Research carried out by the University of Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM) professor, Hans Christian Hagedorn reveals the deep footprint El Quixote has made on music is not confined to classical music, opera and ballet. It has also had a great significance in popular music and jazz, especially in the last century.
In its latest issue, December 2022, the journal Anales Cervantinos from the Higher Committee of the Spanish Research Council (CSIC) is the article Don Quixote’s Adventures in the World of Jazz: 200 Examples and a Few Remarks. Inside, Hans Christian Hagedorn, expert on Cervantes and in German studies, identifies 200 jazz compositions inspired by this work by Miguel de Cervantes, from 39 countries. Most of the pieces,56 to be specific, come from the United States, followed by France (26), Great Britain (22), Germany (18), Brazil (15) and Italy and Canada (14 and 11 respectively). The researcher stresses the fact that in Spanish jazz only eight compositions inspired by the masterpiece of the most universal Spanish author, have been identified.
Hans Christian Hagedorn, professor at the Faculty of Arts on the Ciudad Real campus, claims this is the “first worldwide work” published on this topic which has “such a broad and quantitative angle” . It also “heralds an authentic discovery”, since until now such a large quantity of jazz compositions inspired by El Quixote was unheard of. "The work published by the CSIC journal changes how we see the influence the great novel from the Spanish Golden Age has had on music and paves the way for future research on the impact classical works from universal literature has had on jazz, the researcher explains.
Some of the big name composers mentioned in the work which stand out are Egberto Gismonti, Tom Harrell, Krzysztof Komeda, Michel Legrand, Vince Mendoza and Kenny Wheeler. As for the list of musicians who participated in the recordings for these pieces,just some of the famous figures from jazz who stand out are Bill Evans, Art Farmer, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Haden, Herbie Hancock, Dave Holland, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Mingus, Oscar Peterson, Wayne Shorter, Horace Silver, Tomasz Stańko and Sonny Stitt.
Finally, one of the most remarkable findings in the study by Hagedorn is the number of jazz suites based on El Quixote, from Windmill Tilter (1969) by Kenny Wheeler and A Song of Don Quixote (1981) by Mitsuaki Kanno to Tom Harrell (2014), Simona Colonna (2018) and Stefano Corradi (2018). Finally, the study gave a new lease of life to great compositions which were never recorded, such as Ouverture pour un Don Quichotte (1929) by Jean Rivier and Chivalrous Misdemeanors (2005) by Ron Westray.
UCLM Communication Office Ciudad Real, 25th of January 2023