"EDINBURGH" Concerto for Guitar and Orchestra
Orchestration
- Solo Guitar (6) = D
- Flute 1
- Flute 2
- Oboe 1
- Clarinet 1 in Bb
- Clarinet 2 in Bb
- Bassoon 1
- Horn in F 1
- Horn in F 2
- Timpani (32” D-A // 29” F-C // 26” Bb-F // 23” D-A)
- Percussion 1 (Snare Drum / suspended cymbal)
- Violin 1 - (10)
- Violin 2 - (8)
- Viola - (6)
- Cello - (5)
- Contrabass - (3)
1. Dùn Èideann
My connection with Edinburgh (EDINBURGH) is personal and emotional. My son Carlos, a civil engineer, immediately finished his engineering degree in Spain, and because all the companies he sent his CV to required a minimum of two years of work experience in order to hire him, despite being a recent graduate from the University of Granada, he decided to go to Edinburgh to improve his English. Once in the city, his services as a civil engineer were quickly requested at the Will Rudd Davidson company located at 43 York Place, Edinburgh Office. His girlfriend Laura, who was with him, also found work as a civil engineer in the same city, at the Cundall company. Later, they both bought a new house in Edinburgh, in the Gilmore Place area. Naturally, as a father, I visited my son in the city, and immersed myself in its history. I walked through its streets and experienced first-hand the history and friendliness of the Scottish people and their love for Spain and the Spanish. Dùn Èideann is the Gaelic name for Edinburgh, and the music in this guitar concerto is a result of Scotland's history and impressions of the city and its wonderful and interesting people. Auld Reekie is the affectionate nickname for the city, meaning "Old Smokey" in Gaelic, referring to the smell and somewhat unhealthy conditions the city had when it was heated with coal.
The city centre, the Royal Mile, Holyrood, Princes Street and the many pubs are an eclectic mix of old and new. My music references the history of Scotland and the city, which are closely linked, with a literary narrative that I wrote for it. There are also fragments with a flavour of Edinburgh: from the church bells to the Military Tattoo, from the street pipers to the casual singing of the pubs. Portobello is a beautiful, quiet suburb of Edinburgh, situated on the Firth of Forth, where I discovered the pleasure of incomparable Scottish single malt whiskies at The Place by the Sea: a cosy pub where children and their pets played in the sand while seagulls circled endlessly in front of a beautiful sunset in a setting of absolute peace.
Lothian No. 26 is the bus line that ran through Portobello to Waverley Station and beyond: a 15-minute ride on a double-decker bus that maneuvered through the traffic with commendable skill. Impossible to imagine if I had not experienced it personally. On the other hand, I also shared some time in Edinburgh with Carmen, Miguel and Adelina. The conversational exchange about the meaning of life, love and music, while having a pint or two of Tennents Ale, made the connection with this beautiful city, EDINBURGH, even more relevant and personal. At that moment, I decided that, one day, I would write a composition in honour of the city, Edinburgh, and the Scottish people; with a literary story, as a programme, I would create the concert that I present here. With this work I wanted to offer a sincere tribute to the great people of Scotland.
The Gaelic structure on the acoustic guitar, typical of the Gaelic style, requires a DADGAD tuning, but for a classical guitarist, this is a world that is not usually faced. For this reason, at most, I have lowered the tuning of the 6th string to a D, leaving the rest of the tuning as is. This makes the naturalness of the Gaelic fluidity of the instrument impossible, but it reinforces the structure of the nature of the classical or Spanish guitar in its tuning. In this work, I am not trying to make pure music in the Gaelic style, it would be impossible due to my classical training, I am simply trying, from my perspective as a composer, to offer a sincere thanks to Edinburgh and the Scottish people.
England, Wales and Scotland, without a doubt, make up a Great Britain with a history worthy of the most absolute admiration throughout the world, and to them, we add Northern Ireland, with a Gaelic contribution, also very interesting. All of them make up the United Kingdom. Celtic fusion originated in rural North America in the early colonial period and incorporated Scottish, Irish, English and African influences, also reaching northern Spain by another route. Calle Mayor, home to the iconic and majestic Gothic Cathedral of Saint Giles (San Gil, whose feast day is September 1) and commonly known as the High Kirk of Edinburgh, for its dome in the shape of a royal crown, is the most important church in the city. Nearby you can see the old Scottish Parliament building (now the Supreme Court), the Mercat Cross, the City Chambers and Tron Kirk. It is impressive to explore a hidden underground street in The Real Mary King’s Close. I looked at the Scottish Parliament building, which has a very special and personal meaning for me, as my son Charles, a civil engineer, recently designed the access and security system for the roofs and the scaffolding and structure of the lighting system for the Debating Chamber.
No people throughout history have ever been able to break Scottish pride or freedom. This composition is a sincere tribute to Edinburgh and the Scottish people as a nation, for always seeking their freedom and never surrendering to any people who tried to undermine their capacity for independence: Scotland is unblemished in that sense, and above all, there is a clear feeling in its people that no one has ever been able to break the patriotic spirit or the pride of freedom of the Scottish people. “The king is not chosen by God, he is chosen by the people… because, as long as there are at least a hundred of us left, we will never be reduced to foreign domination. It is not really for glory, nor for wealth, nor for honors that we fight, but for freedom – only for freedom – which no honest man gives up except with his life itself.”
2. From Huelva to Edinburgh.
Here I present a pairing of Gaelic and Andalusian, with isolated touches of flavor and homage to the fandango of Huelva, melodies with a Scottish flavor, melodies that evoke the deep Andalusia, represented by the city of Huelva. I intertwine and combine Andalusian music with Gaelic music to configure the union between Huelva and Edinburgh. My son's wife, Laura, is from Huelva, and she left this beautiful Andalusian city for Edinburgh with my son Carlos.
I wanted to reflect the clash of cultures in this second movement, based on some literary writings that, as in the first movement, I created on purpose to give formal structure, with said story, to this second movement that I present here. Appendix as a CODA: We live in times where musical creation is questioned in some way, and all this, despite the fact that there is nothing freer than artistic creation. If this creation is, in some way, questioned, this freedom turns against art. Art has no borders. There can never be a unilateral vision of art. Each human being has a different vision of the artistic fact. No one questions the novels of Mario Vargas Llosa, or Gabriel García Márquez, or Juan Ramón Jiménez, no one attacks them for having been written with one or another determined grammar. The novel is read, accepted or rejected, but the way it was made is never questioned, discussed or criticized, which does occur with Music. Music is only music when it excites!
Music nourishes our sensitivity, our hearts. Sounds are the organic elements that feed our souls. When I write, I try to create an atmosphere that helps me get into the music, that involves me and makes me part of it. In this work, by being a participant in the story I am recreating, I try to be part of the music I write. Not in vain have I visited and know this beautiful Scottish town, where my son has a house, very well. With this I define that my composition is clearly programmatic.