The Devil’s Sentry Box

Synopsis

Since today is Halloween, how about a supernatural legend in music?

The second of three Fábulas – fables or fantastic stories – for violin and piano by the Puerto Rican composer Dan Román is titled “La garita del diablo” or “The Devil’s Sentry Box.”

The old port city of San Juan is surrounded by a fortified stone wall built by the Spaniards to protect it from their enemies, dotted with stone sentry boxes at strategic locations where soldiers could gain an advantageous view of any attack arriving by sea.

Mystery and myth surrounding one of these lonely sentry boxes built high above the sea began after several soldiers disappeared during their watch, leaving no trace behind. Despite a number of rational explanations, popular imagination blamed the disappearances on evil and supernatural forces.

In his chamber work, says Román, “The piano and the violin form aural impressions of the echoes and distant reverberations that take shape in the old passages leading to the sentry box and of the darkness and impersonality of the ocean during the night, until the observer gets to the sentry box and hears the breaking of the sea waves against the rocks and city wall.”

Music Played in Today's Program

Dan Roman: "La garita del diabolo" fr "Fabulas" (Katalin Viszmeg, vn; Pi-Hsun Shih, p.) Innova 904

On This Day

Births

• 1833 - Russian composer Alexander Borodin, in St. Petersburg (Gregorian date: Nov. 12);

• 1806 - American composer Louise Talma, in Arcachon, France;

• 1949 - Cuban-American composer and conductor Odaline de la Martinez, in Matanzas, Cuba;

Deaths

• 1870 - Hungarian composer Mihály Mosonyi (Michael Brand), age 55, in Pest;

Premieres

• 1724 - Handel: opera "Tamerlano" in London at the King's Theater in the Haymarket (Gregorian date: Nov. 11); This was the London debut of the Italian tenor Francesco Borosini in a work by Handel;

• 1865 - Brahms: "Theme and Variations" in d (after slow movement of Brahms' String Sextet No. 1), in Frankfurt am Main;

• 1866 - Offenbach: operetta, "La Vie Parisienne," in Paris, at the Palais-Royal;

• 1875 - Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 4 in c, Op. 44, in Paris at a concert conducted by Edouard Colonne, with the composer as soloist;

• 1891 - Mascagni: opera "L'amico Fritz," at the Teatro Costanzi in Rome;

• 1924 - Hindemith: "Kammermusik" No. 2, Op. 36, no. 1, in Frankfurt, with Clemens Kraus conducting and Emma Lübbecke-Job the piano soloist;

• 1932 - Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 5, by the Berlin Philharmonic, Wilhelm Furtwängler conducting, with the composer as soloist;

• 1947 - Chávez: "Toccata" for percussion, in Mexico City;

• 1949 - Mark Blitzstein: opera "Regina," in New York City;

• 1955 - Hovhaness: Symphony No. 2 ("Mysterious Mountain"), by the Houston Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1966 - Stravinsky: "The Owl and the Pussycat" (dedicated to Vera Stravinsky), in Los Angeles; This was Stravinsky's last composition;

• 1970 - Crumb: "Ancient Voices of Children," in Washington, D.C.;

• 1985 - Rorem: "String Symphony," by the Atlanta Symphony, Robert Shaw conducting.

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in b, Op. 6, no. 12 (see Julian date: Oct. 20);

• 1933 - Arnold Schoenberg, accompanied by his wife, baby daughter, and family pet terrier "Witz," arrives in New York on the liner Isle de France.