# Three Ghazals by Federico García Lorca, Op. 7



## andruini

Hey guys, I wanted to share with you my work for last semester, three song settings of García Lorca ghazals. Any feedback will be much appreciated!
(Unfortunately, I haven't recorded them yet, so this is a computer realization with flute sound instead of soprano voice.)


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## Argus

I liked them all but thought the first was considerably better than the other two. I liked it's rhythms in the bass, that Spanish/Arabian sound and the variety that seemed lacking in the second one with it's constant descending arpeggios. The third one was good but the bass was very reminiscient of Habanera from Carmen. Maybe more modulation might have enhanced my enjoyment of the second. However, they're you're compositions so as long you're happy with them that's enough.


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## andruini

Argus said:


> I liked them all but thought the first was considerably better than the other two. I liked it's rhythms in the bass, that Spanish/Arabian sound and the variety that seemed lacking in the second one with it's constant descending arpeggios. The third one was good but the bass was very reminiscient of Habanera from Carmen. Maybe more modulation might have enhanced my enjoyment of the second. However, they're you're compositions so as long you're happy with them that's enough.


Thanks, well, the second one was actually the one that gave me most trouble.. I came up with a more varied accompaniment, but my teacher said "if you like minimalism, let's explore that further", so he aked me to make my accompaniment completely minimalist. About the third one, that is a conscious nod to Habanera, and a bit of a reference to some flamenco rhythms.. Thanks for taking the time to listen!


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## MJTTOMB

Moving forward, you should look into improving your voice leading and harmonic vocabulary. There's not enough sophistication in your harmonic language to keep me interested, you seem to be using a lot of modified pop progressions. I'd suggest that instead, while you're still learning, you borrow progressions from works of the style you're emulating. There's truly no shame in borrowing from other composers, especially in the learning process. Any professor I've talked to this about agrees that it's a very effective method for learning.

Cheers, and good luck. Best wishes.


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## andruini

Well, I'll be honest, harmony is literally the newest aspect of music for me.. Being a violin player, I've never really exercised harmonic thought until I started taking basic harmony and piano, and started composing. The first song doesn't have a lot of harmonic movement, I know, I just built the base over the spanish "gypsy" scale, which is sort of a phrygian scale and the chord movement between the E major chord and a sort of Fmaj7 with an added 4th, which I lifted straight out of andalusian music. 
The second one is a bit queasy harmonically, I realize that, I had a very hard time harmonizing that one, and a lot of the progressions are in fact very pop-sounding or you know, Philip Glass-y..
And on the third one I used chords that are interesting to me (and that I know) like a V with both B flat and B natural, bVII7 leading to III, things like that.. I guess it's quite a simple harmonic language, it keeps me interested.. I'll definitely keep your comments in mind though, thanks for taking the time to listen..


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## MJTTOMB

Absolutely! I might add that harmonies don't even have to be incredibly complex to be gorgeous. Take, for example, Alexander Borodin's second string quartet, have a listen to the third movement.

Also, I prefer to think of the gypsy scale as being a major scale with a flat 2nd and 6th. But it is somewhat similar to phrygian. As for the F major 7 chord thing, I'd probably call it an Fmaj7(b5). Not a particularly classical chord, but hey, I love jazz too so it works. Might even work substituting the E in the chord with a D, Giving you essentially a Bhalf-diminished7 chord. 

Cheers!
mjttomb


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## andruini

Yeah that makes much more sense as Fmaj7(b5).. 
I confess I really do have a lot to learn about harmony, but I'm quite content with these three songs.
Any more feedback or any more comments would be totally appreciated..


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## andruini

maton said:


> listen ghazal make i feel free


Alright, me glad then...


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## andruini

Got these performed finally.. Managed to catch a decent video:






Not the best performance ever, the singer took more liberties than I would've liked and a couple of missed entrances here and there, but overall, pretty satisfying.


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## Earthling

Really enjoy the first _ghazal_ (makes me want to break out Coltrane's _Ole_). I really like the buildup of chords introducing the soprano. Definitely the strongest of the three.

The second one I'm not as fond of, more to do with that Philip Glass arpeggiation, and I don't feel its as harmonically very adventurous. Actually, listening to it again, its not the arpeggiation per se, but the left hand (chord-chord-chord-chord) that doesn't help any.

The third is better and there's some nice interplay between the piano and soprano (something lacking in the second), and we're back to some more interesting rhythms.

I do have one question: for the soprano part-- did you come up with the piano part first and then the soprano part or the other way round? Or some combination of the two?

Its been a long time since I've read Lorca (in translation)-- which three of his poems are these?


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## andruini

Earthling said:


> Really enjoy the first _ghazal_ (makes me want to break out Coltrane's _Ole_). I really like the buildup of chords introducing the soprano. Definitely the strongest of the three.
> 
> The second one I'm not as fond of, more to do with that Philip Glass arpeggiation, and I don't feel its as harmonically very adventurous. Actually, listening to it again, its not the arpeggiation per se, but the left hand (chord-chord-chord-chord) that doesn't help any.
> 
> The third is better and there's some nice interplay between the piano and soprano (something lacking in the second), and we're back to some more interesting rhythms.
> 
> I do have one question: for the soprano part-- did you come up with the piano part first and then the soprano part or the other way round? Or some combination of the two?
> 
> Its been a long time since I've read Lorca (in translation)-- which three of his poems are these?


They're three of his twelve ghazals.. I can't find a translation of the ones I used, I'm sorry.
About your question, I wrote the piano part at the same time as the vocal line on the first one. For the other two I wrote the vocal part first and then wrote the piano accompaniment.
About that second one, I get that a lot about the "Philip Glass arpeggios", but I didn't have any pretensions for it. It's not harmonically adventurous, it's just what I consider to be a pretty melody over a very simple, "wall of sound" type piano accompaniment.. I'm not entirely convinced about the left hand either, but in my defense it has to be played with a LOT of pedal and very, very softly..


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