Florencia del Pinar is the first known Spanish woman poet. Little is known about her life, but some of her poems are published with the honorific “Dama,” (“Lady”), which suggests that she was from the upper class. I found this poem particularly compelling because of the image of the captive bird with which she identifies, knowing that historically women’s lives were very restricted. Another level of meaning in the poem is that the particular bird referred to is the partridge, which during this time period was an archetype of female sexuality because female partridges were known to be easily impregnated. This adds another layer of meaning to the poem’s imagery of captivity, or suppression.

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The piece has two themes; the first one is a long-breathed, wide-ranging, and often melismatic melody that suggests flight. The second theme is strongly rhythmic and highly dissonant, and expresses the sorrow of which she speaks. The rhythm used in the second theme is characteristic of Latin American music. Many of the scales and melodic gestures draw from a typical Sephardic scale that includes a minor second-augmented second.

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Instrumentation: SSAT, Soprano Recorder, Marimba, Percussion, Treble & Bass Viol