Homenaje a Federico García Lorca by Silvestre Revueltas Orchestra - Sheet Music

SKU: PR.605898510

UPC: 680160422012.

One of Revueltas's greatest works, "Homenaje a Federico Garcia Lorca" pays tribute to the great poet and musician who was killed by the Fascists 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. REVIEW: 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' 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' 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 Garcia Lorca is both one of Revueltas' most characteristic works and one of his best. -- Andrew Lindemann Malone, All Music Guide.