LAST SEASONS PROGRAM NOTES
Chamber Music Corvallis 61st Season 2019 - 2020
Berlin Counterpoint
Johann Strauss, Jr.’s Die Fledermaus is a perennial favorite in opera houses, even though it is really an operetta with a considerable amount of spoken dialogue. ‘Fledermaus’ is the German word for bat, and the story hinges on Dr. Falke getting revenge on his friend Gabriel von Eisenstein for having left him drunk on a park bench in a bat costume after a fancy dress party. Falke entices Eisenstein to a party instead of reporting to jail for a minor offense. Falke tips off Eisenstein’s wife, Rosalinde, telling her to come to the party disguised as a Hungarian noblewoman. Of course Eisenstein flirts shamelessly with his own wife, but the next morning everything is blamed on the champagne and all is forgiven, if not forgotten. The overture is a masterful pastiche of tunes from the opera, all of them absolutely irresistible.
Six Bagatelles - György Ligeti is considered one of the most important composers of the latter half of the 20th century. He was born into a Hungarian-Jewish family in Romania in 1923 and his education was interrupted by World War II. He was sent to a forced labor camp, but survived and managed to forge a career under Soviet domination, largely cut off from western influences. With the fall of communism Ligeti emigrated to Austria and became a citizen, which enabled him to cultivate many contacts with Western musicians. During the course of his career he worked in several different styles, many of them quite avante garde. These six bagatelles (trifles), however, are in a folk-like style, beautifully written for woodwind quintet. - Angela Carlson 2019
Sextour, Op. 100 – Francis Poulenc was born into a wealthy family of pharmaceutical manufacturers. He had a splendid formal education, but it was from his mother “that I inherited my great love of music. She was a delightful pianist with excellent musical taste.” At seventeen, the precocious young man received the following rebuff from the head of the Paris Conservatoire: “Your music stinks. Are you trying to make a fool of me? Ah, I see you have joined the gang of Stravinsky, Satie &Co. Well, then, I’ll say good-bye.” Small wonder that a few years later Poulenc joined “Les Six”, followers of Satie, determined to follow new paths and to eschew what they perceived to be excessive delicacy and romantic sentiment in French impressionistic music.
He wrote this Sextet in 1932, but was dissatisfied and set it aside till 1939 when he revised it. He described it as “chamber music of the most straightforward kind, an homage to the wind instruments I have loved from the moment I began composing.” Poulenc was a superb pianist, and the virtuoso writing for winds is matched by his scoring for the keyboard. The first movement is in three parts. The opening blast leads right into the fast- moving chattering piece until a bassoon solo introduces a slow pensivemiddle section with the piano singing the beautiful opening melody. Poulenc peppered the score with precise directions to the players – “intense,” “very gentle,” “expressive,” and indicating that it should be played at half the original tempo. Then the opening volley and busy first section recurs. The second movement reverses the tempi –slow, fast, slow. Poulenc gives the oboe the first theme –“very gentle and expressive.” In the swift middle part he cautions the players to sound “very merry” but “dry and gentle.” The finale is a rondo, interrupted by lyric episodes. The coda is very slow, and once again the oboe “very sweet and melancholy” is heard as this delightful sextet draws to a close. - Craig Leman’s notes 1997
Quintet for Piano and Winds – Ludwig Van Beethoven What greater homage can one musician pay to another than to try to match his performance? Beethoven score this quintet for the exact same combination, structure, and key as Mozart’s 1794 quintet for piano and winds. Just as Mozart played the piano part in the first concert performance of his quintet, so Beethoven was at the keyboard for his work’s premier in 1797. Musicologist Homer Ulrich calls this “the most Mozartean of Beethoven’s early chamber music works. Its transparent quality, its beautifully clear lines, and its general perfection are reminiscent of Mozart. But its vigor, humor, and size remove it from direct comparison with that master. It is the young Beethoven at his best.”
The solemn introduction gives way to a swinging, vigorous three- four rhythm. The slow movement begins with the piano coming on strongly and then becomes a serenade with the wind instruments alternating in solo passages. Here are the comments of a musician who attended the premier on April 6, 1797 in Vienna. “In the last allegro, a pause occurs several times before the theme returns. Beethoven began to improvise...pleasing himself and those listening for a considerable time, but not pleasing the other players. They were annoyed and even enraged. It really looked highly comical when these gentlemen, expecting the movement to be resumed at any moment kept putting their instruments up, but then had to put them down again without playing a note. At length Beethoven was satisfied and started up the rondo again. The whole assembly was delighted.” - Craig Leman’s notes 1991
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks – Richard Struass’s 1895 tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks is a musical description of the antics of a folklore trickster. Till pokes fun at the clergy and overly-serious academics, chases girls, overturns market stalls and generally wreaks havoc wherever he goes. He is captured and convicted of blasphemy, his hanging illustrated graphically in the music. Strauss hints at the end that perhaps Till isn’t really dead, that his spirit lives on. The original version is scored for a huge orchestra with triple winds and eight horns plus a large body of strings. This pared down version highlights all the important themes, still maintaining the spirit of the work. - Angela Carlson 2019
Six Bagatelles - György Ligeti is considered one of the most important composers of the latter half of the 20th century. He was born into a Hungarian-Jewish family in Romania in 1923 and his education was interrupted by World War II. He was sent to a forced labor camp, but survived and managed to forge a career under Soviet domination, largely cut off from western influences. With the fall of communism Ligeti emigrated to Austria and became a citizen, which enabled him to cultivate many contacts with Western musicians. During the course of his career he worked in several different styles, many of them quite avante garde. These six bagatelles (trifles), however, are in a folk-like style, beautifully written for woodwind quintet. - Angela Carlson 2019
Sextour, Op. 100 – Francis Poulenc was born into a wealthy family of pharmaceutical manufacturers. He had a splendid formal education, but it was from his mother “that I inherited my great love of music. She was a delightful pianist with excellent musical taste.” At seventeen, the precocious young man received the following rebuff from the head of the Paris Conservatoire: “Your music stinks. Are you trying to make a fool of me? Ah, I see you have joined the gang of Stravinsky, Satie &Co. Well, then, I’ll say good-bye.” Small wonder that a few years later Poulenc joined “Les Six”, followers of Satie, determined to follow new paths and to eschew what they perceived to be excessive delicacy and romantic sentiment in French impressionistic music.
He wrote this Sextet in 1932, but was dissatisfied and set it aside till 1939 when he revised it. He described it as “chamber music of the most straightforward kind, an homage to the wind instruments I have loved from the moment I began composing.” Poulenc was a superb pianist, and the virtuoso writing for winds is matched by his scoring for the keyboard. The first movement is in three parts. The opening blast leads right into the fast- moving chattering piece until a bassoon solo introduces a slow pensivemiddle section with the piano singing the beautiful opening melody. Poulenc peppered the score with precise directions to the players – “intense,” “very gentle,” “expressive,” and indicating that it should be played at half the original tempo. Then the opening volley and busy first section recurs. The second movement reverses the tempi –slow, fast, slow. Poulenc gives the oboe the first theme –“very gentle and expressive.” In the swift middle part he cautions the players to sound “very merry” but “dry and gentle.” The finale is a rondo, interrupted by lyric episodes. The coda is very slow, and once again the oboe “very sweet and melancholy” is heard as this delightful sextet draws to a close. - Craig Leman’s notes 1997
Quintet for Piano and Winds – Ludwig Van Beethoven What greater homage can one musician pay to another than to try to match his performance? Beethoven score this quintet for the exact same combination, structure, and key as Mozart’s 1794 quintet for piano and winds. Just as Mozart played the piano part in the first concert performance of his quintet, so Beethoven was at the keyboard for his work’s premier in 1797. Musicologist Homer Ulrich calls this “the most Mozartean of Beethoven’s early chamber music works. Its transparent quality, its beautifully clear lines, and its general perfection are reminiscent of Mozart. But its vigor, humor, and size remove it from direct comparison with that master. It is the young Beethoven at his best.”
The solemn introduction gives way to a swinging, vigorous three- four rhythm. The slow movement begins with the piano coming on strongly and then becomes a serenade with the wind instruments alternating in solo passages. Here are the comments of a musician who attended the premier on April 6, 1797 in Vienna. “In the last allegro, a pause occurs several times before the theme returns. Beethoven began to improvise...pleasing himself and those listening for a considerable time, but not pleasing the other players. They were annoyed and even enraged. It really looked highly comical when these gentlemen, expecting the movement to be resumed at any moment kept putting their instruments up, but then had to put them down again without playing a note. At length Beethoven was satisfied and started up the rondo again. The whole assembly was delighted.” - Craig Leman’s notes 1991
Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks – Richard Struass’s 1895 tone poem Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks is a musical description of the antics of a folklore trickster. Till pokes fun at the clergy and overly-serious academics, chases girls, overturns market stalls and generally wreaks havoc wherever he goes. He is captured and convicted of blasphemy, his hanging illustrated graphically in the music. Strauss hints at the end that perhaps Till isn’t really dead, that his spirit lives on. The original version is scored for a huge orchestra with triple winds and eight horns plus a large body of strings. This pared down version highlights all the important themes, still maintaining the spirit of the work. - Angela Carlson 2019
Ensemble Lucidarium
Macchine – Music and Science from the Time of Leonardo da Vinci
The music of Leonardo’s time, along with architecture, painting and poetry, was considered a domain where Mathematica naturalis exhibited all of its possibilities. The practical arts were a mirror where mathematical concepts were both applied and proven. Indeed, this fusion between art and knowledge at the dawn of the Renaissance went far beyond the concepts of art and of science with which we are familiar today. Music, in particular polyphony, more than any other form of artistic expression, was a terrain for experimentation, where research brought immediate, tangible results. The Northern maestri of the international polyphonic school experimented with complex rhythmic proportions, chromaticism, coloration and musica ficta. In doing so, they made music the place where mathematical intuitions could be brought to life, and where composers gave musical form to the proportions that governed their perception of the world.
As if to counterbalance this complex universe dominated by architects of sound, a different kind of music began to be heard in culture’s highest echelons. Because of a renewed interest in the classical tradition, the Humanists experimented with a revival of the monodic declamation of poetry, considered the most perfect form of musical expression, with an open rebellion against the polyphonic tradition, which was seen as a remnant of days past. The controversy went on for a long time, until the two positions were slowly reconciled, thanks to the efforts of polyphonists like Agricola or Gaffurius who were also accomplished Humanists. This led to the diffusion of simpler, more intuitive polyphonic forms that were better suited to Italian taste, such as frottole, barçellette, strambotti, odi and capitoli. These last two poetical-musical structures had a simple contrapunctal style, and set texts that were typically declaimed as part of the Humanist classical revival. Moreover, it is possible that the melodies found in written sources could very well be based on popular, orally-transmitted, melodic formulas.
Leonardo was an accomplished singer, and played the Lira da braccio, which he probably used to accompany himself while singing. At the same time, his modern reputation as an exceptional musician probably comes more from Giorgio Vasari’s somewhat inflated rhetoric than any reality. Although Leonardo was certainly also a musician, like many intellectuals of his time, when Vasari writes of him playing the lyre and singing “divinely to that instrument… rising above all of the other musicians”, as well as being the “best reciter of poetry and improviser of his time”, the whole should be perhaps taken with a grain of salt.
Leonardo’s extravagant macchine designed to produce music include the “viola organista”, the “tamburo elastico” (precursor of the modern timpani), a horsehead viola, flauti glissatti and others, part of the fervent desire for experimentation fueled by the twin catalysts of art and science. At the same time, from a practical point of view, they are not without their problems. The subject of extensive study since the 1960s, they are certainly considered more important today than during Leonardo’s lifetime: among the tens of thousands of pages of sketches in Leonardo’s notebooks, only around 25 designs of instruments, many of them doubles, can be found. This, together with Leonardo’s own opinions on the art of music as opposed to that of painting, should put the importance he himself placed on music into perspective. Some of the instruments are obviously designed for the theatre, with special sonic (or visual) effects in mind, while others, such as the flauti glissandi, have proven themselves impossible to realise. At the same time, there are some, based on either sketches or paintings, that can be built and played. Between practical ingenuity and unrealisable folly, they mirror one of the most remarkable minds in history.
The Repertoire
The repertoire for this programme is centred around the Sforza court in Milan, where Leonardo worked from 1482 until 1499, and combines music by Northern and Italian composers, ranging from declamation, simple songs and dances to complex polyphonic works by way of the frotolla. The instrumental music included here gives a full spectrum of what Leonardo might have heard: popular dances, such as the Pavana, Piva or Romanesca, and music for the choreographies of Guglielmo Hebreo da Pesaro, who often worked for the Sforza family. Next to these functional pieces, Alexander Agricola’s versions of De tous bien pleins represent another kind of repertoire. Probably written for quiet instruments in intimate settings, this is ‘art’ music with a scientific as well as aesthetic purpose: a kind of study of the results that can be obtained by experimenting with different proportions and compositional techniques over the same cantus firmus.
The second part of the program is dedicated to an attempt at a musical reconstruction of parts of La Festa del Paradiso, commissioned by Ludovico Sforza in honour of Isabella d’Aragona, the bride of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza. It was performed on January 13th 1490 with elaborate stage machines representing the planets designed by Leonardo. The text is by the Florentine Bernardo Bellincioni (1452-1492), decidedly minor (and remarkably sycophantic) poet who was a fellow Tuscan and apparent friend of Leonardo. The prelude to the spettacolo featured music and dance from Spain, Germany, France, and across Italy, including regional costumes, with even a Turkish contingent on horseback, the whole evening conceived as a kind of Macchina made to impress and astonish. Indeed, to the great minds of the day, architecture, mathematics and geography, counterpoint, poetry and perspective, color theory, and astronomy were all marvelous machines. Macchine that Renaissance Man used to measure and interpret that which he considered the greatest gift of all: the natural World and its wonders.
1 Giorgio Vasari. Le Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori et scultori italiani… (Florence: Lorenzo Tirrentino, 1550)
The music of Leonardo’s time, along with architecture, painting and poetry, was considered a domain where Mathematica naturalis exhibited all of its possibilities. The practical arts were a mirror where mathematical concepts were both applied and proven. Indeed, this fusion between art and knowledge at the dawn of the Renaissance went far beyond the concepts of art and of science with which we are familiar today. Music, in particular polyphony, more than any other form of artistic expression, was a terrain for experimentation, where research brought immediate, tangible results. The Northern maestri of the international polyphonic school experimented with complex rhythmic proportions, chromaticism, coloration and musica ficta. In doing so, they made music the place where mathematical intuitions could be brought to life, and where composers gave musical form to the proportions that governed their perception of the world.
As if to counterbalance this complex universe dominated by architects of sound, a different kind of music began to be heard in culture’s highest echelons. Because of a renewed interest in the classical tradition, the Humanists experimented with a revival of the monodic declamation of poetry, considered the most perfect form of musical expression, with an open rebellion against the polyphonic tradition, which was seen as a remnant of days past. The controversy went on for a long time, until the two positions were slowly reconciled, thanks to the efforts of polyphonists like Agricola or Gaffurius who were also accomplished Humanists. This led to the diffusion of simpler, more intuitive polyphonic forms that were better suited to Italian taste, such as frottole, barçellette, strambotti, odi and capitoli. These last two poetical-musical structures had a simple contrapunctal style, and set texts that were typically declaimed as part of the Humanist classical revival. Moreover, it is possible that the melodies found in written sources could very well be based on popular, orally-transmitted, melodic formulas.
Leonardo was an accomplished singer, and played the Lira da braccio, which he probably used to accompany himself while singing. At the same time, his modern reputation as an exceptional musician probably comes more from Giorgio Vasari’s somewhat inflated rhetoric than any reality. Although Leonardo was certainly also a musician, like many intellectuals of his time, when Vasari writes of him playing the lyre and singing “divinely to that instrument… rising above all of the other musicians”, as well as being the “best reciter of poetry and improviser of his time”, the whole should be perhaps taken with a grain of salt.
Leonardo’s extravagant macchine designed to produce music include the “viola organista”, the “tamburo elastico” (precursor of the modern timpani), a horsehead viola, flauti glissatti and others, part of the fervent desire for experimentation fueled by the twin catalysts of art and science. At the same time, from a practical point of view, they are not without their problems. The subject of extensive study since the 1960s, they are certainly considered more important today than during Leonardo’s lifetime: among the tens of thousands of pages of sketches in Leonardo’s notebooks, only around 25 designs of instruments, many of them doubles, can be found. This, together with Leonardo’s own opinions on the art of music as opposed to that of painting, should put the importance he himself placed on music into perspective. Some of the instruments are obviously designed for the theatre, with special sonic (or visual) effects in mind, while others, such as the flauti glissandi, have proven themselves impossible to realise. At the same time, there are some, based on either sketches or paintings, that can be built and played. Between practical ingenuity and unrealisable folly, they mirror one of the most remarkable minds in history.
The Repertoire
The repertoire for this programme is centred around the Sforza court in Milan, where Leonardo worked from 1482 until 1499, and combines music by Northern and Italian composers, ranging from declamation, simple songs and dances to complex polyphonic works by way of the frotolla. The instrumental music included here gives a full spectrum of what Leonardo might have heard: popular dances, such as the Pavana, Piva or Romanesca, and music for the choreographies of Guglielmo Hebreo da Pesaro, who often worked for the Sforza family. Next to these functional pieces, Alexander Agricola’s versions of De tous bien pleins represent another kind of repertoire. Probably written for quiet instruments in intimate settings, this is ‘art’ music with a scientific as well as aesthetic purpose: a kind of study of the results that can be obtained by experimenting with different proportions and compositional techniques over the same cantus firmus.
The second part of the program is dedicated to an attempt at a musical reconstruction of parts of La Festa del Paradiso, commissioned by Ludovico Sforza in honour of Isabella d’Aragona, the bride of his nephew Gian Galeazzo Sforza. It was performed on January 13th 1490 with elaborate stage machines representing the planets designed by Leonardo. The text is by the Florentine Bernardo Bellincioni (1452-1492), decidedly minor (and remarkably sycophantic) poet who was a fellow Tuscan and apparent friend of Leonardo. The prelude to the spettacolo featured music and dance from Spain, Germany, France, and across Italy, including regional costumes, with even a Turkish contingent on horseback, the whole evening conceived as a kind of Macchina made to impress and astonish. Indeed, to the great minds of the day, architecture, mathematics and geography, counterpoint, poetry and perspective, color theory, and astronomy were all marvelous machines. Macchine that Renaissance Man used to measure and interpret that which he considered the greatest gift of all: the natural World and its wonders.
1 Giorgio Vasari. Le Vite de' più eccellenti architetti, pittori et scultori italiani… (Florence: Lorenzo Tirrentino, 1550)
Mobius Guitar Trio
French composer Maurice Ravel wrote his only string quartet in 1903 at the age of 28. The premiere in 1904 drew mixed reviews, with some calling it derivative of Debussy’s quartet of ten years previous. Others hailed its originality and craftsmanship. Debussy himself urged Ravel not to change a single note. Ravel submitted the work as an application for the Prix de Rome (a study grant for a year in Rome) but was rejected. He also was ejected from the very conservative Paris Conservatoire de Musique. By then Ravel was well on his way to a successful composing career and his quartet has become a staple of the repertoire. The second movement features a good deal of pizzicato so it transfers quite naturally to the guitar. It is in three-part form: a playful scherzo bracketing a lovely slow middle section. - Angela Carlson 2020
The great Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger Sergio Assad was our teacher for our Master's degree, so he knows all of us really well. He mentored us through our private lessons, and he coached us to develop as an ensemble. Sergio is one of the great composers and arrangers in the classical guitar world - his pieces and arrangements are performed constantly around the world in concerts and competitions - so, of course we hounded him relentlessly to write us a piece. In 2014, he finally did, and we were extra, extra thrilled that he really tailored the parts to each of us; instead of saying "Guitar I, Guitar II, Guitar III" for the parts, the score says "Rob, Matt, Mason". The one part that confuses us is that he called the piece Kindergarten, and we don't know why...
In 2010, noted guitarist, cellist, scholar, and composer Tilman Hoppstock discovered the previously unknown early 20th century English composer Allan Willcocks. Hoppstock began educating the world on this mysterious and obscure Impressionist composer - performing his Preludes and Etudes, publishing the scores along with biographical information, etc.. The sudden discovery of a previously unknown composer working in a style - Impressionism - that has historically been a bit of a 'blind spot' for the classical guitar was remarkable, but nothing compared to the reaction when Hoppstock revealed, a couple of years later, that Willcocks had never actually existed and was in fact just an elaborate nom de plume.
Robert Nance's Plexus serves as a soundtrack to the interconnectedness of personal relationships. The piece's relentless driving pattern forces each performer - or thread - on a journey causing the threads to move tightly in unison, weave, tangle, unwind, and repeat over and over until the becoming too tightly wound and then must be unraveled slowly, methodically, and deliberately. - Mobius Guitar Trio 2020
Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) is the most popular work for solo guitar and orchestra; this popularity is largely due to its beautiful second movement, Adagio. The work’s title comes from the city of Aranjuez, whose main tourist attraction is the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), an elegant and imposing work of French Empire, Rococo, and Moorish architecture. Though the Concierto was composed in Paris, it was the Palacio’s extravagant gardens which reportedly transported the young Rodrigo’s imagination to the world of the Spanish Renaissance which informs much of the work (and much else of Rodrigo’s music) . The Adagio, however, represents the devastation Rodrigo experienced when his wife Victoria suffered a near-fatal miscarriage. Musically, this is carried out through Rodrigo’s use of the flamenco cante jondo (“deep song”) style, whose mournful ornaments are reminiscent of the Muslim call to prayer which was heard throughout southern Spain for some 700 years following the conquest of the Moors in 711. Rodrigo stated that the end of movement, which features an ever-rising arpeggiation in harmonics, represented the unborn child’s soul ascending to Heaven.
In 1931, the poet and folklorist Federico Garcia Lorca described the cante jondo:
"The cante jondo approaches the rhythm of the birds and the natural music of the black poplar and the waves; it is simple in oldness and style. It is also a rare example of primitive song, the oldest of all Europe, where the ruins of history, the lyrical fragment eaten by the sand, appear live like the first morning of its life[...] it is the only song on our continent that has been conserved in its pure form, because of its composition and its style and the qualities it has in itself, the primitive songs of the oriental people." - Cameron O'Connor 2020
The great Brazilian guitarist, composer, and arranger Sergio Assad was our teacher for our Master's degree, so he knows all of us really well. He mentored us through our private lessons, and he coached us to develop as an ensemble. Sergio is one of the great composers and arrangers in the classical guitar world - his pieces and arrangements are performed constantly around the world in concerts and competitions - so, of course we hounded him relentlessly to write us a piece. In 2014, he finally did, and we were extra, extra thrilled that he really tailored the parts to each of us; instead of saying "Guitar I, Guitar II, Guitar III" for the parts, the score says "Rob, Matt, Mason". The one part that confuses us is that he called the piece Kindergarten, and we don't know why...
In 2010, noted guitarist, cellist, scholar, and composer Tilman Hoppstock discovered the previously unknown early 20th century English composer Allan Willcocks. Hoppstock began educating the world on this mysterious and obscure Impressionist composer - performing his Preludes and Etudes, publishing the scores along with biographical information, etc.. The sudden discovery of a previously unknown composer working in a style - Impressionism - that has historically been a bit of a 'blind spot' for the classical guitar was remarkable, but nothing compared to the reaction when Hoppstock revealed, a couple of years later, that Willcocks had never actually existed and was in fact just an elaborate nom de plume.
Robert Nance's Plexus serves as a soundtrack to the interconnectedness of personal relationships. The piece's relentless driving pattern forces each performer - or thread - on a journey causing the threads to move tightly in unison, weave, tangle, unwind, and repeat over and over until the becoming too tightly wound and then must be unraveled slowly, methodically, and deliberately. - Mobius Guitar Trio 2020
Joaquin Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez (1939) is the most popular work for solo guitar and orchestra; this popularity is largely due to its beautiful second movement, Adagio. The work’s title comes from the city of Aranjuez, whose main tourist attraction is the Palacio Real (Royal Palace), an elegant and imposing work of French Empire, Rococo, and Moorish architecture. Though the Concierto was composed in Paris, it was the Palacio’s extravagant gardens which reportedly transported the young Rodrigo’s imagination to the world of the Spanish Renaissance which informs much of the work (and much else of Rodrigo’s music) . The Adagio, however, represents the devastation Rodrigo experienced when his wife Victoria suffered a near-fatal miscarriage. Musically, this is carried out through Rodrigo’s use of the flamenco cante jondo (“deep song”) style, whose mournful ornaments are reminiscent of the Muslim call to prayer which was heard throughout southern Spain for some 700 years following the conquest of the Moors in 711. Rodrigo stated that the end of movement, which features an ever-rising arpeggiation in harmonics, represented the unborn child’s soul ascending to Heaven.
In 1931, the poet and folklorist Federico Garcia Lorca described the cante jondo:
"The cante jondo approaches the rhythm of the birds and the natural music of the black poplar and the waves; it is simple in oldness and style. It is also a rare example of primitive song, the oldest of all Europe, where the ruins of history, the lyrical fragment eaten by the sand, appear live like the first morning of its life[...] it is the only song on our continent that has been conserved in its pure form, because of its composition and its style and the qualities it has in itself, the primitive songs of the oriental people." - Cameron O'Connor 2020