|
Page 2 of 5
La Llorona
Foreword by Richard Meyrick
"The provenance of Kevin Ure’s La Llorona is, to say the least, scary – so too, its inspiration! At midnight on September 11th 2001, hours before the world sat at their televisions trembling at the likely dawn of World War III, Kevin Ure was at his piano composing his piece “The Weeping Woman” (La Llorona), a haunting tale of a Mexican beauty, Maria, who finally entraps her ranchero, bears him children only to be ignored and is finally jilted. In her rage she impetuously throws her two children into the river whereupon, to her eternal dismay, they are carried off downstream and she dies in torment. The villagers bury her where she is found, down by the river, and thereafter her ghostly figure, dressed in the white burial clothes they had given her, was to be seen walking and heard at night crying “Where are my children”. To this day, Mexican children are warned not to go out at night for fear that Maria will snatch them and they shall be lost forever!
Says the composer: “The piece was originally completed at midnight on September 11th, 2001. I wrote the initial 3 movement version within 2 hours.” . . . and indeed it is possessed of an improvisatory style right from the start with a winding left hand line suggestive of the key of A flat minor with hauntingly prescient Right Hand accompanying chords of sixths – an interval set to recur at the coda.
Although the opening time signature is 6/8 we undoubtedly set off in ¾ and are gradually drawn into a 2-in-a-bar 6/8 lilting melodic figure in the now suggested augmented key of A minor. Gradually the pace and verve pick up as 8th notes become 16ths and G minor is established for a fleeting Right Hand melody. The melodic expansion deals with a romantic, even forlorn subject. Mystery is evoked with two-part staccato writing soon to be interjected with passionate repeated dissonant chords. The music builds up to a frenzy of subtly varied repetition before we are brought to a respite of sadness and reflection and the tonality of G minor with journeys through the dominant minor; the Left Hand now providing us with meandering 16th notes suggesting perhaps the flow of that darkened river with its claimed lives of beloved children. The tragic sixths return and the piece is brought to its quadruple fortissimo G minor conclusion.
Ure’s piano piece La Llorona has individuality and an atmosphere at once dark and brooding. In a day when huge demands are frequently made upon the performer for little return, here is a work that is eminently pianistic and accessible for both performer and listener – a novel, attractive and contrasting item for the pianist bringing an innovative mien to programming."
|
