home > list of works > chamber & ensembles > four instruments > El viento que nunca duerme / The wind that never sleeps
The Galerna Quartet (from left to right: Gema Jurado,
Álvaro Gallego, Mercedes Schmidt and Sara Chordá
El viento que nunca duerme / The wind that never sleeps
For Flute, Violin, Viola and CelloCommentary
Video
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Commentary
The flute quartet El viento que nunca duerme (The Wind That Never Sleeps) was written between the months of October 2018 and January 2019 at the request of the then recently created Galerna Quartet, whose members (Mercedes Schmidt, flute; Gema Jurado, violin; Álvaro Gallego, viola; and Sara Chordá violoncello) had been members of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain just a few years before. The curious name of the group suggested to link the piece, both from its general title and that of the different movements, with different names of winds -and, where appropriate, mythological characters associated with them- that, in turn, were allusive. to the nature of each of them.
Hence the serenity of the first, Aura, written exclusively for solo flute, which contrasts sharply with the agitated and scherzante character of the second, Boreas and Oreitia, with considerable rhythmic difficulty.
With Zephyr and Chloris the calm atmosphere of the flute part is resumed, although in perpetual contradiction with the accompaniment of the percussive sounds of the three string instruments.
The work closes with Aeolus and Ulysses, whose second title (Galerna) is an eloquent reference to the hectic nature of the writing, which provides a brilliant ending to the piece.
The score opens with the following fragment of the poem "Preciosa y el aire" (Preciosa and the wind), from the Gypsy Ballads by Federico García Lorca, from which the title of the work comes directly:
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Su luna de pergamino Preciosa tocando viene. Al verla se ha levantado el viento que nunca duerme. |
Her parchment moon Preciosa playing comes. Seeing her it has risen the wind that never sleeps. |
Program of the premiere of The wind that never sleeps
Logically dedicated to the Galerna Quartet, The wind that never sleeps was premiered at the Church of the Mercedarian Mothers in Madrid on March 25, 2023, within the "Aeterna Musica" cycle.
Aura, first movement of The wind that never sleeps
First page of Boreas and Oreitia, second movement
of The wind that never sleeps
First page of Zephyr and y Chloris, third movement
of The wind that never sleeps
First page of Aeolus and Ulysses (Gale), fourth movement
of The wind that never sleeps
Video
| Video of the premiere by the Galerna Quartet (Mercedes Schmidt, Gemma Jurado, Álvaro Gallego and Sara Chordá) Madrid, Church of the Mercedarian Mothers; March 25, 2023 |