José Luis Turina, compositor, musicólogo y pedagogo / José Luis Turina, composer, musicologist, and educator

By José Antonio Llorente

Interview published in the magazine Escritura Pública, May-June 2020



"JONDE, without saying it is better than the top professional orchestras, has nothing to envy them".


The Madrid-born José Luis Turina, composer, musicologist, educator, and lecturer like his grandfather Joaquín -a key figure in Musical Nationalism alongside Falla and Esplá-, after his teaching career and setting the musical foundations of the LOGSE (General Organic Law of the Education System), has led the Spanish National Youth Orchestra (JONDE) until his recent retirement. Today, he spends his time composing and organizing his works, ranging from small youthful pieces to large-scale compositions, such as his opera D.Q., which premiered 20 years ago at the Liceu in Barcelona in a dazzling production by La Fura dels Baus.


- You are noted as the person who has led JONDE for the longest time. Did you enjoy this long period?
- Very much. I consider myself fortunate. It has been a very beautiful job, where I have enjoyed everything I have done. Although it hasn’t been diagnosed, I must be bipolar, as in some way, many of us are. I say this because, while my vocation is composing, I have always loved teaching, which has been my livelihood.

- JONDE is a great vantage point to observe the moment for new generations of musicians.
- A wonderful observatory, seeing students arrive year after year, for 19 years, from all the major conservatories in the country. Observing which ones work well and which do not; where there is a better response to the new requirements of higher education, which had to be lifted from the void it was in and brought up to the level of what was happening, if not worldwide, at least in that Europe to which we had belonged for a few years.

- At what point did you leave it?
- When I arrived, I was part of the panels selecting Spanish musicians for the two main youth ensembles in Europe -the European Union Youth Orchestra and the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra-, and, at best, two or three participated. Today, Spain is not only the country with the most participants attending these auditions but also the one with the most people selected to be part of these two very important orchestras. Between a fifth and a quarter of their members come from here. The change has been significant, and it proves that we have not done too badly. It has been very gratifying to see this firsthand in JONDE, which, without saying it is better than the top professional orchestras, has nothing to envy them.

- "What's in a name?" writes Shakespeare. Does the surname Turina carry a special character?
- Especially if it's your first surname. I am very proud to be the grandson of who I am, and of my surname, which has opened many doors for me. However, at times it has also been a heavy burden. Due to my grandfather's music -whom I consider an excellent composer- I've been "busting my chops" since I started my musical career. In the early 1980s, his opera Jardín de Oriente was scheduled to be performed at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, but since the score was missed, I committed myself to reconstruct it using the orchestral materials kept by the SGAE (General Society of Authors and Publishers). For three months, I practically did nothing else. Since there were no computers or editing programs like today, I had to hand-copy that pile of orchestral parts, almost a meter and a half high, until I completed a nearly 200-page score. It was an impressive job, but I learned a lot. Since then, I've always had some of my grandfather's works in my hands: completing the orchestration of Poema de una Sanluqueña, of which he had only finished the first two numbers; the critical edition of the First Sonata ("Española") for violin and piano, which went out of print; and for La Oración del Torero I have made about six versions for different ensembles as requested. A year ago, the Azahar Ensemble released an album with my arrangements for wind quintet of his piano works, proving that being Turina's grandson brings with it a responsibility for the surname.

- So much work on his legacy could have influenced your own work.
- I don't think you can detect traces of my grandfather in my writing. If I had been born a few years earlier, perhaps. But it was more difficult with the distance and the training I acquired after studying under García Abril, Rodolfo Halffter, and Bernaola, and attending Donatoni's classes in Italy. Without such a radical change in aesthetics from the first quarter of the 20th century to the last, perhaps I might have been more directly influenced, but the stylistic change was enormous.

- Now that no one seems to talk about generations or schools, do you see yourself as part of any?
- As I came to composition quite late, I never felt the need to align myself with any particular movement. JONDE students are between 18 and 24 years old, because they are pursuing higher education. I started studying music at 18. I enrolled at the University of Philosophy and Letters in Barcelona, where I lived, and since I was very passionate about music, which I had discovered in the high school choir, I decided to study simultaneously at the Municipal Conservatory on Bruch Street. Three months later, I had left Philosophy to devote myself entirely to music, fast-tracking to make up for lost time, as I was ten years behind the children who were studying with me. I completed two courses each year, taking official exams in June and free ones in September. I finished solfège in two years, as well as harmony. I completed my composition studies more or less at the same age as my peers at the Madrid Conservatory, like José Ramón Encinar, Paco Guerrero, or Alfredo Aracil, who had been composing for a long time. I, who started writing music at 28 or 29, did not feel part of their generation, even though we were contemporaries.

- Nor of the younger generation, who started composing at 20 or 21, when you were 30...
- ...that's why I've always felt like a kind of lone wolf, not belonging here or there, always going my own way. This, combined with the fact that I soon had a job with a fixed monthly salary, allowed me to compose whatever I wanted without having to align myself with anyone. The same as my father, a magnificent painter who, having mastered an unimaginable variety of styles to perfection, had to support a wife and five children, so he did not focus on his painting, convinced he could not make a living from it. Having financial stability as a civil servant freed us from the need to sell paintings -for him-, and for me, to compose on commission. The difference is that I have moved to ensure my music is performed.

- How do you respond to commissions? Has any given you special satisfaction?
- Many. D.Q., of course, was the most important, and the Violin Concerto for its significance. But two others -one scenic and the other semi-scenic- brought me special joy: La raya en el agua, which inaugurated the Fernando de Rojas Hall at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid in 1996 and earned me the National Music Award. The other was a commission from ORCAM (Madrid Community Orchestra) in 2008 for a concert-projection at the Teatro de la Zarzuela, and I wrote Tour de Manivelle, for five short films by the early 20th-century Spanish filmmaker Segundo de Chomón. I enjoyed both of these commissions immensely.

- The French composer Henri Dutilleux highlighted your taste for well-crafted work. Tomás Marco noted your artisanal approach. Are you a slow creator?
- Of course! I don’t work particularly fast because I can't dedicate more than an hour and a half or two a day to the actual act of composing. The concentration required is so intense that eventually, I lose it and have to leave it for the next day. The rest of my productive hours are devoted to other tasks related to my profession, like copying music, reviewing previous scores, or updating my website. Despite this, a piece of about twelve minutes, depending on what it's written for -a duo, trio, or quartet- can take me between a month and a month and a half to complete. I was only forced to break that rhythm and work up to eight hours a day, creatively speaking, with the opera D.Q., as I had to coordinate with the librettist. That was the only time. We worked against the clock for two years, because we had to meet the deadline no matter what. I couldn't afford vacations, weekends, or anything. I remember it as an exhausting, long period. In the end, it turned out much better than I expected. It was received quite unevenly, but it was a great experience.

- "In difficult times", as Bertolt Brecht said, "songs will be sung about difficult times". Could a moment like the one marked by the pandemic be inspiring, creatively speaking?
- I believe so. Difficulties stimulate creativity. And a moment as terrible as this one can be a very enriching source of artistic expression. In my specific case, like anyone who does most of their work in the solitude of their home, studio, or office, this does not disturb me much in that regard because, in any case, I need to be isolated to compose. However, one thing is to choose it voluntarily, and another is to be confined by force.

- Have you written anything during these days?
- In the first few weeks, I finished a piece that I had started at the beginning of March. It was commissioned by Concerto Málaga through Maestro Serebrier for a CD in tribute to Manuel de Falla. Since they did not require the music to be directly related to him, I connected it more with García Lorca. It is titled Dos sonetos del amor oscuro (Two Sonnets of Dark Love). And then, speaking of my grandfather, my latest piece, still fresh, which I’m currently working on, is an arrangement for a small chamber group of the second movement of his Sinfonía sevillana, for a program related to the Guadalquivir River, scheduled to premiere in October in Santander.


Where to find him

Beyond the seclusion that his work demands, following the inspiration that Nature provided in his father's painting and that nurtured his grandfather's love for photography, if the weather permits and the situation allows, you might find José Luis Turina in a park in Madrid, jotting down notes in a notebook, which will turn into musical notes on the staff paper and, eventually, will expand his body of work, available at www.joseluisturina.com.