SATB + virtuoso piano collaborator

NOTE FROM THE COMPOSER

This “piano concerto accompanied by chorus” was commissioned by the Music Teachers National Association, and I conducted the premier for their convention. Dr. James Johnson was the pianist for the premiere.

Water lilies are not securely grounded. Rather, they are tossed by wind, pounded by rain, and their large, leathery floating leaves wither in dry seasons. Still, water lilies survive. They manage to return year after year, almost miraculously resurrecting from the harshest of circumstances. The “life” of a water lily and that of a human being are not altogether different, made up of seasons of good and bad, periods of strength and others of vulnerability, and days of laughter and some of weeping.

Flores del Agua (Water Lilies) is a colorful work for virtuosic piano and mixed chorus. It is comprised of a set of four works, each based on the poetry of one of the following Spanish authors: Lope Félix de Vega y Carpio (1562-1635), Luisa Sigea (1526-1558), Rubén Dario (1867- 1916), and Antonio Machada (1875-1939).Flores del Agua recalls emotions common to life and its fragility.

1. Maya (May Song)
   Lope Félix de Vega y Carpiowas a prolific Spanish author with more than 3000sonnets, hundreds of comedies, 3 didactic poems, among many other literary works. He spent most of his life in Madrid.

2. Octavas (Octaves)
   Luisa Sigea de Velasco was a poetess and Spanish humanist of the 16th century. Men and women of the time considered her to be a foremost scholar of the classical culture, and she frequently corresponded with kings, queens, and popes.

3. Sinfonia en gris mayor (Symphony in Gray Major)
   Rubén Dario was born in Metapa, Nicaragua and was a journalist, poet, and diplomat.  His career took him to Costa Rica, Cuba, and Buenos Aires, among others. He promoted the tenets of Moderismo, including global awareness and integration of philosophy, cosmopolitanism, and embracing the best of all cultures.

4. Galerías (Corridors)
   Antonio Machada was a leading figure of the Spanish literary movement known as the Generatio of ’98.  He was born in Seville, later living in Madrid, and was a symbolist poet whose writing integrated Taoism.