• Instrumentation: 2(I=picc).2(II=corA).2(II=Eflat).2-2.2.2.0-timp.perc(1)-pft-str
• Duration: 5'

PROGRAM NOTE:

A quirky dance, "La Novia de Tola" alternates between manic and static states, referencing folk gestures and an imagined folk tune that could have been drawn directly from my Nicaraguan family’s musical traditions. The work takes its title from the Nicaraguan folktale "The Bride from Tola" in which a young bride is abandoned by the love of her life on her wedding day (though whether her fiancé was shot by his would-be brother-in-law, seduced by his ex-lover, or drunk in another town depends on who tells the tale).  La Novia's story gave rise to the uniquely Nicaraguan idiom "left waiting like the bride from Tola" which translates loosely as "left holding the bag."