Alba de Lucía, for piano

This work is dedicated to my piano teacher and wonderful friend Núria Jaouen, who, in addition to being a specialist in early music and in the type of jazz known as manouche, is also a composer and singer.

Since I began studying guitar almost thirty years ago, flamenco has been one of the styles that has awakened my curiosity most. Although it is a genre generally associated with the oral tradition and the guitar, its harmonic language, its melodic vocabulary, and its eminently rhythmic character make it well suited to blending with other kinds of music, whether Hispanic or not. Moreover, the use of the piano allows for the appearance of melodies and harmonies different from those typically found in flamenco, which is why I chose to compose for this instrument.

The title (Lucía’s dawn) is a small tribute to Paco de Lucía, who in his time was one of the leading exponents of the fusion of flamenco with other genres. The work quotes one of his themes several times in the form of an ostinato.