Manchay Tiempo (Time of Fear), Gabriela Lena Frank

Work Information

Gabriela Lena Frank : Manchay Tiempo (Time of Fear)

Publisher	G Schirmer Inc
Category	Orchestra
Sub-Category	Chamber Orchestra
Year Composed	2005
Duration	13 Minutes
Orchestration	0000/0000/perc/pf.hp/str
Availability	Hire Explain this...

Programme Note

Digital perusal score available from ScoresOnDemand

As a young child, I was in the habit of coining my own labels for feelings and sensations especially vivid to me. Manchay Tiempo (actually 'mancha-dempo') was my word for the strange mix of terror and tenderness that my nightly dreams visited upon me. I associated it with one recurring dream involving my Peruvian-born mother, who in the dream is but a hair's-breadth away from some unspeakable danger...Years passed, and I forgot about 'mancha-dempo.' But as a college student, I caught a TV documentary about Sendero Luminoso, a Maoist-inspired group wreaking murderous havoc in my mother's country during the late 1970's and 1980's... I realized that at some earlier point, I had seen this program and interpreted it with a child's imagination...And there it was — manchay tiempo, a hybrid of Spanish and Quechua signifying a 'time of fear.'

— Gabriela Lena Frank

Reviews

...Frank's substantive, 13-minute work, Manchay Tiempo ("Time of Fear") is full of unusual juxtapositions and ideas while remaining appealing to the ear. She uses percussion effectively, particularly sharp and hollow clap sounds and the metal sheet that when rattled sounds like distant thunder or sharp gusts of wind in trees.
The violas carry a Peruvian-based melody that bleeds away into all sorts of tendrils spun off to the strings (there are no winds in this piece).
The violins maintain frequent tremolo at the limits of their range, often bowed harsh and shallow on the bridge and without vibrato, and the harp comments with runs. It's an imaginative, original work. Märkl conducted the tricky score with verve, and Frank, 33, was present to accept enthusiastic applause.
Philippa Kiraly, Seattle Post-Intelligencer

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