Alfredo Franco

Mirando un cuadro de Goya

The writing of this piece arose from seeing Goya's painting Un pavo muerto" an unadorned oil painting where a turkey and a wicker basket rest on an indistinct black background. Fantasizing about making a harpsichord fantasy (I wrote a double stave version of the piece), how to evoke and decline the sensations felt at the glance, musically? Through, I thought, the use of a particularly dark and passionate mode, culturally and emotionally akin to the tones and features of the great Spanish painter's painting. Unlike my usual type of writing, often susceptible to unexpected disturbances, I forced myself to use almost exclusively the notes of the modal scale in different combinations, and in the middle section of the piece to employ them by transforming them into brighter modes (to let some light filter through). A composition that also features some rather explicit moments of instrumental virtuosity, ideally thought of as possible offshoots of a hellish fandango." - Alfredo Franco, January 2024