Homenaje a Federico García Lorca

From Wind Repertory Project
Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas


General Info

Year: 1936 / 1958
Duration: c. 13:00
Difficulty: (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Chamber orchestra
Publisher: Peer Music Classical
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - Unknown   |   Score Only (print) - $18.00


Movements

1. Baile (Dance) – 3:25
2. Duelo (Sorrow) – 3:40
3. Son (Sound) – 2:55


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Trumpet I-II
Trombone
Tuba
String Bass
Piano
Percussion, including:

  • Xylophone
  • Tam Tam

Violin I-II


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

One of Revueltas's greatest works, Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, pays tribute to the great poet and musician who was killed by the Fascists on August 19, 1936, during the Spanish Civil War. A committed socialist, Revueltas went to Spain in 1937, at the height of the war, to lend his support to the Republican cause. Revueltas conducted the work in Madrid in September of that year.

The first and third movements of this triptych are very lively, reflecting the Mexican attitude that the apprehension of death should provoke a more intense love of life. The middle movement, Duelo (Sorrow) is a stunningly beautiful meditation -- as Peter Garland wrote in In Search of Silvestre Revueltas, the most directly emotional music Revueltas ever wrote.

One might expect Silvestre Revueltas' Homenaje a Federico García Lorca to be an impassioned lament for the murdered Spanish poet, but an homage is very different from a requiem. While Revueltas's work does contain its share of mournful cries, it juxtaposes mourning with raucous celebration. This mixture of high and low is characteristic of Revueltas, and the skill with which he mixes the two makes Homenaje a Federico García Lorca perhaps Revueltas's finest work for orchestra.

The work begins with a rippling, ambiguous chord on piano, followed by a trumpet's unaccompanied lament. The lament is cut off mid-phrase by an unexpected bump, after which the violins play a feverish accompaniment figure and a flute enters playing an infectious, carefree melody. Gradually, the rest of the orchestra joins in: the brass play bumptious, swaggering melodies, the strings whirl in accompaniment, the winds take turns with the melodic line and sometimes cut in on each other. It feels as though one has been plunged suddenly into a city festival, with happy chaos all around. This section pulls up unexpectedly, however, and the music of the opening returns. This time, instead of returning to the festival, Revueltas introduces a slow ostinato in the violins and piano to accompany the trumpet's continued solo laments. The trumpet assumes most of the melodic weight until a climactic section brings powerful dissonances in the brass and emphatic gong strokes. The trumpet music returns once again, but eventually fades away. After a long pause, with the trumpet's mournful tones still hanging in the air, there is another explosion of color in the orchestra. Led by the trumpet and piano, the orchestra transforms the earlier lamenting music into music with similar contours but a joyful tone, something reminiscent of a mariachi. Revueltas gradually whips the orchestra into a chaotic, brilliant climax, and the work ends with an emphatic coda. Homenaje a Federico García Lorca is both one of Revueltas' most characteristic works and one of his best.

- Program Note by Andrew Lindemann Malone, All Music Guide


Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (Homage to Federico García Lorca) is a work for chamber orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.

On 19 August 1936, the Spanish poet Federico García Lorca was murdered by fascist militia forces. Outraged, along with many other intellectuals and artists, in October Revueltas composed Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, one of his most important works, which was premiered on 14 November 1936 conducted by the composer. It was given its first Spanish performance at the Salón de Actos de la Asociación de Amigos de Mexico in Madrid on 17 September 1937.

The absence of low woodwinds, violas, and cellos produces a sound meant to evoke a Mexican village band, or the sound of Indian music.

- Program Note from Wikipedia


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Northwestern University (Evanston, Ill.) Chamber Ensemble (Jeffrey de Seriere, conductor) - 23 November 2021
  • Lynn University (Boca Raton, Fla.) Wind Ensemble (Kenneth Amis, conductor) – 7 September 2019
  • University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Symphony Band Chamber Winds (John Pasquale, conductor) – 27 January 2017
  • Williams College (Williamstown, Mass.) Symphonic Winds (Steven Dennis Bodner, conductor) – 23 March 2006 (CBDNA 2006 Eastern Division Conference, Montclair, N.J.)


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources