Sea Wind (2010)

The title and pitches of Sea Wind are derived from the Chilean musician/poet Victor Jara's song Angelita Huenuman.

In the Pocuno Valley
where the sea wind rebounds
where the rains nourish the moss
there lives Angelita Huenuman.

Among the manio and the hualles
among the trees
among the fragrance of the flowers
lives Angelita Huenuman.

Guarded by five dogs
a son that love left behind
as simple as her small farm
the world spins around.

The red blood of the copihue
runs in your veins, Huenumann
in the light coming through a window
Angelita weaves her life.

Her hands dance with the thread
like the small wings of an insect
it is a miracle how she weaves
even the fragrance of the flower.

Angelita, in your looms
there is time, tears and sweat
there are the ignored hands
of this, my creative people.

After months of labor
the cloth looks for a buyer
and as the caged bird
sings for the highest bidder.

This piece was written for Thomas Schultz with support from the Zellerbach Family Foundation, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and the Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation. It received its world premiere in San Francisco in September 2010 and the European premiere in October 2010 at Salle Cortot in Paris (this performance was supported by the Subito grant of the American Composers Forum).