Elisenda Fábregas
Goyescas for flute and guitar
Year: 2008
Duration (in minutes): 20'39;
Difficulty: High (professional)
Category: mixed instrument ensemble, small chamber ensembles - 2 to 4 players
Instruments: any string, any woodwind, flute, guitar
Publisher: Hofmeister Musikverlag
Score PDF: goyescas_fl__gui_pg._5-7_sample-5.pdf
Text PDF: goyescas_goyas_illustrations-9.pdf
Description: "Goyescas" is a cycle of six short pieces commissioned and premiered by flutist Marina Piccinini and guitarist Emanuele Segre at the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society on January 23, 2009. I was inspired to write Goyescas to express musically my impressions of six exciting paintings by Francisco Goya. This work has a Spanish folk flavor imparted by mysterious harmonic and modal overtones. The fiery dance rhythms and the infectious spirit imbue this cycle with a special fire and vitality only found in the music of the Spanish people. I especially enjoy spicing up my melodies with grace notes and the elaborate, intricate melismas (ornamental melodic embellishments) found in Flamenco music and other traditional folk music of Spain. I have blended these beloved musical traditions with contemporary compositional techniques that meld these ancient forms into a poetic, lyrical and intimate personal musical language.
I. Pregón is a brilliant fanfare that echoes the brash trumpet calls (or pregones) that imperiously summoned villagers to important communal festivals.
II. La familia de Carlos IV is inspired by a portrait of the majestic and noble royal family of Charles IV of Spain.
III. Las majas en el balcón depicts two sultry 'majas' (maidens) flanked by two threatening 'guardias civiles' (Spanish police).
IV. El sueño (the dream) is Goya's poetic, sensual and passionate depiction of a vulnerable and mysterious sleeping woman.
V. La Fragua (the forge) is a grim, dark portrait of three men toiling at a blazing forge.
VI. La gallina ciega (Blind men's bluff), is a bright, festive work that captures the carnival atmosphere of an ancient Spanish tradition at which the purifying and regenerative forces of fire consume a sardine on Ash Wednesday, one of the holiest of religious holidays in Spain.
