Ricardo Teruel: Carl Orff Competition 2018 He has turned around

Orpheus descends into the Underworld to convince the god Hades, with his poetry, song and lyre, to allow him to return to the Land of the Living with his deceased wife Eurydice.

Orpheus's tense journey through the dark and misterious Underworld is evoked through extraordinary sounds from the harp accompanied by a pulsating rhythm on the frame drum.

In the fragment of the poem selected for this competition as mandatory Rainer Maria Rilke's description of the Eurydice that Orpheus finds in the Underworld and of death as a natural condition of life is very beautiful and perceptive. Even more so that the poet, in very few words, shows us Eurydice's point of view in her present condition amongst the dead and surprisingly paints us a humane and profound Hades. The end of the work is a single word pronounced by Eurydice that is both unexpected and perfect and keeps lingering in your mind.

I'd like to express my thanks and appreciation to Marisela González, Venezuelan harpist for making me aware of many of the resources that I use for the harp in this work and thoroughly checking my efforts.