Music Criticism and Music Critics in Early Francoist Spain

Defining Basque music: Charles Bordes' (1863–1909) musical regionalism and influence in the Basque Country and Paris

“…In another public lecture, the Jesuit Nemesio Otaño, who years later would become a key figure in the Francoist musical milieu (Moreda Rodríguez, 2017: 77‐8), made his intellectual affinity with Bordes clear. In July 1913, on the occasion of the celebration of Fiestas Euskaras , Otaño delivered a speech which could be taken as a sort of theoretical update of the artistic and identity goals that were to guide the future development of Basque music (Otaño, 1913).…”

“…However, he also defended that, during the 19th century, foreign fashions (especially, Italian bel canto opera) had corrupted local musical traditions such as zarzuela . As a result, Pedrell and his followers believed that authentic Spanish national music was located, chronologically speaking, before the arrival of alien musical vogues (Moreda Rodríguez, 2017: 86‐7). For Pedrell, who delivered a speech in Bilbao, Early and traditional music were basic sources of musical nationality in Spain, in line with what Bordes thought.…”

‘Spain in our Ears: International Musical Responses in Support of the Republic during the Spanish Civil War’

“…'Spain in our Ears: International Musical Responses in Support of the Republic during the Spanish Civil War' phrase, and it was born out of the realization that, even though the last ten years have seen a surge of interest in the music and musical life of the Spanish Civil War (Labajo, 2004(Labajo, , 2011De la Ossa, 2011, Contreras Zubillaga, 2011Giner & Porcille, 2015;Moreda Rodríguez, 2016;Iglesias, 2017;Pérez Zalduondo, 2021), studies of the international ramifications of these remained scarce. In fact, they have tended to focus on two relatively well-known composers who both visited Spain to support the Republic at war: Mexican Silvestre Revueltas (Hess, 1997;Velasco-Pufleau, 2013), who visited Madrid, Valencia andBarcelona between July andOctober 1937;and German Hanns Eisler (Alonso Tomás, 2019), who travelled in autumn 1936 to Madrid and spent time there, and subsequently in Murcia, with the International Brigades, the world-renowned military units made up of volunteers from around fifty countries who fought for the Republic and who have ever since remained a staple in the international imaginaries of the Spanish Civil War (Tremlett, 2020).…”