About: Dramatic Overture (Fernández Blanco)

The Dramatic Overture by Evaristo Fernández Blanco is a tone poem written in 1940. Subtitled Musical setting for a civic social war drama, it was conceived as a homage to the Republican effort in the Spanish Civil War after the war ended with the victory of the National faction and the establishment of a repressive dictatorship, and marked the composer's creative retirement for four decades. It was written in Viascón, a hamlet in Pontevedra where Fernández Blanco, a Republican cultural officer during the war, hid from reprisals. The work consists of three episodes titled Desolation, Action and Hommage to the heroes, respectively a gloomy introduction, a frantic ostinato march and a glorifying hymn including quotations from The Internationale and Whirlwinds of Danger.