Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (Homage to Federico García Lorca) is a work for chamber orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.
History
[edit]![](Https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/22/Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca._Huerta_de_San_Vicente%2C_Granada.jpg/220px-Federico_Garc%C3%ADa_Lorca._Huerta_de_San_Vicente%2C_Granada.jpg)
On 19 August 1936, the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca was murdered by fascist militia forces. Outraged, along with many other intellectuals and artists, in October Revueltas composed Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, one of his most important works, which was premiered on 14 November 1936 conducted by the composer.[1][2] It was given its first Spanish performance at the Salón de Actos de la Asociación de Amigos de Mexico in Madrid on 17 September 1937.[3]
Instrumentation
[edit]The work is scored for a chamber orchestra of piccolo, E♭ clarinet, two trumpets, trombone, tuba, tamtam, xylophone, piano, two violins, and double bass. The absence of low woodwinds, violas, and cellos produces a sound meant to evoke a Mexican village band, or the sound of Indian music.[4]
Analysis
[edit]The composition is in three movements:
The main, Allegro, section of the first movement is typical of Revueltas's orchestration. An almost constant rhythmic substructure in 4/16 time is produced by the staccato of the piano, repeated plaintive fourths in the violins, and an obstinately repeated G in semiquavers in the contrabasses. Over this texture, wind instruments present the thematic material, "at once sad and gay, in a light contrapuntal passage of the greatest transparency".[5]
The second movement, Duelo, is written in a style close to the Andalusian martinetes sung by miners and prisoners awaiting sentence. In imitation of the characteristic hammer-and-anvil accompaniment, Revueltas wrote a major-second ostinato for xylophone and pizzicato double bass, over which the trumpet plays a mournful melody in C♯ minor.[6]
The final movement superimposes several ostinatos, a device Revueltas uses extensively throughout his oeuvre.[7]
References
[edit]- ^ Hernández 2009, 18–19.
- ^ Slonimsky 1945, 250.
- ^ Hess 1997, 285–286, 291n24.
- ^ Dean 1992, 83.
- ^ Mayer-Serra 1941, 141–42.
- ^ Sanchez-Gutierrez 1996, 102–103.
- ^ Dean 1992, 76–77.
Sources
- Dean, Jack Lee. 1992. "Silvestre Revueltas: A Discussion of the Background and Influences Affecting His Compositional Style". Ph.D thesis. University of Texas at Austin.
- Hernández, Juan de Dios. 2009. "Nationalism and Musical Architecture in the Symphonic Music of Silvestre Revueltas". DMA diss. Tucson: The University of Arizona.
- Hess, Carol A. 1997. "Silvestre Revueltas in Republican Spain: Music as Political Utterance". Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 18, no. 2 (Autumn–Winter): 278–296.
- Mayer-Serra, Otto. 1941. "Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico". The Musical Quarterly 27, no. 2 (April): 123–145.
- Sanchez-Gutierrez, Carlos Daniel. 1996. "The Cooked and the Raw: Syncretism in the Music of Silvestre Revueltas". Ph.D. thesis. Princeton: Princeton University.
- Slonimsky, Nicolas. 1945. Music in Latin America. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell.
Further reading
[edit]- Estrada, Julio. 2012. Canto roto: Silvestre Revueltas. Vida y Pensamiente de México. México, D. F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. ISBN 978-607-16-0951-9.
- Garland, Peter. 1991. In Search of Silvestre Revueltas: Essays 1978–1990. Santa Fe: Soundings Press.
- Hoag, Charles. 2002. "Algunos aspectos de las melodías de Revueltas", translated by Ricardo Miranda Pérez. In Diálogo de resplandores: Carlos Chávez y Silvestre Revueltas, edited by Ricardo Miranda Pérez and Yael Bitrán, 109–117. Ríos y raíces: Teoría y práctica del arte. México, D.F.: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) (Dirección General de Publicaciones). ISBN 970-18-8409-4.
- Kolb Neuhaus, Roberto. 2002. "Leyendo entre líneas, escuchando entre pautas: Marginalia paleográfica de Silvestre Revueltas". In Diálogo de resplandores: Carlos Chávez y Silvestre Revueltas, edited by Ricardo Miranda Pérez and Yael Bitrán, 68–96. Ríos y raíces: Teoría y práctica del arte. México, D.F.: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA) (Dirección General de Publicaciones). ISBN 978-970-18-8409-6.
- Madrid, Alejandro L. 2000. "¿Influencias o elementos de retórica? Aspectos de centricidad en la obra de Silvestre Revueltas". Heterofonía: Revista de investigación musical, no. 122 (January–June): 19–38.
- Revueltas, Silvestre. 1958. Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (Homage to Federico García Lorca (score). New York: Southern Music Publishing Company.
- Vogt, Harry. 1986. "Hommages und Elegien in memoriam Federico García Lorca". Dissonanz, no. 9 (August): 15–17.
External links
[edit]- Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca, R.43: Scores at the International Music Score Library Project
- Video on YouTube, National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands, Etienne Siebens conducting