String Quartet No. 1, Montes'

Agustín Fernández

String Quartet No 1, ‘Montes’

i.                   City of Silence

ii.                Gate of the Moon

iii.             Music and Land

This work is a musical tribute to the Bolivian painter Fernando Montes, who died in January 2007 in London. The quartet is in three movements, each addressing one of Montes’s paintings. In some cases the connection is structural, extracting ideas for the organisation of musical material from the layout of the images. In all three cases, the music is an exploration of expressive resonances perceived from the paintings, as well as a reflection on the shared aspects in the painter’s and the composer’s backgrounds.

Thus, ‘City of Silence’ evokes the hieratic starkness of the eponymous painting. ‘Gate of the Moon’ explores an idea suggested by the painting – where a silver light radiates from the centre outward – and builds on material from ‘mooncast’ from my Mystical Dances.  ‘Music and Land’ takes Montes’s idea of two drummers and a piper to generate music that has some of the character of Andean pipes’ playing with percussive accompaniment.

The piece was first performed by the Momenta Quartet on 28 November 2007 at Rock Hall Auditorium, Philadelphia.

© Agustín Fernández

A to Z

A to Z (2001-2002)

This is an ongoing cycle of small études exploring the technical and expressive possibilities of various combinations of flutes and guitars, played by two performers. The work is being written specially for Stefan Östersjö and Terje Thiwång. When they gave the first performance in Malmö in April 2001 there were four études. Today the series consists of nine, with transitional passages added to facilitates instrument changes. The first performance of this fuller version took place in Stockholm in 2005.

Wounded Angel

Wounded Angel (1989)

The title is borrowed from that of a painting by the Finnish painter Hugo Simberg (1873-1917), in which two peasant children are depicted carrying an injured angel on a stretcher.

 

The music was conceived as a prelude to the picture, in which I attempt to explore the inexplicable: what happened just before the scene Simberg depicts? The end of the piece should be the start of the painting.

 

My Wounded Angel was realised at the studios of City University, London, and first performed – in an earlier version – by myself at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, in 1989. It is available in two recordings: by myself on NMC (Mixed), and by Stefan Östersjö on dB (Playtime)

Peregrine

Programme note 1


Agustín Fernández: Peregrine

The title refers to a number of different things: to a falcon, to something outlandish, to a literal translation of the Spanish for ‘pilgrim’ (peregrino), and hence to a poem by the Bolivian poet Ricardo Jaimes Freire: Peregrina paloma imaginaria (literally ‘peregrine imaginary dove’, but the main thing here is the rhythm formed by the words in Spanish). The lone, high-flying predator, often a condor or an eagle, is a recurrent theme in Bolivian folklore. So is the dove as a symbol of gentleness and love. What happens when the two meet? This musical exploration tests the extent to which lightness of texture can survive an accumulation of rhythmic impetus.

Peregrine was commissioned by Joel Sachs for the New Juilliard Ensemble, who gave the first performance at Lincoln Center in December 1996. The Tyneside ensemble Vaganza performed it in 1997 conducted by Ilan Volkov. The current version is an extensive revision prepared for a repeat performance at Lincoln Center in November 2005.

© Agustín Fernández

Programme note 2


Agustín Fernández: Peregrine

There are different possible meanings to the above title; any of them is appropriate to the piece. You can picture a predatory bird soaring through the skies and searching for prey. You can visualise the ruthless hunter swooping down on an innocent lamb. In the lyrics of some folksongs I heard in childhood, the high-flying bird is a spy, commissioned to come back and tell you what the person you desire gets up to when you cannot see them. Or you can think of a pilgrimage from place to place, or from rock to mountain. While admitting of these associations, this piece of music deals specifically with flight, the kinetic phenomenon. The prowess of defying gravity to take off and ascend, the gathering of momentum in the air, the calm confidence of gliding with motionless wings, and above all the exhilarating daredevilry of seeing how low it is possible to go without coming crashing down.

Peregrine was commissioned by Joel Sachs for the New Juilliard Ensemble, who gave the first performance at Lincoln Center in December 1996. The Tyneside ensemble Vaganza performed it in 1997 conducted by Ilan Volkov. The current version is an extensive revision prepared for a repeat performance at Lincoln Center in November 2005.

© Agustín Fernández