Maurice Ohana: Si le jour paraît... (complete)// Nicolò Spera, 10-string guitar

Si le jour paraît... (1963–64)
0:00 I. Temple
05:52 II. Enueg
09:55 III. Maya-Marsya
13:27 IV. 20 Avril (Planh)
16:45 V. La Chevelure de Bérénice
21:01 VI. Jeu des Quatre Vents
23:55 VII. Aube (Alba)

27:07 Credits
Recorded in Toronto, Canada, on November 19–20, 2021
Audio&Video: Drew Henderson

According to Isabella Abbonizio, at the beginning of 1960s, resonance, the inner life of a sound, was the new priority in Ohana’s musical search: it was then that, collaborating with the Spanish guitarist Narciso Yepes and the luthier José Ramirez III, the composer explores the possibilities of writing for a new instrument: the ten-string guitar. Ohana preferred this renewed guitar, as it is capable of liberating a wider spectrum of resonances and harmonics and of exploring thicker chords and richer harmonies. His first work for ten-string guitar was Si le jour paraît… (1963–64) in seven movements.

The title of the work is taken from an etching in the series Los Caprichos by Francisco Goya: “Si amanece; nos Vamos” (“When day breaks, we must be off”). This picture represents a ghost-sorcerer gesturing toward the star-filled sky while surrounded by a group of night spirits. The satirical meaning is that, just as at the light of the day will cause this conventicle of sorcerers to disband, so the light of knowledge and reason will disperse the ignorance, superstition, and deception that oppresses people. Far from representing any exact musical transliteration, Ohana’s music aims to evoke the spirit of Goya’s grotesque fantasy, a primitive world of the unconscious populated by evil demons. It seems that Ohana is not concerned with the satirical meaning of the picture: he is reveling in this world, not looking forward to its dispersal. Ohana’s music obeys the demands of the imagery, to which the composer submits “to reveal the mysteries and the myths of humanity.”

As pointed out by Caroline Rae, the most influential scholar of Ohana’s music, the structure of the piece is symmetrical: seven movements, whose central one (the fourth) is the expressive heart of the work. The general symmetry is reflected in the sound world of the first three movements, which incorporate different subjects and stylistic features derived from flamenco, while the last three are inspired by references to nature, rather in the manner of Debussy. The allusions to mythology, nature, and different musical styles are further developed in the titles of the individual movements.