Andalusian Love Songs
Instrumentation: countertenor and piano
Duration: 16 minutes
Commissioner: Brian Asawa, countertenor
Premiere: Brian Asawa, countertenor; Mark Salters, piano. Long Beach, CA
Four Andalusian Love Songs
$18.00
“The devices captured the spirit of the poems and established a lineage of emotional tone-painting that Erickson has inherited from the songs of Franz Schubert.”
“The songs seemed tailor-made for the drama that is one of Asawa’s fortes. Most striking were the ridiculously sly and silly accompaniment to “The Rooster,” a song into which Asawa injected apt hilarity by exaggerating his rolled “r”s; ”
Commissioned by acclaimed countertenor Brian Asawa. Video performances are the LAST performances we have from this incredible singer
The Rooster // Al-As’ad Ibrāhīm ibn Billītah (11th Century Toldeo)
Split My Heart // Ibn Hazm (994-1063) (Córdoba)
Slave Boy // Yūsuf ibn Hārūn al-Ramādī (d. 1022) (Córdoba)
Absence // Abu Bakr al-Turtushi (1059-1126 Eastern Andalusia)