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Magdalena Llamas, Pablo González and JONDE, during the last concert of the 2010 Summer tour
(Kassel, Kongress Palais Kassel-Staathalle, August 11, 2010)



Cinco canciones verdes / Five green songs

For Mezzosoprano and Piano


Commentary
Texts
Recording
Download score


Commentary


The idea for these Five green songs arose at the end of a tour of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain, held in the summer of 2010, in which, under the direction of Pablo González, the mezzo-soprano Magdalena Llamas performed the version for voice and orchestra of the Five black songs by Xavier Motsalvatge in Villagarcía de Arousa, Santiago de Compostela, Berlin and Kassel. A conversation as casual as it was crazy with Magdalena Llamas and her husband, José Miguel Martínez, held during the orchestra's check-out at the hotel in Kassel, ended with the solemn promise to compose a cycle for her that, under the title of Five Green Songs, could be performed in the same program together with Montsalvatge’s cycle, thus developing a conceptual game with the change, not so much in the color of the songs, but above all in its meaning.

Magdalena Llamas, Luis Fernando Pérez and José Miguel Martínez

Thus, if "the black" in the Montsalvatge’s cycle refers to the Afro-American character of most of the texts used, in my cycle "the green" could not refer to anything other than their erotic spirit -even sometimes openly pornographic- of the poems.
For these Five green songs I selected five poems by as many authors and in five different languages. The cycle opens with "Effects of love", by the Greek poet Sappho of Lesbos (650/610-580 BC), and continues with the only song in Spanish, on the poem "En Silencio" ("In silence") by the ill-fated Uruguayan poet Delmira Agustini, born in 1886 and murdered by her husband in 1914. The central song uses one of the Sonetti romaneschi by the Italian Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli (1791-1863). Titled "L’uscelletto" ("The little bird"), it is unnecessary to refer to the metaphorical image used, in what is undoubtedly the "greenest" poem of all those selected for the cycle.
The fourth song, based on the shocking poem "Lösch mir die Augen aus" ("Put out my eyes") by the German Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) should be described as diametrically opposite in character. And the cycle ends in a casual way with the amusing poem in Latin "Adeste, hendecasyllabi" ("Come, hendecasyllables") by Gaius Valerius Catullus (87-54 BC), in which the meter of Falcio hendecasyllable used in the poem (_ _ _ U U _ U _ U _ U) is rigorously followed, alternating the measures of 2/4 + 2/4 + 9/8 from the beginning to the end.

With Magdalena Llamas and Luis Fernando Pérez, greeting after the premiere
(Paraninfo of Santiago de Compostela University, October 21, 2017)

Despite the fact that the idea for this cycle arose, as has been said, in the summer of 2010, its composition began in November 2015, ending in March 2016. The premiere of the Five green songs took place on October 21, 2017 at the Auditorium of the University of Santiago de Compostela, within the 2017 Contemporary Music Working Days, and was performed by Magdalena Llamas (to whom the work is dedicated, together with José Miguel Martínez) and pianist Luis Fernando Pérez.



Program of the premiere of the Five green songs
(Paraninfo of Santiago University, October 21, 2017)



Texts

I
Sappho (650/610-580 B.C.)

Love's effects

(Fragment 2)




That man to me seems equal to the gods,
the man who sits opposite you
and close by listens
to your sweet voice
and your enticing laughter—
that indeed has stirred up the heart in my breast.
For whenever I look at you even briefly
I can no longer say a single thing,
but my tongue is frozen in silence;
instantly a delicate flame runs beneath my skin;
with my eyes I see nothing;
my ears make a whirring noise.
A cold sweat covers me,
trembling seizes my body,
and I am greener than grass.
Lacking but little of death do I seem.


(Trans: Julia Dubnoff)



Sappho (650/610-580 B.C.)
(Roman copy of a sculpture from the Greek Hellenistic
period. Istanbul Archaeological Museum)

First page of the first movement of the Five green songs



II
Delmira Agustini (1886-1914)

En silencio / In silence

(from "The empty chalices", 1913)


Por tus manos indolentes
Mi cabello se desfloca;
Sufro vértigos ardientes
Por las dos tazas de moka

De tus pupilas calientes;
Me vuelvo peor que loca
Por la crema de tus dientes
En las fresas de tu boca;

En llamas me despedazo
Por engarzarme en tu abrazo.
Y me calcina el delirio
Cuando me yergo en tu vida,
¡Toda de blanco vestida,
Toda sahumada de lirio!


By your indolent hands
My hair falls out;
I suffer burning dizziness
For the two cups of mocha

Of your hot pupils;
I go worse than crazy
For the cream of your teeth
In the strawberries of your mouth;

In flames I tear myself apart
For enshrining me in your embrace.
And delirium burns me
When I stand in your life,
All dressed in white
All scented with lily!



Delmira Agustini (1886-1914)

First page of the second movement of the Five green songs



III
Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli (1791-1863)

L'uscelletto / The little bird

(from "Sonetti romaneschi")


Sor Maria Battifessa, v'ho pportato
Un uscelletto d'allevasse a mmano,
Che lo cacciò mmi' Madre da un pantano,
Dove Tata sciaveva seminato.

Nun guardate ch'è cciuco e spennacchiato:
Lo vederete cressce a mmano a mmano.
Anzi allora tienetelo ingabbiato,
Perché ssi vvola ve pô annà llontano.

Sin ch'è da nido, fateje carezze:
Cerca l'ummido poi, ma nnò lo sguazzo;
E la gabbia la vò ssenza monnezze.

De rimanente è uscello da strapazzo:
E nn'averete le sette allegrezze
Fascennolo ruzzà ss'un matarazzo.

Sister Mary Battifesa, I have brought you
a little bird to raise by hand,
my mother pulled him out of a swamp
where Papa had planted it.

Don't mind seeing him small and plucked:
you will see it grow little by little.
But don't stop having him caged,
because when it flies it can go far.

While it is in the nest, pet it;
then look for moisture, but not the puddle,
and the cage wants it without filth.

For the rest it is a battle bird
that will give you the seven joys
rolling him on a mattress.


Monument to Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli (1791-1863)
in Trastevere in Rome

First page of the third movement of the Five green songs



IV
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

Lösch mir die Augen aus / Apágame los ojos

(de "Das Stunden Buch")


Lösch mir die Augen aus: ich kann dich sehn,
wirf mir die Ohren zu: ich kann dich hören,
und ohne Füße kann ich zu dir gehn,
und ohne Mund noch kann ich dich beschwören.
Brich mir die Arme ab, ich fasse dich
mit meinem Herzen wie mit einer Hand,
halt mir das Herz zu, und mein Hirn wird schlagen,
und wirfst du in mein Hirn den Brand,
so werd ich dich auf meinem Blute tragen.




Put out my eyes, and I can see you still,
Slam my ears too, and I can hear you yet;
And without any feet can go to you;
And tongueless, I can conjure you at will.
Break off my arms, I shall take hold of you
And grasp you with my heart as with a hand;
Arrest my heart, my brain will beat as true;
And if you set this brain of mine afire,
Then on my blood-stream I yet will carry you."

(Trans.: Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy)



Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926)

First page of the fourth movement of the Five green songs



V
Cayo Valerio Catulo (ca. 87-54 B.C.)

Adeste, hendecasyllabi / Come, hendecasyllable

(Poem LXII)

Adeste, hendecasyllabi, quot estis
omnes undique, quotquot estis omnes.
Iocum me putat esse moecha turpis,
et negat mihi nostra reddituram
pugillaria, si pati potestis.
Persequamur eam et reflagitemus.
Quae sit, quaeritis? Illa, quam videtis
turpe incedere, mimice ac moleste
ridentem catuli ore Gallicani.
Circumsistite eam, et reflagitate,
"moecha putida, redde codicillos,
redde putida moecha, codicillos!"
Non assis facis? O lutum, lupanar,
aut si perditius potes quid esse.
Sed non est tamen hoc satis putandum.
Quod si non aliud potest ruborem
ferreo canis exprimamus ore.
Conclamate iterum altiore uoce.
"Moecha putida, redde codicillos,
redde, putida moecha, codicillos!"
Sed nil proficimus, nihil mouetur.
Mutanda est ratio modusque vobis,
siquid proficere amplius potestis:
"pudica et proba, redde codicillos."


Come, Hendecasyllabics, many as may
All hither, every one that of you be!
That fulsome harlot makes me laughing-stock
And she refuses at our prayer restore
Our stolen Note-books, an such slights ye bear.
Let us pursue her clamouring our demands.
"Who's she?" ye question: yonder one ye sight
Mincingly pacing mime-like, perfect pest,
With jaws wide grinning like a Gallic pup.
Stand all round her dunning with demands,
"Return (O rotten whore!) our noting books. Our noting books (O rotten whore!) return!"
No doit thou car'st? O Mire! O Stuff o' stews!
Or if aught fouler filthier dirt there be.
Yet must we never think these words suffice.
But if naught else avail, at least a blush
Forth of that bitch-like brazen brow we'll squeeze.
Cry all together in a higher key
"Restore (O rotten whore!) our noting books,
Our noting books (O rotten whore!) restore!"
Still naught avails us, nothing is she moved.
Now must our measures and our modes be changed An we would anywise our cause advance.
"Restore (chaste, honest Maid!) our noting books!"

(Trans.: Richard Burton and Leonard Smithers)


Cayo Valerio Catulo (ca. 87-54 B.C.)
(Bust in Sirmione, Italy)

First page of the fifth movement of the Five green songs



Recording

Premiere recording (low quality): Magdalena Llamas (mezzosoprano) and Luis Fernando Pérez (piano)
Santiago de Compostela, Paraninfo of the University, October 21, 2017 (within the Contemporary Music Working Days 2017)


I. Love's effects (Sappho)
II. In silence (Delmira Agustini)
III. The little bird (Giuseppe Gioacchino Belli)
IV. Put out my eyes (Rainer Maria Rilke)
V. Come, hendecasyllable (Cayo Valerio Catulo)



Download pdf

(Score without watermarks available at www.asesores-musicales.com )