BALADA - SYMPHONY NO. 5

Symphony No. 5 'American' (2003) explores two styles in the same work in an evolutionary structure. One of these styles identifies with my avant-garde period, which is dramatic and angular and spans from the mid sixties to the mid-seventies. During that period, in works like Guernica (Naxos 8.557342) and Steel Symphony, I used a long list of technical resources: atonality, aleatoric devices, clustered harmonies, no tunes, no traditional harmonies, strong rhythms and big contrast of dynamics. Then in 1968 with Sinfonia en Negro - Homage to Martin Luther King, a new style came to the fore which was fully implemented in 1975 with Homage to Casals and Sarasate (Naxos 8.557342). In this new period I blend the ways of the avant-garde with ethnic ideas, creating a symbiosis of these two worlds. Symphony No. 5 uses these two styles. The symphony, in three movements, is a kaleidoscope of emotions. The work evolves from one stage of darkness at the beginning to a high point of light and unrepentant optimism at the end. In the first movement, 9/11: In Memoriam, dry, loud, ugly, and desperate sonorities are presented in the most abstract way in a tense and driven manner. 9/11 was in my mind, as was my childhood trauma caused by the bombings by German airplanes in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War when I composed Guernica forty years ago. The interval of a sad minor third is heard almost persistently throughout, performed sometimes by the strings but more often by the keyboard percussion, harp and piano in what suggests fatal bells. That third is surrounded by tone clusters, which often filter into minor triadic chords with a most deceptive feeling. The minor third interval of the first movement is also a constant in the second and the third movements, but it's function here is completely different. In the second movement, Reflection, this interval is part of a delicate fabric of melodic lines based on a Negro spiritual. These lines are designed by several instruments in layers. Here all is quiet, peaceful and hopeful and to a degree melodious. In the third movement, Square Dance, this minor third is part of some American folk-tunes gathered together to build a brilliant square dance, strongly rhythmic, tireless in it's perpetual motion and expression of happiness. Altogether it is a trip from the abstract to the ethnic. The symphony was composed from April 2002 to April 2003, commissioned by the Pittsburgh Symphony when Mariss Jansons was Music Director, with the support of The Heinz Endowment Creative Heights Artist Residency Program in partnership with Carnegie Mellon University School of Music. The world première took place on 30th October 2003 at Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, in Pittsburgh, performed by the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra conducted by Hans Graf.

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