Genesis – Gran Canaria Wind Orchestra

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First Concert of the 12th Season of the Gran Canaria Wind Orchestra, titled "Genesis", conducted by Borja Romero. "Genesis" gives its name to the first concert of the GCWO season, a proposal that marks the beginning of a new artistic cycle and brings together contemporary creation with some of the most impactful sonorities of the current repertoire. The program includes the premiere of Tuba Concerto, by Manuel Bonino, along with two works by the American composer John Mackey. The concert will be conducted by the young Tenerife-born conductor Borja Romero, who will stand in front of the GCWO for the first time. Composed on commission from tubist Óscar Santiso Eiroa, soloist of the concert, Tuba Concerto highlights the expressive possibilities and virtuosity of the tuba, turning it into the great protagonist of the work. The program is completed with two outstanding compositions by John Mackey, whose music is characterized by its energy, brilliance and sonic richness. Aurora Awakes Aurora, the Roman goddess of the dawn, is a mythological figure frequently associated with beauty and light. Also known as Eos (her Greek counterpart), Aurora rose each morning and crossed the sky, announcing the arrival of her brother Sol, the sun. Although she herself is one of the minor deities of Roman and Greek mythologies, her cultural influence has endured, especially in the naming of the vibrant flashes of light that occur in the Arctic and Antarctic regions: the aurora borealis and the aurora australis. Aurora Awakes by John Mackey is, therefore, a piece that announces the arrival of light. Structured in two substantial sections, the work unfolds over eleven minutes, moving from marked stillness to an explosion of unbridled energy: from darkness to light, from placid gray to a surprising rainbow of colors. The work is almost entirely in the key of E-flat major (a choice made to create a unique effect at the end of the piece, as mentioned later), although it passes through G-flat and F as it progresses. However, despite the harmonic changes, the piece always maintains a bright optimism. Although Mackey is known for using stylistic imitation, it is less common for him to resort to direct quotation. For this reason, the presence of two more or less direct quotes from other musical compositions is particularly notable in Aurora Awakes. The first, which appears at the beginning of the second section, is an ostinato based on the well-known guitar introduction of "Where The Streets Have No Name" by U2. Although The Edge’s guitar lines have been transformed into insistent repetitions in the keyboard percussion, the aesthetic is similar: a distant proclamation that grows in fervor. However, the difference between U2’s presentation and Mackey’s lies in the fact that the guitar riff disappears for most of the song, whereas in Aurora Awakes, the motif persists for almost the entirety of the rest of the piece. Wine Dark Sea After ten years of bloody siege, the Trojan War was won thanks to the stratagem of Odysseus: a horse full of soldiers, disguised as an offering. The Trojans took it as a trophy and were massacred. Odysseus gave victory to the Greeks, and they left foreign shores to return home. But Odysseus’s journey would last as long as the war itself. Homer called the ocean on which Odysseus sailed a wine-dark sea, and for the Greek king it was as murky and disorienting as its name; he would not find a way to cross it without first losing himself. I. Hubris Odysseus filled his ship with the spoils of war, but he carried another, more dangerous burden: pride. This movement begins with his triumphal march and continues as he and his crew plunder every port of call on their way home. But the arrogance of a mortal conqueror has a sure consequence in this world: a demonstration of the insignificance of that mortal, courtesy of the gods. Odysseus offends; Zeus sinks his ship. The sailors drown. Odysseus is shipwrecked. The sea takes them all. II. Immortal Thread, So Weak This movement is the song of the beautiful and immortal nymph Calypso, who finds Odysseus on the brink of death, stranded on the shore of the island where she lives alone. She nurses him back to health and sings as she moves back and forth with a golden shuttle on her loom. Odysseus shares her bed; seven years go by. The tapestry she began when she first cared for him becomes a record of their love. But one day Odysseus remembers his home. He tells Calypso that he wants to leave her, to return to his wife and son. He dismisses all that she has given him. Calypso is heartbroken. And yet, that night, Calypso again paces beside her loom. She unweaves her tapestry and weaves a sail for Odysseus. In the morning, she shows Odysseus a raft, fitted with the sail she has made and provisioned with bread and wine, and she calls up a soft, steady wind to carry him home. Devastated, she watches him go; he does not look back. III. The Attentions of Soul But other immortals are not yet finished with Odysseus. Before he can reach his home, he must sail to the ends of the earth and make a sacrifice to the dead. And so, this movement takes place at the gates of the underworld, where it is always night. When Odysseus cuts the throats of the sacrificial animals, the spirits of the dead swarm. They flatter him, begging for blood. They accuse him, charging him with his sins. They mock him, jeering at his inability to find his way home. The spirit of his own mother does not recognize him; he tries to touch her, but she is immaterial. He sees the ghosts of the great and the humble, all hungry, all greedy. Finally, the prophet Tiresias reveals to Odysseus what he must do to return home. Thus Odysseus travels a winding path beyond the end of the world, harried by the souls of the dead who stir and scream. But in the darkness, at last he can glimpse the light of his home. Wine-Dark Sea is dedicated to Jerry Junkin, without whom this piece would not exist. The second movement, "Immortal thread, so weak", which tells of Kalypso’s heartbreak, is dedicated to Abby, without whom none of my compositions from the last ten years would exist. Title: "Genesis" Conductor: Borja Romero Soloist: Óscar Santiso Eiroa Program 1st Part - Aurora Awakes by John Mackey - Concerto for Tuba and Wind Band – Manuel Bonino 2nd Part - Wine Dark Sea by John Mackey - Hubris - Immortal Thread, So Weak - The Attentions of Soul