Momotombo
Momotombo
for SATB choir
Momotombo was commissioned by Musica Viva NY, Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, artistic director and conductor, for premiere on In Nature's Realm at All Souls Church in New York, NY, on March 27, 2022; and recorded by the commissioner on December 6, 2023 for release on Naxos.
Instrumentation: SATB choir
Duration: 16’
PROGRAM NOTE
Momotombo premiere - Musica Viva NY - Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, conductor
Nicaragua is home to a range of volcanic formations from young cinder cones and lava domes to calderas and steeply ascending stratovolcanoes. Of them all—observed throughout the ages by caciques, poets, first peoples, conquerors—the greatest may be Momotombo. Rubén Darío’s poem Momotombo embraces the eternal nature of the volcano, present through the rising and passing of epochs, while placing it in the context of an ephemeral moment approaching the volcano by train as a boy: “I was fifteen: a star in my hand!”
I was read Darío’s poetry since early childhood; my mother—born and raised in Diriamba, Nicaragua—had a deep and layered connection to his work, and she made a point of instilling in me an appreciation for his rich imagery, rhythmic drive, lyricism, and wordplay, and a love for the heart that fuels so much of his writing. In his Momotombo, Darío’s contrasting imagery is potent, with the train that keeps going, the volcano that stands seemingly unchanged for all time, and the soul that remains constant as the body changes and inevitably expires, all witness to accounts of and by people who have come and gone. I followed this shape in this new work for chorus, tracing a line from Darío to the sources he references in his poem—Victor Hugo, from Les raisons du Momotombo; and E. G. Squier’s account of the old friars who went up the volcano and did not come back—and beyond—referencing Oviedo’s History of the Indies and a letter to court from Bartolomé de las Casas—all of which exist in the shadow of the eternal Momotombo, as the memory of a fifteen-year-old self flickers brightly, and as the train keeps going. —GL
Momotombo was commissioned by Musica Viva NY, Alejandro Hernandez-Valdez, artistic director and conductor, for premiere on In Nature's Realm at All Souls Church in New York, NY, on March 27, 2022; and recorded by the commissioner on December 6, 2023 for release on Naxos.
TEXT
I. EL tren iba rodando sobre sus rieles
EL tren iba rodando sobre sus rieles. Era
en los días de mí dorada primavera
y era en mí Nicaragua natal.
EL tren iba rodando sobre sus rieles.
yo tenía quince años: una estrella en la mano!
y era en mí Nicaragua natal.
EL tren iba rodando sobre sus rieles.
De pronto,
Suddenly, between a canopy of trees, I saw
“Ô vieux Momotombo, colosse chauve et nu…”
Ô vieux Momotombo, «calvo y desnudo», and
full of ancient triumphal pride.
EL tren iba rodando sobre sus rieles.
yo tenía quince años: una estrella en la mano!
I was fifteen: a star in my hand!
EL tren iba rodando sobre sus rieles.
Rubén Darío, from Momotombo, 1907
Victor Hugo, from Les raisons du Momotombo,
La Légende des siècles, 1859
II. The baptism of volcanoes
[The baptism of volcanoes] is an old practice…
the ceremony was performed early after the Conquest
on all the volcanoes in Nicaragua,
with the exception of Momotombo.
The old friars who started for its summit
to set up the cross there
were never heard from again.
E. G. Squier, special chargé d'affaires of the United States to the Republics of Central America
from Travels in Central America, particularly in Nicaragua, 1853
III. ¡Momotombo! -exclamé
A league and a half from the city of León is a very high mountain on the other side of the lake... from the highest peak rises smoke without ceasing…
There, no year passes without the earth shaking many times.
¡Momotombo! -exclamé- ¡oh nombre de epopeya!
¡Oh Momotombo ronco y sonoro!
I have been in that city fleeing to the streets
I counted in a single night sixty or so, one after another…
…it is a cause of much fear
Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, 1535
General and Natural History of the Indies, and Islands and Lands of the Oceanic Sea, part three, volume IV, 1855
Rubén Darío, from Momotombo, 1907
IV. Evocación
Know your grace, que este reino de Nicaragua es… un paraíso
…such abundance, such good health and the gentleness of its people.
Oh Momotombo… Te amo
Oh Momotombo… I love you
because at your evocation they come to me again,
porque a tu evocación vienen a mí otra vez,
perfumes de mí infancia, brisas de mí niñez.
pride…
Bartolomé de las Casas, carta a un personaje de la corte, 1552
Rubén Darío, from Momotombo, 1907
V. yo tenía quince años
Momotombo stood lyrical and sovereign,
I was fifteen: a star in my hand!
El tren…
Rubén Darío, from Momotombo, 1907
Texts translated and adapted by the composer.