The intimate, delicately scored music of the Catalan composer Federico Mompou included in this Sunday’s Gathering Music seemed like the embodiment of quiet self-listening. His four volumes of Música callada (Silent Music) are inspired by the writings of the 16th-century Spanish mystic San Juan de la Cruz, who alluded to “La musica Callada, la Soledad Sonora” (Silent Music, Sonorous Solitude). As Mompou himself explained, “…the idea of music that was the very sound of silence. Music keeps its voice silent, that is, does not speak, while solitude has its own music.” Elsewhere, the music of R. Nathaniel Dett and Scott Joplin pay homage to Black History Month.
Gathering Music: Adam Kent, piano
- Sarabande from Partita No. 1 in Bb Major ~ Johann Sebastian Bach
- Música callada, Vol. IV: XXII: Molto lento e tranquillo ~ Federico Mompou
Offertory:
Adagio cantabile* from Cinnamon Grove ~ R. Nathaniel Dett
*This score is prefaced with a verse from Gitanjali by Rabindranath Tagore: “When thou commandest me to sing, it seems that my heart would break with pride; and I look to thy face, and tears come to my eyes.”
Meditation
Footsteps in the Snow ~ Claude Debussy
Interlude
“The Snow Is Falling” from Children’s Corner ~ Claude Debussy
Parting Music:
Solace ~ Scott Jopin