La guitarra

For chamber choir and guitar
La guitarra was commissioned by Vocaal Ensemble Tiramisu.
Contact me for the score

La guitarra is based on the poem by Federico García Lorca, the Spanish poet living at the time of the Franco regime who was eventually killed by that regime.

In this music the guitar personalizes the suffering Spanish people that will always keep on fighting for its freedom and in the end will not be silenced by the regime.
The guitar will never stop playing, it is impossible to hush it.

La guitarra

Empieza el llanto de la guitarra.

Se rompen las copas de la madrugada.

Empieza el llanto de la guitarra.

Es inútil callarla.

Es imposible callarla.

 

Llora monótona

como llora el agua,

como llora el viento sobre la nevada.

Es imposible callarla.

Llora por cosas lejanas.

 

Arena del Sur caliente

que pide camelias blancas.

Llora flecha sin blanco,

la tarde sin mañana,

y el primer pájaro muerto

sobre la rama.

 

¡Oh guitarra!

Corazón malherido por cinco espadas.

The guitar

Now starts the weeping of the guitar

with the broken glass of dawn.

The weeping of the guitar begins.

No use hushing it.

Impossible to stop it.

 

It cries monotonously

as cries the water,

as cries the wind over the snow wastes.

Impossible to hush.

It cries for things far away.

 

Sand of the warm South

yearning for white camelias

It cries arrow without aim

evening without the morrow,

and the first dead bird

in the branch.

 

Oh guitar!

Heart badly wounded by five swords.