Ferrero: La Nueva Espana

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Lorenzo Ferrero (b. 1951)La Nueva Espana The conquest of Mexico, once called New Spain (la NuevaEspana), was one of the most extraordinary episodes in the history of mankind:five hundred men, for the most part soldiers of fortune, conquered a large empirein just a few months. But it was also an immense tragedy, for an entire civilisation,with all its knowledge accumulated down the centuries, was destroyed by violence,prejudice and the desire for gold in order to finance other wars that weretaking place thousands of miles away. Many books have been written on the subject, each ofwhich attempts, above all else, to explain how the attitude of the Aztecs inthe face of the Spanish invaders could have proved so submissive. The mostlikely explanation is one of cultural shock too deep to be quickly overcome.The writer Italo Calvino attributed the following words to Montezuma II,Emperor, as we would say today, of the Aztecs. 'Kill them?. I wanted to dosomething even more important. I wanted to understand who they were.' Thecultural shock was no less severe for the Spanish. How could a civilization thatwas so advanced, so affluent, so ordered, engage in frequent human sacrifice?Whenever there are difficulties caused by mutual incomprehension, the preferredway out is one of destruction. It is happening still today and this took placewith unbelievable ferocity then, between 15]9 and 1521. If each of us did not come face to face with diverse cultureson an almost daily basis, often difficult to understand, sometimes evenirritating, this story would have no significance other than that of anadventure. Instead, it is of great relevance and reminds us that culturaldiversity is a precious asset and must not be squandered, even using methodsseemingly less violent than they were then. La Nueva Espana is a suite of six pieces, written between1991 and 1999 and dedicated to the memory of that ancient human tragedy. Youmay call them symphonic poems if you wish. The musical language owes verylittle to ethnic influences which, in any case, would be completely spuriousgiven the passage of time. If it is possible to identify the angle from which theywere written, one might describe it as cinematographic. Not, however, in thesense of a sound track for imaginary scenes, but taking on, so to speak, theperspective of a movie-camera which is able to show the different intensitiesof emotional involvement a long distance shot or one in close-up, or at asubjective level, through the eyes of a character. These may be the eyes of thecharacter who witnesses with a sad realisation, what is to be a journey of no returnin Memoria del Fuego, when Hernan Cortes, the captain of the Spanish - who,according to Lope de Vega, 'gave infinite souls to God' or, according to Heine,'was nothing more than a bandit leader' - decided on conquest, travelling morethan a thousand kilometres from the coast to the capital, Tenochtitlan and hadhis ships bummed for fear that his men might