Programme Notes

PROGRAMME
NOTES
Benjamin Britten
1913-1976
Nocturnal after John Dowland for

guitar Op.70
I. Musingly
2:13
II. Very agitated
1:08
III. Restless
2:10
IV. Uneasy
1:38
V. March-like
1:36
VI. Dreaming
1:54
VII. Gently rocking
1:27
VIII. Passacaglia
4:55
Theme: Slow & quiet
2:54
Leo Brouwer 1939

Le Decameron Noir
I.
II.
La
harpe
du
Guerrier
5:10
La fuite des amants par la vallee des
ecos
5:15
III.
Ballade de la demoiselle amoureuse

6:28
Total:
Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a

central figure of the 20th century British classical music with a range of
works opera, other vocal music, orchestral and chamber pieces. Nocturnal
after John Dowland, Op.70, is widely regard as one of the masterworks of the
guitar repertoire. It unites the contemporary world of dissonances and
strangeness with the Elizabeth concepts of deep emotion and melancholy.
Britten is concerned with depicting in musical terms the various
psychological moods and the qualities of sleep. The composition is a set of
eight variations on the song Come, heavy sleep which appears at the end of
the cycle. In fact, Brittens music frequently occupied within a middle 20th
century, criticized by the avant-garde as too conservative and by the
general public as too challenging.
In Musingly, Britten freely adapts the rhythm and carefully manipulates the
tones and semitones of melodic lines of Come, heavy sleep to increase
temporal and tonal ambiguity. He processes the pitches by dividing the
octave equally into minor thirds, giving what we call diminished-seventh.
The initial violent contrast of dynamic energy generated by the juxtaposition
of Musingly and Very Agitated propels the work forwards. From Very
Agitated, an excited movement with triolic motives , there is a smooth
transition to Restless where he create the peculiarly unstable, troubled
atmosphere by contrasting rhythmical in the various voices.
The fourth movement is headed Uneasy with the fast 32nd-note motives
eliminate any sense of safety and comfort. The fast and long melody run
bring any relief, but just urges on the course of the compositions. March-like
brings security and stability with its strict and repeated rhythm which in the
opening measure follow the diminished seventh same as Musingly and Very
Agitated to translate the musical language from to a post-tonal idiom.
The sixth movement, Dreaming, soft artificial harmonics alternate with
hovering flagellate-passages. The wave-like dynamic swings between
subsequent variations gradually subside until the work its still centre,
Dreaming and Gently Rocking has a song-like feel, modest and calming.
The last variation set was round off with a final demonstrating a complex
discipline, the Passacaglia, which gradually energizes a similar, but inverted,
dynamic discourse. The tonal implications are not clear and A minor is the
least important of three possible tonalities with Phrygian mode dominates.
This time, therefore, the moment of the most extreme contrast comes not at
the beginning but at the end, between the death-rattle of the final climatic
wave of the Passacaglia and the serene tranquility of Slow And quiet. In
Nocturnal, when we arrive at Dowlands song, at Dowlands style, after the
variations, the effect is rather different. The theme is not heard, but
overheard: it is to be played slow and quiet, as if from the distance and
finally the music drifts away at the end, left incomplete and hanging on the
tonality.
(Words:478)
Come, heavy Sleep, the image of

true Death,
And close up these my weary
weeping eyes,
Whose spring of tears doth stop my
vital breath,
And tears my heart with sorrows
sigh - swoll n cries.
Come and possess my tired thought
- worn soul,
That living dies, till thou on me be

stole
Leo Brouwer is a Cuban composer, conductor and guitarist. Among his works
are a large number of solo guitar pieces, guitar concertos and score. He held
a number of important posts in Cuban musical life and beginning around
1962, he became a leader of avant-garde music in Cuba. El Decameron
Negro (Black Decameron), recognized as one of the important solo guitar
repertory of the last quarter of the 20th century. The suite is neo-Romantic
in style. It is based on love story from Africa, collected from folk sources
during the 19th century by the German anthropologist Leon Frobenius.
El arpa del guerrero (The Warriors Harp), is in a traditional sonata form. It
begin with a short declamation of a whole tone scale fragment. In the
passage that follows alternation between two very different musical ideas:
an ostinato/arpeggio and a melodic response. Rhythmically set off from the
previous and following sections by fermatas, and contrasted additionally by
the tranquillo marking, the harp figure stands in stark contrast to the rest of
the movement.
La huida de los amantes por el valle de los ecos (Flight of the Lovers through
the Valley of Echoes), he creates programmatic musical gestures that reflect
the movements evocative title and also blend with Afro-Cuban musical
elements. The theme is marked Declamato pesante and features additive
rhythm as a means of expansion. The theme is made up of three separate
statements, with each single pitch accented. Three new statements follow in
the section marked Presage. Each statement is begun by a large and rapidly
arpeggiated chord. Brouwer creates a growing sense of dissonance and
complexity with each chord and the echo occurs immediately following as
marked, with subito piano dynamic, and a repetitive preoccupation with the
final notes of the theme where carries the additive rhythm of the opening
theme to extraordinary length.
Ballada de la doncella enamorada (Ballad of the Young Girl in Love), sounds
another rhythmic ostinato that is highly reflective of Afro-Cuban percussion
and rhythm with rondo form. Combined with the syncopation in the upper
voice and backbeat drones in the bass, the middle-register notes of the
inner voice can be heard as the pulse. The open D is allowed to ring,
creating a different sustained rhythm pattern and in the end creating a far
more complex and interesting gesture than what appears on the staff to be
a simple single voice line. In the section marked pi mosso, specifically
preserved the cross-string articulation of the ostinato to retain the
polyrhythmic effect. And while he has given downbeats at the beginning of
each bar, the lack of articulation on the third beat and the mixed meter
preserves the effect of shifted beat. All of the third movement of can be
understood as an extrapolation and re-composition of foundational motives
in the first theme. While that approach is closely associated with modernism
and avant-garde methods, his choice of pitch, use of Afro-Cuban musical
figures and rhythms, and his use of African folk tales as programmatic
reference clearly set this work apart from the modernist movement.
(Words:489)
El arpa del guerro (The Warriors

Harp)
contrasts
dramatic
and
rhythmic passages with lyrical
moments. A warrior is banished
because he has taken up playing
the harp. But he returns to lead his
people in battle when invaded. After
his victory, he is condemned to exile
again, but escapes with his lover.
La huida de los amantes por el

valle de los ecos (Flight of the
lovers through the Valley of Echoes)
seems
to
follow
their
flight.
Horseback rhythms alternate with
love music and there is a dazzling
portrayal of the sound of the horses
hooves echoing off the valley walls.
Balada de la doncella enamorada
(Ballad of the Young Girl in Love) is a
passionate rondo using one of the
love tunes of the prior movements.

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PROGRAMME

Nocturnal after John Dowland for

Leo Brouwer 1939

Ballade de la demoiselle amoureuse

Benjamin Britten was an English composer, conductor and pianist. He was a

Come, heavy Sleep, the image of

That living dies, till thou on me be

El arpa del guerro (The Warriors

La huida de los amantes por el

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