To Sepharad

3 trumpets, horn, 2 trombones, euphonium, tuba

I wrote this in January 2006 for the Humboldt contest; this year the instrumentation required was a brass octet. After several tries, I eventually decided to write a piece that told a story about, say, a Jewish tailor. Realizing that oh wait, Jason Robert Brown already did that in Last Five Years, and somewhat affected by the stories from my class on Jews in Spain, I changed the title to To Sepharad as an ode to Jewish Spain -- Sepharad is the Hebrew name for Spain.

The first movement, The Nagid, is named after Joseph ha Nagid, a Jewish vizier in one of the Taifa kingdoms, who was his king's general, trusted advisor, poet, physician, etc. in Muslim Spain. It's in 5/4 and, after an introductory prayer, goes gradually from very slow to very fast at the end, keeping essentially the same melody in variations.

The second movement, Ramban, is named after Rabbi Moses ben Nachman, or Nachmanides, of Christian Spain, partly famous for his debate against the only bishop to be succeeded by his son, Paul Christiani of Burgos. It's a natural enough march; there is no accelerando or much showiness, and there are no pretensions.

The third movement, Abravanel, is named after rather a family (I don't remember the first names; there were two Isaacs, I think) that was evicted from Spain in 1492 after the eldest member was one of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella's most trusted advisors. All Jews were expelled; some, like Abravanel's son, went to Portugal. He there begot a baby Isaac, who was forcibly taken from his father to be raised a Christian, and when the Jews were expelled from Portugal in 1497, Abravanel fled to Italy, where he wrote a letter he hoped would eventually reach this son. Naturally, this movement is slow and sad, with beautiful low brass chords and ugly out-of-the-mode trumpet chords, intended to sound like bells and represent the evil Christianity, interrupting the beauty. After a brief violent section, the low brass chorale takes up the melody again, and the tolling bells steal away members of the low brass chorale, who join the bells the next time, until all are taken. The piece ends with a solo tuba's unpunctuated lament.

This took me the better part of a month to write, with very little sleep. The Harvard Brass Ensemble was going to play the first movement, The Nagid, at Arts First on May 6, 2006, 2 PM, Sanders Theater, but they thought it was too hard.

Listen to To Sepharad - I - The Nagid (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad - II - Ramban (right-click to download)
Listen to To Sepharad - III - Abravanel (right-click to download)