Memories of
Barcelona – Sagrada Familia
Sagrada
Familia is the second movement of my memories of Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia,
or the church of the sacred family is truly one of the wonders of Barcelona and
I would say one of the wonder s of the modern world. It is a must see for
everyone who goes to Barcelona. If you see nothing else go to see the Sagrada
Familia.
I wanted to
create or recreate the memory of the Sagrada Familia in music, in music played
on a classical guitar. When I started to think about what I wanted to say about
the Sagrada Familia, its grandeur kept coming back to mind. I also wanted to
express that fact that it has been a long time in the making and will probably
continue to take a long time before it is completed. It is definitely a work in
progress, a continuously evolving work of creation.
I thought I
would go back and research Spanish medieval church music which I did. I found
several examples or Spanish church music that dated back to the 10th through to
the 14th century that spoke to me in a way that seemed to express
the ethos of the Sagrada Familia. In the end, I extracted a ground base which
you can see in the first part of the piece. It is played very low and very
slow. It is supposed to evoke the foundation, the roots of the Sagrada Familia
on which the rest of the edifice is built. Structurally, the rest of the piece
is built on this ground base in medieval fashion.
You could
consider that the rest of the movement is a series of variations on the ground
base that develop slowly but inexorably towards to the peak of the yet to be
finished cathedral. The first iteration of the ground base is slow and
ponderous, as would be the first layers of the foundation of a grand cathedral.
Each iteration or layer of the movement is built up in this fashion. Each layer
is a little higher in pitch. Each layer moves a little faster until the very
end of the movement, the guitarist is playing quickly at the very top of the
range of the guitar. I hope that I reasonably portrayed the sentiment that I
was looking for.
There were
several precedents that I had in mind when I wrote this movement. They are not
classical guitar pieces but piano pieces although I have heard both pieces
played on classical guitar. The two pieces that most clearly influenced me were
Debussy’s La CathedraleEngloutie and Ravel’s Pavane Pour UneEnfante Defunte, two pieces which have always been close to my heart. In La Cathedrale Engloutie, Debussy paints a
wonderful tone poem of a legendary cathedral rising up out of water, sounds of
chanting priests, chiming bells and an organ being played could be heard across
the water. I have no problem visualizing the cathedral rising out of the water as I listen to the music.
With Ravel’s Pavane Pour Une Enfante Defunte, it is the
ethos and sheer delicate beauty of the piece that I love. It is ancient and
modern, tightly formal yet it gives you the feeling of being broad and
expansive. My desire was to emulate these elements of these immortal pieces,
even to a modest degree. The Pavane was a dance that was performed in the
Spanish courts in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. I felt that the pace
and rhythm of the Pavane was expressed in the towering edifice of the Sagrada
Familia.
Here is the score for the second movement of Memories of Barcelona - Sagrada Familia.
