Homenaje a Óscar Wilde / Homage to Oscar Wilde (Four children's tales)

For String quartet


Commentary
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Commentary

Composed in Puerto de Mazarrón (Murcia) during the summer of 1997, this string quartet has an eminently didactic character, being conceived both technically and musically within the appropriate difficulties for an intermediate level of chamber music education, to which I have dedicated an important part of my production in recent years.
This Homage to Oscar Wilde consists of four movements of highly contrasting character. The first three are titled after Wilde's tales: thus, the first is titled The Selfish Giant, the second The Nightingale and the Rose, and the third The Canterville Ghost. The set is completed with a fourth tale, whose title itself is a formal statement of intent regarding the previous three: The Selfish Nightingale of Canterville. The same conceptual play reflected in the title inspires the entire composition of the piece, from the first to the last note: the three previous movements have been fragmented and subsequently assembled in strict order, resulting in continuous changes of tempo and character, in a piece that also seeks to approach the humor and irony of the brilliant English writer.
Within the enormous simplicity of its approach and the friendliness of its listening experience, I must confess here that the Homage to Oscar Wilde has been the work that has posed the greatest technical and musical challenges for me, as the last movement needed to make global sense had to be composed simultaneously with the other three, which in turn had to have their own independent sense, with continuous comings and goings, reconsiderations, and modifications throughout the composition process.
The Homage to Oscar Wilde premiered in Madrid in March 1998, with the string orchestra version created in 2004 for the 20th anniversary of the "Reina Sofía" Orchestra being more widely disseminated. In February 2013, the score was orchestrated for symphony orchestra and premiered by the Orquesta Ciudad de Córdoba, under the direction of José Luis Temes, on April 4 of that same year. The string quartet score is dedicated to Verena Maschat.

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