Canta la Sal, scored for horn, cello and piano, was inspired by initial discussions with hornist Anne Howarth followed by Pablo Neruda’s vivid poem Oda a la sal. It is a co-commission of Anne Howarth, the Juventas Ensemble and the Boston Conservatory at Berklee and is funded in part by the Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Program of the International Horn Society. The Neruda poem eloquently speaks of salt, its connection to the sea and to life, to its song as it is mined and as it moves through the entire chain of life. Salt is both necessary for life, and can destroy it, as in the siege of Carthage, or throughthe malfunction of our own bodies. We cry and we shed salty tears. Salt is within us and of us. The premiere will be at the Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center in Cambridge, MA on January 27, 2024.
