The Indomitable Basque: an orchestral work in three movements inspired by the Basque Whalers of Labrador of the Sixteenth Century
Abstract
The Indomitable Basque is an orchestral tone poem depicting the early activities of the Basque whalers who came to the coast of Labrador during the sixteenth century. The piece specifically focuses on the interactions of an individual, Juan Martínez de Larrume, who overwintered in Red Bay, Labrador, with his crew between 1576 and 1577. The music creates soundscapes which portrays the men sailing, constructing their semi-permanent camp, hunting, and living through a Labrador winter. The piece also features three traditional Basque instruments (the txistu, the alboka, and the txalaparta). Throughout the composition, unique melodies and harmonies were created by incorporating the two main “characters” of the story and representing them as musical motifs: the whaler Larrume; and the Whale the men came to hunt.
The work utilizes both traditional and non-traditional elements in its construction. There are moments throughout with melodies being accompanied by harmonies in a strict time signature, and there are times where the music is free and improvisatory, where it does not use a “traditional concept” of meter or cohesion. The music itself is programmatic, where it tells a story in a linear manner: the men leave the Basque Country to sail to Labrador to work, they arrive and set up camp, they actively hunt a whale, and are unfortunately forced to stay and survive through the frigid winter. Throughout the piece, instruments perform a variety of extended techniques that lend itself to the programmatic aspects of the story: whale-calls, birdsongs, blowing winds, creaking floors, or an active construction site.