Haydn Tuyero, Chicharras, Galeones
Paul Desenne
About this work:
Commissioned by Gustavo Cisneros.
Premiered in Caracas by Luis Julio Toro/flute, Jaime Martínez/English horn, Paul Desenne/cello
PROGRAM NOTES
This fantasy evokes the musical past of the provinces near Caracas, where coffee and sugarcane were the basic staples. South of the capital city lies the Tuy river valley. The harp music of this region is famous for its Spanish baroque roots, and the remarkably complex oral traditions still alive there suggest that there was great musical talent and practice among the settlers. The music I composed tells the tale of Miranda, the forefather of Venezuelan Independence, who traveled Europe with his flute, his unquenchable thirst for knowledge, and his gallant, modern ideas. In 1785, he had long conversations on music with Josef Haydn while strolling through the palace gardens at Esterhazy. One can imagine Miranda asking Haydn to write something for the flute, which he played quite well. In reality, their conversation was mostly about Boccherini, the famous Italian cellist who was stirring up musical life in Madrid, where Miranda had been living since he came from the colonies to study at the military academy. After this meeting, Miranda went off on his endless adventures, visiting Russia, meeting Catherine the Great, and later, during the French Revolution, becoming an important general of the French Republican Army. Later, he conspired to free Venezuela from Spanish domination, and played a great part in the process that eventually succeeded in doing so.
I imagined Miranda's musical request to Haydn – a petition that the composer would have rejected immediately, saying, "If you want new music, with the flavors of your land, then have somebody from your own province compose it!" In my fancy, Miranda likes this idea, and immediately writes to his nephew, Lucas de ..., who was studying music with Boccherini in Madrid. But the letter never reaches him, for the young musician had recently left Madrid and is back home at his sugarcane plantation with his new cello. Perhaps he is discovering ways to make the instrument fit into the dances and songs of the tuyero music that he loves, playing with the harpists of his village. In this very hot valley, Lucas de ... is composing, tormented by the very loud ringing of the cicadas in the burning afternoon. Instead of quitting his composition, he decides to include their piercing notes in the score. When the evening breeze finally cools the air, bringing back the precious silence, he expresses his gratitude with a motet, in the style he learned from an old codex brought to the cathedral in Caracas from the doomed pearl-port of Nueva Cádix, where the chronicler-poet Juan de Castellanos had landed in the 1520s.
The musical past of these regions is very rich, going back to Renaissance and early baroque sources, and it blends with pre-Hispanic and African roots, forming many hybrids. This short fantasy peers into different historic possibilities, assembling various short movements to create an imaginary landscape of Miranda's time.
- Paul Desenne
Version: Trio for flute, English horn and cello
Year composed: 2000
Duration: 00:12:00
Ensemble type: Chamber or Jazz Ensemble, Without Voice:Other Combinations, 2-5 players
Instrumentation: