García Lorca and Spanish Music in New York

Abstract

Federico García Lorca visited New York and Cuba at a critical moment (1929–1930) in the performance abroad of modern Spanish music. The Spanish poet enjoyed a privileged view of the New York musical scene. Not only did his visit coincide with the successes of leading Spanish conductors (Fernández Arbós), dancers (La Argentina, La Argentinita) and instrumentalists (José Iturbi, Andrés Segovia, the Aguilar Quintet, among others), the poet's interaction with some of these performers and with the friends with whom he shared his own arrangements of Spanish folk song is bound up with questions of personal and national identity.