Tune of the Day: Habanera
The habanera (from the Cuban capital Havana, which in Spanish is La Habana), a most popular music genre at the end of the 19th century, originated in Cuba and spread all over the Spanish colonies and subsequently to Europe. Many French musicians composed beautiful habaneras, Saint-Saëns among them.
The famous aria from the opera Carmen by Georges Bizet was adapted from the habanera “El Arreglito”, originally composed by the Spanish musician Sebastián Yradier. Bizet used the melody in the belief that it was a folk song; when he was made aware that it had been written by a composer who had died only ten years earlier, he added a note to the vocal score of Carmen, acknowledging its source.
The piece is based on a descending chromatic scale followed by variants of the same phrase, first in minor and then in major, corresponding with the vicissitudes of love expressed in the lyrics.