La ciudad sumergida (The Submerged City) for SSAA treble voices and nature soundtrack
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SKU: A0.953625
Composed by Adrienne Inglis (ASCAP). Contemporary,Latin. 5 pages. Adrienne Inglis (ASCAP) #6405603. Published by Adrienne Inglis (ASCAP) (A0.953625).La ciudad sumergida (The Submerged City) for four-part treble chorus and nature soundtrack by Adrienne Inglis (ASCAP)
Commissioned for Dr. Ramona M. Wis and the North Central College Women’s Chorale
A setting of an excerpt of Río de La Plata en lluvia from Mascarilla y Trébol (1938) by Alfonsina Storni (1938)
Copyright © 2020 Adrienne Inglis
Founder, composer, and singer with Inversion Ensemble of Austin, Texas, Adrienne Inglis also serves as principal flute with the Central Texas Philharmonic, flute instructor at Southwestern University, and flutist with flute/harp duo Chaski. She has music degrees from Lewis and Clark College and the University of Texas at Austin. An avid birder and environmentalist, she lives in the rural hill country of Central Texas.
Poet Alfonsina Storni began writing during a tumultuous childhood fraught with economic hardships, many disruptive moves, and an alcoholic father. She danced with a theatrical troupe and then became a teacher and journalist. She bore a child out of wedlock and found herself working as a single mother during socially oppressive times. In Buenos Aires she joined the emerging world of women’s rights, becoming an important literary voice in the movement. When her breast cancer returned, her lifelong passion for the sea culminated in her suicide off of the coast of Argentina.
Río de La Plata en lluvia from Mascarilla y Trébol (1938) lines 1-4 by Alfonsina Storni in the public domain
Ya casi el cielo te apretaba, ciego,
y sumergida una ciudad tenías
en tu cuerpo de grises heliotropos
neblivelado en su copón de llanto.
[The sky was about to embrace you, blind, and you had in your body of gray heliotropes a submerged city,
with the misty sky like a chalice about to overflow with tears.]
Program note: Commissioned for Dr. Ramona M. Wis and the North Central College Women’s Chorale of Naperville, Illinois, La ciudad sumergida (The Submerged City) by Adrienne Inglis for four-part treble chorus with nature soundtrack captures the mood of a river, a city, the cloudy sky, and the poet’s own profound melancholy. The sound of rain creates both the ambiance of a misty day on the river and the sensation of cathartic crying from great sadness and pain. The city’s reflection on the river’s surface gives the illusion that the city is submerged in the water. The reflection of the clouds hovering low over Río de La Plata looks like gray heliotrope flowers. The apocalyptic images of a submerged city and of tears overflowing from the chalice-sky eerily foreshadow rising sea levels due to anthropogenic global warming.
The nature soundtrack of rain was recorded by the composer in the hill country of central Texas, July 2020.
Performance note: This aleatoric, asynchronous composition is suitable for remote singing along with the video score and nature soundtrack. Observe the order of entrances, but know that it’s not meant to line up exactly. Finish a phrase even if another phrase has started. Diphthongs move immediately to the second vowel sound. Ya begins with the [dʒ] sound and llanto begins with the [ʒ] sound, both typical of the Buenos Aires accent. Sing quite expressively except for the neblivelado section which is misty and veiled. The director may wish to indicate the rehearsals numbers or the singers may follow the time on the video-or both.
Duration: 3:08
Link to video with soundtrack is available from the composer (http://adrienneinglis.com).
Acknowledgements: The composer warmly thanks Pablo and Diana Donatti, Ángeles Rodríguez Cadena, and Emilio Torres for their contributions to this project and to Dr. Ramona M. Wis and the North Central College Women’s Chorale for the generous commission.
Copyright © 2020 Adrienne Inglis | http://adrienneinglis.com
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