La arboleda (The Grove), for mixed choir and piano

“The Grove” was commissioned by the Portland Symphonic Choir in January 1994, at the request of its director Bruce Browne, to be included in a program of Latin American texts. Although Octavio Paz’s original poem is in Spanish, my original version of the work was in English. Twelve years later, I have adapted the music to the Spanish text of the original poem.

Faithfully following the content of the text, I divide the work into five parts: The first is a mysterious and nocturnal description of the swinging grove. The second section is fast, marked and fast-paced, culminating with the sunrise. A longer third part follows, where the author describes the reality of his country from a pessimistic angle. A lamenting ascending gradation will take us to the climax of the composition. The reappearance of the music of the first section now appears as a post-lude to conclude the work with the initial mysterious atmosphere.

The piano part could easily be scored for a large orchestra, making the work more colorful, intense and dramatic.