PRELUDIO Y DANZA DEL ALBA

For Brass Quintet and Piano

Year of composition: 2006

(Original version for Brass Quintet and Wind Ensemble)

The sound of a flute breaks the silence of night. The four notes of the melody ebb and flow, languidly, serenely, combined with the deep scent of jasmine flowers, forming delicate whirls that move through the narrow streets of white-washed walls. Are these not the first four notes Ravel used to introduce his marvellous Rapsodia Española? The profound and melancholic tetrachord gradually gains strength; the evocative, delicate harmonies of the introduction make way for the vehement expression of old passions, of adolescent dreams that seemed lost in the remotest part of the memory, and which finally explode. This explosion is impulsive yet short (in tune with life) and dissolves once again into the peace of the night whilst, in the distance, the faint ringing of a bell announces the coming of daybreak. The shadows start a tormented dance to the sound of a mysterious marimba and then gradually disappear. The first rays of daylight stream through, painting the walls and windows with an orange hue. Claps, flamenco singing and commotion can be heard. And this is when the dance begins. It is an uninhibited dance that celebrates the dawn of a new day, and, even though it may seem pretentious, it is a dance that bursts with the penetrating aroma of rosemary in every one of its notes, with the heady taste of muscatel, the marvellous blue of the Mediterranean sky and so many other things that impel us to love this land.

Luis Serrano Alarcón, preface of the printed edition