Romance (guitar piece)

"Romance Anónimo" (Anonymous Romance) is a piece for guitar, also known as "Estudio en Mi de Rubira" (Study in E by Rubira), "Spanish Romance", "Romance de España", "Romance of the Guitar", "Romanza" and "Romance d'Amour" among other names.

Its authorship is currently in question, and it has variously been attributed to Antonio Rubira, David del Castillo, Francisco Tárrega, Fernando Sor, Daniel Fortea, Miguel Llobet, Vicente Gómez and Narciso Yepes. The Anónimo (anonymous) part of its name has been incorporated over the years due to this uncertainty. The question of authorship has probably been propagated by three main reasons: the lack of claim by its true author, the desire to avoid paying copyright fees, and the desire of publishing companies to claim the lucrative copyright of this world-famous song.

The style of the piece is that of the Parlour music of the late 19th century in Spain, having a closed three-part form: the first in the minor key and the second being in the major key, with the third being a restatement of the first.

Possible origins

Early Published Versions

Antonio Rubira

An early publication of the work, known as "Estudio para Guitarra" de Rovira was published by J.A. MEDINA e HIJO in Argentina in 1913, or — with complete certainty — before 1925 (which is the date when the publisher ceased activities); which is attributed to guitarist Antonio Rubira. Guitarist and composer Isaías Sávio (Montevideo, 1900 — São Paulo, 1977) published information which also cites Antonio Rubira as author (see "Violào e Mestres" Junio, 1966 / Sào Paulo, Brasil.): Sávio gives information that Juan Pargas (who knew Rubira) gave the Estudio de Rovira to the guitarist Juan Valles in 1876 (1878?). Sávio also mentions that the work became popular in Buenos Aires, and began to be published by some, such as Spaniard Pedro Maza, and that the work appears in the method of Mascaro Reissig (published in Montevideo in 1919), on page 14, with the title "Conocido por Estudio de Rovira". Publishing company Ricordi of Argentina currently publishes the piece and attributes authorship to Antonio Rubira.

Manuscripts

The earliest manuscripts of the song documented so far, are from the late 19th century: one attributing authorship to Antonio Rubira; and an unsigned version which shows a note at the bottom stating "Melodia de Sor" (Sor's melody) arguably attributing the piece to Fernando Sor, though the style is vastly different from Sor's work. A noticeable difference between the "early" manuscripts and the famous version of Yepes is the inverted arpeggio. These "originals" have, however, not been conclusively dated by radiocarbon dating and/or been subject to professional graphological scrutiny to determine whether they are in Rubira or Sor's autograph.

A Ukrainian folk song Nich Yaka Misyachna (Beautiful Moonlight) could be a precursor of the song. Although some correlation can be made between Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata (especially the arpeggio), the Romance song and the Ukrainian folk song, little can be explained as to why the folk song has enjoyed such success through Eastern Europe and Russia, while being vastly different from the Spanish/Argentinian song and its different arrangements. Obviously Western music is largely governed by the same harmonic principles and similarities between unrelated original compositions are not only inevitable but ubiquitous.

Unlikely (or disproved) origins

Narciso Yepes (1927 — 1997) interpreted and is listed as the author of the song in René Clément's 1952 film Jeux interdits (Forbidden Games). The popularity of the film gave the song worldwide fame. Yepes currently has the copyright of this composition in Spain although recordings and manuscripts of this song predate 1952. Newer publications show Yepes as the arranger and being of anonymous authorship.

However, the official statement from Narciso Yepes and the Yepes heirs is that the young Narciso originally composed the piece for his mother when he was about seven years old (c. 1934) and soon thereafter performed it between acts at the Teatro Guerra, in Lorca. However, some time later, when Yepes was thirteen years old, he attended a performance in Valencia and heard his composition performed by another guitarist who indicated the authorship as "anonymous". The melody had evidently been plagiarised (but with some changes to the accompaniment) by someone who had attended that first performance.

However, Yepes was born 1927 and cannot be the author of the work, if it was already definitely published before 1925 (possibly 1913) by J.A. MEDINA e HIJO; and in 1919 in the method of Mascaro and Reissig, etc.

Vicente Gomez (1911 - 2001) published it and performed it in 1941 in the Hollywood movie Blood and Sand with Tyrone Power and Rita Hayworth, also attributing authorship of the song to himself.

Other arrangements

• My Chemical Romance included this song on their first album I Brought You My Bullets, You Brought Me Your Love. It is also the only instrumental song by the band.
• Swedish singer Lill Lindfors covered the song as "Du är den ende", with Swedish lyrics by Bo Setterlind, for her 1966 album Du är den ende.

Bibliography

• Herrera, Francisco, Enciclopedia de la Guitarra (Spanish), Piles, Editorial de Música / Valencia, 2004. ISBN 978-84-95026-80-4

External links

• Serenade, Vicente Gomez version in Blood and Sand (1941), YouTube.
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWJfF0XegAw Narciso Yepes explains his authorship of the Romance
• Qué (no) sabemos del Romance ¿Anónimo? by Santiago Porras Álvarez (This web-article is from 27 September 2002 and lacks some information which is given in Francisco Herrera's "Enciclopedia de la Guitarra")