Rosalía de Castro (1837-1885)

Federico García Lorca (1898-1936)

Canzon de cuna para Rosalía Castro, morta / Lullaby for Rosalía Castro, dead (Texts by Federico García Lorca, popular and by Rosalía de Castro)

A cappella choir


Commentary
Texts
Recording
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Commentary

It was composed in the summer of 2003 at the request of Joan Company, for a concert of Spanish choral music composed in the 21st century, and starts from a poem written in Galician by Federico García Lorca, made up of a series of linked couplets that open and close with a quote from a popular Galician song.

Between each couplet I inserted fragments of some of the Galician songs collected and glossed by Rosalía de Castro, with which the resulting literary alternation between the cultured and the popular serves as a structural pretext for a correspondence in the musical, but of an inverse character: In this way, Lorca's couplets are treated in a lighter and simpler way, with a harmonic and melodic treatment that is even popular at some point, than the Galician songs, which are inserted in a much denser and more complex polyphonic elaboration.


The Lullaby for Rosalía Castro, dead, was premiered on April 22, 2004 at the Teatro Monumental in Madrid by the ORTVE Choir under the direction of Joan Company, to whom it is dedicated.

Texts

Érguete, miña amiga, que xa cantan os galos do día! - Canta os galos pra o día érguete, meu ben, e vaite. Érguete, miña amada, porque o vento muxe, como unha vaca! Os arados van e vén dende Santiago a Belén. Has de cantar, que che hei de dar zonchos; has de cantar, que che hei de dar moitos. Dende Belén a Santiago un anxo ven en un barco. Cómo chove miudiño, cómo miudiño chove; cómo chove miudiño, pola banda de Laíño, pola banda de Lastrove. Un barco de prata fina que trai a door de Galicia. Campanas de Bastabales, cando vos oio tocar mórrome de soidades. Galicia deitada e queda transida de tristes herbas. San Antonio bendito, dádeme un home, anque me mate, anque me esfole. [Que, zambo ou trenco, sempre é bo ter un home para un remedio.]* Herbas que cobren teu leito e a negra fonte dos teus cabelos. Miña Santa Margarida, miña Margarida santa, tendes a casa no monte, donde o paxariño canta. Cabelos que van ao mar onde as nubes teñen seu nidio pombal. Érguete, miña amiga, que xa cantan os galos do día! - ¿Cómo me hei de ir, queridiña, cómo me hei de ir e deixarte? Érguete, miña amada, porque o vento muxe, como unha vaca! Texto en cursiva: Federico García Lorca Texto normal: Popular * Texto entre corchetes: Rosalía de Castro

Recording

Premiere recording: RTVE Choir (Cond.: Joan Company)

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