Manuel Maria Ponce (1882-1948)

By Jhon Patykula
Manuel Maria Ponce was born in Fresnillo, in the state of Zacatecas,
on December 8, 1882, and raised in the town of Aguascalientes. He
received his earliest musical training from his sister and sang in the
children's choir at the Templo de San Diego. At the age of five,
while he was recovering from the measles, he wrote his first piece
titled The Dance of the Measles. At age twelve, he was appointed
organist at the Cathedral of Aguascalientes and, two years later,
composed a famous Gavotte, which was used in programs all over
the world by the acclaimed dancer La Argentina.
In 1901, Ponce entered the Conservatorio Nacional in Mexico City
and, three years later, went to Europe to study composition with
Enrico Bossi and Dall'Olio in Bologna. In 1906 he traveled to Berlin
to study piano with Martin Krause, who was a disciple of Liszt.
About Martin Krause, the great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau
stated: "All his students were afraid of him." Arrau relates that
Krause's students had to play the preludes and fugues from Bach's
Well-Tempered Clavier in different keys. "In front of all the pupils in
the conservatory, he would test whether one could play in another
key---usually one very far away, not just one tone or one half tone.
He also insisted on having us memorize single voices. Bach in
general was one of the basis of his teaching."
Returning to Mexico in 1908, Ponce was appointed Professor at the
Conservatorio Nacional and began to compose numerous songs and
piano works in a distinctive Mexican style. On July 7, 1912, in the
Teatro Arbeu in Mexico City, he presented a concert of his works,
including his Piano Concerto and the Trio for piano, violin and
cello. These works, according to the distinguished composer Carlos
Chavez, were "the foundation stones of higher Mexican musical
expression" and the concert was considered the beginnings of the
nationalistic movement in music in Mexico. Until this concert, the
efforts toward higher forms of Mexican musical expression could
only be described as "salon music".
In 1914, several of Ponce's songs were published, including
Estrellita, which was to become one of the world's most-loved
melodies. Jascha Heifetz helped make Estrellita widely known with
his arrangement for violin and piano. Many years later, Ponce
dedicated a guitar transcription of this beautiful song to his student,
Jesus Silva. (According to Segovia, Ponce actually composed
Estrellita around 1900, when he was eleven or twelve years old.
Because of a copyright technicality, Ponce never received any
royalties for this song.)
In order to escape the political turmoil of the Mexican revolution
(which included threats not only to Ponce, but that of his students),
Ponce resided in Havana from 1915 to 1917. Here he incorporated
the sultry rhythms of the tropics in several of his compositions. He
also became known to the Cuban people as a composer and pianist
of distinction.
Ponce returned to Mexico City to teach and compose. In 1923,
Ponce, who was also a music critic, wrote a review of the first
concert given by Andres Segovia in Mexico City. The two great
artists later met and a strong friendship developed--- a friendship
which would last until Ponce's death in 1948. At their first meeting,
Segovia encouraged Ponce to write for the guitar. Ponce obliged
with the Allegretto, quasi serenata, which was later to become the
third movement of Sonata Mexicana.
In 1925, at the age of forty-three, Ponce decided to return to Europe
to perfect his contrapuntal and orchestrational techniques. This stay
was to last seven years. He joined the class of Paul Dukas, a close
friend of Debussy, in 1926 at the Ecole Normale de Musique and
absorbed this French master's ideas of free thematic development
and use of orchestral colors. In this same class was the Spanish
composer Joaquin Rodrigo.Ponce applied the knowledge he had
gained to compose an important work, Chapultepec, a symphonic
triptych which combines themes of Mexican inspiration with
Impressionistic orchestration. Other important symphonic works
from this period include Canto y Danza de los Antiguos Mexicanos,
Poema Elegiaco, and Tres Cantos de Tagore, for voice and
orchestra, dedicated to his wife, the French singer Clema Ponce.
Dukas was so impressed with Ponce's work that he gave him a "30"
at his final exam; the highest grade one could get was a "10".
While in Paris, Ponce wrote many important works for the guitar,
including several sonatas, preludes, suites, and variations. Most of
these works were dedicated to Segovia, who would champion his
music. Ponce was the first important Mexican composer to write for
the guitar, and he inspired other Mexican composers to follow in his
steps, including Carlos Chavez, Bernal Jimenez, Jesus Estrada, Luis
Sandi, and Jesus Silva. And although the Italian Mario Castelnuovo-
Tedesco (1895-1968) was the first twentieth century composer to
write a guitar concerto, Ponce was the first to conceive of the idea,
his earliest sketches being made in 1926 in Paris. The Concierto del
Sur was finally completed in 1941, the premiere taking place on
October 4 in Montevideo with Segovia as soloist and Ponce
conducting.
While in Paris, Ponce also edited an important magazine published
in Spanish, the Musical Gazette (1927-28), that helped in promoting
the music of Latin America.
Ponce returned to Mexico in 1933, teaching folklore at the
Universidad Nacional Autonoma and harmony and aesthetics at the
Nacional Conservatory. An important work from this period was
Ferial (1940), a symphonic divertisement depicting a popular
Mexican festival and using actual folk material and the imitation of
the chirimia, a Mexican woodwind instrument. His Violin Concerto
(1943) was dedicated to the Polish violinist Henryck Szeryng and is
noted for its neo-classic traits, Impressionistic orchestration, and
counterpoint. Of special interest is the use of fragments of the song
Estrellita in the second movement.
Ponce also continued to write for the guitar. His Seis Preludios
Cortos were composed for the daughter of Carlos Chavez, who was
studying guitar at that time.. His Dos Vinetas for guitar, dedicated to
Jesus Silva, are believed to be the last compositions before his death
on April 24, 1948.
Ponce's output and influence as a composer was enormous, and the
many elements of his style are worth further discussion. In many of
his early works, especially his songs and piano compositions, there
is a strong Romantic influence. The Piano Concerto shows his
admiration for the music of Chopin, while the Sonata Romantica for
guitar honors the memory of Franz Schubert. Ponce took the
European forms of the ballade, rhapsody, and waltz, and, with the
use of Mexican-inspired themes, created a more nationalistic art.
The folk music of Mexico, especially the mestizo music, was an
important element in many of Ponce's works. Ponce was a folklorist
who collected and arranged numerous folk songs. His use of these
songs and original themes in the Mexican style helped free future
Mexican composers from the excessive domination of European
music. The nationalist feeling is obvious in several of his guitar
works, including Tres canciones populares mexicanas and in the
third movement of his beautiful Concierto del Sur.
Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), who met Ponce in Paris in the
1920's, wrote: "I remember that I asked him at that time if the
composers of his country were as yet taking an interest in native
music, as I had been doing since 1912, and he answered that he
himself had been working in that direction. It gave me great joy to
learn that in that distant part of my continent there was another
artist who was arming himself with the resources of the folklore of
his people in the struggle for the future musical independence of his
country."
The use of counterpoint is abundant in many of Ponce's
compositions, including several of his guitar works. In his
Variations sur "Folia de Espana" et Fugue, there is not only a
complete fugue with stretto, but also a pure canon (variation XIII).
Ponce had the ability to improvise at the keyboard preludes and
fugues in the style of Bach. The usage of polyphonic music in
Mexico goes back to the Colonial times when sacred works of the
Spanish and Italian masters were prevalent. Even to this day, the
children's choirs of the many cathedrals of Mexico have preserved
the tradition of great Renaissance and Baroque sacred music.
Ponce embraced the sounds and ideas of the Impressionists,
especially in his later works. It was Ponce who first introduced the
music of Debussy to audiences in Mexico. Ponce's piano students
were the first to give the first known complete recital of Debussy's
music. Because of his studies with Paul Dukas in Paris, his
compositions contained a more frequent use of dissonant harmonies,
tonal instability, chromaticism, a more profuse use of counterpoint, a
spontaneity in the development of themes, and, in his symphonic
works, a mastery of orchestrational techniques. The Impressionistic
influence can be heard in several of his guitar works, including
Sonata III, the Sonata for Guitar and Harpsichord, and the
Preludes.

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In the book "Maestro Segovia" by Graham Wade, Andres Segovia

states that: "Ponce is the greatest for the guitar, melodically,
harmonically, and musically. You know, in Ponce everything is
magnificent for the guitar, melody, poetry, everything...."
In an interview for Guitar Review, Jesus Silva discussed the music
of Ponce. He comments: "Ponce is very gentle and his musical
imagination is really special....great inspiration. Most of the time he
gives peace. It is a kind of gentle music that gives you peace and
hope; you can also feel very moved. It is nothing violent. It's strong
because it's subtle. It has that power.It goes deep into the performer
and the audience."
The music of Manuel M. Ponce offers a repertoire of ingenious
imagination and genuine beauty. For the guitarists, Ponce's
realization of the full potentials of the guitar and his use of various
compositional techniques result in a continuous and spontaneous
flow of inspired ideas. Like the masterpieces of Bach, Beethoven,
Debussy, and the other great masters, the compositions of Manuel
M. Ponce are balanced and logical works of art, whose details reveal
a perfection in music for all to admire.
Sources for this article include:
Guitar Review. Vladimir Bobri, editor. Vol. 7 (1948).
Horowitz, Joseph. Coversations with Arrau. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1982.
Mayer-Serra, Otto. The Present State of Music in Mexico. Washington, D.C.:
General Secretariat of the Organization of American States, 1977 (reprint of 1946
edition).
Moncada Garcia, Francisco. Grandes Musicos Mexicanos. Mexico, D.F.: Editiones
Framong, 1966.
Music of Latin America. No author given. Washington, D.C.: General Secretariat of
the Organization of American States, 1979 (reprint of 1942 edition).
Otero, Corazon. Manuel M. Ponce Y La Guitarra. Mexico City: Fondo Nacional
para Actividades Sociales, 1981.
Slonimsky, Nicholas. Music of Latin America. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.,
Inc., 1945.
Wade, Graham. Maestro Segovia. London: Robson Books Ltd., 1986.