Morazan Overture for full Symphony Orchestra

This composition, structured like a film score, features General Francisco Morazan (1792-1842), "Paladin of the Central American Union" and the isthmus's preeminent statesman. The grandson of a Corsican immigrant whose village had no public school until he was 28 years old, he taught himself French and weaned himself on thinkers such as Montesquieu and Tocqueville. Morazan championed civil society, education as the pillar of free nations, obedience to laws and the Constitution, the free circulation of ideas, regional unity and peace. Circumstances forced him to take up arms, which he did with consummate skill against the British (who had seized most of the isthmus's territory) and the conservative, anti-Union forces that became his lifelong enemies. He served as President of the Federal Republic of Central America (two terms), as Chief of State of his native Honduras, of El Salvador, and finally of Costa Rica, where his enemies finally ended his life before the firing squad. Morazan's military genius stands out all the more because of his lack of formal schooling. The Overture employs both its classical underpinnings and innovative modern compositional techniques to represent Central America's complex physical and psychological landscapes, a study in duality where sublime sweetness and primal bloodlust, light and shadow, life and death, coexist as two sides of the same coin. It portrays a historic moment when Central America struggled mightily to break with exploitation, disparity, exclusion and poverty, a struggle that, tragically, continues today. The opening features slow, stately lyrical motifs of woodwind instruments, evoking Morazan's genteel Old World heritage and the lush, pristine Central American countryside, the innocence of the peasants Morazan surrounded himself with and his idealism. The cello and bass play long melodic lines with accents in major keys, reinforcing the sense of order, wellbeing and stability. This lyricism breaks abruptly an onslaught of discordant string section, driving, martial percussion rhythms and crashing cymbals. The wind instruments turn to short, staccato phrases, the strings become heralds of shimmering suspense while the French horns continuously attempt to return to the lyricism of the opening. The cellos turn from a rolling undercurrent of foreboding to an open clash between antagonistic forces. The tensions reach a fever pitch at the climactic moment, when Morazan faces the firing squad, leaving only the violins playing a tense, monochromatic coda of unresolved confrontation and suspense. The Overture will be accompanied by Morazan Speaks, a text by Honduran writer Eduardo Bahr written in Morazan's voice, translated and read live (in English) by Honduran actor Walter Krochmal. The orchestra will accompany the narration by alternating between the movements of the Overture, then vamping under the actor's voice using the "anti-vibrato, anti-bow" technique discovered by Maestro Rodriguez, in which musicians tamp down the violin and cello strings with their fingers while drawing the bow uniformly and horizontally across them without allowing the sound to waver. The cellos and bass instruments, meanwhile, play harmonic chords, creating an ethereal aural environment that conveys the impression of Morazan's voice speaking through space and time.