Gaspar Cassadó: A study of Catalan Cello Arrangements and Cello Performance Style

262 Pages·2014·9.63 MB·English

Gaspar Cassadó:
A study of Catalan Cello Arrangements
and Cello Performance Style

Gabrielle Kaufman

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the

degree of Ph.D.
Birmingham City University
Faculty of Performance, Media and English
Birmingham Conservatoire
March 2013

i

A Carlos: quien está conmigo siempre, tanto en las certezas como
en las dudas.
ii

Contents
Acknowledgements iii
Abstract iv
Notes v
Chapter One
An introduction to Gaspar Cassadó’s life and legacy 1
Chapter Two
Cassadó as Performer I:
The Catalan lineage of cellists 25
Chapter Three
Cassadó as Performer II:
The Evolution of Cello Performance in the Early Twentieth Century 72
Chapter Four
Cassadó as Transcriber I:
The Historical and Conceptual Precedents within the Culture of
Musical Arrangement 113
Chapter Five
Cassadó as Transcriber II:
Between Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Transcription 130
Chapter Six
Performing Cassadó’s music: some personal reflections 187
General Conclusions 209

Appendix I 215
Appendix II 216
Appendix III 222
Appendix IV 229
Bibliography 237
Discography 246
iii

Acknowledgements
Many people contributed to this thesis in different ways. In Barcelona, Cassadó’s
disciple Marçal Cervera gave me invaluable biographical and musical insight during
interviews, and kindly commented on my performance of Cassadó’s works on different
occasions. Catalan cellist Lluis Claret, through interviews, also offered valuable
guidance while Domingo Gonzalez de la Rubia and Xosé Aviñoa assisted the
beginnings of my research. Cassadó’s friends Alberto Passigli and Nancy Hatamiya
were enthusiastic, supportive of my research and offered biographical material and
information. Nancy was also instrumental in my contact with Tamagawa University.
Previous Cassadó researchers Nathaniel Chaitkin and Mònica Pagès were most
supportive, and Mònica very generously shared the material she had gathered – as did
Cassadó’s relative Jaume Soler i Fontrodona. Guido Burchi, director of the library of
Accademia Chigiana and the library personnel, were of great assistance during my two
visits. I am very grateful to Mr. Watanabe, Director of the Museum of Education at
Tamagawa University at the time of my visit, who kindly granted my request to access
the material in their archive for my research and to Associate Professor Kei Uno, who
was most helpful in arranging my visit and guiding me through the archive. During my
stay, Akemi Imamura kindly aided communication and contacts between me and my
Japanese colleagues.
I want to thank my supervisors Ronald Woodley, Christopher Dingle and Carrie
Churnside for all their help and I would also like to thank pianists Joanna Szalewska-
Pineau and Jordi Masó, who were both most generous with their time in rehearsing and
performing Cassado’s works with me. To my family and friends, thank you for all your
support.

Finally I would like to thank the Swedish foundations Getrude och Ivar Philipsons
Stifelse and Rådman och Fru Ernst Collianders Stiftelse, for their financial support for
my research.
iv

Abstract
This thesis explores the legacy of Catalan cellist and composer Gaspar Cassadó
(1897–1966). It provides a summary of his life and legacy, an analysis of his
performance style and transcription style, and explores the implications of the findings
for the related fields of Catalan and Spanish twentieth-century music, musical
transcription and twentieth-century cello performance. The text is complemented with a
CD containing recordings of cello works by Cassadó performed by the author of this
thesis, as well as the first attempt to list definitively Cassadó’s compositions,
transcriptions and recordings, which are found in Appendices I–IV. Cassadó’s
performance style is analysed mainly through recording comparisons between him and
a number of cellists connected with his cultural and historical background. The
comparisons conclude that Cassadó, although displaying certain similarities with other
cellists in the comparison, cannot truly be said to have belonged to a tradition or
generation based solely on performance characteristics; instead more general aspects
of approach, philosophy and influence exerted on other performers need to be taken
into account. The discussion of his transcriptions includes a study of music
transcription history and the related area of language translation, to provide a context
for a number of case studies, analysing genres and styles within Cassadó’s output. The
study concludes that a definite attempt is perceptible on Cassadó’s part to widen the
concept of cello transcription as creative practice, as well as to approach the great
historical exponents in the field, such as Franz Liszt. It also emphasises the unusual
breadth in styles and types of his output. An additional commentary relates the author’s
own performance experience of Cassadó’s works, especially with regard to performing
several unpublished works and first-hand study with one of Cassadó’s disciples. Some
conclusions from this commentary include a number of interpretative details of possible
use for the future performer of Cassadó’s works, with the intention not to be
prescriptive but rather to open up new and stimulating possibilities for the
performances of this repertoire, keeping in mind Cassadó’s own practice of using
performances as a workshop to improve musical scores.
v

Notes
The music examples displaying original manuscripts by Cassadó are from the
uncatalogued archive at Tamagawa University, unless otherwise specified.
The translations of quotations from published or unpublished sources from other
languages into English are all by the author of this thesis, unless otherwise specified.
The recording tempi displayed in the recording comparisons have been counted by ear
using a metronome and refer to the general tempo of a section, unless otherwise
specified.
Although the names of some Catalan musicians, such as Pau Casals, Enric Granados
or Lluis Claret, are known abroad in their Spanish forms (Pablo, Enrique, or Luis) this
thesis will refer to them by the Catalan names, as they are generally referred to in
Spain.

1

Chapter One
An introduction to Gaspar Cassadó’s life and legacy
The figure of Gaspar Cassadó as composer, transcriber and performer is not widely
known today and there are various explanations for this. First of all, Cassadó showed
little interest in preparing his life work for posterity: he did not leave any texts regarding
his musical beliefs or attitudes and he did not participate in extensive interviews or
studies. He did not ensure the preservation of his manuscripts and notes, nor compile
an inventory of them. Secondly, his life story was never written down either by him or
by anyone close to him. Lastly, he had no children, nephews or nieces and he lived his
life constantly on the move, travelling for concerts and teaching. As he expressed it
himself in 1956: “I go through life a bohemian, in constant contradiction with myself”
(Del Arco, 1956, n.p.). He married only a few years before his death, and his widow,
the Japanese pianist Chieko Hara, eventually returned to her home country with most
of his belongings. Furthermore, at the time of his death he was no longer at the top of
the musical élite: although popular as a performer he was considered eccentric,
somewhat old-fashioned, and as a composer he never saw the popularity that the solo
Suite, Requiebros and Dance de Diable Vert enjoy today. In short, the bases for
creating a foundation or other means of caring for his legacy were simply not there.
Perhaps posterity was not of great importance to Cassadó. When asked in 1963 by a
radio interviewer what he himself thought that posterity would have to say about
Gaspar Cassadó, he replied: “Very little. We artists are like butterflies. When you die;
that’s the end” (Cassadó, 1963, Barcelona radio).1
This thesis sets out to explore two main areas of Cassadó’s musical practice: cello
performance and transcription, with the aim both to contextualize his legacy historically

and culturally, and to contribute to the field of knowledge of these two under-
researched fields within twentieth-century music. The areas of cello performance and
transcription have been chosen because of their centrality within Cassadó’s musical
profile, as well as for their proximity to my own musical practice as a cellist.
Given that Cassadó’s career and legacy are not commonly known today, the first
chapter of this thesis provides a context for the subsequent discussions by
summarizing the most important aspects of Cassadó’s influences, education and
musical relationships as well as his recordings and his compositional activities.
Chapters Two and Three use recording comparisons to discuss Cassadó’s

1 “Muy poco. Los artistas somos como...’papillons’... Cuando se mueren, se acaba todo.”
2

performance style through two different prisms: his cultural background and his
historical context. A number of recordings by Cassadó are compared to recordings by
Catalan cellists Pau Casals and Lluis Claret on one hand, and to the contemporary
cellists Emanuel Feuermann and Gregor Piatigorsky on the other hand. Both chapters
place Cassadó in a wider setting in order to identify performance style traits of historical
and cultural origin as well as to establish Cassadó’s influence on both Catalan cello
performance and on twentieth-century cello performance.
Chapter Four and Five deal with Cassadó’s transcriptions, first through analysing the
historical and creative context of the transcriptions, and secondly through analysing the
body of work through a number of case studies, discussing the genres and styles of the
different pieces. The intention of the discussion is to place Cassadó’s transcriptions
within the history of transcription as well as discussing the concept of transcription as a
creative practice with reference to Cassadó’s style and body of work. The research
also explores the connections between Cassadó’s transcription practice and his
practice as a performer.
The last chapter treats the practical side of the investigation in the form of a
commentary regarding the interpretation of Cassadó’s works, using the experience I
have acquired through working with Catalan cellists, as well as from performing and
recording different works by Cassadó, some still unpublished. This chapter is
connected with Appendix I, containing a number of recordings of works by Cassadó.
Four additional items are included in the thesis in the form of appendices. The first is
the above-mentioned CD containing recordings of part of the repertoire discussed in
the thesis. The remaining three appendices are all first attempts at definitive
compilations regarding different aspects of Cassadó’s legacy: Appendix II lists his
original compositions, Appendix III lists his transcriptions and Appendix IV lists his
audio recordings.
This thesis has few, albeit well-conceived, predecessors in the field of researching
Cassadó’s music: the DMA thesis by Nathaniel Chaitkin on the relationship between
Casals and Cassadó as well as aspects of Cassadó’s different musical activities; the
DMA thesis by Elaine Boda analysing several of his compositions; and the only
publication so far dedicated to his life: the short biography by Mònica Pagès, published
in Catalan and Spanish by Tritó Edicions in Barcelona (Chaitkin, 2001, Boda, 1998 and
Pagès, 2000). Not only has the specific topic of Cassadó’s legacy been subject to little
previous musicological research, but in a broader perspective the fields of cello
performance and Spanish twentieth-century music in general are under-researched