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• published: 02 May 2015
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Sergio Rodriguez, conductor and composer Morazan Overture part one Walter Krochmal, narrator & program notes Eduardo Bahr, Morazan Text ACSO May 2012 The Morazán Overture An Original Work by Sergio Raúl Rodríguez This composition, structured like a film score, features General Francisco Morazán (1792-1842), “Paladin of the Central American Union” and the isthmus’s preeminent statesman. The grandson of a Corsican immigrant whose village had no public school until he was 28 years old, he taught himself French and weaned himself on thinkers such as Montesquieu and Tocqueville. Morazán championed civil society, education as the pillar of free nations, obedience to laws and the Constitution, the free circulation of ideas, regional unity and peace. Circumstances forced him to take up arms, which he did with consummate skill against the British (who had seized most of the isthmus’s territory) and the conservative, anti-Union forces that became his lifelong enemies. He served as Constitutional President of the Federal Republic of Central America (two terms), as Chief of State of his native Honduras, of El Salvador, and finally of Costa Rica, where his enemies finally ended his life before the firing squad. Morazán’s military genius stands out all the more because of his lack of formal schooling. The Morazán Overture employs both its classical underpinnings and innovative modern compositional techniques to represent Central America’s complex physical and psychological landscapes, a study in duality where sublime sweetness and primal bloodlust, light and shadow, life and death, coexist as two sides of the same coin. It portrays a historic moment when Central America struggled mightily to break with exploitation, disparity, exclusion and poverty, a struggle that, tragically, continues today. The opening features slow, stately lyrical motifs of woodwind instruments, evoking Morazán’s genteel Old World heritage and the lush, pristine Central American countryside, the innocence of the peasants Morazán surrounded himself with and his idealism. The cello and bass play long melodic lines with accents in major keys, reinforcing the sense of order, wellbeing and stability. This lyricism breaks abruptly an onslaught of discordant string section, driving, martial percussion rhythms and crashing cymbals. The wind instruments turn to short, staccato phrases, the strings become heralds of shimmering suspense while the French horns continuously attempt to return to the lyricism of the opening. The cellos turn from a rolling undercurrent of foreboding to an open clash between antagonistic forces. The tensions reach a fever pitch at the climactic moment, when Morazán faces the firing squad, leaving only the violins playing a tense, monochromatic coda of unresolved confrontation and suspense. The Overture will be accompanied by Morazán Speaks, a text by Honduran writer Eduardo Bähr written in Morazán’s voice, translated and read live (in English) by Honduran actor Walter Krochmal. The orchestra will accompany the narration by alternating between the movements of the Overture, then vamping under the actor’s voice using the “anti-vibrato, anti-bow” technique discovered by Maestro Rodríguez, in which musicians tamp down the violin and cello strings with their fingers while drawing the bow uniformly and horizontally across them without allowing the sound to waver. The cellos and bass instruments, meanwhile, play harmonic chords, creating an ethereal aural environment that conveys the impression of Morazán’s voice speaking through space and time. With the narration completed, Morazán having declared his eternal love for Central America as he faces the firing squad, the Overture then plays the coda, leaving the audience with the impression of his values and ideals resonating beyond the span of his lifetime.