Dr. Lezcano, of Keene State College, describes his thoughts as he conceived the music: “Victor Jara was an immensely gifted folk-singer and songwriter, and martyr of the Pincochet-led coup d’etat in Chile during the early 1970s that led to a military “reign of terror” and human rights abuses in that country. The work incorporates aspects of South American folk-song, quotations from Jara’s most memorable tunes, and uses both traditional and extended techniques for multiple guitars: percussion golpes, strumming the strings behind the nut, harmonic node “golpes” (in the manner of the late MichaelHedges, a friend of mine at Peabody in the late 70s), and other effects, not used for their own sake but as part of the musical argument of the piece. The work also has a narrator who reads Jara’s last poem written as he was being held in a soccer stadium with thousands of others.”
The student ensemble from Keene State College in NH as well as members of the Timberlane Regional High School guitar orchestra, John Zevos, director, will join members of the Society to rehearse and perform ”Homage to Victor Jara” as part of Festival 21 on April 10, 2010. If you can’t make the evening concert, be sure to arrive early in the day and catch the open rehearsal at 10:am at Gordon Chapel.
World Première, April 10, 2010:
So the Poet will be Heard:
Homage to Victor Jara José Manuel Lezcano
(b. 1960)
I. Recordando Luchin
II. El Arado y la memoria
III. Plegaria del Estadio
IV. Chacona-Blues
V. Postlude
* Festival 21 is made possible with a major grant from the Augustine Foundation and is funded in part by a grant from the MetLife Creative Connections program of Meet the Composer, Inc. and the New England Foundation for the Arts with additional support from the six New England state arts agencies and the National Endowment for the Arts. Special thanks to D’Addario Musical Foundation and La Bella Strings as well as Longy School of Music, Keene State College and Timberlane Regional High School.
