Meisel Room
Westminster Presbyterian Church

My current project is setting the twenty-one poems of Federico García Lorca’s El Diván del Tamarit (“The Treasury of Tamarit”). This is Lorca’s last major collection prior to his assassination at the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. In this collection, Lorca re- imagines two Persian/Arabic poetry forms: the ghazal (Sp. “gacela”) and the qasida (“casida”). The collection includes many of his usual themes, including love and desire, death and mourning, water, the moon, children, vivid colors, and references to Andalucian culture and places. Many of these particular poems focus on a despair and a longing for mutual destruction after lost love, though others explore grief and loss in other situations. Throughout, the poems are animated by a refined yet lachrymose surrealism.

This presentation will focus on the gacelas that are already set, discussing how Lorca’s poetic structures, imagery, and Arab-Andalucian influences shape my musical choices. I will also provide some further context on the collection, as well as discuss some of Lorca’s re-imaginings of the ghazal and qasida within El Diván del Tamarit.