Tres Cánticos (Three Songs)

Tres Cánticos op 151 were composed on poetry by my wife Carmen Fiastre Alcaraz. These are three poems published today under the generic title of Brindis a la Vida (Toast to Life), an allusion to the Jewish formula for a benevolent and positivist celebration. Both in Toast and in the other two poems (Ver y Libertad) I make use of consonances devoid of harmonic functionality, for the sake of a full, direct speech, of sonorous commotions, deployed to launch the textual and poetic message as it is. The three songs have a contrasting textural treatment: Brindis, broad, thick, full of dense harmonies and a brilliant and exultant song; Ver, the elegance of a classicist, linear, ethereal motif, in a clear dialogue between voice and piano; Libertad, static, uniform discourse, with a hypnotic sound, quasi-minimalist with full harmonic consonance, and at the same time delicate and expressive. It really is an intention to translate into sounds a clear and direct poetic language, Hebrew L’Chaim.

Manuel Seco de Arpe