Composer:
Gabriela Ortiz

Librettist:

Composer website:
https://www.gabrielaortiz.com/index.php?idioma=en&p=0

Composer contact:

Performance forces:
4 sop — 2perc, timp, pno/cel, hp, str

Length:
0:14

Languages:

Notes:
Notes Elegia (1991) When I wrote Elegia, I tried to capture the dramatic and ritual atmosphere existing around death in Western culture. This explains the utilisation of small phrases selected from the Requiem liturgy for the vocal parts, and elements of composition common to this musical genre, as well as the presence of Cantus firmus from which the instrumental parts develop as series of counterpoint layers. This counterpoint game, however, is not treated as strictly as in traditional polyphony, but, rather, with a natural, tenseless flow. One purpose of this work is to sonically describe the ritual atmosphere of funeral ceremonies. The whole piece is a procession perceived acoustically by the audience situated in a fixed point to which the procession approaches, transforms itself, fades away and dies. Elegia is dedicated to the memory of my mother who died prematurely at the age of 43 in 1987.