Judith Shatin

Brass Quintet

Composer's Note:

Fantasía Sobre El Flamenco is my musical response to a visit to the Corpus Christi fair in Granada, Spain, where the music and dance of the flamenco was all- enveloping. It is a complex music with a fascinating variety of forms. I have thought about this experience in music, influenced by the mixture of cultures emblematic of Spain's past. One of the striking aspects of the dance is the intermingling of qualities: sensuousness and surrender, intensity, pride and smoldering violence. I was particularly struck by the cante jondo, with its recitative elements and decorations.

In Fantasía Sobre El Flamenco, sinuous melodies that have a conversational flavor are interrupted by characteristic rhythmic bursts reminiscent of zapateado (toe and heel clicking). These two musical ideas collide, creating different rhythmic planes. The cante winds its way through the ensemble, though interrupted by violent staccato bursts.

Fantasía sobre El Flamenco was commissioned by Jeffrey Silberschlag for St. Mary's Brass, who premiered it and recorded it for the album Hearing the Call : 20th century American Brass Music on the Sonora label. Fantasía Sobre El Flamenco is dedicated to my beloved Michael.