Gabriela Lena Frank: Iberian Songs (for soprano and string quartet) - Digital (Not Printable)

PDFs for soprano and string quartet (2016)

Text: anonymous gypsy songs (Spanish)

Duration: 10 minutes

Commissioned by and dedicated to Music from Angel Fire with support of the Bruce E. Howden, Jr. American Composers Project

Composer note
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