Spanish nationalism (piano)

A tendency in late 19th- and early 20th-century Spanish composition to develop a concert music language rooted in the folk and popular musical traditions of Spain — flamenco, cante jondo, regional dance rhythms, modal scales. The movement was catalysed partly by Felipe Pedrell's theoretical writings and partly by the example of foreign composers (Bizet, Glinka, Debussy, Ravel) who had used Spanish material effectively. Turina, Albeniz, Granados, and Falla are the central figures in the nationalist piano tradition; Turina is distinctive for combining this material with the formal rigour he absorbed from Vincent d'Indy in Paris.

Spanish nationalist piano music rewards a strongly gestural, dance-inflected approach. Allow the flamenco-derived rhythmic figures — hemiola, syncopation, the characteristic triplet patterns — to speak clearly. Avoid Impressionist blurring where the idiom is more incisive: much of this music alternates between rhythmic sharpness and lyrical singing tone.