Spilled River on the Sky
Instrumentation: Oboe and Piano
Year Composed: 2020
Duration: 11 minutes
Program Notes:
Purchase Score/Part
Also available for saxophone (sop/alto) and piano.
The evocative title comes from Pablo Neruda’s ode to migratory birds, which begins:
Also available for saxophone (sop/alto) and piano.
The evocative title comes from Pablo Neruda’s ode to migratory birds, which begins:
Por la linea
del mar
hacia el Gran Norte
un
rio
derramado
sobre el cielo:
son los pájaros
del Sur, del ventisquero,
que vienen de las islas,
de la nieve:
los halcones antárticos,
los cormoranes vestidos
de luto,
los australes petreles del exilio.
Along the sea
line
toward the Grand North
a
spilled
river
on the sky:
it's the birds
from the South, from the snowdrift,
coming from the islands,
from the snow:
Antarctic hawks,
cormorants dressed
in mourning,
austral petrels out of exile.*
* translated by Ilan Stavans
Written in 1954, the poem now takes on a certain melancholy. I read Neruda’s evocation almost as an elegy to these immemorial rituals, which may soon be lost to our ruinous effects on this planet. I am taken by the awed beauty of Neruda’s dedication, but also mournful that, for the first time, this ancient spectacle can no longer be taken for granted. I find this passage particularly haunting, even prophetic, as he describes the cadavers of marine birds on the sand, “locked/ by burnished wings/ like coffins/ made/ in heaven, (1.)” while the sea continues, “the white and green thunder of the waves/ the tempestuous eternity of the sky. (2.)”
(1.) “encerrados/ por las alas bruñidas/ como ataúdes/ hechos/ en el cielo.”
(2.) “el trueno blanco y verde de las olas,/ la eternidad borrascosa del cielo.”
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Spilled River on the Sky (original oboe version)
Andrew Nogal, oboe. Daniel Pesca, piano. -
Spilled River on the Sky (sax version)
Kathrine Weintraub, saxophone
Eunmi Ko, piano
Live performance at CAMPground22, Tampa, FL
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