INTERNAL DATA CENTER v2.1 (MySQL)
Home
Upload
CRUDs
Writers
Titles
Title Instruments
Title Categories
Title Sub-Categories
Title Media
Series
Products
Organizations
Performances
Back to WordPress
Home
Titles
D369705E-3270-4076-81BE-08D0759E856B
Update
Update Title: D369705E-3270-4076-81BE-08D0759E856B
ID
Titlecode
Title Name
Marketing Copy
Recorded by Lucy Shelton, Soprano; Eliot Fist, Guitar; and David Jolley, Horn on the Milken Archive Naxos American Classics Series (8.559413).
Instrumentation
Soprano, Guitar, Horn
Commission
Commissioned by Lucy Shelton and David Jolley
Dedication
Program Notes
This piece was born as a commission from two of the composer's colleagues. It also reflects the interest in folklore that Adolphe acquired from his parents, both of whom were professional folk dancers (in addition to being teachers in academic disciplines). He grew up listening to many diverse genres of folk music in his parents' collections, including Ladino folksongs--which made an indelible impression on him at an early age. The texts for this work are derived from well-known Ladino folk poetry. Adolphe, however, retained only the words and discarded the traditional melodies attached to these poems. The music is freely composed, without reliance upon preexisting musical folk material. Ladino is a hybrid secular Sephardi Jewish language, also known as Judeo-Espagnol, which is a fusion of Castilian Spanish (15th century) and Hebrew dating from the Spanish Expulsion in 1492, after which Ladino became a vernacular among eastern and Mediterranean Sephardi Jews and constituted a major part of their literary and folksong culture as well as a daily spoken language. The composer has written the following: In 1983 Lucy Shelton and David Jolley asked me to compose a work for soprano, French horn, and guitar. The instrumental combination was a bit daunting, for blending the soft-spoken guitar with the deeply resonant horn seemed an acoustic nightmare. Add a soprano, and where are you? However, I soon began to think of the instruments as three of the purest sounds available, and the easy pairing of voice and guitar could perhaps be lent an air of mystery and distance by the evocative tone of the horn. Having just had the premiere of my opera The False Messiah at New York's 92nd Street Y, I was still thinking in terms of ecstatic Sephardi melismas--Shabtai Zvi, the 17th-century "False Messiah," had ended up in Istanbul, after all. The idea that this trio would be well suited to Ladino-inspired music seemed right. The guitar was clearly the perfect instrument for Judeo-Spanish timbres and rhythms, the voice would tell the stories of love and loss, and the horn would provide the mournful echoes and amplify the passionate outcries. So, with the help of Isabelle Ganz, who had performed and recorded much Ladino music, I selected verses from ancient poems that could have been written yesterday. The work was premiered on November 28, 1984, at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center, by Lucy Shelton, David Jolley, and David Starobin. Soon after, it was performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington by Shelton, Jolley, and guitarist Eliot Fisk, the performers in this recording, whom I thank for their passionate and intelligent virtuosity. --Bruce Adolphe
Title Brand
Year Composed
Copyright Number
Copyright Year
Duration
Ensemble Size
Date Created
Date Updated
Inhouse Note
Bsc Code
Text Author
Premier Performance Memo
Recording Credits
Recorded by Lucy Shelton (soprano), Eliot Fisk (guitar), David Jolley, French horn, Milken Archive Naxos American Classics 8.559413
Review
Awards
Title Category
Title Movements
1. Introduction; I. Noches, noches 5:01 2. II. Avrix mi galanica 3:45 3. III. El mi querido 2:06 4. IV. Camini por altas torres 2:18 5. V. La rosa enflorece 4:12 6. VI. Alta, alta, va la luna 8:15
Title Grade
Set Series ID
Title Instrument Category Text
Title Sub Category Text
Title Sub Category
Title Instrument Header
Title Grade Text
Clean Url
Save