From notation to stage to recording in Spanish zarzuela, 1896–1958

Moreda Rodríguez, E. (2023) From notation to stage to recording in Spanish zarzuela, 1896–1958. In: Moreda Rodríguez, E. and Stanovic, I. (eds.) Early Sound Recordings: Academic Research and Practice. Routledge: Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY, pp. 185-201. ISBN 9781032047515 (doi: 10.4324/9781003194521-13)

Abstract

Research into early recordings as documents of performance practice has challenged the “musical-work-as-notation” paradigm, instead highlighting the opportunities that a “musical-work-as-performance” perspective can open up. Contrary to most early recording scholarship, which has focused overwhelmingly on Western classical repertoires, this chapter considers the relationship between notation, stage performance and recording in the Spanish vernacular music theatre genre, zarzuela. It examines recordings ranging from the heyday of the genre in the 1890s to its decline as a living stage art form in the 1950s and considers other primary sources to explain the divergences documented between the score and recording in terms of note values, tempo modification and ornamentation, and to arrive at a theory of how diverse zarzuela singers might have interacted with notation in the process of planning for and delivering their performances. This topic can, on the one hand, expand understandings of the relationships between performance and notation in early recordings, with zarzuela being on the margins of Western classical music and hence not fully partaking in “fidelity to the text” ideologies; on the other hand, within the study of zarzuela (still predominantly composer-based), it can open up avenues of enquiry that acknowledge the contributions that performers made to the genre.

• Item Type: Book Sections
• Status: Published
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Moreda Rodriguez, Dr Eva
• Authors: Moreda Rodríguez, E.
• College/School: College of Arts & Humanities > School of Culture and Creative Arts > Music
• Publisher: Routledge
• ISBN: 9781032047515
• Published Online: 28 February 2023