El paño murciano (1923)

Joaquín Nin - father of the well-known writer Anais Nin and the rather less well-known composer Joaquín Nin-Culmell - was born in Cuba but brought up Barcelona and educated both there and in Paris. In his day he was known as a pianist, as an early advocate of the baroque revival and as an editor of 18th-century Spanish keyboard music and old Spanish song. He turned to composing comparatively late in life, beginning in 1923 with his Cantos populares españoles, arrangements for voice and piano of twenty Spanish folksongs. El paño murciano is a characteristic example of Nin’s enthusiasm for his subject, its dance rhythms in particular. In comparison with the not dissimilar El paño moruno in Falla’s Canciones populares españolas, Nin’s piano part might be slightly overwritten but it is vibrant with guitar sound while the vocal line is well placed for authentic flamenco colouring.