Year composed: 2012
Duration: 14′
Instrumentation: orchestra (3.2.3.3/4.2.3.0/timp.1 perc/strings)
Movements:
I. Las aguas del sur (“The southern sea”)
II. La tierra caliente que duerme (“The sleeping warm earth”)
III. Ballenas australes y pingüinos de Magallanes (“Southern right whales and Magellanic penguins”)
Premiered by the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra at the International Women’s Forum/World Leadership Conference, San Francisco 10/26/2012
Notes:
Las aguas del sur is loosely based on a string quartet that I composed last year called “Patagón”. On a sabbatical leave two years ago in South American, I was particularly inspired by a trip to the Valdes peninsula, a large nature preserve in the southern region of Argentine Patagonia. Like the strange landscapes I found there, Las aguas evokes the idea of the far away, the other-worldly, and the remote.
The opening of the first movement is marked “vast, spacious” and leads into a faster section called “waves”. Throughout I try to elicit as many colors as possible using various unusual playing techniques—especially techniques involving air sounds, special bowing, and string harmonics. In the beginning you will hear an odd effect that string players call the “seagull”; it involves playing an artificially produced harmonic (by touching the string above a fingered note) while simultaneously gliding down the string—a very beautiful and eerie sound that does indeed evoke seagulls. Also in the opening is a gesture played by the strings with the wood of the bow (called “col legno”); it is a kind of “heartbeat” idea that is featured throughout the piece.
Leading directly from the first movement, La tierra caliente que duerme is dominated by wind solos, the “heartbeat” idea, and a series of large gestures played by the winds and brass marked “sleeping, dreaming”—in this idea, the orchestra rocks back and forth, finally evolving into a huge block of sound played by all of the orchestra. The last movement, Ballenas australes y pingüinos de Magallanes, was inspired by a couple of special days I spent with my family seeing the southern right whales (huge creatures that came right up next to our boat!) and visiting an enormous penguin colony—over half a million—at Punta Tombo, which my eleven year old daughter particularly enjoyed.
It is a great honor and pleasure working with our University Orchestra—I continue to be amazed and challenged by these wonderful young musicians we have here at Berkeley.
–Cindy Cox
Year composed: 2012
Duration: 14′
Instrumentation: orchestra (3.2.3.3/4.2.3.0/timp.1 perc/strings)
Movements:
I. Las aguas del sur (“The southern sea”)
II. La tierra caliente que duerme (“The sleeping warm earth”)
III. Ballenas australes y pingüinos de Magallanes (“Southern right whales and Magellanic penguins”)
Premiered by the UC Berkeley Symphony Orchestra at the International Women’s Forum/World Leadership Conference, San Francisco 10/26/2012
Notes:
Las aguas del sur is loosely based on a string quartet that I composed last year called “Patagón”. On a sabbatical leave two years ago in South American, I was particularly inspired by a trip to the Valdes peninsula, a large nature preserve in the southern region of Argentine Patagonia. Like the strange landscapes I found there, Las aguas evokes the idea of the far away, the other-worldly, and the remote.
The opening of the first movement is marked “vast, spacious” and leads into a faster section called “waves”. Throughout I try to elicit as many colors as possible using various unusual playing techniques—especially techniques involving air sounds, special bowing, and string harmonics. In the beginning you will hear an odd effect that string players call the “seagull”; it involves playing an artificially produced harmonic (by touching the string above a fingered note) while simultaneously gliding down the string—a very beautiful and eerie sound that does indeed evoke seagulls. Also in the opening is a gesture played by the strings with the wood of the bow (called “col legno”); it is a kind of “heartbeat” idea that is featured throughout the piece.
Leading directly from the first movement, La tierra caliente que duerme is dominated by wind solos, the “heartbeat” idea, and a series of large gestures played by the winds and brass marked “sleeping, dreaming”—in this idea, the orchestra rocks back and forth, finally evolving into a huge block of sound played by all of the orchestra. The last movement, Ballenas australes y pingüinos de Magallanes, was inspired by a couple of special days I spent with my family seeing the southern right whales (huge creatures that came right up next to our boat!) and visiting an enormous penguin colony—over half a million—at Punta Tombo, which my eleven year old daughter particularly enjoyed.
It is a great honor and pleasure working with our University Orchestra—I continue to be amazed and challenged by these wonderful young musicians we have here at Berkeley.
–Cindy Cox