Geometry and Anguish (after Lorca)

(2020)

for unaccompanied SSAATTBB choir

Program notes

"The two elements that the traveller grasps in the big city are extrahuman architecture and furious rhythm. Geometry and anguish" — Federico García Lorca

'La aurora' (Dawn) is a profoundly bleak poem by Federico García Lorca included in Poeta en Nueva York (Poet in New York), a collection written during the author's stay in the United States of America between 1929 and 1930. I found myself captivated and struck by the devastating pessimism and ferocious intensity of the poem, as well as intrigued by its evocative, mysterious imagery and sophisticated language. Aware of the possibilities this work could offer, I focused my efforts on the first two stanzas of the poem, in which the author acts as a passive observer of the desolation and misery of the dehumanized city.

Translation of the poem (by Stephen Spender):

The New York dawn has

four columns of mud

and a hurricane of black doves

that paddle in putrescent waters.

The New York dawn grieves

along the immense stairways,

seeking amidst the groins

spikenards of fine-drawn anguish.

Workshopped by the BBC Singers and Roxanna Panufnik at the BBC Maida Vale Studios, (London, UK)

Duration: c. 5'

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