Xochiquetzal (2014)

For Violin Solo and Percussion Ensemble

Duration:  13 minutes
Violin; Six Percussionists
Version for Violin and Piano also available (see video)

Commissioned jointly by the New England Conservatory, Southern Methodist University, the University of North Texas and SUNY Onondaga
Premiere Performance:  November 23, 2014; NEC Percussion Ensemble;
Frank Epstein, Conductor; Nicholas Kitchen, Violin

Version for Violin and Piano commissioned by the University of Texas at Dallas
Premiere Performance: February 19, 2016
Chloé Trevor, Violin; Jeff Lankov, Piano

Reviews:

If Xochiquetzal is any example, [Rodríguez] is a true master. Its theme of a Mayan goddess, her lover, Tlaloc, and their dealings with thunder and rain is immediately attractive… The work is lush and rich, and the virtuosic violin and piano writing fit directly with the pictures of hummingbirds, thunder, Tristan-style passion and Xochiquetzal’s gifts of dance… Rodriguez folded an old Mayan tune – apparently the oldest music of the hemisphere – into his own musical language with an inevitability and a blazing patina… a glorious, gorgeous creation.
                                      Harry Rolnick, ConcertoNet.com

Not to be missed.
…To set up his harmonic space for his piece Xochiquetzal, Rodríguez utilizes pentatonics to invoke an imaginary folk world, while actually quoting an ancient Mayan dance song in the finale (notated by the Spanish after the conquest of Mexico). The violin represents Xochiquetzal… The first movement’s invocation of hummingbirds (“Xochiquetzal and Her Retinue of Hummingbirds”) is beautifully managed, as is the core of lyricism… The central movement depicts Xochiquetzal’s love spell… The elemental heart of Tlaloc is viscerally portrayed via the toccata of the third movement, which holds some superbly spooky textures, a movement balanced by the sweetness of an adagio, “Xochiquetzal’s Tears of Yellow Marigolds.” The finale has an earthy, elemental quality to it… Rodríguez is clearly a major voice; his music demands exploration.
                                     Colin Clarke, Fanfare Magazine

Works for Violin and Percussion Orchestra
Nicholas Kitchen; New England Conservatory Percussion Ensemble; Frank Epstein
Insistent rhythms and pentatonic melodies, including an ancient Mayan dance-song, evoke tropical steaminess in the five-movement Xochiquetzal (2014) by Robert Xavier Rodríguez (b. San Antonio, Texas 1946). Kitchen’s violin vividly represents Xochiquetzal, Aztec goddess of beauty, love and fertility, among hummingbirds, casting a love spell, alongside her rain-god husband, weeping tears of flowers and bestowing music and dance upon her worshippers….
                                     Michael Schulman, The Whole Note

Composer’s Note

Xochiquetzal is a 17-minute Chamber Concerto for Violin and Percussion Sextet.  I completed the score in Dallas in June, 2014 in response to a commission from a consortium of percussion ensembles from The New England Conservatory, Frank Epstein, Director; Southern Methodist University, Jon Lee, Director; The State University of New York at Onandaga, Robert Bridge, Director and The University of North Texas, Christopher Deane, Director.  Frank Epstein conducted the premiere performance in November, 2014 in Boston with Nicholas Kitchen, violin soloist.

Xochiquetzal was designed as a companion piece to Lou Harrison’s Concerto for Violin with Percussion Orchestra (1950).  It is also a companion to my own previous composition for percussion ensemble, El día de los muertos (2006).  El día de los muertos and Xochiquetzal are both programmatic works based on Mexican subjects.  Both contain folk melodies, and both may be performed with dancers.

Xochiquetzal was an ancient Mayan goddess associated with music, dance, beauty, love, fertility and female sexual power.  She is a similar figure to Aphrodite or Venus in Greek and Roman mythology.  The name “Xochiquetzal” (So-chee-KET-sal) means “feather flower,” combining the Nahuatl words for “feather” (quetzal) and “flower” (xochitl).  Xochiquetzal is always portrayed as young, beautiful and richly attired, accompanied by hummingbirds and surrounded by yellow marigolds.  Marigolds were Xochiquetzal’s signature flower, and they were said to have sprung magically from her tears.  Her consort was Tlaloc, the powerful and terrifying God of Thunder and Rain, with whom she had a tempestuous relationship.

To evoke the ancient Mayan world, I present simple pentatonic themes in the spirit of what Manuel de Falla called “imaginary folk music.”  In the final movement, there is a quotation of “Xtoles” (Shi-TO-les), an ancient Mayan dance song notated by the Spaniards after the conquest of Mexico.  Believed to be one of the oldest known melodies, it also appears in my 2001 musical version of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, set in pre-Columbian Mexico.  These folk materials interact, and sometimes clash, with contemporary sounds to create a synthesis of time periods and cultures.
 
The violin solo represents Xochiquetzal throughout, and the writing is virtuosic, with frequent multiple stops and extensive use of the upper register.  The percussion scoring emphasizes pitched instruments (two vibraphones, two marimbas, crotales, glockenspiel, chimes, timpani, seven tuned roto-toms and six tuned nipple gongs), with a wide variety of exotic, non-pitched sounds.  Each movement employs a distinctive timbre, in keeping with its subject: 

(I) Xochiquetzal makes a graceful entrance, accompanied by bowed vibraphone and glass wind chimes to depict her retinue of hummingbirds; the music then grows more spirited to show her power.   (II) A seductive, incantatory love spell follows, with delicate nipple gongs, and the movement gradually builds in intensity.  (III) Tlaloc then appears in an ominous and eventually violent Toccata featuring timpani, roto-toms, bass drum, tam-tam, thunder tube and thunder sheet.  Following Tlaloc’s stormy visit, there is a mournful Adagio (IV), depicting Xochiquetzal’s tears, which are represented by crotales, glockenspiel, brass wind chimes and gently rippling violin arpeggios.  The Finale (V) is a rhythmic celebration of music and dance spiced with cow bells, temple blocks and shakers and featuring a violin cadenza.  The “Xtoles” melody joins the other themes, stacked together in a grand quodlibet.