Balada: Guernica / Symphony No. 4 / Zapata

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Leonardo Balada (b. 1933)Guernica Symphony No. 4 Homages to Casals and SarasateIn the personality of an individual nothing has moreinfluence than experiences as a child. Another important influence is anartist's masterpiece which translates into an ideal stimulus for creation.Pablo Picasso's Guernica, a mural that expresses the horror after the bombingof a defenceless Basque town during the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), was for methat artist's masterpiece. In addition it was also a symbol of the struggle andcontempt I felt, like so many Spaniards, for the dictator Francisco Franco, whocrushed the young Spanish democracy in that war. Picasso was our hero, likewisePablo Casals, Luis Bunuel and many other great artists and intellectuals whofled Spain at the end of that tragic war. I had to compose Guernica: mymemories as a child crying and running with my family into the \metro stationin Barcelona to shelter us from the fascist bombings had been haunting me forthree decades. I also had to compose it as my way of saying thanks to Picassoand all those exiled, who from overseas waved the flag of freedom, and I had tocompose it as a protest against wars. Picasso was my hero and to him Idedicated the symphonic work. After its first recording was released, on an LPby the Louisville Orchestra, I had planned to visit him in the south of Franceand give him a copy of the work. Camilo Jose Cela, the late Nobel Literaturelaureate with whom at that time I was collaborating on the cantata MariaSabina, had given me an introduction to the artist assuring me that Picassowould respond to my gift with one of his own: one of his paintings. Myexcitement was at its highest in the summer of 1972 when I had decided to makethat visit to the south of France but it was not to be. For personal reasons Ihad to cancel that trip and Picasso died some months later without my evermeeting the master, one of the big disappointments in my life.               Mycomposing Guernica came in 1966, when the New Orleans Philharmonic announced areading of new orchestral works. The anti-Vietnam War demonstrations that yearat Columbia University in New York were an added stimulus for me, havingattended meetings of protest at the MacMillan Theater on that campus.Childhood, Picasso, Vietnam all came together and in two weeks with the brevityof a bullet shot, my composition was conceived and done. Guernica became aturning-point in my output.               StylisticallyGuernica belongs to a new moment in my work which could be construed as myavant-garde period. Before that in the early 1960s my music was somewhatneo-classical, at a time when the contemporary musical scene in New York waspractically limited to the twelve-tone serial style. But dissatisfaction withmyself was strong and obsessive; I did not want to continue on the conservativepath. How could I be