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La Musica Notturna della Strade di Madrid is one of only two programmatic works Boccherini composed. It was not published until several years after his death in part because Boccherini told his publisher that, "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." Within Spain itself, during his lifetime, the work became quite famous in arrangements of it Boccherini made for piano quintet and also for string quartet and guitar, in which version it has perhaps become best known.
Boccherini actually provided the publisher with program notes. La Musica Notturna delle Strade di Madrid, literally, the night music of the streets of Madrid, was an attempt to recreate what residents of the Spanish capital could expect to hear each night.
1. Le campane de l’Ave Maria — The Ave Maria Bell; the main church calls the faithful for the Ave Maria prayers.
2. Il tamburo dei Soldati — The Soldiers’ drum.
3. Minuetto dei Ciechi — The Minuet of the Blind Beggars; Boccherini directed the cellists to place their instruments upon their knees, and strum them, like guitars.
4. Il Rosario — The Rosary, a slow section not played in strict time.
5. Passa calle — The Passacaglia of the Street Singers, known as Los Manolos, lower-class loudmouths; not a true passacaglia, yet imitates their singing. In Spanish, passacalle denotes “pass along the street”, singing as one seeks amusement.
6. Il tamburo — The drum.
7. Ritirata — the retreat of the Madrid military night watch; the Watch’s patrol, announcing the curfew, and closing the streets for the night.
(information from Wikipedia) |