Seguidillas (orch. McAlister)

The “Seguidillas” op. 232 No. 5 were composed in 1886 and belong to that period in Isaac Albéniz's creative output during which he sought to unite the formal language of Spanish folk music with the compositional means of European Romanticism. The seguidilla — a lively folk dance from Castile in triple metre — provided Albéniz with the rhythmic and melodic raw material for a work full of energy and characteristic Iberian colour.

The musical language is shaped by striking rhythms, lyrical melodic lines, and that tart, sun-drenched atmosphere that distinguishes Albéniz's piano works of this period. In its orchestral guise, the piece unfolds a vivid palette of colour: the dance's characteristic displaced accents and syncopated figures take on particular plasticity and vitality when rendered by the full orchestral forces of brass, percussion, and strings.

The work stands as an exemplary expression of the nationalism found in late nineteenth-century Iberian music — that movement in which Spanish composers deliberately drew on folk genres and regional idioms in order to assert an independent musical tradition in the face of the dominant German and French symphonic repertoire. The “Seguidillas” are an entertaining and characterful piece that showcases Albéniz's unmistakable voice in concentrated form.