| Enrique Arbos's five orchestrations of pieces from Iberia, the masterly piano work by his close friend, Isaac Albeniz, are among the most frequently programmed works in the Spanish orchestral repertoire today. Increased academic interest in Albeniz's orchestral output has revealed that Arbos's orchestration of Albeniz's piano solo, "El Puerto," from Iberia, bears striking similarities with Albeniz's unpublished orchestration of the same piece. Although Albeniz asked Arbos to take over the task of orchestrating "El Puerto," little is known about the details of this arrangement. To shed light on this issue, I have carefully reviewed the overlapping biographies of these two composers, as well as thoroughly analyzed the two scores for the first time. I conclude that Arbos's orchestration of "El Puerto" is indeed a revision of Albeniz's orchestration, and that this revision was a natural result of their close relationship. |
