Night Music on the Streets of Madrid
Luigi Boccherini
About the Music
Italian composer and cellist Luigi Boccherini was born into a musical family; his father and all of his siblings made their careers in the arts. He was an incredibly prolific composer, particularly of chamber music. Boccherini probably received his early music education from his father Leopoldo Boccherini, a double bass player in the Capella Palatina; he went on to study formally in both Lucca and Rome. Travels with both his father and his friend, violinist Fillipo Manfredi, led to music engagements in cities such as Vienna, Paris, and ultimately Madrid. On November 8, 1770 Boccherini entered the service of Don Luis of Aranjuez, the brother of King Charles III of Spain. Boccherini flourished during this period of patronage, and was forever influenced and inspired by the sounds of Spain.
Throughout his life Boccherini wrote almost 100 string quartets, mostly in the style established by his contemporary, Haydn. However, Boccherini’s quartets often prominently featured the cello—probably due to the fact that it was his main instrument—at a time when the cello was typically relegated to an accompaniment role. Eventually Boccherini began to champion a new configuration: the string quintet for two violins, viola and two cellos. He wrote over 100 string quintets during his career, including Night Music on the Streets of Madrid.This quintet was composed around 1780, during his employment under Don Luis. The quartet was quite famous in Spain during Boccherini’s lifetime; in fact it was not published until after the composer’s death because he said, “The piece is absolutely useless, even ridiculous, outside Spain because the audience cannot hope to understand its significance, nor the performers to play it as it should be played.”
The quintet embodies the nightlife of the Madrid streets, with an air of nostalgia, in seven movements. The first, Le campane de l’Ave Maria, depicts the city’s main church bell calling for the faithful to pray to the Virgin Mary. In movement two, Il tamburo dei Soldati, one can hear a soldier’s drum. The third movement, Minuetto dei Ciechi, translates to the Minuet of the Blind Beggars. In this movement, Boccherini instructs the cellists to strum their instruments like guitars. The fourth movement turns back to the sacred in sort of a recitative fashion. Its title, Il Rosario, translates to The Rosary. The title of movement five, Passe Calle, is slightly misleading. While it is translated as The Passacaglia of the Street Singers, it is not a true passacaglia. Instead it imitates the singing of the lower-class, known as Los Manolos. In Spanish, “passacalle” means, to pass along the street. Like the second movement, the sixth depicts Il tamburo, or the drum; although this time it is not a specific drum. Finally the last movement, Ritirata, characterizes the retreat of the military night watch in Madrid. This nightly protocol announces the curfew for the city, and thus the closing of the streets for the night.
Note by Christina Dioguardi