Eugene O'Brien: "Elegy to the Spanish Republic"

A video of the premiere performance of "Elegy to the Spanish Republic" (2020), commissioned by the Fromm Music Foundation at Harvard for the 21st Century Consort, for more than 40 years the resident new music ensemble of the Smithsonian Institution. The premiere by the Consort, conducted by Christopher Kendall, was on October 9, 2021, at St. Mark's Episcopal Church Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C.
The piece takes its title from the monumental series of more than 200 painting and drawings collectively titled "Elegies to the Spanish Republic" by the American abstract expressionist Robert Motherwell. The paintings commemorate the tragedy of the Spanish Civil War (1936-39) which caused more than 500,000 deaths, destroyed the democratically-elected government of the Republic of Spain, and resulted in the 36-year repressive dictatorship of Francisco Franco. In the eight decades that have passed since it ended, the Spanish Civil War has become a universal metaphor for human suffering and injustice.