Music: Sun Jan 6

The New Year and January’s monthly worship theme of Simplicity are inaugurated at CUUC in music as Flamenco artist Fernando Barros makes a return appearance. Together with Music Director Adam Kent, maestro Barros explores the idea of musical, literary, and cultural metamorphosis by combining Canadian songwriter Leonard Cohen’s timelessly simple melodies with the haunting carnality of Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetry and interjections from the world of Classical music. As unlikely as the pairing of Cohen and Lorca might initially seem, the Canadian musician credited a series of lessons with an Andalusian guitarist (who committed suicide after giving Cohen only a few classes) as the key to his musical formation. So enamored of Spanish gypsy culture was Cohen, that he named his only daughter Lorca, after the legendary playwright and poet, who had been assassinated in the early days of the Spanish Civil War. In addition to his literary gifts, Lorca was also a musician of note, who collected and arranged popular Andalusian tunes, as heard in this morning’s musical Postlude. Also represented are the words of Miguel de Cervantes, author of the epoch-defining Don Quixote, in the form of an old Spanish ballad Bailan las gitanas, heard this morning to the music of Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love.” See inserts for translations of the Spanish-language texts, and read on for programming details. For more information on maestro Barros’s work as a performer, scholar, and educator, visit www.studyflamenco.com. For a promotional video on maestro Barros's work with Adam Kent, check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIEM6m4Kd_c

Centering Music: Fernando Barros, cantaor; Adam Kent, piano
Si mis manos pudieran

Llagas de amor

Music based on Leonard Cohen’s “Who by Fire” and “If It Be Your Will,” words by Federico Garcia Lorca

Opening Music:
Se ha puesto el sol

Music based on Leonard Cohen’s “The Window,” words by Federico Garcia Lorca

Offertory:
Balada interior

            Music based on Leonard Cohen’s “Anthem,” words by Federico Garcia Lorca

Interlude:
Bailan las gitanas

Music based on Leonard Cohen’s “Dance Me to the End of Love,” words by Miguel de Cervantes

Postlude:
Las tres hojas

TRANSLATIONS

Si mis manos pudieran deshojar (If My Hands Could Tear the Leaves Off)

I pronounce your name
on dark nights,
when the stars come
to drink on the moon
and sleep in tufts
of hidden fronds.
And I feel myself hollow
of passion and music.
Crazy clock that sings
dead ancient hours.

I pronounce your name,
in this dark night,
and your name sounds
more distant than ever.
More distant that all stars
and more doleful than a calm rain.

Will I love you like then
ever again? What blame
has my heart?
When the mist dissipates,
what other passion may I expect?
Will it be calm and pure?
If only my fingers could
tear the leaves off the moon!

Llagas de amor (Wounds of Love)

This blazing light, this devouring fire,
this grey landscape I’ve made mine,
this sorrow centred round one idea,
this anguish of sky, world and time.

This weeping of blood that adorns
an unplucked lyre, the lusty torch,
this weight of the sea that pounds,
this scorpion that dwells in my breast

are all a garland of love, a sickbed
where I lie awake dreaming you are here
among the ruins of my downcast heart.

And though I try hard to be careful
your heart gives me a vale with hemlock spread
and the passion of bitterly knowing all.

Se ha puesto el sol (The Sun Has Set)

The sun has set.
The trees mediate like statues.

Now the wheat is cut.

What sorrow the

still water mills!

A stray dog wants to devour

Venus, and barks at Her.

The pre-kiss field shines

Like a giant apple.

Mosquitos, Pegasus of dew,

Wheel in the still air.

Light, the vast Penelope,

Weaves a brilliant night.

“Sleep, my daughters, for the wolf is coming,”

bleat the little sheep.

“Has autumn come yet?”
Says a withered flower.

Now come the shepherds with their nests

Over the distant mountains!

Now the children are playing

In the doorway of the old inn,

And there will be love songs,

That the old houses know

By heart.

Balada interior (Interior Ballad)

The heart

I had in school,

Where my primer

Was painted,

Is it in you,

Black night?

(Cold, cold,

Like the water of the river.)

My first kiss

That tasted like a kiss

And was for my child lips

Like fresh rain,

Is it in you,

Black night?

My first verse,

The girl with the braids

Who stared ahead,

Is it in you,

Black night?

(Cold, cold,

Like the water of the river.)

But my heart,

Gnawed by serpents,

That was hung from the
Tree of Knowledge,

Is it in you,

Black night?

(Hot, hot,

Like the water of the fountain.)

My wandering love,

A castle with no foundation,

Moldy with shadows,

Is it in you,

Black night?

(Hot, hot,

Like the water of the fountain.)

Oh, great pain?
You let nothing into your cave

But shadows.

Is it sure,

Black night?

(Hot, hot,

Like the water of the fountain.)

Oh, lost heart!
Eternal Requiem!

Bailan las gitanas (The Gypsies Dance)

The Gypsies Dance

The gypsies dance,
the King watches them;
the Queen, jealous,
orders their arrest.

For Twelfth Night
Belica and Inés
performed for the King
a gypsy dance.
Clumsy Belica
fell beside the King,
and the King lifted her up
being purely courteous;
more as if she's Belilla
having such a pretty face,
the Queen, jealous,
orders their arrest.

Las tres hojas (The Three Leaves)

Under the leaf

Of the verbena

I have my evil lover.
Jesus, what pain!

Under the leaf

Of the lettuce

I have my evil lover.
What heat!

Under the leaf

Of the parsley

I have my evil lover.

There’s no escape!