Uploaded June 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edmon Colomer.
I - Opresión (Opression) - (attacca): 0:00
II - Cadenas (Chains) - (attacca): 5:57
III - Visión (Vision) - (attacca): 10:49
IV - Triunfo (Triumph): 17:12
Balada's Symphony No.1 (subtitled "Symphony in Black") was composed in 1968, being commissioned by the Spanish National Radio (RNE). It was premiered with great success at Madrid's Royal Theatre on June 21 of 1968, performed by the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Enrique García Asensio. This orchestra included the piece in foreign tours to the Americas, first performed in the U.S. at Carnegie Hall in New York on October 12 of 1971. The piece was well-received and further performances took place at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Mexico and Europe.
Balada had immigrated to the United States in 1956 to further study composition at the New York College of Music. As the composer despised the Francoist dictatorship that was ruling Spain since 1939 (after the end of the Spanish Civil War), he decided to stay in the U.S. and became a citizen in 1981. He admired the freedom and democracy of the country, but at the same time he was repulsed by the racism and mistreatment of black people he encountered. Balada met Martin Luther King in New York in 1967, and his murder a year later was both a personal and a national tragedy.
The symphony is divided in four movements that are performed continuously. While Balada began writing in a largely neoclassical style, after his move to the U.S. he adopted an avant-garde idiom as was then in vogue. Inspired by the death of Martin Luther King, the composition describes the journey of black people in the Americas from slavery to freedom. Representing this general narrative, in this symphony Balada mixes Afroamerican musical elements with avant-garde techniques, which would become the basis of a folkloric-influenced style fully exploited in the seventies and forward.
The first movement opens with a dissonant gesture, followed by chilling slow sustained notes on low strings and tremoli on upper strings, with occasional glissandi. These seem to portray the enslaved black people suffering, with the sound of the whip bringing a direct musical description of such oppression under the cracks of a whip. U.S. slave owners frequently used the whip to punish slaves and to ensure resistance was quelled. Percussion then introduces Afroamerican rhythmic figures over a dissonant woodwind background. A kind of struggle then takes place between different instrumental groups, with the prominent sound of the whip being repeated. A tam-tam blow leads us to the next part.
The second movement begins with a continuation of the same oppressive atmosphere, dissonant string chords move while the sound of the chain (employed as a musical instrument) takes place. A folkish kind of melodic idea then appears, offering contrast before it is subjected to a dissonant and avant-garde development that culminates in a sorrowful climax. The music becomes fragmented as it transitions to the next part
The third movement opens with rhythmic cells on strings, which become increasingly agitated until leading to a ferocious and dissonant climax. The meaning of this movement i perhaps the most enigmatic, as we can't clearly express what kind of vision it refers to. Then the previous Afroamerican rhythms return on percussion, which becomes the basis of a substantial modernistic development, again culminating in a ferocious climax. A slow transition, with the ominous sound of the chain still present, then links with the finale.
The fourth movement begins with the reappearance of the Afroamerican rhythms on percussion and strings, which serve as a near-omnipresent underlying ostinato figure. As a whole, the movement represents the hard-achieved freedom of Afroamericans. The music grows in a continuous crescendo and accelerando until culminating in a loud bang, then the music quickly dissolves in the silence.
Picture: Photograph of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial (2009-11) in Washington, D.C., designed by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin.
Musical analysis written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/29zgyugh and tinyurl.com/2cfrbe3p
Unfortunately, the score isn't available.
Málaga Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edmon Colomer.
I - Opresión (Opression) - (attacca): 0:00
II - Cadenas (Chains) - (attacca): 5:57
III - Visión (Vision) - (attacca): 10:49
IV - Triunfo (Triumph): 17:12
Balada's Symphony No.1 (subtitled "Symphony in Black") was composed in 1968, being commissioned by the Spanish National Radio (RNE). It was premiered with great success at Madrid's Royal Theatre on June 21 of 1968, performed by the Spanish Radio and Television Symphony Orchestra conducted by Enrique García Asensio. This orchestra included the piece in foreign tours to the Americas, first performed in the U.S. at Carnegie Hall in New York on October 12 of 1971. The piece was well-received and further performances took place at Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Mexico and Europe.
Balada had immigrated to the United States in 1956 to further study composition at the New York College of Music. As the composer despised the Francoist dictatorship that was ruling Spain since 1939 (after the end of the Spanish Civil War), he decided to stay in the U.S. and became a citizen in 1981. He admired the freedom and democracy of the country, but at the same time he was repulsed by the racism and mistreatment of black people he encountered. Balada met Martin Luther King in New York in 1967, and his murder a year later was both a personal and a national tragedy.
The symphony is divided in four movements that are performed continuously. While Balada began writing in a largely neoclassical style, after his move to the U.S. he adopted an avant-garde idiom as was then in vogue. Inspired by the death of Martin Luther King, the composition describes the journey of black people in the Americas from slavery to freedom. Representing this general narrative, in this symphony Balada mixes Afroamerican musical elements with avant-garde techniques, which would become the basis of a folkloric-influenced style fully exploited in the seventies and forward.
The first movement opens with a dissonant gesture, followed by chilling slow sustained notes on low strings and tremoli on upper strings, with occasional glissandi. These seem to portray the enslaved black people suffering, with the sound of the whip bringing a direct musical description of such oppression under the cracks of a whip. U.S. slave owners frequently used the whip to punish slaves and to ensure resistance was quelled. Percussion then introduces Afroamerican rhythmic figures over a dissonant woodwind background. A kind of struggle then takes place between different instrumental groups, with the prominent sound of the whip being repeated. A tam-tam blow leads us to the next part.
The second movement begins with a continuation of the same oppressive atmosphere, dissonant string chords move while the sound of the chain (employed as a musical instrument) takes place. A folkish kind of melodic idea then appears, offering contrast before it is subjected to a dissonant and avant-garde development that culminates in a sorrowful climax. The music becomes fragmented as it transitions to the next part
The third movement opens with rhythmic cells on strings, which become increasingly agitated until leading to a ferocious and dissonant climax. The meaning of this movement i perhaps the most enigmatic, as we can't clearly express what kind of vision it refers to. Then the previous Afroamerican rhythms return on percussion, which becomes the basis of a substantial modernistic development, again culminating in a ferocious climax. A slow transition, with the ominous sound of the chain still present, then links with the finale.
The fourth movement begins with the reappearance of the Afroamerican rhythms on percussion and strings, which serve as a near-omnipresent underlying ostinato figure. As a whole, the movement represents the hard-achieved freedom of Afroamericans. The music grows in a continuous crescendo and accelerando until culminating in a loud bang, then the music quickly dissolves in the silence.
Picture: Photograph of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial (2009-11) in Washington, D.C., designed by Chinese sculptor Lei Yixin.
Musical analysis written by myself. Sources: tinyurl.com/29zgyugh and tinyurl.com/2cfrbe3p
Unfortunately, the score isn't available.
