for Clarinet Quintet (Clarinet, 2 Violins, Viola, and Violoncello)
Notes by the composer
En la mar hay una torre (“There is a Tower at the Sea”) is inspired in a Sephardic Jewish song of the same name from medieval Spain, originally documented during the first half of the twentieth century by pioneer musicologists Alberto Hemsi and Isaac Levy in locales of the Sephardic Diaspora such as Rhodes, Salonika, Alexandria, and Istanbul.
The lyrics of one of its many versions are as follows, in Ladino spelling:
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En la mar ay una torre, en la torre una ventana, en la ventana una hija qu'a los marineros llama.
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In the sea there is a tower In the tower there’s a window In the window there’s a maiden That calls out the sailors.
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Si la mar era de leche yo m'haria un pexcador pexcaria las mis dolores con palavricas d'amor.
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If the sea were made of milk I would become a fisherman I’d fish for my sorrows With words of love.
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Dame tu mano palomba para suvir a tu nido maldicha que durmes sola vengo a durmir contigo. |
Give me your hand, dove, So that I climb to your nest; You’re unlucky to sleep alone: I’ll come to sleep with you. |
When I read the lyrics, I try to imagine the context of the story. Who is this mysterious woman: friend, lover, a stranger...perhaps a siren? In some anthologies, an alternate title is La Serena, which in archaic Spanish perhaps meant “The Siren” or “The Serene One,” or perhaps both.
Reconstructing the story, I think of a sailor gazing from the bridge of his ship at a castle in twilight. I picture the ship gently rocking back and forth, enveloped by the warm breeze of a Mediterranean evening; the sailor singing of loneliness accompanied by the sound of distant waves crashing against cliffs. The appearance of the woman at the window of the castle's tower turns his lament into a serenade reminiscent of the lull of the sea and the steps of a sensual dance. A declaration of love ensues and.....what happens next? Does the siren extend her hand to the sailor? Do the lovers unite (or perhaps reunite?)? Does he fall under her spell, locked in that tower for eternity or does sail past the bay toward high seas, never to return?
This piece was commissioned by Water Play 2009, Eighth Annual Newburyport Chamber Music Festival; David Yang, Artistic Director. World Premiere given by Todd Palmer, Clarinet; String Quartet-in-Residence: David Ehrlich, Nurit Pacht, David Yang, and Caroline Stinson in Newburyport, Massachusetts, on August 16, 2009. The version for clarinet and piano was commissioned by Wesley Ferreira for ClarinetFest 2011, Los Angeles, California, August 3-7, 2011. The composer kindly acknowledges the editorial assistance of Alfredo Corral with the piano arrangement.
Approximate duration: 12 minutes. Performance by Trio Epomeo and Guests in YouTube: http://youtu.be/uuvK4tnySDU
Copyright © 2009 by Martín Kutnowski (ASCAP). All Rights Reserved.
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