With the completion of Volume 3 of Canciones de España: Songs of Nineteenth-Century Spain, 83 songs by 50 19th-century Spanish composers are now available for performance and study, in both high and low voice editions. This final volume presents 31 newly published canciones by 18 composers such as José León, Antonio Mercé Fondevila, Lázaro Núñez Robres, Antonio Reparaz, Gabriel Rodríguez, and Joaquín Valverde.
These songs represent the gems of the repertoire, providing examples of song types typical of the period, including the canción andaluza, the canción española, the balada Árabe, the bolero, the habanera, the canzoneta, and the seguidilla. A number of songs included had previously been available only in manuscript form and long forgotten in the depths of the world's greatest libraries. Here, they are made available and accessible through discussions of 19th-century politics and Spanish song style, a thorough pronunciation guide to Castilian Spanish, both word-for-word and idiomatic translations, and International Phonetic Alphabet transcriptions. Short biographies of each composer add insight to the compositions.
Rounding out the anthology, this final volume includes appendixes that list all 83 songs by level of difficulty and by gender. This anthology allows singers and voice teachers to explore the poetry, culture, and history of Spain through its songs, demonstrating that the songs deserve their rightful place in the classical song repertoire of Europe and the Americas.
