The Dolmetsches and Spanish Musical Repertoire in the Haslemere Festival, 1925-1939

Abstract

In 1925 Arnold Dolmetsch (1858-1940) founded an annual festival in Haslemere, Surrey (England), which presented musical repertoire from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries on instruments (mostly replicas) of the period. In the first fifteen festivals, until the death of Dolmetsch, the majority of works presented dated from the years c. 1530-c. 1750. However, some programmes included earlier works, from the Middle Ages, and works as modern as the first pianoforte concerto by Ludwig van Beethoven (1795-1800). Besides popular repertoire by English, French, German, and Italian musicians (such as Purcell, Handel, Rameau, J. S. Bach, and Corelli), there was a Spanish presence in the festival with works by composers including Luis Milán, Antonio de Cabezón, Tomás de Santa María, Juan Vázquez, Luis de Narváez, Diego Pisador and Enríquez de Valderrábano. Occasionally some Cantigas de Santa María and anonymous works of Spanish dance music were performed. Moreover, the programmes of 1937-1939 show that Arnold Dolmetsch and Diana Poulton played a vihuela. This article examines the history of programming and performance of Spanish repertoire in the first fifteen Haslemere festivals, drawing on documentation in the archives of the Jeanne-Marie Dolmetsch Collection in Cambridge University Library and the Archivo Zayas, Seville.