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Originally Posted by VEGANGELICA
Does Boccherini do any very brooding, serious music? So far most of his music I've heard seems quite light-hearted.
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He's a very original musician, indeed. For instance, when he was entrusted with the composition of music for an operetta entitled
Clementina, he did it in a particular Madrilenian style named
Zarzuela. The story has reminiscences of one of those ancient Greek tragedies, but its characters are based on the late 18th-century nobility, and it contains some humorous elements.
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La Clementina:
The setting is Don Clemente’s house, where we meet the housekeeper Dona Damiana and servant Cristeta. Don Clemente has two daughters: the older being the sweet, demure Clementine and the younger, the fickle Narcisa. They study music with Don Lázaro; he is frustrated with his two students and always eager to be off (to a moonlighting job, perhaps?). A young, rich nobleman, Urbano comes to the house, falls in love with Clementine and composes a gentle romance in her honor. Urbano then receives a letter informing him that his father is seriously ill and, more importantly, that the father has a daughter who turns out to be no other than Clementine! As Urbano’s sister, she will now be rich.
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It sounds like this:
Boccherini included elements from Spanish popular music into many of his compositions. For instance,
fandangos. Which, by the way, had a reputation for being "lascivious" dances at the time, to some aristocrats. I've just taken out a very interesting biography of Boccherini from a library, and I've read some fun details there. To show how succesful fandangos were then, the book quotes Giacomo Casanova (you know, the famous Italian "playboy"). Casanova was in Madrid in 1767-1768, and he attended a concert together with a local noble lady (I guess he seduced her before
):
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Originally Posted by Casanova's memories
What I liked best about the spectacle was a wonderful and fantastic dance which was struck up at midnight. It was the famous fandango, of which I had often heard, but of which I had absolutely no idea. I had seen it danced on the stage in France and Italy, but the actors were careful not to use those voluptuous gestures which make it the most seductive in the world. It cannot be described. Each couple only dances three steps, but the gestures and the attitudes are the most lascivious imaginable. Everything is represented, from the sigh of desire to the final ecstasy; it is a very history of love. I could not conceive a woman refusing her partner anything after this dance, for it seemed made to stir up the senses. I was so excited at this Bacchanalian spectacle that I burst out into cries of delight.
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It seems he was really impressed! I don't know how that particular fandango sounded exactly. But we can listen to this one composed by Boccherini in the 1790's. Quintet no.4 (G.448). Played with castanets (it begins at min. 0:16):
Yes, I'm gonna start a Boccherini thread myself.