Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh

Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh (1847-1905). Composer and pianist. One of the most important Cuban musicians of the nineteenth century.

He was born in La Habana. His father provided him with his first music instruction: solfège, music theory, and basic piano, which he later continued to study with Juan Miguel Joval. In 1850 he began studying with the Havana composer and pianist Nicolás Ruiz Espadero, who had him review the works of Cramer, Moscheles, Clementi, Bach, Mozart, and Von Henselt before introducing him to the Romantic composers. In 1865 he concluded his classes with Espadero, and in the middle of that year he moved with his father to Paris, where he was admitted to the piano class of Antoine François Marmontel and the solfège class of Napoleón Alkán. On July 23, 1866, in a competition held at the Conservatorio de París, with a jury made up of Charles Gounod and Daniel François Auber, Cervantes won a First Special Prize. This prize opened the doors to the home of Italian composer Gioacchino Rossini, where he accompanied French artists Joseph Victor Capoul, tenor, and Jean Baptiste Fauré, baritone, as well as Swedish soprano Christine Nilsson and Italian bass Antonio Tamburini.

As an orchestra conductor, Cervantes offered concerts in 1867 at the Salle Erard, the Herz, and in Saint Cloud, where he conducted a mass by Rossini. That same year he made a brief concert tour to Madrid. On July 16, 1868 he won prizes in harmony, fugue, and counterpoint at the Conservatorio de París. Now in possession of solid knowledge and with work that demonstrated his abilities as a composer, Cervantes aspired to the Rome Prize, but as a foreigner he was not admitted.

In 1869, and after a brief stay in Madrid, he undertook a journey to Cuba, where he arrived on January 6, 1870. He devoted himself to teaching and giving concerts, in which he performed the Pathétique and Appassionata sonatas by Ludwig van Beethoven; preludes and fugues by Bach, as well as works by Franz Liszt, Félix Mendelssohn, and Federico Chopin. In 1875 Cervantes, who was giving concerts with violinist José White to raise funds for Cuba's struggle for independence, was expelled from the island along with White. Both decided to travel to the United States, and there they performed at the Sociedad para la Cultura Armónica, founded in that country by Luis Alejandro Baralt. In Nueva York Cervantes composed three dances for four hands: Los muñecos, Los delirios de Rosita, and La camagüeyana.

In 1879 he returned to Cuba and resumed his work as a teacher and concert performer. He played at the Liceo de Guanabacoa, the Círculo Habanero, and La Caridad del Cerro.

On July 18, 1887, the Círculo Habanero offered a concert-tribute to Ignacio Cervantes, in which Dr. José María de Céspedes, president of the Literature Section, gave an overview of the composer's life and work; at this concert-tribute were performed Symphony No. 1 for large orchestra; La Traviata by Verdi, in a transcription for piano by Cervantes, as well as works by the latter including Serenata cubana, Entre-acto caprichoso for piano and strings; Scherzo for orchestra; Hectograph, waltz; in addition to the Tarantella by American pianist and composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk, arranged for four pianos, string quartet, horn, and flute that accompanied the orchestra of the Sociedad de Conciertos, directed by Modesto Julián.

On October 26, 1889, the Palau company premiered his zarzuela Exposición o El submarino Peral. In January 1891 Cervantes conducted the orchestra of an opera company performing at the teatro Payret, founded by impresario Antonio Aramburo and tenor Andrés Antón. In February of the same year he offered a concert with violinist Rafael Díaz-Albertini at the teatro Tacón; and in June they traveled to Mexico, where they performed on the 26th at the Teatro Nacional, accompanied by the orchestra of the Conservatorio Nacional, conducted by José Rivas. From Mexico, Díaz-Albertini and Cervantes went to the United States, where they offered a recital on May 5, 1892, in Ibor City, Tampa, in which they performed works by Henri Vieuxtemps; Fausto, waltz, transcription by Liszt; Roberto el Diablo by Delfín Alard; Danza macabra by Saint-Saëns; Marcha fúnebre de una marioneta by Charles Gounod; and Pasquinade by Gottschalk. Upon returning to Cuba, in December 1892 a concert in Cervantes' benefit was held at the teatro Tacón. In 1893 he appeared with Díaz-Albertini in the salon of Anselmo López. In 1899 Cervantes organized a music festival at the teatro Tacón; on December 1st of the same year he conducted his Symphony in C minor and the zarzuela Niña Pancha by Valverde, also at the Tacón.

In January 1902 he traveled to the United States to represent Cuba at the Charleston exposition, South Carolina. In that city he performed at the Hibernian Hall a program with works by Liszt, Robert Schumann, Adolf von Henselt, Juan Sebastián Bach, and Chopin. He subsequently performed in Georgia, Washington, Philadelphia, and Nueva York. Back in Cuba, he performed publicly for the last time in June 1902. He died in La Habana on April 29, 1905.

Ignacio Cervantes Kawanagh was the most important musician of the nineteenth-century Cuban age. It is possible that others surpassed him in terms of volume of production. But no one could stand higher than he in what refers to the solidity of his craft, to an innate good taste—distinction in ideas, elegance in style, proper tone—that manifested itself, even in his minor works. Even when he "arranged" another's contradanza to satisfy the demand of a publisher, he filled it with very fine harmonic strokes that ennobled it. Ignacio Cervantes was also, and we must not forget this, the first Cuban composer who handled the orchestra with a modern sense of the métier. The Scherzo capriccioso (1886) is a small masterpiece of refinement and good taste. In character, it is not far from the "Scherzo" from El sueño de una noche de verano by Félix Mendelssohn, and is, without a doubt, the best-orchestrated score of the entire nineteenth-century Cuban age. Of an extremely elaborate craftsmanship, always speculating with the most delicate timbres of the orchestra, this Scherzo never needs the excuse of a date to justify its existence. Cervantes' Scherzo capriccioso is, above all, good music.

Ignacio Cervantes—if we want to momentarily forget the success that his Scherzo represents—was particularly gifted at speaking the language of his island. Hence his famous piano dances constitute the most authentic expression of his temperament. Like certain Norwegian, Spanish, and Slavic musicians, Cervantes always ended up returning to the accent of the homeland to find in it his deepest truth, even when he aspired to express himself in a language free of localisms. Cervantes' nationalist work—the work that centers on his dances, with an Intermezzo for orchestra, and some compositions for piano of lesser importance—does not depart from a tradition already established in Cuba through the production of Manuel Saumell and the minor contradanza composers, always faithful to classical writing procedures. If Cervantes took anything from Romanticism, it was a certain Chopin-like air that manifests itself in some of his dances. And that Chopin is the one of the simpler Mazurkas; never the one of the Scherzos or the great Polonaises. His piano work—the cleanest-crafted that a Cuban composer has given us—leaves no room for displays of virtuosity. Despite his love for Chopin—a love often apparent in his harmonic climate, if not quite in the type of writing—very little of the Romantic spirit is reflected in him when he writes a Cuban page.

Principal Works

Piano Dances

Soledad, 1857 (originally titled La solitaria).

Almendares

La celosa

La encantadora

El velorio

No me toques

Un recuerdo, 1875.

Adiós a Cuba

Amistad

Cri-crí

Decisión

Duchas frías

Improvisada

La guitarra

Mensaje

¡No bailes más!

Picotazos

¡Pst!

Tiene que ser

Zigs-zags, 1876.

Ilusiones perdidas

Los tres golpes

Se fue y no vuelve más

Siempre sí, 1878.

¡Amén!

Cortesana

Gran señor

Homenaje

Íntima

Interrumpida

Invitación

La camagüeyana

La carcajada

¡Lejos de ti!

Los delirios de Rosita

Los muñecos

No llores más

¿Por qué, eh?

¡Te quiero tanto!

Chamber Music

Entreacto caprichoso for string quintet, piano, and harmonium, 1887.

Scherzo in F minor for violin, viola, and cello.

Romanzas for cello and piano.

Symphonic Works

Symphony in C minor, 1879

Scherzo capriccioso, 1886

Hectograph, waltz, 1887

La paloma, waltz.

Other Styles for Piano

Adelina (dedicated to Adelina Patti)

Anhelos, waltz-caprice

Chinchín (dedicated to his daughter María Cervantes)

El Fígaro (dedicated to the magazine of the same name)

Grand brilliant waltz in E flat

Grand potpourri of national airs

Guide moi

Idea fija

Les Guides

Mazurka No. 1 in F sharp minor

Mazurka No. 2 in B major*

Pasodoble

Elegant Polka

Rappel-toi

Serenata cubana

Theater

Exposición o El submarino Peral, zarzuela in two acts and four scenes, 1889.

Maledetto, lyric drama in three acts, libretto: F. Da Costa.

Los saltimbanquis, comic opera in two acts and five scenes, libretto: Carlos Ciaño, in prose and verse, based on a French novel, 1899.

Voice and Piano

Barcarola for children's voices

Canto a un desterrado, text: Miguel Teurbe Tolón.

Himno a Cuba, 1889, text: Lola Rodríguez de Tió.

La invasión, text: Francisco Sellén

La tumba del patriota, hymn, text: J. C. Vidal.

Six school songs; text: Nicolás Heredia.

Señor, salvad a la República, prayer, text: L. Marrero Valdés.