Elisenda Fábregas

Retorn a la terra for narrator and large chamber ensemble

Year: 2012

Duration (in minutes): 20'39;

Difficulty: High (professional)

Category: larger chamber ensembles - more than 4 players

Instruments: any brass, any string, any woodwind, bassoon, clarinet, contrabass, percussion, trombone, trumpet, violin

Publisher: Hidden Oaks Music Co.

Video Links: OPzLwdmwU-E

Score PDF: retorn_a_la_terra_sample_score-5.pdf

Text PDF: notestext-5.pdf

Description: Commissioned and Premiered by the Virtuoso Ensemble on May 26, 2012, under the direction of Unai Urrecho at the Hwaseong Arts Center (Ban Sook Concert Hall of the Dong Tan Art Center of Hwaseong), South-Korea.
This composition was inspired by two Catalan poems: Retorn a Catalunya by Josep Carner and La Sardana by Joan Maragall. The first poem is narrated in its entirety and certain parts repeated at certain points in the first and second movements. Carner's poem portrays the excitement of the poet returning to his native country describing the most characteristic attributes. In the first movement the music is inspired by the anticipation of the return, the excitement at seeing familiar landscapes and vegetation, as well as meeting the Catalan people; in the second movement, connected to the first without a stop, the music freely uses a melancolic Catalan melody that imbues a religious tone to the entire movement. The third movement uses the basic sardana rhythm as well as certain melodic turns typical of sardana's melodies.
Retorn a la terra uses the same instrumentation as L'Histoire du soldat by Stravinsky and both works will be performed at the same concert. Retorn a la terra consists of three movements (the first two are connected.)
I. La terra de foc (The land of fire)
II. Records (Memories)
III. Dansa (Dance)