(Below is the transcription of an email I sent a friend regarding the world premiere of Ibero-American Landscapes, reformatted to fit Medium)
Greetings my dear friend Caitlyn,
I imagine you will find it unusual that I am contacting you via email this fine day, but I have recently attended the musical premiere of Ibero-American Landscapes, by Edwin Guevara Gutierrez, on April 29, 2021, and wanted to share the experience with you and figured it would be simpler to convey through email rather than our usual text. It was performed by Diana Schaible on flute, Cecilia Palma on cello, Misael Barraza-Díaz on guitar, and Edwin Guevara Gutiérrez (the composer) on guitar.
I use the word “attended” lightly considering that I did not leave my house at all that day. I watched the premiere remotely through a YouTube livestream. This entire semester, my class has been studying the musical premieres of famous pieces like Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Beethoven’s 9th Symphony, and for our last project, we were to watch the world premiere of Ibero-American Landscapes and create a primary source on the subject. After spending a semester reading and evaluating various primary sources, it is quite strange to find myself creating one. I am a little worried that my awareness in this endeavor will otherwise impede how it would turn out. In some ways I know that it already has, such as me recounting the experience through email instead of text and using more formal language than I normally would. I figure the best way to approach this primary source in the form of an email is to disclose these biases, for easier interpretation and analysis of anyone that may be reading this in the future. The primary sources I found most entertaining to read and analyze were letters amongst colleagues, recounting the experience or mundane details of the day. I have thusly written this letter in an attempt to emulate the types of primary sources I most enjoyed reading.
What I found to be most unique about the premiere was that it took place in the middle of the COVID-19. Up until a few weeks before the premiere, we weren’t sure that anyone would be able to watch the premiere in person. Luckily, permission was granted and students were given the option of either attending the 11am performance in person or watching the livestream remotely. Due to my schedule and status as an online student this semester, I was unable to make the hour drive to Tucson and opted for the online experience. The music was gorgeous and I wish I could’ve listened to it in better quality than from my computer speakers. Nonetheless it was an incredibly unique experience to listen to the premiere remotely. I found myself marveling at technological advancements allowing me to still take part in such a cool musical premiere despite not physically being in the audience. This would have been unimaginable 20 years ago, let alone hundreds of years ago when the pieces we studied in class premiered. I watched the entire performance from the comfort of my desk. No mask mandates in my room or food prohibitions. While it pains me to not be able to experience live music, and having to applaud with an emoji in the chat box, being able to eat oatmeal during a performance nearly makes up for it.
It took around 15 minutes into the livestream for me to check the program and realize that there was a slated 20 minutes of time allotted for a rehearsal of the piece. I’m not sure if that speaks to my own inattentiveness or their skill while rehearsing. After their rehearsal, they went backstage and after a brief address from Prof. Mugmon, they came back out and began the performance. We had already seen a sneak peek of the piece the week prior, during class, but listening to the polished final product was amazing. The title of the piece truly lives up to its name, creating vivid imagery of the Ibero-American Landscapes the piece was named after. To me, it even seemed like there was a cinematic quality to the piece, I could easily see it played as a soundtrack in a movie. The way cello and flute play off each other is nothing short of delightful. I think I could sum up the premiere as just a pleasant experience. It has darker chaotic moments that juxtapose light dancey phrases that just work really well together. Before this performance I would have been skeptical of the orchestration, given that 2 guitars, a cello, and a flute is fairly uncommon quartet, and I was unsure of how cello and flute would blend with the guitars and play in a Latin American inspired style of music but my skepticism was completely debunked. I could have never predicted just how well the different voices blended together.
40:25 was probably my favorite moment in the entire piece. The melody that the flute plays is so clear and catchy I found myself humming it an hour after the premiere had ended. But what I enjoyed the most was how Palma used the cello to provide a percussive element to the piece. Its not too often you hear a cello being used as percussion, but I think its a really fun technique. The large body of the cello makes it so a firm tap will produce a unique, almost ringing sound. Going from pizzicato to arco to percussion creates a wide variety of effects and I appreciate that Gutierrez utilized the cello to its full potential in this piece.
Overall this concert was a series of firsts for me. It was my first time listening to a world premiere from the comfort of my bedroom. Coming across a quartet comprised of 2 guitars, a cello, and a flute, and my first time coming in contact with a Latino composer in an academic setting. If you have time, I recommend listening to the piece, starting at 37:38. It was truly a unique premiere that I am very glad I had the chance to be a part of and I wanted to share it with you. I hope I have not bored you with my recounting of the experience and I eagerly await your response.
Best Regards,
Alina
