Description
From the composer:
“There are two main symbols of the poet in English romanticism: the lyre and the bird. Both suggest the superiority of Nature over culture and imply a series of qualities that are supposed to characterize the figure of the poet (unpredictability of genius, purposeless creative mood, etc.). Luis Cernuda Bidón uses, re-reads, and articulates these symbols in order to make them fit his poetics of desire and to depict the modern condition of the poet. An evocation of the music of the harp is the principal theme of this Surrealist poem. The harp produces a very gentle, floating, ethereal sort of sound. This is reflected in Cernuda’s choice of words in which the Spanish uses a predominance of ‘a’ vowels, which is the most open of the vowels, and there are few consonants that would add a more harsh sound. The “bird-harp” sings because it is in consonance with the natural world and reflective of the ethereal sounds, which attempt to imitate the sound of the harp. The poem, therefore, is an imitation of the harp by creating a soft, gentle, harmonic poem, which in turn echoes and reinforces the main theme of music.
“The music has been designed to accompany the narrator of the poem. Together, they should reflect the ethereal nature of the music and words. Although this rendition is in English, the Spanish can also be used. The music has been written for a lever harp (tuned in Eb) with two octaves below middle C or a pedal harp. The music itself is of an intermediate level and should be played slowly and with rubato where necessary to reflect the emotion and reading style of the narrator. It is a slow (Andante), through composed, art song with a Spanish dotted-rhythm and numerous seventh chords to give it the more ethereal quality.”
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