La Violetera

La Violetera – a new arrangement for piano and string trio, of a classic song from the 1910s, “La Violetera”. Originally written for Spanish cabaret singers, the original form was a habanera. It was quickly morphed into a Tango style, which is what I based my arrangement on since, for me, it captures so well the feeling of this timeless piece.

MUSIC INSIGHTS:

Like many people, I first heard this piece of music in Charlie Chaplin’s classic film, “City Lights”. Chaplin chose the music as the music for his female lead, a blind flower seller who encounters him and mistakes his tramp character for a well-to-do gentleman. Chaplin chose the music for its delicate and touching themes – she is a happy character making a simple living in the world. She is shown enjoying what she has, though like us all, she dreams of more. Of course, the plot develops and to know more you need to watch the film – no spoilers here!

The surprising thing about this film is that it was actually a sound picture. Chaplin did not believe in “talking pictures” as he felt his character, the Little Tramp, could never speak. So when he made this film, he recorded a music track in place of dialog.

The music is much older than the 1931 film. It was written in 1914 by Spanish composer José Padilla while he was working in Paris. It’s lyrics are by Eduardo Montesinos. The final work was premiered in Barcelona and later popularized by Spanish singer Raquel Meller, who Chaplin failed to retain for his later film – hence it is an instrumental arrangement in his film. Padilla was also uncredited and successfully took Chaplin to court for royalties ...

La Violetera has been performed by a broad spectrum of artists, including French singer Dalida, Greek singer Nana Mouskouri, American singer Barbara Streisand, to name a few. It has also been featured in several other films.

I have played the themes from this music literally for decades, often late at night when the world is asleep around me and I have been in the mood, after a long day, to travel where the music takes me. Thus, I assembled the various themes and improvisations over a long time – a lifetime. When I recorded it recently, I also decided to provide an accompaniment for the first time:

What you hear is a piano soloing in front of a string trio – viola, cello and double bass. My apologies to violinists for their exclusion: the piano stood its ground well enough alone in terms of the melody. The viola and cello were already enough accompaniment with the double bass providing the deep grounding for the piano. Hence, I had no easy way to include a violin – and I trust my father will forgive me as he was quite the violinist.

It is a fun, delicate piece to play and requires a steady calm beat to ensure it is not overplayed in the ears of the audience. The music is hopeful in a tentative way. So are the lyrics – which are concerned with a flower seller trying hard to sell her wares to someone who is aware that her eyes simply burn into him and so he must buy a flower for his buttonhole. It is a story of two people meeting by chance in the street and yet recognizing the goodness of each other, plus knowing that in that one simple transaction they became more than they each were separately.

Hope, happiness, satisfaction, beauty, connection and love– all things we need in this world, particularly at the moment, and all things I heard in the music’s themes as I arranged them into this track.

VIDEO INSIGHTS:

For the video segment this time I decided to do something I’ve not done before: I used someone else’s work. How could it be otherwise when Mr. Chaplin created such a wonderful film? Of course, I could not score his entire film but, as you will see, I have captured much of its essence with but a few scenes.

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This performance of La Violetera was created and recorded in Seattle on a Nord Piano 3 in September 2020. Ableton Live 10 was used for post processing and for the final mix. At some time in the future it will be released for streaming.

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