jules massanet "castillane"

this movement comes from a larger work called "le cid" composed by jules massanet. i'd never heard of him until tonight, but i must admit, i do enjoy his style. this piece is on his "spanish festivals" cd, which is obvious from the first tutti note of the piece. the first note is immediaetly followed by the clicking of casanets. listening to this peice, i like to imagine flamanco dancers in bright colored dresses, but when i open my eyes i realize that i'm in greencastle and it's winter. the melody begins softly in the flute section with and a light bass arpeggiation. after about 8 bars, the strings come in, changing the whole attitude of the piece...it becomes untameable and wild with lots of scalar runs. the bass line becomes more prominent, too, almost drone like. the main melody first heard by the flutes becomes a little bit meatier than before and builds up to another loud section. this piece is kind of schizophrenic, suddenly changing from a light, bouncy melodic section to a rough and biting one. phrases tend to end in half and perfect authentic cadences.