D369705E-3270-4076-81BE-08D0759E856B
| ID | D369705E-3270-4076-81BE-08D0759E856B |
|---|---|
| Titlecode | X816210 |
| Title Name | Ladino Songs of Love and Suffering for Soprano, Guitar and Horn |
| 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 | (not set) |
| 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 | 2 |
| Year Composed | 1984 |
| Copyright Number | (not set) |
| Copyright Year | (not set) |
| Duration | 26 |
| Ensemble Size | 3 |
| Date Created | 2008-10-31 20:33:26.000000 |
| Date Updated | 2025-09-30 20:33:26 |
| Inhouse Note | (not set) |
| Bsc Code | (not set) |
| Text Author | traditional Ladino folk poetry |
| Premier Performance Memo | (not set) |
| Recording Credits | Recorded by Lucy Shelton (soprano), Eliot Fisk (guitar), David Jolley, French horn, Milken Archive Naxos American Classics 8.559413 |
| Review | (not set) |
| Awards | (not set) |
| Title Category | 12 |
| 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 | (not set) |
| Set Series ID | (not set) |
| Title Instrument Category Text | High Voice |
| Title Sub Category Text | (not set) |
| Title Sub Category | 17 |
| Title Instrument Header | 72 |
| Title Grade Text | (not set) |
| Clean Url | ladino-songs-of-love-and-suffering-for-soprano-guitar-and-horn-x816210 |