MasterWorks of the New Era
Volume 14
"MACONDO POEMS"
by
Sylvia Constantinidis
Piece Notes:
"THE MACONDO POEMS" Opus 41, Woodwind Quintet By Sylvia Constantinidis
Written in Coconut Grove, Florida-USA, 2005
Program Notes:
I like to think of my music as inspired by Latino-American nationalistic material. Macondo is the name of the town on Gabriel Garcia Marquez' novel: "100 Years of Solitude". This is a town in the middle of the jungle, where people never saw the ocean. "The Macondo Poems" is a piece composed of short musical sections evoking different scenes of the life in Macondo. The recurrent 'Maestoso' homophonic in texture, with delicate syncopations in the inner voices, evokes the grandiosity of the universe.
My inspiration for this piece comes from childhood memories. In the weekends, we will go to our farm. At night, we will escape to the roof of the house and lay there quietly until sunrise just looking at the sky and feeling the grandiosity of the sky.... in the darkness of the jungle.
In this piece, I tried to create the thickness and exuberance of the jungle by creating contrapuntal layers, like a thick fabric, where colorful spots jump to the eyes. The work ends with a 'turbato', a short movement that contains the intense feeling of going in a canoe through the rapids of a jungle river and ending in an unexpected waterfall.
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More on
"Macondo Poems"
Awards:
•- “MASTERWORKS OF THE NEW ERA” New Music International Competition, 2007.
•- 10th LATIN GRAMMY, Nomination 2009.
Performances:
•- World Premiered: October 2005, New-Music Ensemble, University of Miami, “Festival of Miami 2005” ‘Emerging Composers Concert’.
•- LatinAmerican Premiered: Puerto Rico, Winter 2006, PuertoRico-Music-Conservatory Woodwind Quintet, CMS Southern Conference, New Music Concert.
•- European Premiered: Czech Republic, 2006, Composers Lecture, Prague Conservatory, Czech-American New Music Summer Festival.
•- Venezuelan Premiered: Spring 2014, Caracas, Venezuela. Simon Bolivar Woodwind Quintet, EL SISTEMA Venezuela, “LatinAmerican Festival of Contemporary Music”.
Other Recordings:
There are four Recordings of the piece:
•- Live Concert Recording:
Performed by the "New-Music Ensemble".
Recorded during the Piece Premiered Concert.
At the University of Miami, “Festival of Miami 2005” ‘Emerging Composers Concert’.
Coral Gables, Florida, USA. October 2005.
•- Live Concert Recording:
Performed by the "Puerto Rico-Music-Conservatory Woodwind Quintet".
At the CMS Southern Conference, New Music Concert.
Puerto Rico, Winter 2006.
•- CD Recording: MASTERWORKS OF THE NEW ERA vol 14. Kiev Philharmonic, Prague Radio Symphony, Millenium Symphony. Conductor: Robert Ian Winstin.
•- Live Concert Recording:
Performed by the "Simon Bolivar Woodwind Quintet". EL SISTEMA Venezuela,
At the “LatinAmerican Festival of Contemporary Music”.
Sala Alexander Von Humboltd. Asociación Cultural Humboltd.
Caracas, Venezuela. May 17, 2014.
Interview
Press Releases:
Score Publication:
-Published by Guinima Media Publishing
Concert Music Series
October 2006
Sponsored by the Miami Dade College
-Featured at the "International Book-Fair" Miami Dade College
November 19, 2006.
