This past November, the Reverón Trio had the privilege to premiere this fantastic piece by Grammy-nominated composer Ricardo Lorenz (who has recently been commisioned to write a piece for the LA Philharmonic!). Listen to this whimsical, sexy work, inspired by a homonymous painting by the modernist painting Armando Reverón (after whom the trio is named). And see what the composer has to say about it below!
I heard somewhere that music is the language of nostalgia. Whether longing for a loved one, for a time or a place gone, or for what we miss about ourselves, we reconcile with the past through music.
La Hamaca, Spanish for the hammock, is no exception. Titled after a painting by Armando Reverón and composed especially for The Reverón Piano Trio, the work is my way to reconcile with my memories of hammocks while growing up in Venezuela. I always thought of a hammock as the staple piece of furniture in Venezuelan culture. Regardless of social or racial background, a hammock will always be present in the lives of Venezuelans. One could see truck drivers laying on hammocks hanging under semis parked on remote highways or displayed almost as sculptures inside homes in affluent neighborhoods of Caracas. As I experienced it myself, remarkable stories could be written about what goes on while laying on a hammock, whether it is swinging, cuddling, goofing off, romancing, reflecting, sleeping, arguing, or just being. And let’s not forget the “hammock scene” in Gabriel Garcia Márquez’s 20th-Century masterpiece One Hundred Years of Solitude.
I want to think that this quintessential aspect of Venezuelan culture is what Armando Reverón tried to capture in this enigmatic oil painting from 1933.
Ricardo Lorenz, Michigan State University
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