Feast (Text adapted from Dante’s Inferno)
Siete Canciones Populares Españolas (Seven Spanish Folk Songs) (arr. Ana García, 2014)
Aris Antoniades (b. 1991)
The Ritual is a fantasia based on Greek folk rhythms and idioms. The piece tries to musically depict the experience of a traveler who witnesses a pagan ritual. The strange ceremony takes place around a bonfire at a cold and distant mountain settlement. Masked people burst into a frenzy of dance and ecstatic priests pray to their gods. As the ritual progresses, the traveler’s mind becomes misty. Soon he transcends reality and enters a strange world—a world of dreams, a world of fantasy. There he discovers hidden spiritual treasures that will change his life forever. Finally, his spirit gets pulled back into his body while the natives continue their dance and end the ritual. The piece combines heterophonic dance elements (representing the secular part of the ritual) with strict contrapuntal writing, including a double canon (representing transcendence and the spiritual world).
Alberto Ginastera / Fernán Silva Valdés
Carlos Guastavino / León Benarós
Gustavo Leguizamón
These songs were created by three important composers from Argentina: Ginastera, who also wrote operas and ballets; Guastavino, known as the “Argentinean Schumann”; and Gustavo Leguizamón, one of the most important composers of popular music.
En mis pagos hay un árbol
Que del olvido se llama
Al que van a despenarse,
Vidalitay,
Los moribundos del
alma.
Para no pensar en vos
Bajo el árbol del olvido
Me acosté una nochecita,
Y me quedé bien dormido.
Al despertar de aquel sueño
Pensaba en vos otra vez
Pues me olvidé de olvidarte,
En cuantito me acosté
In my neighborhood there is a tree
that’s called the tree of forgetting,
to which to lay down their troubles,
Vidalitay, go those whose souls are
dying.
So that I would no longer think of you
under the tree of forgetting
I lay down one evening,
And I fell fast asleep.
When I awoke from that dream
I thought of you once again,
Because I forgot to forget you,
As soon as I lay down.
ꜟQué linda la Madreselva!
Parece un labio que besa.
Pregona con sus dulzores,
La primavera que empieza.
¡Ay Madreselva!
No creas promesas del
picaflor
Que ya olvidó tus amores,
Que se llevó tus dulzores…
ꜟQué lindo cuando en las tardes! Difunde tanta dulzura
Aroma de verde cerco
De la madreselva pura…
How lovely is the honeysuckle!
It seems like lips kissing.
With its sweetness it proclaims
The beginning of spring.
Oh Honeysuckle!
Don’t believe the promises of the
hummingbird
That forgot your love
That took your sweetness…
How lovely in the afternoon!
It spreads so much sweetness.
Scent of green halo
Of the pure honeysuckle…
Pregúntale a las estrellas
Si por las noches me ven llorar.
Pregúntale sí no busco
Para quererte la soledad.
Pregúntale al manso río
Si al llanto mío, lo ve correr.
Pregúntale a todo el mundo
Si no es profundo, mi padecer.
Nunca te olvides que yo te quiero
Y que me muero de amor por ti.
A nadie quieras en esta tierra
A nadie quieras tan sólo
a mí.
Ask the stars
If at night they see me mourn.
Ask them if I am not looking for
The solitude to love you.
Ask the gentle river
If my tears will make it race.
Ask the whole world
If my suffering is not deep.
Never forget that I love you
And that I die of love for you.
Don´t love anyone else
On this earth don´t love anyone else
But me.
Ciarán Farrell
The Shannon Suite is one of the first pieces written by Irish composer Ciarán Farrell and was originally recorded by John Feeley. The Shannon is Ireland’s longest river and has three lakes: Lough Allen, Lough Ree, and Lough Derg. The Lough Allen movement has distinct Irish features such as the rhythmic strumming and modal melodies. The flowing harmonics that feature prominently throughout the work represent the moving water.
Rebecca E. Smith
(Text adapted from Dante’s Inferno)
Introduction
Dreamer
Moon
Weeds
Mastery
Feast is a suite for Pierrot ensemble inspired by the sculpture Ugolino and His sons by French artist Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux, currently at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Pisan count Ugolino della Gherardesca, condemned to die of starvation, yields to the temptation to devour his children and grandchildren who cry out to him. This suite adapts the text from Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, Canto 33, of The Divine Comedy, setting it in a way that plays with the idea of empathy in the face of horror.
A narrow puncture in the mew,
whence from me is named the Famine Tower,
and in which others will still be locked,
Has shown me moon after moon after moon,
when I dreamed the evil dream,
when I slept the evil sleep,
which rived the veil from my future.
Before the morrow was awake,
I heard my sons, for they were with me,
weep as they slept and ask for bread
to slake their hunger.
Cruel you are, if grieve you not,
thinking of what my heart forebode,
and if you weep not now, then when?
They did awake, as the hour drew nigh,
when the food was to be brought,
but the dream of each misgave him.
I heard them then enchain the door,
of that wretched tower, whereat without a word
I turned to gaze into the faces of my sons.
I wept not, I within so turned to stone.
As now a little glimmer made its way
into the dolorous prison, and I saw
upon four faces that mirrored my own.
I bit upon my hands in grief.
Thinking this came of savage appetite,
forthwith they uprose and said
‘Father, we should grieve far less,
if you would eat of us.’
I kept down my spirit in stillness,
that I should spare them worse misery.
That day we all fell silent, and the next.
Ah, callous earth! Why did you not open?
Thrown prostrate at my feet,
my Gaddo cried, ‘Father, why don’t you help me?’
And down he fell with deadened weight.
I saw three more fall, one by one,
and I, now blind, groped over their bodies.
For two days after their death, I called.
Then hunger got the mastery of grief.
– Adapted by R. E. Smith and Gianmarco E. Saretto from Dante’s Inferno, Canto 33
Huiran Wang (b. 1936) (arr. Yuda Deng)
Dance of the Yi People is one of the most popular solo compositions for the pipa, a four-stringed pear-shaped fretted lute that is one of the primary traditional musical instruments of China. Dance of the Yi People was composed in the 1960s by Chinese composer Huiran Wang. Tonight’s performance of the piece is of an arrangement by Yuda Deng. The composition is presumably based on the traditional music of the Yi people in southern China.
Manuel De Falla (1876-1946) (arr. Ana García, 2014) El paño moruno
Sequidilla Murciana
Asturiana
Jota
Nana
Canción
Polo
Manuel de Falla, born in 1876 in Cádiz, was one of Spain’s leading musicians of the early twentieth century, along with Joaquín Turina, Joaquin Rodrigo, and Enrique Granados. Falla studied piano with José Trago at the Madrid Conservatory, winning first prize in piano in 1899, and composition with Felipe Pedrell, briefly trying his hand at zarzuela, guided by composer Amadeo Vives. From 1907 to 1914 he studied and worked in Paris, where he met and was influenced by the Impressionist French composers Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel.
Among his compositions are Noches en los jardines de España (Nights in the Gardens of Spain) for piano and orchestra; his opera La vida breve; the ballets El amor brujo and The Three-Cornered Hat; Concerto for harpsichord and 7 instruments; and music for guitar. He left unfinished his oratorio Atlantis, which was completed by his disciple Ernesto Halffter.
In 1939, after Franco’s victory in the Spanish Civil War, Falla left Spain for Argentina in protest against the dictatorial regime. He refused to return and died on November 14, 1946 in Alta Gracia, Argentina.
Siete Canciones Populares Españolas (Seven Spanish Folksongs)
Falla originally wrote these songs for voice and piano in 1914, during the last months of his stay in Paris. In 1915, the soprano Luisa Vela gave the first performance of them in Madrid, with Falla as pianist. Though the premiere was a failure, the songs soon acquired enormous popularity.
Falla commented in an article on his use of elements of popular song:
I have tried to extract from them the rhythm, modality, their characteristic lines and decorative motifs, their modulating cadences….I modestly think that in popular song, the spirit matters more than the letter…. I will even say more: the rhythmic and harmonic accompaniment of a popular song is as important as the song itself. Therefore, the inspiration must be taken directly from the people.
The seven songs are genuine art songs, exquisitely modulated, with deep roots in popular culture. With melodic lines drawn from folklore, and modified to a greater or lesser extent, the songs’ apparent simplicity hides thorough and skillful harmonic and rhythmic textures. Inspired by the different regions of Spain, the songs are a balanced set, each one a piece in the mosaic. Dedicated to Ida Godovska, they were not published until 1922 but spread rapidly due to their enormous success.
Siete canciones populares Españolas is widely performed not only in its original version for voice and piano but also in other arrangements. It is available in versions for orchestra, violin and piano, violin and orchestra, cello and piano, and solo piano. The formats of solo voice or instrument with guitar accompaniment are widely performed as well. With its beautiful Spanish melodies, dynamic rhythms, and rich harmonies, this music is beloved not only by singers but by instrumentalists as well.
The version to be performed at this concert is a brand new transcription for voice, saxophone, piano, and flamenco dancer arranged by Ana García Caraballos in late 2014. This work will be published later this year.
Al paño fino, en la tienda,
una mancha le cayó;
Por menos precio se vende,
Porque perdió su valor.
¡Ay!
The fine cloth in the shop,
Became stained;
It will be sold off cheaply,
Because it has lost its value.
Ah!
Cualquiera que el tejado
Tenga de vidrio,
No debe tirar piedras
Al del vecino. Arrieros semos; ¡Puede que en el camino Nos encontremos! Por tu mucha inconstancia Yo te comparo Con peseta que corre De mano en mano; Que al fin se borra, Y créyendola falsa ¡Nadie la toma!
Whoever has a roof That is made of glass, Mustn’t throw stones Near the house. Muleteers are we; Perhaps on the way We shall meet up! Because of your great fickleness I compare you To a peseta that passes From hand to hand; Finally, it wears away,
And, thinking it false No-one accepts it!
Se lo pueden preguntar. Ya me despido de tí, De tu casa y tu ventana, Y aunque no quiera tu madre, Adiós, niña, hasta mañana. Aunque no quiera tu madre….
They can address that question.
And now I bid you farewell, At your window in your house, And although your mother wishes otherwise Goodbye, my treasure, until tomorrow Although your mother wishes otherwise…
De la mañana.
Por traidores, tus ojos, voy a enterrarlos; No sabes lo que cuesta, “Del aire” Niña, el mirarlos. “Madre a la orilla Madre”
Dicen que no me quieres, Y a me has querido… Váyase lo ganado, “Del aire” Por lo perdido, “Madre a la orilla Madre”
– Gregorio Martinez
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