Luvina

Bleakness, in powerful, tragic beauty.

(Solo piano).
Total duration ca. 5 minutes (2007)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
Commissioned in 2007 by pianist Ana Cervantes.
One movement work. 5 pages, 8.5" x 11".

Premiered in November 2007 in Mexico City, Mexico by Ana Cervantes, piano.

Recorded by Ana Cervantes, piano.

Also available as:

Vendaval de Luvina

(adaptation for Piano and prerecorded digital audio).
Total duration 5:40 (2010)
Published by Activist Music (ASCAP).
One movement work. 10 pages, 8.5" x 11".

Premiered in November 2010 in Santa Clara, CA
by Teresa McCollough, piano.

"Wherever you look in Luvina, it's a very sad place. You're going there, so you'll find out. I would say it's the place where sadness nests... the breeze that blows there moves it around but never takes it away." Such is the bleak world described in Juan Rulfo's short story, Luvina. When pianist Ana Cervantes asked me to compose a piece in response to the late Mexican author's writing, I had not read any of his work and looked forward to the books that would soon appear in my mailbox. Sitting in my studio, immersed in the grim desert of dire poverty and hopelessness Rulfo describes in this and other equally moving writings, I cried. Long since finishing the music, my thoughts still return to a landscape that is unspeakably sad and, through Rulfo's words, a place where slow and insistent burdens are met with simple, unquestioning acceptance.

"Based on [Juan] Rulfo's short story of the same name, Alex Shapiro's LUVINA conveys a mood of despair through soft, ascending arpeggios that repeat, wave-like, for the duration of the piece and simple textures that manage to contain the mysterious, questioning mood that inhabits the rest of the CD [Solo Rumores]. The piece begins with a dark, rolling arpeggio figure, soon joined by a subtle melody sometimes articulated through single notes, other times through dyads or chords. Overall, this beautiful and impressionistic work retains a spare and stark simplicity throughout. It provides a respite in the midst of so many dramatic and rhythmic works."

— Kari Besharse, Journal of the IAWM, Winter 2012

Luvina is featured on pianist Ana Cervantes' CD, Solo Rumores (Quindecim Recordings 186), recorded in August 2007 as part of a two-CD collection of works Ms. Cervantes commissioned to reflect the writings of Juan Rulfo. For more information about this project, please click here

Alex Shapiro has produced a significant album of her solo piano works, including LUVINA, beautifully performed by New York pianist Adam Marks. The 2020 disc, ARCANA, has been released on Innova Recordings 041.