Benet Casablancas

Romanza Sin Palabras

The present work was commissioned by the Foundation for Iberian Music (Graduate Center of the University of New York) as a tribute to Enric Granados on the occasion of the composer's centenary celebration in New York. The general character of the piece, in which the cantabile register dominates, responds faithfully to its title (A Song without Words) and its form refers to a Lied arrangement in three parts. The first of these, in the form of a serene and contemplative introduction, gives way to more lively and agitated central episodes, whose rhythmic vivacity and scherzandi accents coexist with a certain dramatism, and where there is no lack of a passionate and luminous appeal to the name of Granados, in the form of a musical acrostic made up of the notes E-C (Enric) and G-A-D-(e)S (Granados). All this leads to the final part, of a more lyrical nature, which culminates in the concluding Andantino semplice, in the manner of a dreamed popular song and which constitutes the emotional climax of the work, which concludes on ecstatic resonances, until it fades into silence. The premiere of the work took place on 10 March 2016 at Elebash Recital Hall in New York by the Perspectives Ensemble, conducted by Ángel Gil-Ordóñez. The work is dedicated to Maneleta Domingo, María Lourdes Antràs and Virginia Casablancas.