Guernika

We have been asked to choose a piece of art that is meaningful for us. This is not an easy topic because, in my opinion, every piece of art is somehow meaningful. Yet only few touch someone’s heart. I don’t really have a favorite artist or style, neither in music nor in fine arts. However, today, I would like to talk a little bit about a painting that really impressed me when I first saw it: Picasso’s Guernika.
After being for decades in New York’s MoMa, fortunately, in 1982, the painting came back to Spain. The country, shortly after the triumph of democracy, celebrated its arrival and the end of a dictatorship that began when it was painted. Today, this huge painting (3.5 x 7.5 m) hangs in the Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid.
In 1936 the Spanish Civil War was started and Picasso was asked by the republican government to paint a canvas for the Republic Pavilion at the Universal Exhibition of 1937 in Paris. The bombing of the city of Guernika by Nazi Germany Luftwaffe determined the topic of the painting. Guernika was the first bombarded city ever and it was the training, the beginning, of the horrors of World War II.
Picasso used the most modern techniques in order to express such hecatomb. Using a white and grey palette, we observe a series of images and symbols that transmit that pain. We see symbols that truly represent Spain, like a dying horse, which Picasso had already used in other bullfighting scenes. There is also a bull. People are screaming, flapping around, scared, in a crowded room illuminated just by the light of a candle and a lonely light bulb. A mother is carrying her dead baby. She is screaming with a grimace of pain. We can see a woman in flames, trying to escape. The bombs and fire, however, did not exempt anyone. Over 1600 civilians died. They were innocent people.
Since its first exhibition in Paris, the painting became a symbol against war. When I saw it, I couldn’t avoid feeling choked. I thought of the millions of people who have died in wars and who are still dying. I wish that more than art were aware of war.

Composers Workshop Review

The Composers Workshop is an event that gives current University of Iowa composition students the opportunity to have their works performed publicly. The couple of dozen people present were not enough to fill Clapp Recital Hall. In my opinion they should have picked a smaller venue because this empty space did not transmit the feelings that chamber music should. The evening started with “Rigadoo (2007),” a trio by John Griffin. This piece of program music –the story of a wandering hobo– is based on an old Irish folk song. Elements of typical twentieth century American style reminded us of Ned Rorem. The piece was predicable, yet showed interesting motive development. It was followed by “Chants of the Ocean (2007),” a duo for piano and tuba by Timothy A. Davis. I really liked the piece. It was very subtle and volatile, like a Debussy prelude. Like the first one, this was also a program piece. However, it conveyed the feeling of walking at the seashore with the sound of ships as background. The third work, “No Sleep for the Wicked (2008)” is fifth movements of a ballet by Chistropher Gainey. Conceived for violoncello solo, the performer Emmalee Hunnicutt dived into the depths of this lamento, which was based on a Lord Byron poem. I would say this one was my favorite piece. The last one, “His Branches Run Over the Wall (2007),” by David DeVasto, a current teaching assistant and Ph.D. candidate in the Music Department, was the evening’s most mature piece. More complex in structure, the piece is based on a traditional story from the Old Testament. It was an excellent composition divided in two movements. The second movement started with a promising fugue but the composer got cold feet and it lasted less than a minute. I recognize that composing a fugue is not easy – even Beethoven had difficulty with them. I left the hall after one hour of interesting new music. I can’t wait for the next time.

Childhood Reminiscences

I don’t have a lot of memories of when I was ten years old. Well, I don’t have many amazing memories. However, I was a very busy child. I went to school everyday but I didn’t like it. Actually I didn’t like my classmates. I was the black sheep of my class. After school I went everyday to the music school and spent a lot of hours there. While other children where playing or watching T.V., I was playing piano and all this stuff. I don’t miss this “mass media” part of my childhood though. I really loved Saturdays because my cousin Daniel came and we played together. Some might think that a ten-year-old is too old for toys. I don’t care about that!! We played playmobil and a sort of reality-game we called “play ourselves.” In this game we just act as we were adults and we imagined how our lives would be like. This was my favorite game. My mother also cooked spaghetti. It was my favorite dish before I got to know better things. It’s nice looking back every now and then. Sometimes I smile and my eyes get wet.

My little raspi

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"London is a roost for every bird," B. Disraeli

When I look back, one of my funniest trips was the one that I took to London five years ago. I was working in a Spanish restaurant in Berlin and one of my coworkers, Monica, and I, decided to take a little trip to the capital of the U.K., where we wanted to meet a couple of friends of hers who were coming from Madrid, Belfast, and Brussels. We took a cheap Ryanair flight from Berlin Schoenefeld to London Stansted. Everyone knows that it rains a lot in England. It rained even inside of the aircraft!! Yes, I don’t know why, but, once we landed, water began to pour down while we were picking up our hand luggage. Neither Monica nor I could speak English very well. We arrived two days before her friends, so, adventure was assured! We had to take a bus to center city and I laughed a lot when Monica ordered two round trip tickets with the hilarious phrase “go and welcome.” The vendor laughed, too, but we got our tickets and in less than an hour we were at Victoria Station. London is a very expensive city and we had a tight budget, so, we stayed in a youth hostel in Notting Hill, which is a wonderful borough with beautiful architecture. Like I said, because of the lack of pounds we never took the Tube (London’s subway). Instead, we walked for hours throughout the city and we always bought food at a supermarket or at McDonald’s, if we wanted something special. We were there for a week and we were able to visit the city’s highlights and terrific museums. We even were invited to a rave called “Save the Thames” or something like that. The rave was at the shores of the river close to Charing Cross Station. It was just fantastic and we met a lot of new people. I have to say that most of them were a little crazy. The most amazing thing is that after a couple of hours the water level began to rise. People kept drumming on the sidewalk. After a while the party ended. We took a night bus straight to the hostel but our flight was leaving early in the morning. Monica and I didn’t make it. We missed the bus to the airport and we had to take a taxi!!! We, with our low budget!! After one hour in a beautiful London taxi and 170 pounds!!! we took off. Tired but happy we arrived in Berlin and went to work for eight hours. Exhausted, bankrupt, full of life.

Paella Negra

Spain’s most famous dish is Paella and actually it’s typical from my region, Valencia. There are as many ways to cook paella as chefs. The ingredients vary as well. In the past, people tended to use vegetables of each season. So, you would eat a different dish in the winter than in the summer. You can cook it with meat, fish, both, and even vegetarian. Today I’d like to tell you how you cook Black Rice (Paella Negra). From the name we can intuit that our paella will be black and you’ll now the reason soon. Let’s start with the ingredients:

• 14 oz. of small squid, cleaned, with their ink sacks reserved
• 1 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and chopped
• 6 ¼ cups fish stock (you can make it at home or use a bouillon cube)
• 2 ½ cups long-grain rice
• 1 canned or bottled red bell pepper, drained and cut into strips
• Salt

I’ve always bought the ink ready in little plastic bags. It’s easy to find in Spain. I’m not sure if you can find it in the U.S. First cut the squid into thin rings. We’ll heat the oil in a pan and add the rings, stirring them regularly for about 5 minutes. Then, we’ll add the onion and the garlic and a little bit of our stock (it should cover the ingredients in the pan). We’ll cook that for about 20 minutes. Now, we’ll add the rice, the ink, and the rest of our stock, all with a pinch of salt. First, we’ll cook it at a high temperature for 10 minutes but then, we should lower it, put the pepper on top of it, and cook until the rice is ready. Red pepper is used in the low-cost version. You can use shrimp or mussels. It tastes even better!!!!
I like to eat it with a homemade garlic mayonnaise (allioli). The tastiest thing is the lightly burned rice on the pan. It’s delicious!! I’m going to warn you: you’ll need a nap after that!

My Family

Today I’m here to write about my family. I can start by telling you that I have two brothers and one sister, but I’m not going to write about them. They are too boring. Instead, I would like to write about their wonderful children. Oh, children, they always soften our hearts. I have two nieces and one nephew. Anna is the oldest one. She’ll turn thirteen this year and she’s a little lady. She likes fashion and wearing a different outfit every day. I’d say that she isn’t a child anymore. She’s an adolescent and I feel sorry for my brother and his wife. That’s going to be hard!! She’s not the best student as well. My sister and I make jokes about it. We tell her that she’ll be a wonderful hairdresser. She always gets mad.
Anna has a brother, Carles. He’s three and half years old but he’s still a big baby that only wants to be with “mama.” His parents were able to take him off diapers very early and then, suddenly, after a couple of successful months, he started to pee on himself again. They’re still working on it. Regardless of that, he’s very nice and lovely. He loves motorcycles, cars, and Fernando Alonso (a Spanish Formula One champion). If you ask him what he wants to be when he’s grown-up, he’ll always say “Alonso!”
My second Brother, Jorge, also has a daughter. Her name is Aitana and she’s two and half years old. She’s younger than Carles but she talks a lot more, though. She loves singing and dancing and you better watch her performing if you don’t want her to get angry. Aitana is very smart for her age. She’s what we call a “little grandma” because of her comments about things. I like seeing them growing up although I don’t spend a lot of time with them.
This photograph was taken two years ago. We all are “bigger” now!