| work: click title for pdf of the score |
Una Lluvia Oscura de Luceros Frios |
| ensemble: | flute, bassoon, piano, and percussion |
| duration: | c.8.5 minutes |
| date composed: | February-March 2001 |
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program notes:
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After being exposed to Lorca’s
picturesque imagery and flowing writing style I was inspired to use his
poem Paisaje as a basis for Una Lluvia Oscura de Luceros
Frios . It was published in a book of his early poetry entitled,
Poem Del Cante Jondo (Poem of the Deep Song). According to Carlos Bauer,
a Lorca scholar, the cante jondo is a conglomerate musical language influenced
by the Spanish Church, Saracen Moors, wandering Gypsies, and native folk
songs. A subsection of the cante jondo is the gypsy siguiriya, an ancient
oriental form of the deep song. Siguiriyas are sung with rising emotion,
mournful wails of anguish and unpredictable silences. Normally, they
are sung with a guitar accompaniment that dwindles out at the end of the
song. In composing Una Lluvia… I took into account the fundamentals of siguiriya as well as the imagery in the poem Paisaje and combined them with my previous influences of contemporary art music to create a blending of cultures. As one listens to the piece, the fluctuating emotions and anguished cries of the deep song are apparent, as well as the 20th century American musical influences of harmonic structures, complex rhythms, and form. |
| performance history: click on date for real audio file |
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