The ''Dramatic Overture'' by

Evaristo Fernández Blanco Evaristo Fernández Blanco (Astorga, Spain, Astorga, 6 March 1902 – Madrid, 22 October 1993) was a Spanish composer. He was a member of the Generation of '27, associated to the Group of Eight (music), Group of Eight. Fernández Blanco studied in ...

is a

tone poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement (music), movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. T ...

written in 1940. Subtitled ''Musical setting for a civic social war drama'', it was conceived as a homage to the Republican effort in the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

after the war ended with the victory of the National faction and the establishment of a repressive

dictatorship A dictatorship is an autocratic form of government which is characterized by a leader, or a group of leaders, who hold governmental powers with few to no Limited government, limitations. Politics in a dictatorship are controlled by a dictator, ...

, and marked the composer's creative retirement for four decades. It was written in Viascón, a hamlet in

Pontevedra Pontevedra (, ) is a city in the autonomous community of Galicia (Spain), Galicia, in northwestern Spain. It is the capital of both the ''Pontevedra (comarca), Comarca'' and Province of Pontevedra, and the capital of the Rías Baixas. It is als ...

where Fernández Blanco, a Republican cultural officer during the war, hid from reprisals. The work consists of three episodes titled ''Desolation'', ''Action'' and ''Hommage to the heroes'', respectively a gloomy introduction, a frantic ostinato march and a glorifying hymn including quotations from

The Internationale "The Internationale" is an international anthem that has been adopted as the anthem of various anarchist, communist, socialist, democratic socialist, and social democratic movements. It has been a standard of the socialist movement since ...

and Whirlwinds of Danger. The work was unperformable in

Francoist Spain Francoist Spain (), also known as the Francoist dictatorship (), or Nationalist Spain () was the period of Spanish history between 1936 and 1975, when Francisco Franco ruled Spain after the Spanish Civil War with the title . After his death i ...

for political reasons, and it was only after General Franco died and the

Spanish transition to democracy The Spanish transition to democracy, known in Spain as (; ) or (), is a period of History of Spain, modern Spanish history encompassing the regime change that moved from the Francoist dictatorship to the consolidation of a parliamentary system ...

was carried out that it was premiered on 26 February 1983 by the RTVE Symphony under

Enrique García Asensio Enrique García Asensio (born 22 August 1937 in Valencia (city in Spain), Valencia, Spain) is a Spanish violinist, composer and conducting, conductor. In 1970, He was made as Professor of Orchestral Conducting at the Madrid Royal Conservatory. As ...

's baton.

Recordings

* Málaga Philharmonic – José Luis Temes. Verso Records, 2008.Review
in Musicweb-international.com

References

1940 compositions Music of Spain {{Classical-composition-stub