Canto de Harawi: “Amadeoso” (2005)

As a child, I enjoyed an active dream life which I've sought in vain to reclaim as an adult. So frequent were my night excursions into fantasy that I grew accustomed to actually naming the ones that visited me on a recurring basis. "Amadeoso" was one of these. It grew out of the strong impression made upon me by the film "Amadeus" released in 1984, especially the story's many less-happy and humorous moments. Canto de Harawi: "Amadeoso" is a short tone poem that attempts to portray my childhood dream where I walk hand-in-hand with Mozart, passing through such unlikely scenes as my old backyard garden, a deserted playground, and an ominous cavern that frightened me during a family camping trip. The dream is peculiar in that there is coolness — even distance — intermingled with a sense of impending menace that I, with the naiveté that little children have, want to lead Mozart away from.

This short tone poem takes on the mood and two-part form of a song style native to my Peruvian heritage, that of the melancholy harawi, the quintessential music of the South American Andes. It is particularly distinctive for how the final part of the song sometimes finds its main melody stripped of most of its former accompaniment, starkly dissipating much as a dream might.

— Gabriela Lena Frank

Canto de Harawi: "Amadeoso" was commissioned by Da Camera of Houston and premiered January 27th, 2006, Cullen Theater, Wortham Theater Center Houston, TX, United States of America.