Nana – an Andalusian lullaby
And then came Nana, one of the most beautiful lullabies ever written. Heard from the composer by his own mother when he was a child, Nana is an Andalusian song, as tender and soothing in the words as it is sad in the melody.
The piano sets of the cradling movement intertwining the rhythms between left and right hand:
Harmonically, the interesting thing here is use of the phrygian dominant scale…
…alternated with the A minor natural scale throughout the piece. This shifting between the two scales creates a constant sense of unsettledness, accentuating the wandering movement of the cradle and, consequently, the piece does not end resolving on A minor, but floats in the air with a B natural and an E in the bass, the open fifth of the E scale.
The voice line adds melismas at the end of each phrase, thus stressing the Spanish musical idiom. Notice how the composer writes ‘mormorato’ for the voice: a whisper, to which a few bars later a diminuendo is added. The song begins pianissimo (pp) and ends even more piano (ppp), in a very linear A-A1 structure. Only the second time around there’s a small crescendo to a mf, but it is toned down immediately, gradually soothing the child into sleep and leaving the mother carrying the weight of her own fears.
Here’s the link to Conchita Supervia’s performance.
Lyrics
Duérmete, niño, duerme,
Duerme mi alma,
Duérmete, lucerito
De la mañana.
Nanintu nana
Sleep, child, sleep,
Sleep, my soul,
Sleep, little ray
Of morning light.
Lulla, lullaby
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