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- Gabriela Lena Frank
Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea (choral version) (2014)
- G Schirmer Inc (World)
- 2pf, 2vn, va, vc
- SATB
- Soprano, Baritone
- 1 hr 15 min
- Pablo Antonio Cuadra
- Spanish
Programme Note
Composer Note
Songs of Cifar and the Sweet Sea draws on poetry by the Nicaraguan poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra (1912-2002). As a young man, Cuadra spent more than two decades sailing the waters of Lake Nicaragua, meeting peasants, fishermen, sailors, woodcutters, and timber merchants in his travels. From such encounters, he was inspired to construct a cycle of poems that recount the odyssey of a harp-playing mariner, Cifar, who likewise travels the waters of Lake Nicaragua. In my initial reading of the poems, I was struck by how Cuadra writes of commonplace objects and people but ties them to the undercurrents of his country's past of indigenous folklore. Despite Cuadra's plain vocabulary, ordinary things are thus rendered mythical, revealing Cifar's capacity for wonder and passionate lyricism.
Knowing that I had a treasure trove of poetry to spark my composer's imagination, I sent out to choose a limited selection of poems to set, but it wasn't long before I knew that I would have to set them all, making for a full evening-length program. In addition, I knew I would have to broaden my vision to include another singer — Cifar, represented by a baritone drawing on traditional Nicaraguan vocal practices, would need a female singer to carry the many women that figure in his life. And finally, while my experience accompanying singers tells me that the piano is an admirable lieder partner, perfectly suited to evoke typical Nicaraguan marimba and guitar sounds, I also know that upon the song cycle's completion, I will create another version scoring the piano part for full orchestra.
— Gabriela Lena Frank
Scores
Reviews
It is also an exceptionally poignant tale, intensely dramatic, and beautifully melancholic. Its disparate elements of chorus, soloists, pianists, and string quartet work so well together because they share a similar musical language. That language, despite the Spanish text and themes, is predominantly Western classical, and lends the work a welcome accessibility.
Songs of Cifar, which ran about 75 minutes in length, resembles a cantata in structure, combining elements of chorus, aria, recitative, and instrumental interludes. The chorus alternates between exposition and commentary, sort of like a Greek chorus. They are accompanied by the two pianists, with the Chiara Quartet performing in between various sections.
A brief, dramatic introduction by the two pianists opens the work. The piano parts, even during the choral sections, were quite virtuosic, serving far more than mere accompaniment — Frank is, after all, a noted pianist herself in addition to a composer.
The first chorus gets our attention immediately by its numerous guttural inflections and sharply punctuated emphasis on the ends of words, like thrusts of a dagger. Cifar's world is often unsettling and turbulent, with tenderness always tempered by a sense of forthcoming doom that even lingers in the tremulous piano trills. It is the strength of the chorus, its unexpected accents and unnerving mixed meters, which adds to the intensity of the work, putting the audience in a place both unfamiliar and threatening.
