Marais, M :: Les Folies d'Espagne

Les Folies d'Espagne

Marais, M

International Music Company presents Marin Marais' Les Folies d'Espagne for solo flute edited by Robert Stallman.

'A composer in the Court of Louis XIV, a student of Lully s and Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe s, Marais was a master bass viol player and a leading composer for that instrument. His Folies d Espagne may be his most important composition, not because it s his best, but because of the historic significance of the 8 bar bass line upon which it is based. The work appeared in 1701 amongst a collection of Marais pieces for one and two viols. His version contained 32 variations each one characterized by a descriptive title. The 'Espagne bass line', one of the oldest remembered European musical fragments, elicited Italian, Spanish, Portuguese and French versions over three centuries. First written down by Lully in the 17th century, the progression was later used by Corelli, Vivaldi, A. Scarlatti, Geminiani and Bach and Handel. In the 19th century Liszt included a version in his Rhapsodie Espagnole and Beethoven briefly quotes from it in the slow movement of his Fifth Symphony. In the 20th century, Rachmaninov uses it in his Corelli Variations. Consequently Folies d Espagne is an important harmonic progression historically comparable to 12 bar blues in its frequency and its effectiveness in stimulating improvisation.

- Ivan Rosenblum