Composer:
Gabriela Lena Frank

Librettist:
anonymous

Composer website:
https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/composer/2388/Gabriela-Lena-Frank/

Composer contact:

Performance forces:
sop — str 4tet

Length:
0:10

Languages:
Spanish

Notes:
Iberian Songs, for soprano and string quartet, finds its voice in several existing publications of the poetry of Spanish “deep song,” a primary source of lyrics for modern-day flamenco. Largely anonymous, these short, almost haiku-like, poems are intensely emotional with an affinity for certain recurring themes such as romantic attraction, the seeking of vengeance for the death of a loved one, and persecution from the authorities. I was struck by how often several poems could be edited and stitched together beautifully into a larger poem; and I used my edited texts (and my own translations) as the basis of Iberian Songs. In the first song, “Olives,” a woman describes, with frustration and lyricism both, how her passion for a would-be-paramour is unfulfilled. The second song, “Children,” describes a mother’s particularly grim situation that arises between her son and daughter. — Gabriela Lena Frank