Day 5 of 50: I’m inspired by Gabriela Lena Frank, multicultural composer of Peruvian-Chinese-Lithuanian-Jewish descent, and her “Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra.”
Listening to “Apu: Tone Poem for Orchestra,” I hear the Apu - a mischievous mountain spirit from Andean Peruvian lore - leaping hither-thither amongst the peaks, tumbling over in peals of laughter while sensing the folk tone of which it’s being gifted. A second gift is given to the Apu - a prayer, at which the spirit languidly glides down the teeming crescendos and decrescendos to float along a lulling hum. Satisfied, the Apu offers its own gift: “a brief but brilliant and dazzling appearance before disappearing once again into the mountain peaks” (© Gabriela Lena Frank).
“I firmly believe that only in the United States could a Peruvian-Chinese-Jewish-Lithuanian girl born with significant hearing loss in a hippie town successfully create a life writing string quartets and symphonies.” ~ Gabriela Lena Frank
“Gabriela Lena Frank” (2020), Oil on fiberboard, 6 x 6