Uploaded July 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Proyecto Gerhard Ensemble conducted by José de Eusebio. Ananda Sukarlan as the pianist.
I - 0:00
Rueda's "Mas la Noche" was completed on September 26 of 1991, being dedicated to his teacher and mentor Luis de Pablo. It is scored for a chamber ensemble of fourteen players (four woodwinds, three brass instruments, percussion, piano and a string trio). The piece earned Rueda a first prize of the SGAE (Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers), having won the same prize the previous year for his Chamber Concerto No.1. The title quotes a poem from Mozarabic poet Ibn al Zaqqaq (1094-1133), which begins:
"Mas la noche corrió vertiginosa
como un negro caballo gigantesco"
("But the night ran dizzyingly
like a gigantic black horse")
The piece is effectively one long race through the night, in which the three movements, followed by a coda, are fully integrated. Despite the whirlwind of the beginning, the underlying harmonic flow remains slow, while in the "slower" central section (sostenuto e molto grave) the rapid figurations persist, evoking the shuddering cries of some nightmarish night owl. After a more metrical and vigorous beginning (con bravura tempo giusto), the last section constitutes a kind of synthesis of the two preceding ones. However, after having reached a strident and brilliant climax, the music, as is often the case with Rueda, dies away in a slow, static coda, collapsing into nothingness.
Picture: "Hirondelle Amour" (1933-4) by the Spanish painter Joan Miró.
Source: Booklet from the recording
Unfortunately, the score is not freely available.
Proyecto Gerhard Ensemble conducted by José de Eusebio. Ananda Sukarlan as the pianist.
I - 0:00
Rueda's "Mas la Noche" was completed on September 26 of 1991, being dedicated to his teacher and mentor Luis de Pablo. It is scored for a chamber ensemble of fourteen players (four woodwinds, three brass instruments, percussion, piano and a string trio). The piece earned Rueda a first prize of the SGAE (Spanish Society of Authors and Publishers), having won the same prize the previous year for his Chamber Concerto No.1. The title quotes a poem from Mozarabic poet Ibn al Zaqqaq (1094-1133), which begins:
"Mas la noche corrió vertiginosa
como un negro caballo gigantesco"
("But the night ran dizzyingly
like a gigantic black horse")
The piece is effectively one long race through the night, in which the three movements, followed by a coda, are fully integrated. Despite the whirlwind of the beginning, the underlying harmonic flow remains slow, while in the "slower" central section (sostenuto e molto grave) the rapid figurations persist, evoking the shuddering cries of some nightmarish night owl. After a more metrical and vigorous beginning (con bravura tempo giusto), the last section constitutes a kind of synthesis of the two preceding ones. However, after having reached a strident and brilliant climax, the music, as is often the case with Rueda, dies away in a slow, static coda, collapsing into nothingness.
Picture: "Hirondelle Amour" (1933-4) by the Spanish painter Joan Miró.
Source: Booklet from the recording
Unfortunately, the score is not freely available.
