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Introducing Spanish culture through songs
No matter what country you come from and what language you speak, you can always be swept away through music
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o matter what country you come from and what language you speak, you can always be swept away through music.
“El Café de Chinitas”, “Los Mozos de Monleón”, and “Sevillanas” are aliens to the people of a non-Spanish speaking country like Indonesia. But when a guitar and castanets began reverberating at Usmar Ismail Hall one night, no one seemed to care about anything else.
Teresa Folgueira (left) and Marina Bollain at their concert. JP/Florence Nathania
It was as if the melody clinched and communicated more than just the language.
“Canciones Españolas” (Spanish Songs) is the final event organized by the Embassy of Spain for 2011. Inviting representatives from other embassies, Spanish language course Aula Cervantes community and members of the public via social media promotion, the embassy presented a female duo: soprano Marina Bollaín and guitarist Teresa Folgueira, who performed around 20 popular Spanish songs.
“They are all folksongs, but they are arranged in a slightly classical way because my voice is soprano and the guitar is classic in style,” Bollaín said, explaining the overall performance.
“The objective was to bring Spanish popular music to Indonesia. Some of the pieces were composed by very well-known Spanish musicians, such as Manuel de Falla and Isaac Albéniz,” explained Fernando Fernández-Aguayo, the embassy’s deputy head of mission. Also included in the song list were Spanish traditional numbers gathered by Federico García Lorca, which conveyed a burning spirit through the upbeat tempo and intense castanet playing.
Although Falla’s songs also shared the fiery pace, they were shorts. Both musicians like to talk about everyday Spanish culture and people, including bullfighters and Moorish girls.
Meanwhile, Albéniz’ compositions, which waxed lyrically about the beauty of Seville and the Asturian landscape, were flowing and soulful. They left the voice behind; only guitar and castanets took to the stage. Both are commonly used in modern music and orchestras, yet they originated from the land of flamenco.
Bollaín and Folgueira have been performing together for six years. However, they come from different backgrounds, although both were born in the capital Madrid. Bollaín is a singer and a talented actress, too; she was once presented with the best actress award at the Gijon Film Festival.
For 11 years she lived in Berlin studying singing and stage directing for opera, while also establishing her musical career alongside a guitarist. She then returned to Spain and met Folgueira — a music teacher, a music graduate of the Manhattan School New York and a runner-up in the 15th Cantabria Guitar Competition — who became her new musical partner.
After their performance in Jakarta on Nov. 24, the two musicians were due to continue their tour to Delhi, India and several other countries, all under the auspices of various Spanish embassies.
The Spanish embassy in Jakarta regularly organises three to four major artistic events each year to promote Spanish culture. In May, they brought a spanish jazz band, Colina-Serrano Quartet, and in October, as they had done the year before, they invited flamenco group, Tablas Flamencas.
Flamenco consistently attracts large audiences, thus the embassy organised a flamenco event over two days. “Flamenco has evolved from being impromptu entertainment at gatherings of friends and family, to a spectacle for larger audiences and the subject of in-depth university studies,” Fernández-Aguayo said.
The embassy confirmed that, despite their modest budget, there will be more flamenco and other art performances in 2012.
