Well, for this new section the first work I have selected - almost at random - from our archive is the
Sensemayá by the short-lived Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas (1899 to 1940). Here it is:
http://artmusic.smfforfree.com/index.php/topic,595.msg3654.html#msg3654Its duration is just under seven minutes. Mr. Lebrecht describes it as written "for voice and orchestra" in 1938; but our version is for orchestra alone, so that is the first puzzle. But Mr. Morris clears that up, and tells us much more: "His best-known work, and the most effective of the scores for full orchestra, it is a work of primitivism and ritual, originally a vocal and orchestral setting of a poem by the Cuban poet Nicholás Guillén, describing the ritual killing of a snake, but
reworked in purely orchestral form." Mr. Morris continues: "Reminiscent of Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring in its relentless drive and repetitive blocks working towards a great climax, it musically reflects the onomatopoic nature of the original poem, gradually thickening in texture, its polyrhythms getting more complex, its dissonances piling up."
Really there is little to add to that description. Stravinsky's influence is obvious from the start, with the persistent drum and bassoon
ostinato throughout. Seven-eight time according to Grove. Taken up by tubas and trumpets. Whether for good or evil the music of the
Rite reverberated throughout the twentieth century, and there is not a single passage in this
Sensemayá that cannot be traced back to something therein. The same can be said of the music of Varčse. There is more than a touch of Ravel's
Bolero as well I find. Except for a tiny pause at the half-way mark, the piece is loud throughout, and the rhythm becomes more and more jagged until - of course - it all ends in "an orgiastic climax" (Grove).
How exactly the snake comes in is not immediately evident from the music; but I have now found this primitive translation of the poem:
Chant to kill a snake Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
The snake has eyes of glass
The snake coils on a stick
With his eyes of glass on a stick,
With his eyes of glass.
The snake can move without feet;
The snake can hide in the grass;
Crawling he hides in the grass,
Moving without feet.
Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
Hit him with an ax and he dies;
Hit him! Go on, hit him!
Don't hit him with your foot or he'll bite;,
Don't hit him with your foot, or he'll get away.
Sensemayá, the snake,
sensemayá.
Sensemayá, with his eyes,
sensemayá.
Sensemayá, with his tongue,
sensemayá.
Sensemayá, with his mouth,
sensemayá.
The dead snake cannot eat;
the dead snake cannot hiss;
he cannot move,
he cannot run!
The dead snake cannot look;
the dead snake cannot drink;
he cannot breathe,
he cannot bite.
Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
Sensemayá, the snake . . .
Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
Sensemayá, does not move . . .
Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
Sensemayá, the snake . . .
Mayombe-bombe-mayombé!
Sensemayá, he die!Well that should convey the general idea. Here is another description, of the music, rather better than mine:
"The work begins with a slow trill in the bass clarinet as the percussion plays the sinuous, syncopated rhythm that drives the work. Soon a solo bassoon enters playing an eerie but rhythmic ostinato bassline. The tuba then enters playing the first of this work's two major themes, a muscular, ominous motif. Other brass join in to play the theme, growing louder and more emphatic, but rigorously yoked to the underlying rhythm. Eventually the horns blast as loudly as they can, with obsessive trills on the low clarinets far underneath, and the strings enter with the slashing second theme. The brass take up this new theme and bring it to a climax, after which the music returns to its opening texture. This recapitulation brings with it a mood of foreboding. The rhythm becomes even more obsessive, and finally the music reaches a massive climax during which both themes are played, overlapping, sometimes in part and sometimes in whole, by the entire orchestra in what sounds like a musical riot."
Now I must seek out a recording of the vocal setting!
While it is music of a different character, does the repititous style of Ravel's Bolero come to mind for anyone here.
