The Alabados Song (2001)
Paul Bissell
PUBLISHER: Go Fish Music
RECORDINGS: Groundlines, Thomas Burritt (Independent)
RANGE: 5.0 octaves
DURATION: 10:15
MOVEMENTS: Single movement
TYPE OF ACCOMPANIMENT: Fixed
MUSICAL OVERVIEW: The marimba acts as a soloist accompanied by the tape for most of the work. The tape part also contains a pre-recorded voice at several moments during which the marimba assumes a secondary role. The melodic material is always presented clearly. The scoring makes use of a strong sense of tonality and harmony. The nature of the writing keeps the hands apart in different ranges of the instrument and, as such, a graduated set of mallets might be best employed: medium-soft in 1, medium in 2 and 3, and medium-hard in 4.
ACCOMPANIMENT OVERVIEW: Synthesized and sampled sounds. The opening chorale section of the work is free and Bissell indicates timings to keep the performer moving along with the tape. Occasional cues through this section must align with the tape. The remainder of the work requires synchronicity with the tape.
TECHNIQUE OVERVIEW: SI, SIA, DV, and DL. The writing utilizes repetitive stickings. Some single-line writing is present, but the technique is focused predominately on hand-to-hand. Although requiring independent striking motions between hands simultaneously, the writing remains accessible. Octave-interval within one hand is prominent. Some small-interval one-handed rolls required.
COMPOSER'S NOTE: The following text by Paul Bissell was taken from the score:
The title of this composition, The Alabados Song, stems from a fading tradition of Hispanic/Catholic communities in the southwest United States. As families and entire villages moved in the early 1900s from Mexico and other South American countries into the United States, they created communities in America not serviced by a formal church or clergy due to their geographical isolation. For religious events these groups had to improvise their own ceremonies, including the ceremony of last rites for the dying. The group's elder males would gather at bedside and recite from the Book of the Alabados, an ancient text with Spanish origins once used to deliver news to remotes villages. The book's prose was an odd mix of Catholic imagery, violent war stories and political gossip. The town elders would improvise melodies in a chanting manner over the bedside of the dying, using the book's text in place of a formal last rites ceremony.
The composition utilizes this idea of a backdrop for a fictitious musical story. The piece does not follow the literary action verbatim, but uses this story as a catalyst for the composition itself. There are two narrators in this version, the old woman, and the voice of the spirit of death. The narrative that the composition follows is: "Spirits enter a rural village to take the matriarch of a family away. They call her to get her to go willingly, but her thoughts of the present state are strong and she has too much fight left in her. She won't go as they ask. The spirits entice her with dance and reminders that her other loved ones have already gone into the beyond. She follows the spirits en route to heaven only to hear the voices of the chanting elders over her body. The wily old woman accommodates the spirits, playing and dancing with them, but as the spirits try to lead her away forever, she suddenly pulls herself back to reality. The spirits remind the woman that it is her time to die and slowly pull her towards them. In the end, tired and resigned from their calling, she leaves with the spirits for the other world."