medio de un paseo muy pausado y sencillo, y volviendo á cantar al entrar tambien el quarto compas, vá cada uno haciendo las variaciones y diferencias de su escuela por otros nueve compases, que es la segunda parte. Buelven á mudar otra vez de puesto, y hallándose cada uno de los danzantes donde principió á baylar, sigue la tercera en los mismos términos que la segunda, y al señalar el noveno compás, cesan á un tiempo, y como de improviso la voz el instrumento y las castañuelas quedando la sala en silencio, y los baylarines plantados sin movimiento en varias actitudes hermosas, que es lo que llamamos Bien parado. Aquí es quando el concurso se deshace dando palmadas y aplausos…

…Los aficionados del bayle manchego acostumbraban empezar á baylar desde el instante que oian la voz del cantante insinuando la seguidilla, pero este abuso se ha corregido en las boleras, disponiendo que no principien los baylarines hasta el octavo compas, que es quando realmente comienza á cantarse la seguidilla.

("While two young people, a man and a woman, take their places in the middle of a room facing each other about two yards apart, the ritornelo or prelude of the music begins. Then the voice begins the seguidilla, singing the first line of the copla if it is a seguidilla manchega, or the first two lines if it is a seguidilla bolera, which only ought to take up four measures. Then the guitar plays a passacalle, and at the fourth measure the voice begins to sing the seguidilla. At that moment they begin the dance with the castanets, continuing for nine measures, which is where the first part ends.

The guitar continues to play the same passacalle, during which the dancers move to the opposite position by a very deliberate and simple movement, and the voice singing again from the beginning of the fourth measure, each one carries out the variations and particularities of his or her own school for another nine measures, and that is the second part.

They change positions again, and now each dancer being in the position where he or she began to dance, the third part follows in the same way as the second, and at the ninth measure they all stop at once, with the voice, the instrument and the castanets all as though unexpectedly leaving the room in silence and the dancers planted motionless in various striking positions, which is what we call Bien parado. This is when the onlookers burst out in clapping and applause…

… The aficionados of the manchego dance used to begin to dance from the moment they heard the voice of the singer beginning the seguidilla, but this error has been corrected in the bolera, so that the dancers do not begin until the eighth measure, which is when the seguidilla proper begins to be sung.")

Don Preciso not only describes how the bolero was danced, but also gives some very precise details about the formal structure of the words and the music. They are similar to but not quite the same as in Sor’s songs, no doubt because no living dance is ever static but changes all the time.

Of course things never turn out in the way that we hope and believe that they will. The bolero as Don Preciso knew it died out, or rather it was greatly changed as the century wore on. But Don Preciso would surely be pleased that now after two hundred years some fine seguidillas boleras are again being published, sung, and perhaps one day soon may even be danced again: namely those by Sor, first in the 1976 collection of his Seguidillas, and now in this present book which is being published exactly two hundred years after Don Preciso’s book and exactly two hundred years after the great party in Barcelona: 1799 and 1999 respectively. They are fine songs, and intensely Spanish. Don Preciso might have some reservations about their composer, Sor, who after all also composed Italian operas which Don Preciso hated, and Italian arietts, and who was not a Castilian but a Catalan from Barcelona. He might even find elements in them which he might consider to be not quite one hundred per cent traditional. Still, let us hope that the quality of the songs might mitigate those things.

There are two references in the Gazeta de Barcelona to seguidillas by Sor:

October 22nd, 1806. "6 seguidillas de Sors para tocar", which could be purchased at the "libreria de Arribas" in Madrid.

November 16th, 1806. "6 seguidillas de Leon [i.e., José Rodriguez de Leon], otras 6 idem de Sors: todas estas piezas para cantar, con acompañamiento á la guitarra". Again these could be purchased at the "libreria de Arribas" in Madrid.

The music listed in the Gazeta de Barcelona is not to be thought of as primarily printed music, but rather usually as manuscript music copied by scribes and sold by music shops, which was the usual way that music was disseminated in Spain at that time. Among the references are many to seguidillas and to the bolero. Unfortunately very little of this music is known to have survived.

While no "6 seguidillas de Sors" specifically bearing the name of the libreria de Arribas are known to have survived, some seguidillas by Sor are found in the manuscripts British Library, MSS Egerton 3288 and 3289. I published a group of six of them from Egerton 3289 as nos. 1 through 6 in the 1976 Seguidillas, and there are others as well.

These ten collections are exactly the kind of musical source that is named in the advertisements in the Gazeta de Barcelona which we saw above. The "Almacen de Musica" on the Carrera de San Geronimo is indeed one of the publishers named in those advertisements. It could even be (though we have no way of knowing for sure) that the six seguidillas by Sor in Egerton 3289 are in fact the same as the "6 seguidillas de Sors" advertised by Arribas, if we imagine a certain degree of cooperation between publishers, for the six seguidillas in Egerton 3289 have only the words "Seis Voleras" as a title, without a name of publisher, and it would be easy for them to be passed from one publisher to another for sale.

As well as the group of six songs by Sor, there is another group of songs among the ten collections of boleros in Egerton 3289, this time three in number, anonymous, and for three voices with guitar accompaniment. That collection of three songs has a separate title-page on which it is called "Tres voleras a tres voces". I had already recognized the first song, "Mucha tierra he corrido", as being by Sor, because it is found elsewhere with the same music though with different words, for example as "Cuantas naves se han visto" (no. 9 in this present edition). But it was an exciting discovery to be able now to identify the next two songs as well, "Cuando de ti me aparto" and "Qué costoso es el logro", as being by Sor, because they are attributed to him in the Première Collection d’Airs Espagnols of Narciso Paz, which we shall examine below. They have not previously been so identified as far as I know.

In this edition those three songs are nos. 1 to 3, edited directly from Egerton 3289 with the guitar accompaniments which are found in that manuscript. Nos. 5 to 7 are the same songs, but this time with the piano accompaniments which are found in Paz’ collection. I stress that the piano accompaniments are not found in Egerton 3289 but are here taken from Paz.

The ten collections of songs in Egerton 3289 are in several different hands and are not necessarily all of the same date. They were gathered together not earlier than 1805 because that is the year in which the "Almacen de Musica" was founded, and not later than May 1819 because MS Egerton 3289 was in London by that date. My guess is that they may have been copied down and then gathered together in about 1805-1810. When exactly they were composed (as opposed to copied down), we do not know. We also do not know whether the idea of grouping these songs into groups (of six, or three), is the composer’s or not. But whatever the case, these songs come from the time of the native and living repertory of this kind of Spanish song in Spain (rather than, for example, from Sor’s later exile).

The fourth song in this present collection, "Sin duda que tus ojos", is a special case. It is not in Egerton 3289, but Paz’s Première Collection gives it attributed to Sor with both guitar and piano accompaniments. Because of the now demonstrated very strong authority of Paz, his attribution must be taken very seriously. In fact it is a magnificent song, with chromaticisms where its text speaks of the poison in the beloved’s eyes. Its text is related to that of no. 7 in the 1976 Seguidillas, "Si dices que mis ojos / Te dan la muerte", which comes from Egerton 3289’s twin manuscript Egerton 3288.

In this edition, then, "Sin duda que tus ojos" in both its version with guitar and with piano is taken from Paz.

I have given pride of place in this edition to the versions of the first three songs with guitar accompaniment, because it is only with guitar accompaniment that they are found in Egerton 3289 which is the earlier source. In this edition they are nos. 1, 2, and 3 which were grouped as a set by Egerton 3289 and it would make good sense to perform them as a set of three. To them one could well add "Sin duda que tus ojos" (no. 4) because it is so closely associated with the same source-tradition.

What of the versions of these four songs that have piano accompaniment (nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8)? Those piano accompaniments are all here taken from Paz’ Première Collection which as we saw has great authority. But the reality is that we do not really know whether those four piano accompaniments are by Sor himself, or whether they originated in a Spanish manuscript which Paz copied but which is now lost, or whether Paz himself wrote them; it is just not possible to say. But whatever is the case, the four piano accompaniments are from the period and they are good and worth performing.

This song is a version of no. 1, "Mucha tierra he corrido", this time with piano, in a different key, and with different words. It is found in MS 1065 of the Rung Collection in the Royal Library, Copenhagen, which appears to be Spanish.

These are two alternative sets of words to the same music: quite distinct sets of words, even though they share the same wit. Let us begin with "No tocarán campanas", for it definitely has Sor’s authority.

"No tocarán campanas" has its origins in Sor’s time in Spain, specifically in 1809, but it was published only after he had left. The text in this edition is taken from an edition printed in London in about 1819 with the following title: Impromtu, dans le genre du Boléro, fait au sujet du grand bruit que l’on fait avec les Cloches l’après midi de la Toussaints en Espagne, par F. Sor, à Malaga l’an 1809. As sung by the Misses Ashe ("Impromptu in the genre of the bolero, made on the theme [or, on the subject] of the great noise which the bells make in the afternoon of All Saints’ Day in Spain … Malaga, 1809. As sung by the Misses Ashe").

Fascinating words indeed. What exactly was the "grand bruit" made by the bells in Spain in the afternoon of All Saints’ Day? Why was it so "grand"? Does the intonation in the song echo or imitate what the bells were doing? Did the bells themselves imitate plainsong? Was there something special about what the bells did in Málaga compared with what they did in the rest of Spain, or was it just that Sor happened to be in Málaga when he composed this song? Perhaps a church historian will be able to cast light on the precise use of church bells in this context in Spain in this period.

Meanwhile it is clear that the song is a wonderful and humorous combination of the extremely secular bolero form with the very sacred subject of the office for the dead on All Saints’ Day (November 1st). The music uses an ecclesiastical intonation but with Spanish words. "They won’t ring bells when I die", says the text—and I shall be dead for the same reasons as in other songs, namely amorous ones. Sor does not strictly observe the bolero form but rather uses it as a starting point for a new composition, as indeed his title Impromtu implies. The fine piano accompaniment is surely by Sor himself, whereas in the songs in Paz’s Première Collection we did not know whether the piano accompaniments were by him or by someone else.

The other text to this music is satirical and anti-clerical: "Los canónigos, madre" ("Mother, I want a canon, so that I can be an aunt…"). It appears with those words in a version for solo voice with piano, from an early Spanish manuscript, which I published as no. 8 in the 1976 Seguidillas. Paz also has it with the "Los canónigos" words, though not in his very authoritative Première Collection but rather in his Troisième Collection of some years later, where he gives both sets of words, underlaying "Los canónigos, madre" and giving "No tocarán campanas" at the foot of the song, where it looks like a second stanza although in fact it is of course an alternative text.

The existence of the song in early versions with both sets of words suggests that it was indeed Sor who gave it the two sets of words (rather than someone else giving one set), that is to say that he is responsible not only for the entertaining mixture of forms in "No tocarán campanas" but also for the fun-poking "Los canónigos".

The three songs all show problems of form and of transmission which probably derive from the fact that they are far away in time from their origins. Details are given in the Notes to the Songs below, but briefly it may be said that in the last two songs the traditional ABA form has given way to a simpler ABB form, that the Bien parado is not evident in the notation of one song and not present at all in another; and that there are corruptions in the notation which seem to show that someone (the engraver?) was just not aware of how this form worked.

This book concludes with a completely different setting of the text "Me preguntó ..", which is a slight variation of the text which Sor also set as no. 2 of the Tres Seguidillas Boleras—and it is a miniature of the highest quality.

This setting is in the perfect traditional seguidillas boleras form of ABA with the traditional distribution of words and music, unlike the other setting in the Tres Seguidillas Boleras which as we saw altered it to the simpler ABB form.

There are some differences in the words. The first line here reads "Me preguntó mi amigo" instead of "Me pregunta un amigo" in the Tres Seguidillas Boleras. Also some words are inserted in the bass voice: "No no no" in the copla, and "Si si si" in the estribillo, which seems more reminiscent of Italian opera than of Spanish song.

The piece is difficult to date. It appears that the book was added to over very many years, for it includes autographs dated 1823 (Halévy), 1825 (Gasse), 1848 (Forestier), and 1849 (Adam and Girard). There is an autograph item by Arriaga, who died in 1826. The leaves now in Stockholm do not constitute the whole book, and they are not in date order. The best we can say at present is that Sor probably wrote his entry between 1826/7 when he returned to Paris from Russia, and 1839 when he died.

As we saw from the description of Sor’s own playing, seguidillas boleras were originally danced to. It would be good to see, somewhere in the world, a performance of some of Sor’s seguidillas with dancers. In the 1976 Seguidillas I published in facsimile an article "Le Boléro" written by Sor himself, and armed with that and with Don Preciso’s detailed description, and pictures and other sources, such a danced performance might be possible, even perhaps evoking the charmed atmosphere of that night in Barcelona in 1799. The pictures and texts in The Origins of the Bolero School may be particularly helpful.

But they are also just fine simply as songs. Sor himself tells us in his article that in about 1800 the early form of the bolero fell out of fashion and seguidillas boleras became dissociated from the dance: "Au fur et à mesure que cette danse perdait de sa vogue, les Seguidillas que l’on y chantait furent généralement adoptées, et elles sont encore aujourd’hui à la mode, sous le nom de Boleros ou Seguidillas Boleras" ("At the same time as this dance lost its popularity, the Seguidillas that were sung to it came to be generally adopted, and they are still fashionable today, under the name of Boleros or Seguidillas Boleras.") Indeed, the second quotation from Baron Maldá above shows Sor himself singing a bolero or two apparently without dancers.

If the songs are going to be danced to, a historical sense is desirable, because the bolero changed with time and new forms of it were invented (described by Sor in his article). Don Preciso’s description would be exactly the right date, having been published in the very same year as the dance in Barcelona (1799). But bear in mind that we do not know whether any particular one of Sor’s surviving seguidillas was intended for dancing or whether it might have been composed simply as a song without dancers in mind.

Whether the songs should be sung as sets or groups is I think up to performers to decide. Here are some possible groupings.

1) Nos. 1 through 6 in the 1976 Seguidillas, which appear in the original manuscript, Egerton 3289, as a group of "Seis voleras".

2) Nos. 1, 2, and 3 in this edition, which appear in the same manuscript as a group of "Tres voleras". Both of these groupings have some authority as they come from a source from Spain from Sor’s own time, but it is not known whether Sor himself grouped the songs, or someone else. Similarly Nos. 5, 6, and 7 in this edition can be considered as a group.

3) Nos. 1, 2, 3, and 4 in this edition, which all appear in Paz’ Première Collection. Similarly nos. 5, 6, 7, and 8 in this collection.

4) Nos. 13, 14 and 15 in this edition, which were published no doubt with Sor’s authority as a group of "Tres Seguidillas Boleras".

But each song in this book and in the 1976 Seguidillas can be sung perfectly well by itself.

A word about form. Most of the songs in this edition and in the 1976 Seguidillas are in the seguidillas boleras form, and performers have only to follow the repeats as written. It is a subtle form, allowing the use of music and musical repeats to interact with the words which are full of wit, humour and grace (try "Las mujeres y cuerdas" in the 1976 Seguidillas, for example). The form in most of Sor’s seguidillas goes like this:

A short instrumental introduction (which the musical sources sometimes call "pasacalle" or "ritornelo").

Lines 1-2, sung to music A.

A short instrumental section, either the same as or similar to the first instrumental introduction.

Lines 2-4, sung to music B.

Lines 3-4, sung to music A.

The second instrumental section again.

Then comes a recapitulation sung to the estribillo if there is one, which there usually is:

Lines 5-7, sung to music B.

Lines 6-7, sung to music A.

(If there isn’t an estribillo, then lines 2-4 and then 3-4 are sung again instead of 5-7 and 6-7 respectively.)

What is really fun is that the dance (and therefore the song) ends in a very special way with a sudden ending. There is no instrumental section at the end, but instead the music stops suddenly. According to Don Preciso, at that point the dancers also stop suddenly and hold what he calls "varias actitudes hermosas" ("various striking positions"), while the audience erupts in applause, shouting ¡Bien parado! or "Well stopped!". Again he writes:

Una de las leyes mas originales y preciosas de este bayle bolero, es el que al concluir la seguidilla deben quedarse los danzantes inmóviles en la postura que les coja el último golpe de la seguidilla y castañuela, á cuyas posturas llaman el Bien parado; y los jóvenes hacen estudio particular de concluir en unas actitudes hermosas que tengan alguna flexîbilidad y gracia para divertir á los concurrentes.

("One of the most original and delightful features of this dance the bolero is that when the seguidilla finishes, the dancers remain motionless in the position in which they were at the last stroke of the seguidilla and the castanets, and they call this position the Bien parado; and the young people take particular care to end in striking positions with flexibility and grace, in order to please the audience.")

Most of the songs in this edition follow the above form, but one or two show differences. "Mucha tierra he corrido", for example, does not have the normal repetition of the A section but instead Sor has composed a new section to stand instead of the repeated A. "No tocarán campanas" is a new composition, indeed an impromptu as its title says, using the seguidillas boleras form only as a starting point. And nos. 13, 14, and 15, which appear to be late songs, all show changes in the traditional form.

A question to consider is whether the last section (BA) should be performed twice or three times. A careful reading of Don Preciso’s description of the dance the bolero shows that he says that when the bolero is danced, the last section (BA) is performed not twice but three times (that is, BA followed by BA and then followed by BA again). It follows that if any of the songs in this book or in the 1976 Seguidillas is today performed with dancers, then the dancers will need the last section to be performed for them three times, not twice (this can be done by repeating the words of lines 2–4 or 5–7).

But it should be carefully noted that that does not necessarily mean that the last section needs to be performed three times when there are no dancers. In the last song in this book, for example, "Me preguntó mi amigo", which Sor wrote down in autograph perhaps in about the late 1820s, the last section is clearly and unambiguously notated to be performed twice only, with an ordinary repeat sign and a first and second time bar. Also in no. 2 of the Tres Seguidillas Boleras of the same period, which presumably derives directly from Sor’s own autograph, the last section is clearly and unambiguously notated to be performed twice only.

The original sources of the other songs in this book and in the 1976 Seguidillas generally use only ordinary repeat signs which in normal use mean that the last section is to be performed twice. Egerton 3289, for example, normally has only ordinary repeat signs, with only two songs in that manuscript (not by Sor) adding the instruction "Al Seg[n]o dos mas" (back to the repeat mark twice more). Paz has only "D.C." signs with no indication that the last section should be performed three times.

The clue may well lie in Sor’s statement which we saw above, that in about 1800 seguidillas boleras became dissociated from the dance: "Au fur et à mesure que cette danse perdait de sa vogue, les Seguidillas que l’on y chantait furent généralement adoptées". When the music of a dance takes on its own new life away from the original movements of the dance, then that new musical form is no longer directly linked with that dance. For example, Chopin’s waltzes and mazurkas have a life of their own. So also here, we know from Sor’s writing as well as from the testimony of Baron Maldá that seguidillas boleras were on occasion sung without dancers, and we simply do not know whether they were then usually sung with the full triple performance of the last section which would have been required if dancers had been present, or with only a single repeat which is what the sources generally indicate.

I would guess that the example of Paz is significant. Paz was a man who knew the bolero in its own day and who then published his book in a foreign country (France) where the bolero was not well known. If seguidillas boleras were always sung (whether dancers were present or not) with a triple performance of the last section, then it is to be supposed that Paz would have indicated that fact to his readers unfamiliar with the form. But he did not do so, thus suggesting that his "D.C." signs could be interpreted as they stood, performing the last section twice only, without the necessity of performing it three times.

Sor’s own example is similar, where only in one song which has an exceptional relationship to the dance do we find the triple performance of the last section indicated, but not in any other.

The exceptional song is "Yo no sé lo que tiene", which Sor gave as an example of danced seguidillas boleras in his article "Le Boléro" (reproduced in full in the 1976 Seguidillas). It is therefore specifically closely related to the dance. In it, the last section is indeed notated to be performed three times (including the estribillo). Even here, however, the distribution of the words and the music is different from that described above, being A sung to lines 1-2; then B to lines 2-1-2 then A to 1-2 again; then B repeated this time to lines 2-3-4 then A to 3-4 again; with the estribillo not underlaid. It is in a way a simpler structure and corresponds well to the requirements of the dance.

However, in no other song by Sor do we find a triple performance of the last section notated in the original source. In the case of the Tres Seguidillas Boleras it is very likely that it was Sor himself who wrote out the copy for the engraver, and while no. 1 is not specific and no. 3 is apparently corrupt, no. 2 is clearly and specifically written out with the last section to be performed twice only, not three times. And in the case of the autograph manuscript of "Me preguntó mi amigo" (no. 16 of this edition, reproduced here in facsimile), there is no doubt at all: an ordinary repeat mark is given with a first and second time bar. That is, the song is clearly and unambiguously notated in Sor’s hand with the last section to be performed twice only.

It does seem as if the sources are telling us that the triple performance of the last section may have taken place only in the very early days of the seguidillas boleras, when it was always danced to, and that after those very early days the last section may have been performed only twice when dancers were not present.

In this edition I follow the sources, which is the only correct course in an edition. Singers and players can choose to perform the songs as written, or if they want to come particularly close to the spirit of the dance they can perform the last section three times instead of twice.

In this edition the original notation is presented exactly as in the sources, without changes. But performers may note that there is ample evidence that they can adopt a very lively and free attitude to their style, and need not fear to add to and even change the notes, bearing in mind of course the study of performance practice of the time. An example is rasgueado. In Sor’s duet for two guitars, op. 54 bis, the composer writes: "Il est impossible de bien rendre l’effet, ni même jouer simplement les notes, sans être initié dans la manière espagnole de conduire la main droite dans le genre appelé rasgueado" ("It is impossible to give the proper effect, or even simply to play the notes, without having learnt the Spanish way of using the right hand in the style called rasgueado")—and yet the rasgueado can scarcely be said to be indicated in detail in that work but rather is left to the player. So here, especially in the first four songs, it may be thought that one single guitar playing the notes as written is perhaps not enough to balance three voices, so that some rasgueado might be introduced to help—or one might even have more than one guitar. I mention this with caution, for knowledge and experience are necessary; but this is a direction which can certainly be explored.

The songs in this book have the additional interest for performers that as far as I know none of them has been performed in our own day, with or without dancers, before what I believe to have been the first modern performance (of nos. 1 through 4) at the Darwin International Guitar Festival in July 1999.

As with the 1976 Seguidillas, the songs in this present collection have words of high quality, combining wit and intensity in a small space. As Sor wrote in his article on the bolero: "Les paroles en sont généralement très spirituelles". They are in fact a remarkable achievement in lyric poetry, continuing an ancient tradition and contributing significantly to Spanish literature as well as to song.

A final note about the future. In any continuing research, new data will appear from time to time. (For example, on the day on which these words are typed, a colleague has sent me new information about Narciso Paz in Spain under the French occupation in about 1809.) It is intended to post such new information on the web. Readers are invited to consult www.tecla.com/catalog/0305.htm to find such updates for this book. If any reader of this book has any new information which is relevant to it, I would be pleased if they would like to send it to me by post or email (the email address is at the foot of the Tecla home page). Their contributions will be gratefully acknowledged.

BRIAN JEFFERY

Al mediator jugando
Con tres Señoras
Y en menos de dos credos
Las di dos volas.
Y el caso ha sido
Que si no meto el Basto
Me dan Codillo.

("There I was playing Mediator with three ladies, when, in less than two credos, I gave them two tricks. And what happened then was, that if I didn’t play the ace of clubs, I was out of the game.")

A hypothetical first edition of "1788 [?]" is listed in Javier Suárez-Pajares, "Collection of texts", The Origins of the Bolero School, page 105, and a hypothetical first edition of 1790 in his La canción con acompañamiento de guitarra, page X, but without giving reasons. However, the earliest known copies bear the date 1799 and at present there is no reason to doubt that they represent the first edition. The point is of some importance because the description of the bolero contained in the introduction of 1799 gives, as it were, a snapshot of the dance taken at precisely that date. If it were ever to be shown that there was an earlier edition, that would affect the date of this important snapshot.

According to the Manual del Librero Hispanoamericano of Antonio Palau y Dulcet, vol. 28 (Barcelona, 1977), the editions are as follows:

First edition: Madrid, Villalpando, 1799. Second edition: two volumes, Madrid, Eusebio Alvarez, 1802. Third edition: two volumes, Madrid, Ibarra, 1805. Fourth edition: two volumes, Madrid, Ibarra, 1812. Fifth edition: two volumes, Madrid, Repullés, 1816. Sixth edition: 1836. Seventh edition: 1869. Palau y Dulcet does not give location of copies.

Celsa Alonso, in La canción lírica..., page 30, says that the 1799 edition was advertised in the Gazeta de Madrid on 7 August 1799, and an enlarged second edition on 24 July 1800. It may be, then, that the 1802 edition consisted only of volume 2 rather than of both volumes; this remains to be checked.

The Madrid 1802 edition is cited in Javier Suárez-Pajares, "Collection of texts", page 105, but without name of publisher or number of volumes or location of copy.

The British Library has both volumes of the 1805 Madrid, Ibarra edition. This has a different title-page from the 1799 edition, and the title no longer mentions the discurso, even though the discurso itself is still present in the text. Volume 2 has a new preface saying that it is a supplementary volume published due to the success of the first. The title-page of volume 1 bears the words "Tercera edicion, corregida y aumentada".

The British Library also has another copy made up of two volumes where Volume 1 has no place, name of publisher or date, and Volume 2 is Madrid, Repullés, 1816. The British Library catalogue supposes that the first volume is considerably older than the second. Mr. Mario dell’Ara owns two volumes where the first volume has the new title-page and includes the discurso but has no place, name of publisher, or date, and the second has the imprint Madrid, Eusebio Alvarez, calle de la Zarza, 1802 (Il Fronimo, October 1998, page 20).

An edition without place, name of publisher, or date, and in which the discurso is not present, is in London, collection of June Yakeley. Another copy without place, name of publisher, or date is in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale.

The publishing history of the anonymous editions cited above is not yet known.

A similar collection published in Barcelona by Agustín Rosa, no date, is also in Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale (this is dated by Palau y Dulcet at about 1807).

A modern edition by Manuel Urbano (Jaen, 1982), is cited by Celsa Alonso, La canción lírica..., page 31.

The problem is, however, that those editorial instructions of Mr. Suárez-Pajares are methodologically unacceptable because they extrapolate from external sources rather than cautiously using the primary sources themselves, as though one were to add extra repeat marks in a new edition of Chopin’s waltzes because of instructions in dancing tutors of the time. Furthermore, in the case of seguidillas boleras they are doubly unacceptable because we have the specific statement of Sor that the sung seguidillas boleras became dissociated from the dance in about 1800, and therefore the requirements of the dance specifically no longer applied to sung seguidillas boleras.

The fact is that we do not know whether, when dancers were not present, the last section was usually performed twice or three times. Various evidence suggests that it may have been performed only twice, and not three times, for example because of the lack of an indication of a triple performance of the last section of most of the songs in Egerton 3289, or in Paz who was publishing in Paris where the majority of his readers certainly would not have been so familiar with the bolero that they would, without any indication, have sung the last section three times where the notation said that they should sing it twice. In the case of Sor we have examples including one in his own autograph which are clearly and unambiguously written with the last section to be performed twice and not three times. Also, the long form certainly brings about a number of repeats which can seem interminable if there are not dancers present.

Methodologically, in making an edition I prefer to keep to the evidence of the manuscripts and printed editions which are the sources, which generally indicate a simple repeat. If, afterwards, performers wish to perform the last section three times because of the link to the dance, that is well and good, but it is a performing decision, not an editing one.