Córdoba

CórdobaINSTRUMENTATION: Solo oboe Each movement of "Córdoba" marked with a reference to a different, but similarly themed, poem. The first movement references Lorca’s poem, Canción de jinete, as translated by Susana Cavallo; this is also the origin of the title, Córdoba. The second movement makes reference to Samuel Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner. The final movement references C.P. Cavafy’s Walls, as translated by Elena Spilioti. To the best of my knowledge, these texts have never been grouped together before, separated as they are by time, country, and language. Yet their juxtaposition may strike the listener as surprisingly natural. The poems are drawn together here by their common literary themes, their shared observations of a human nature which transcends nationalist boundaries, and by the embodiment of human isolation in the pathos of a solo oboe.