Gypsy Ballads
Allan Crossman
About this work:
GYPSY BALLADS was inspired by images from the Romancero Gitano , a cycle of poems by the legendary Spanish writer Federico García Lorca (1898-1936). Written in 1984 and revised in 1994, the work was premiered by Max Lifchitz at Concordia University and SUNY Albany in February, 1997.
Mr. Crossman supplied the following program note:
Lorca's rich and, for me, totally new dramatic images demanded new musical images: I was thus compelled to find a fresh mix of piano figures and orchestral colors, extreme and often sudden shifts of dynamics and register, simple melodies and at the same time complex harmonies.
"Ballad of the black pain" (Romance de la pena negra) begins as though a folk song, but is soon overlaid by a darker, more extreme drama, which finally subsides, revealing the earlier simplicity and innocence.
"The unfaithful wife" (La casada infiel) is a kind of dance of beauty, but of contrived beauty, as though something somewhere were terribly wrong, but of which we have only a hint: a melody almost too sweet, a phrase here and there perhaps a bit grotesque.
"Ballad of the moon, moon" (Romance de la luna, luna) has two basic themes, one breathless, the other graceful, caught up in an unpredictable ballet; over the course of the piece, it is revealed that there are common threads between the themes.
"Saint Rafael at Córdoba" (San Rafael [Córdoba]) - As the "peregrine archangel" flies above the villages, the music is reminiscent of folk melodies, expressing both the people below and the sweeping flight of the Saint. In the middle section, we hear fragments of these melodies sounding across widely different registers, suggesting that the people and the Saint can occasionally glimpse each other at the same time.
"Preciosa and the wind" (Preciosa y el aire) is a dance between the young girl Preciosa and the mysterious and ominous wind; it is often difficult to know which is which, since the wind, being transparent, can seem to move through you. In the end, Preciosa escapes the wind and tells her frightening story to some guards.
"Brawl" (Reyerta) is a struggle between people who are not sure why they fight. The music is written in such a way that either part can be above or below the other, with all combinations being hammered out through the piece. This can suggest the image of wrestlers in close combat.
"Ballad of one who is doomed to die" (Romance del emplazado) is full of memory, wonder, darkness, joy, almost to the point of being too much - almost painful joy! The technique used here was first assembling favorite chords, then finding the best order for them, and letting the quality of this order create the dynamics and other dramatic changes.
"Sleepwalk ballad" (Romance sonámbulo) - This piece was a new direction, with one idea moving quickly to the next, as though there were some unknown force propelling everything forward. Each idea bumps into the next - there isn't the usual phrasing, melodic line, rests, pacing, but rather a strange breathlessness, a rush to get somewhere unknown. If you have ever spent a busy day after a totally sleepless night, you will know what this is: Controlling oneself becomes a major challenge; patience is down the drain; and the sense of time is crazy - everything seems very slow, never-ending. This experience may be something typical of our own time in history.
"Saint Gabriel at Seville" (San Gabriel [Sevilla]) - The "annunciator" archangel descends to earth, and, as the hymn-like music suggests, his arrival is felt as a higher blessing: children and mothers call out their praises to him, and stars become flowers.
Titles of poems from Romancero Gitano by permission of New Directions Publishing Corp., New York.
Year composed: 1994
Duration: 00:30:00
Ensemble type: Keyboard:Unknown
Instrumentation: ,1 Piano soloist(s)