Saggese plays Mompou
Frederic Mompou i Dencausse (16 April 1893 – 30 June 1987) was a Catalan composer and pianist. He is remembered for his solo piano music and, to a degree, his songs.
Mompou is best known as a miniaturist, writing short, relatively improvisatory music, often described as “delicate” or “intimate.” His principal influences were French impressionism, Erik Satie and Gabriel Fauré, resulting in a style in which musical development is minimized and expression is concentrated into very small forms. He was fond of ostinato figures, bell imitations (his mother’s family owned the Dencausse bell foundry and his grandfather was a bell maker), and a kind of incantatory, meditative sound, the most complete expression of which can be found in his masterpiece Musica Callada (or the Voice of Silence) based on the mystical poetry of Saint John of the Cross. It employs very simple, even childlike melodies, but tinged with sadness, melancholy and a nostalgic echo of a forgotten far-away land.
He was also influenced by the sounds and smells of the maritime quarter of Barcelona, the cry of seagulls, the sound of children playing and popular Catalan culture. He often dispensed with bar lines and key signatures. His music is rooted in the chord G♭-C-E♭-A♭-D, which he named Barri de platja (the Beach Quarter).
Canción Nr. 6 is part of the collection “Cançons i Danses” (Songs and Dances). This is the title of a collection of 15 pieces, written by Mompou between 1918 and 1972. All were written for the piano, except No. 13 for guitar and No. 15 for organ. The Cançons i Danses were not written as a set, but as discrete pieces over a 55-year span. Cançó i Dansa No. 1 is one of Mompou’s best known works, and has been arranged for various combinations of instruments. No. 6 is also very well known.
Enjoy the wonderful transcription and interpretation by the Italian guitarist Christian Saggese which was recorded exclusively for Guitar TV World.
