Details
- 13
- Woodwind Quintet
Score Excerpts
Sound Samples
- El Viento Helado audio excerpt
Program Notes
El Viento Helado by Canadian composer Michael Matthews was written for the Mexico City Woodwind Quintet; the piece was composed in Winnipeg and Berlin.
The title is taken from a poem by Antonio Machado (1875-1939)
LXXIX
Desnuda está la tierra,
y el alma aúlla al horizonte pálido
como loba famélica. ¿Qué buscas,
poeta, en el ocaso?
Amargo caminar, porque el camino
pesa en el corazòn. ¡El viento helado,
y la noche que llega, y la amargura
de la distancia! … En el camino blanco
algunos yertos árboles negrean;
en los montes lejanos
hay oro y sangre… El sol muriò… ¿Qué buscas,
poeta, en el ocaso?
Poem LXXIX
The land is naked,
And the soul howls at the pale horizon
Like a hungry she-wolf. Poet,
What are you searching in the sunset?
Bitter to walk, because the road
Weighs heavy on the heart. The wind is frozen,
The night has arrived, and the bitterness
Of the distance!…On the white road
Some green trees are turning black;
In the distant mountains
There is gold and blood…The sun has died. Poet,
What are you searching in the sunset.
translated by Tanzan Kopra
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