Ella Que Llora

From Wind Repertory Project
D.J. Sparr

D.J. Sparr (Libretto by Caitlin Vincent)


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General Info

Year: 2018
Duration: c. 15:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: Bill Holab Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - Unknown


Instrumentation

Full Score
Flute
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet
Horn in F I-II
Organ
Percussion (2-3 players)

(percussion detail desired)

Soprano


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Ella Que Llora was loosely inspired by the myth of La Llorona, or the Weeping Woman. According to folklore from Central and South America, La Llorona is the ghost of a woman who drowned her children and now wanders along the banks of a river, looking for them and weeping. While the figure is often framed as an antagonist in popular culture, Ella Que Llora leaves it to the audience to decide whether the woman’s actions were accidental or not. The work shifts between vignettes from the woman’s past and present, while the sound of the river remains omnipresent, expressed through musical references to rushing waves and historical works about water embedded in the orchestration.

Ella Que Llora was written specifically for soprano Lindsay Kesselman and commissioned by a consortium of wind ensembles led by Kevin Geraldi at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro and Sarah McKoin at Texas Tech University. There are two companion pieces to the work: Nullipara, which follows a modern woman’s struggle with fertility issues, and Pitch Past Pitch of Grief, an intoned chant for four female voices that draws the soul of a child to its parents.

- Program Note by Caitlin Vincent


Media

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State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Shenandoah Conservatory (Winchester, Va.) Wind Ensemble (Timothy J. Robblee, conductor; Stephanie Higgins, soprano) - 6 November 2021
  • Texas Tech University (Lubbock) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (Sarah McKoin, conductor) – 29 October 2019
  • University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Wind Ensemble (Kevin M. Geraldi, conductor; Lindsay Kesselman, soprano) – 25 April 2019 *Premiere Performance*


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources