From Scarlatti, (Clark, 1976), to Bartók, (Suchoff, 1971), classical composers have turned to traditional music for creative stimulus. However, there has been little evaluation of the interrelatedness of these genres with current performative approaches privileging composer and score over folk origin (Onderdonk, 2007). This study interrogates the extent to which ‘art music’ and ‘folk music’ are made meaningful only in relation to one another (Gelbart, 2007), through the lens of the Galician dance of the muiñeira, posing the question: What are the performative and compositional interrelationships between classical and folk traditions? Using the muiñeiras of violinist-composers Manuel Quiroga, Pablo Sarasate and Andres Gaos as case studies, alongside orally transmitted equivalents, this practice-led PhD will offer the first extensive investigation of the classical muiñeira and re-evaluate the links between classical and traditional music.
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