Leyendas: An Andean Walkabout
Gabriela Lena Frank
(b. September 26, 1972 in Berkeley, California)
Frank’s father's ancestors were Lithuanian Jews and her mother was part Chinese and part Peruvian. In Leyendas, as in all of her music nowadays, Frank draws on her roots to create multicultural music that fits into a classical framework all her own. Leyendas was written at the end of her student days and after her first trip to Peru. In her words the trip left my “music transformed.” She calls it “such an honest piece, reflecting and refracting what I was hearing and seeing in Peru.”
The work was written for string quartet in 2001 and arranged for string orchestra two years later. The six movements trend longer and more complex successively. Here are descriptions of each in a word or two: “Andean panpipe”, “ferocious flute”, “divided melodies”, “professional weeper”, “marathoner”, “gallant romancers”.
In Frank’s detailed description, Leyendas “mixes elements from the western classical and Andean folk music traditions, drawing inspiration from the idea of mestizaje as envisioned by the Peruvian writer Jose María Arguedas, wherein cultures co-exist without the subjugation of one by the other. ‘Toyos’ depicts one of the most recognizable instruments of the Andes, the panpipe. The largest kind is the breathy toyo, which requires great stamina and lungpower and is typically played in parallel fourths. ‘Tarqueada’ is a forceful and fast number suggestive of the tarka, a heavy wooden duct flute that is blown harshly in order to split the tone. Tarka ensembles typically play in casually tuned fourths, fifths, and octaves. ‘Himno de Zampoñas’ takes its cue from a particular type of panpipe ensemble that divides up melodies through a technique known as hocketing. The characteristic sound of the zampoña panpipe is that of a fundamental tone blown flatly so that overtones ring out on top. ‘Chasqui’ depicts the chasqui, a legendary runner from the Inca times who sprinted great distances to deliver messages between towns separated from one another by the Andean peaks. The chasqui needed to travel light, so I imagine his choice of instruments to be the charango, a high-pitched cousin of the guitar, and the lightweight bamboo quena flute, both of which influence this movement. ‘Canto de Velorio’ portrays another well-known Andean personality, a professional crying woman known as llorona. Hired to render funeral rituals (known as velorio) even sadder, the llorona is accompanied here by a second llorona and an additional chorus of mourning women (coro de mujeres). The chant Dies Irae is quoted as a reflection of the llorona's penchant for blending verses from Quechua Indian folklore and western religious rites. ‘Coqueteos’ is a flirtatious love song sung by men known as romanceros and is direct in its harmonic expression, bold, and festive. The romanceros sang in harmony with one another against a backdrop of guitars, which I think of as a vendaval de guitarras (storm of guitars).”
Frank cites Alberto Ginastera and Béla Bartók as influential in her work. No doubt Bartók’s extensive study of folk music around his home country encouraged her travels in South America where she gathered music, mythology, and poetry that found their way into her music. This interdisciplinary work goes on. In collaboration with renowned Peruvian ethnomusicologist Raul Romero, she is recording piano music of indigenous composers in coastal and Andean Peru.
She finished her first opera in 2022, co-commissioned by San Diego Opera and San Francisco Opera, The Last Dream of Frida and Diego (El último sueño de Frida y Diego).
© 2010, 2015, 2023 by Steven Hollingsworth, Creative Commons Public Attribution 3.0 United States