Elogio de la sombra
For string quartet
2015
Duration
17 min
Instrumentation
2 vn, va, vc
Premiered by
Kamus Quartet
28.1.2016
Kaustinen Chamber Music Week
Kaustinen, Finland
Movements
I. Amanecer (Dawn)
II. Despedida (Farewell)
III. Los espejos (Mirrors)
IV. Alguien (Someone)
V. Elogio de la sombra (Praise of the shadows)
VI. El oro de los tigres (The gold of the tigers)
VII. Himno (Hymn)
VIII. La joven noche (The young night)
IX. El sueno (The dream)
Notes
Elogio de la sombra is an exploration of poetry in music. My inspiration was Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges’s poems of which the dreamlike and mystical atmosphere and thematics I was intrigued by. Recurring themes in Borges’s poems are shadows, light and darkness, dreams and mirrors which serve as metaphors for solitude, longing, death, identity and existence.
The piece is in nine movements, each movement inspired by a different poem. I aimed to follow closely each poem’s content and let the poems direct each movement’s dramaturgy, character and musical material in detail.
The movements are Amanecer (Dawn), Despedida (Farewell), Los espejos (Mirrors), Alguien (Someone), Elogio de la sombra (Praise of the shadows), El oro de los tigres (The gold of the tigers), Himno (Hymn), La joven noche (The young night) and El sueno (The dream).
All in all, the work illustrates a day of events beginning from Dawn (Amanecer) and ending to The dream (El sueno).
“As unpredictable as it is rich in colour, a fascinating play between moments of calm, passion, and feverish activity.
– FMQ
Listen
Reviews
“The fact that the original poems could not be seen seemed just to emphasize the music’s own poetry: every gesture, with threatening alarms or tangled torrents of speech, had a distinct emphasis. Even though the series was bouncing between opposites, the atmosphere remained united at all times in a deepening exploration of Borges’s dreamy world of shades.“
RONDO, 22.8.2018
“Mirrors, darkness, and tigers give rise to a musical whole that is as unpredictable as it is rich in colour, a fascinating play between moments of calm, passion, and feverish activity.“
FMQ, 4.12.2020
“Elogio de la Sombra, written to Jorge Luis Borge’s nocturnal poems, offered a plethora of new playing techniques with an intensity that was the most apparent when the strings barely rubbed at the strings. The nine movement names, taken from the poems, from dawn to dusk, served as a program that made it easy for the listener to take the music with a given meaning.“
HBL, 22.8.2018
Sheet Music
Schott Music GmbH & Co. KG
Weihergarten 5
55116 Mainz
info@schott-music.com
+49 6131 246-0
Past performances
24.11.2023
Opus13
Rusk Festival
Jakobstad’s museum
Jakobstad, Finland
21.8.2018
Uusinta Ensemble
Music Centre
Helsinki, Finland
18.8.2017
Siggi string quartet
The Nordic House
Reykjavík, Iceland
7.7.3027
Quatuor Bozzini
Time of Music Festival
Viitasaari, Finland
29.1.2016
Kamus Quartet
Kaustinen Chamber Music Week
Pietarsaari, Finland
28.1.2016
Kamus Quartet
Kaustinen Chamber Music Week
Pietarsaari, Finland