Thursday, 12 April 2007

Mystical Dances (in English)

Agustín Fernández
Mystical Dances
(2006)

i. ordelfire
ii. mooncast
iii. shapeshift



In a much-quoted phrase, Octavio Paz wrote: “the poet has no biography - his work is his biography”. I think of that when I find myself attempting an alchemy where personal experiences become music, and new pieces pick up the thread of previous ones like new chapters of the same novel. Mystical Dances charts some of the processes unleashed by encounters with mysterious forces, voices and presences experienced in rural Northumberland, so radically different and yet in some respects so eerily similar to my native Bolivia. On a more personal level, it has to do with a once-in-a-lifetime change of direction in pursuit of a truer self and a truer other.

The work is in three movements, following the age-old lively/slow/lively pattern. ‘ordelfire’ develops ideas associated with burning, first explored in my work Fuego of 1987, but taking them in a totally different direction. If the intention then was to explore fire as destructive violence, now the fire is a force that engulfs, cleanses, transforms and gives energy. The second movement, titled ‘mooncast’, tries to depict the burning light cast by the full moon over the hills of Northumberland. ‘shapeshift’ was titled before it existed, and once written its title proved its fate, as the music had to be re-written since the first performance. It deals with mutations of the preceding material, which in turn adopt ever new guises.

Mystical Dances was commissioned by Northern Sinfonia, who gave the first performance at the Huddersfield Festival in 2006. It was performed again by the same orchestra conducted by Alexander Shelley in August 2007 at The Sage Gateshead .

© Agustín Fernández 2007

Fuego (in English)

Agustín Fernández
Fuego
(1987)


The title of this work refers to an utterly unromantic kind of fire: the fire that, on 2 July 1986, burned two Chilean students outside Santiago. It was a man-made fire, resulting from soldiers pouring kerosene and deliberately setting the youngsters alight. This was, it seems, some kind of exemplary punishment Pinochet’s people had wanted to impart; for this purpose, they picked their two victims apparently at random from a dispersing crowd during a national strike.

Fire had been a pervasive element of Chilean life during this period. The presidential palace had burned as Pinochet came to power, civil rights campaigner Sebastián Acevedo had burned himself alive in protest at Pinochet’s atrocities, and candles had been lit in the streets at night to commemorate the dead in the mid-1980s.

In 1987 this piece was a protest too, as well as a threnody for the dead and a eulogy for the courage of those Chileans who, in the face of real danger, revolted on. But also, I confess, Fuego is an expression of fascination, of hipnosis at this strange recurrence of fire. The changing guises of fire in different situations suggested the structure: a theme and seven variations.

Fuego was commissioned by the Orchestra of the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King, Liverpool, and it was first performed by them under James Wishart, at the Cathedral, on 23 May 1987. It is dedicated to the two victims, Rodrigo Rojas de Negri and Carmen Gloria Quintana.

© Agustín Fernández

Fuego (en castellano)

Agustín Fernández
Fuego
(1987)


El título de esta obra se refiere a un tipo nada romántico de fuego: el fuego que el 2 de julio de 1986 quemó a dos estudiantes chilenos en las afueras de Santiago. No fue un fuego accidental, sino hecho a propósito, cuando soldados de Pinochet usaron queroseno y fósforos con la intención de quemar a los dos jóvenes. Según parece, se trataba de una suerte de castigo ejemplar que las Fuerzas Armadas chilenas habían querido imponer, y con tal motivo habían escogido a sus víctimas más o menos al azar, cuando dispersaban a una manifestación durante una huelga general.

El fuego es un elemento que adquirió un poder simbólico en la vida chilena de este periodo. La casa presidencial (La Moneda) ardió cuando Pinochet subió al poder. El activista Sebastián Acevedo se prendió fuego en protesta por las atrocidades del régimen. La población solía encender velas de noche en memoria de los muertos incontables.

En 1987 esta pieza fue también una protesta, además de un treno por los muertos y un elogio al coraje de los muchos chilenos que, de cara al peligro de muerte, se rebelaron. Pero esta música es también, lo confieso, una expresión de fascinación, de hipnosis ante esa extraña recurrencia del fuego. Las mutaciones del fuego en distintas situaciones me dictó la forma: un tema y siete variaciones.

Fuego fue escrita por encargo de la Orquesta de la Catedral Metroplitana de Cristo Rey, Liverpool, y fue estrenada por esa orquesta bajo la dirección de James Wishart, en la Catedral, el 23 de mayo de 1987. La pieza está dedicada a las dos víctimas, Rodrigo Rojas de Negri y Carmen Gloria Quintana.

© Agustín Fernández