Letras Sonoras
In their “Letras Sonoras” evening-length performance interleaving Latin American music and literature, violinist Francesca Anderegg and Venezuelan-American composer Reinaldo Moya explore the origins and inspirations of contemporary Latin American music. The concert — a seamless blend of words and music — alternates excerpts from Latin American literature (in both English and Spanish) with music by Latin American composers who were inspired by literary ideas, structures, and forms, and who in turn influenced Moya in his own compositions. Literature comes to life through sound.
Reinaldo Moya acts as narrator, linking the music together with readings from Derek Walcott, Pablo Neruda, Jorge Luis Borges, Gabriel García Márquez, Julio Cortázar, and others. The juxtaposition of Latin American words and music — as well as the musical experience of hearing the literature in the original Spanish alongside its English translation — enriches and elevates both sets of source materials, creating and revealing fascinating intersections.
Reinaldo Moya’s music itself — characterized by its rich allusions to themes of the immigrant experience, geography, travel, and literature — is particularly illuminated by these readings that directly speak to Moya’s inspirations as a composer, as well as to his preoccupations as a Venezuelan-American. The inclusion of other works by Latin American composers provide context for Moya’s particular and unique musical viewpoint, while the project as a whole represents a truly global constellation of influences.
Sample Program
Primavera porteña ………………………..………………………………………………..Astor Piazzolla
MUSICAL IDENTITY:
Introduction: The Composer as Citizen ………………………………..…………Reinaldo Moya
Reading from Nobel Prize Lecture………………………………………………..…..Derek Walcott
Imagined Archipelagos…………………………………………………………..……….Reinaldo Moya
III. The Island with the Imaginary Moons
REALITY AND DESIRE:
La isla a mediodía (The Island at Noon) ………………..…………………………Julio Cortázar
Imagined Archipelagos ………………………………………………………………..…Reinaldo Moya
II. The Island at Noon
ABUNDANCE AND TERROR IN THE NATURAL WORLD:
Flor da noite……………………………………………………………………………….Radames Gnattali
Amor……………………………………………………………..……………………………..Clarice Lispector
Martírio dos insetos (The Martyrdom of Insects)………………..……… Heitor Villa-Lobos
MIGRATION STORIES:
Señales que precederán al fin del mundo ………………………………………… Yuri Herrerra
The Way North ……………………………………………………………………………… Reinaldo Moya
You Crossed the Border………………………………………………………..….. Reza Mohammadi
IMAGINED HOMELANDS:
El Sur………………………………………….……………………………………………… Jorge Luis Borges
Pampeana No. 1…………………………………..……………………………………..Alberto Ginastera
Sample Reading:
Derek Walcott, The Antilles: Fragments of Epic Memory
This gathering of broken pieces is the care and pain of the Antilles, and if the pieces are disparate, ill-fitting, they contain more pain than their original sculpture, those icons and sacred vessels taken for granted in their ancestral places. Antillean art is this restoration of our shattered histories, our shards of vocabulary, our archipelago becoming a synonym for pieces broken off from the original continent.
-Derek Walcott – Nobel Lecture. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Media AB 2019. Thu. 7 Nov 2019.
https://soundcloud.com/francesca-anderegg/sets/letras-sonoras