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composition
Sinfonía testimonial : for choir, orchestra and tape / Tera de Marez Oyens; poems by Ariel Dorfman and Rosario Castellanos
Other authors:
Castellanos, Rosario
(Text writer/Librettist)
Dorfman, Ariel
(Text writer/Librettist)
Marez Oyens, Tera de
(Composer)
Contains:
Testamento
De mutilaciones
Dos más dos
Description:
Program note (English): The texts of Sinfonia Testimonial can be considered depositions of political prisoners in Chili and Mexico. The first movement, Testamento, by the Chilean poet Ariel Dorfman, has the same returning motive 'No les creas', 'Don't believe them if they say that they have released me. Don't believe them if they show a photograph of my body and if they say that I am dead. Don't believe them. In the Second movement, the Mutilaciones (mutilations) by the Mexican poet Rosario Castellanos, relating to the manner of how one's identity is slowly demolished, is sung. In sober words this process of collapse is described, ending in: 'for your burial a coffin is over-the-top because you have preserved nothing of yourself that fits into a nutshell' (en la cascara de nuez). A vague, almost banal dance motive makes the ironic text even more harrowing. The title of the last movement, Dos mas dos ('two plus two') relates the number of steps which are measured when one is taken from their cell:
if there are twenty then your will not be brought to the lavoratories, if there are forty-five, then it can no longer be the for a breath of fresh air. But if you sit above eighty, there is no other place... the calling of the 'companero' and enumerating numbers stipulate for a large section the rhythmic character of this movement. The usage of texts has been authorised by publisher De Balie. The tape has no illustrating function, although one could interpret several sounds as illustrative: melancholic voices, bolts which are slid shut by the prison doors underground, etc. The function of electronic sounds is however additional; one could consider the tape as an extra instrument. The tape was produced in the SVEM studio of the NOS, technicians were Fred de Beer and John van Waes - TERA DE MAREZ OYENS