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CANTES AMARGOS, Three Ladino Romances, 1984, for female voice and chamber orchestra

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Commissioned by the Teatro Comunale di Firenze for the 47th Maggio Musicale Fiorentino Festival, 1984
Publisher: Israel Music Institute, 1984, IMI 6401 | Duration: 21'28 min.

”Cantes Amargos” is a trilogy, whose origins can be found in collections of Ladino folk songs, ballads and narratives. The symbolism in the text originally derived from Biblical metaphor and was then influenced by Spanish medieval poetry.


The lyrics were passed down orally through generations of the descendants of Jews who were banished from Spain in 1492.


This composition is based on the narrative of the catastrophic banishment of a Jewish people, a drama that was replayed over the centuries. The legend has undergone many transformations through time; what has survived is a set of lyrics veiled in transcendental mysticism. In the first part of the trilogy, the solo voice and bass clarinet engage in a dialogue of a distinctive character, which serves as a unifying element. This theme gradually incorporates the entire orchestral complement. In essence, the original motif is an unchanging constant, in the tradition of the passacaglia device.

CANTES AMARGOS

 

Si la mar era de leche

Yo me haria un peshcador

Dame la mano tu palomba.

Pariera me la mi madre

En una escura montania,

Donde crece la naranja

Y el lemin y la cyndra.

De la mar salada vengo,

De passer solo a orillo del rio

Solo era solo

Como un arbole sin solombra

Alta alta va la una

Quando el sol salir queria

Arvoles yoran por luvia

Y montanias per aire.

Cantes amargo quero cantar

En los bodres de la mar:

En la mar hay una torre

In la torre hay una ventana,

In la ventana hay una paloma,

Dame la mano tu paloma.



CANTES AMARGOS


If the sea flowed with milk

I would a fisherman be.

Give me your hand, sweet dove.

My mother bore me

By the dark mountainside

Where the orange tree grows

And the lemon and citron.

I came from the briny sea,

Passing alone by the river’s edge

Alone, I was alone,

Like a tree without its shade.

Higher, yet higher, travels the moon

When the sun wanted to shine

Tree wept for rain

And hills for the wind.

I want to sing my bitter songs

By the shores of the sea.

There is a tower in the sea,

In the tower there is a window,

And in the window there is a dove,

Give me your hand, sweet dove.

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