Liner notes to En Sueno del Camino

The Cantigas de Santa Maria are to Spain what La Chanson de Roland (the Song of Roland) is to France and what the Bayeux Tapestry is to England, cultural documents that speak of a dramatic shift in hegemony and the codifying of a new order.
​It is the very first written document to celebrate Christianity in what is to eventually be called the Kingdom, and then the Nation of Spain. At the time the two Cantigas de Santa Maria were written, the Iberian peninsula had been peacefully ruled ruled for 500 years by the Umayyad Caliphate; the second of the four Islamic dynasties that evolved after the founding of Islam by Muhammad, in the 7th century A.D.. The Cantigas de Santa Maria are attributed to Alfonso X, other wise known as El Sabio, or The Wise. The rate of change that occurred after this medieval document was created cannot be overstated, for it can be seen as a galvanizing force among the indigenous people of the Iberian peninsula where culture and commerce and military and political might were applied successfully to the point that in the next 200 years the political map of the Iberian peninsula was literally reversed. Whereas, Christendom was a small enclave in the mountains of the Northwest in the 11th century, by the 15th century, Islam was reduced to a small enclave in the mountains of the South. By the end of the 1400's all “foreign” elements; Jews and Muslims, were expelled. The consolidation of Ferdinand and Isabella's kingdom is seen as Siglo de Oro or the beginning of the Golden Age of Spain. Christopher Columbus was funded and changed the perception of the world from being flat to round and discovered new worlds with incredible riches that filled the newly emerged kingdom of Spain's vaults.


Antonio Ruiz-Pipo wrote a few Cancion y Danza's, (song and dances) and those are quite different from this one in terms of harmonic language. He played the piano well, studying with the great Alicia De Larocha, and though he wrote for the piano and orchestra works too, it is the guitar and this piece in particular that he is well know for. I chose a picture of a Recortador just about to jump over a charging bull. The Recortadores are bloodless bull gymnastics where a person jumps over the bull that charges them

Here is the Dance, which features a lovely rhythm that persists through out the piece in a delightful manner with an urgency that is all about fun. I chose another picture form the "bloodless bull sigh" or the "Bull gymnastics" the Recordatores

credits
released March 30, 2020
recorded at Empty Sea studios by Michael Connolly


It used to be that I would spend hours in record stores like the Record Exchange in Boise, Idaho, or Cellophane Square in Bellingham, and then Tower Records in Seattle. I'd comb through records, read liner notes, inspect album covers and then listen to bits of records on the record players provided over in the corners of the shop. I'd often scan the dollar bin or the buy $20 and get one record free bin and, oddly, this is where I found many of my favorite records. I'd heard a little bit about George Sakellario's guitar playing and teaching, so when I found "Music from South America" I picked it up. It was 1987, I'd stopped by my girlfriend's house to hang out, and as things were, in college, in my 20's, more people dropped in and a party developed. I'm not sure what prompted me to leave and just sit alone in my girlfriend's room and put on the record "Music from South America" but once it was on I was unable to move, and only able to listen to the incredible music coming from George Sakellaro's guitar. I don't know if the recording quality of the record had something to do with this, but it was one of those revelatory moments, where the playing and the choices somehow aligned all of the forces of good taste and beauty into one single moment that unfolded over 15 minutes on each side of this magical record. Bambuco was the first piece on side one and it is the piece I fell in love with the hardest. I was later able to meet George and he told me his wife is from Columbia, the birthplace of Adolfo Meija Navarro, and he wanted to play some music from the birthplace of his wife. This is a wonderful piece based on the Bambuco, and Andean folk form that uses the large drum called the Bomba. Thanks for reading this long rather self-involved love note to the past; record stores, my youth and a culture of sitting alone with a record player listening to the mysteries of sound heal and inspire the soul.
credits
released March 31, 2020

En los trigales, or in the wheat fields has been a favorite of mine long before I started the journey learning the guitar. I chose this piece in part because of my love of the plaintive and urgent rising sixth motive and also that I wold be in the wheat fields along the Camino de Santiago de Compostela for 2 weeks in 2014, playing for the pilgrims in Romaneque churches. The picture is supposed to capture the strange "halo effect" that occurs when you look at your shadow when on the meseta in this northern region of the Castille y Leon region.