Comme le montre l’analyse de dix auteurs appartenant à trois domaines linguistiques différents, anglophones, hispanophones et francophones : Pedro Antonio de Alarcon, Jorge Luis Borges, Ruben Dario, Henry James, Howard Phillips Lovecraft, Léopoldo Lugones, Guy de Maupassant, Edgar Allan Poe, Jean Ray, Marcel Schwob, la géométrie est présente partout dans les récits fantastiques du xixe au xxe siècle. Cercles, carrés ou pyramides s’inscrivent dans l’architecture ou dans le physique du personnage. Ces formes, qui permettent de faire naître l’angoisse, imposent peu à peu la circularité (cercles, courbes, sphères) comme une figure dominante. Les espaces où évolue le protagoniste s’arrondissent autour de lui jusqu’à venir l’étouffer. Le mécanisme de la peur qu’engendre ce processus peut alors être centrifuge ou centripète : soit il découle du lieu où se trouve le héros fantastique soit il est produit par le personnage lui-même. De cette géométrie angoissante découle un procédé fondamental : celui de l’atmosphère fantastique. Celle-ci — faite, comme l’étymologie le révèle, d’une forme de vapeur (atmos) enveloppant le monde ou le sujet à la manière d’un globe (sphaira) — témoigne de l’importance non seulement des courbes, mais encore des divers états de l’eau : glace, neige, élément liquide ou gazeux. L’atmosphère montre ainsi à quel point le fantastique est lié à la femme, support essentiel de l’Unheimliche, en ce que cette dernière est à la fois — pour le personnage masculin et pour les auteurs ici analysés — une figure de l’Autre (unheimlich) et une manifestation de la Mère (heimlich) / As shown in the analysis of ten authors from three different linguistic areas, English, Spanish and French: Alarcon, Borges, Dario, James, Lovecraft, Lugones, Maupassant, Poe, Ray and Schwob. The geometry is everywhere in the fantastic stories from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. Circles, squares or pyramids are part of architecture or the character's physical. These forms, which allows the birth of anxiety, gradually impose the circularity (circles, curves, spheres) as a dominant figure. The spaces where the protagonist is evolving, curving around him till he suffocates. The mechanism of the fear generated by this process could be centrifugal or centripetal: it follows either the place where the fantasy hero is located or it is produced by the character himself. From this agonizing geometry, a fundamental process is set up : the fantastic atmosphere. This one done, as the etymology reveals, from a vapor shape (atmos) enveloping the world or the character in the manner of a globe(sphaira) - testify the importance not only about the curves, but equally the various states of water : ice, snow, liquid or gaseous element. The atmosphere shows how much the fantastic is linked to the woman, Unheimliche's essential support, in that this last one is both - for the male character and the authors analyzed here - a figure of the Other (unheimlich) and a manifestation of the Mother (Heimlich)

Born in 1972, Luis Serrano Alarcón has in a very short period of time, established himself as one of Spain’s most prominent composers. His works are constantly being performed, not only in his home country, but throughout the world. While some of his compositions tend to retain the rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic style typical to Spanish music, many of the works sound as if they were borne more from the Viennese symphonic tradition, both during the time of Haydn and Beethoven, but also during the time of Arnold Schoenberg. As a young boy Alarcón took up piano lessons with a local teacher by the name of Javier Barranco. Through him, Alarcón learned “the music for piano of the great masters of Classicism, Romanticism, and Spanish Nationalism.” In addition he began to study with two other teachers: Jose Cervera Collado and Jose Maria Cervara Lloret. With Collado, Alarcón studied conducting, and with Lloret he studied harmony. As a result of all of this training, Alarcón was drawn toward the symphonic music of the Classical and Romantic periods, especially gravitating toward the music of Beethoven and Brahms. Alarcón’s compositional style has maintained a chameleon-like flexibility as he is able to change styles from one composition to the next with litheness and grace, showing a strong grasp of American jazz as well as flamenco music of his native country in Duende, capturing the sounds of tango from Argentina in Concertango, and of course, in the many examples of his paso dobles. Unlike many of his contemporaries, though, Alarcón’s unique voice seems to emerge through any style he is embracing or any combination of instruments in his orchestration. In terms of style, Symphony for Wind Orchestra (2012) is an entirely different type of composition. It is immediately apparent from the opening tutti strikes, that (like Mozart and many other traditional composers before and after), Alarcón is embracing a iii traditional symphonic style in this composition by utilizing one of its most common symphonic topos. Symphony for Wind Orchestra is an amazing study of the Classical symphony from its earliest beginnings in Mannheim, to its codification at the hands of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, and to its explosion in size and scope at the end of the nineteenth and early twentieth century with composers like Brahms, Bruckner, and Mahler. Perhaps more important, though, is his choice of harmonic language and compositional approach. The work is decidedly based upon thematic material that is reminiscent of the Second Viennese School; atonal at times, semi-tonal at others, but consistently manipulated through the operations (transposition, inversion, retrograde, verticalization, and serialization), that were made popular by Arnold Schoenberg, his students, and those who followed them. The genesis of this composition was a consortium of band directors from the Southeastern Conference Band Association, led initially by Tom Verrier, who is Senior Band Conductor and Director of Wind Ensembles at Vanderbilt University. Dr. John Cody Birdwell was a part of the consortium from its onset, but didn’t initially plan on conducting the premiere at his school (the University of Kentucky). Birdwell stated,“...the opportunity to premiere the work sort of ‘landed in our lap.’ I had heard some of Alarcón’s other compositions in recent years, and I knew that this piece was going to be fantastic, so we moved forward without any hesitation.” Clearly with so much positive feedback regarding the work, this document is certainly justified. The goals of this study are to provide some background for the work and its composer, to analyze the work while providing examples of all of its main themes and important figures, and where appropriate, to show how they relate to each other. This document will also create a helpful performance guide for conductors, which should facilitate and contribute to many more performances of this significant work in the future. Along with the harmonic and thematic analysis of the work, this document will also include interviews with the composer, the conductor of the premiere of the work (Dr. John Cody Birdwell), one of the early and staunch supporters of Alarcón’s works (Dr. Tim Reynish), and Javier Enguidanos Morató - another Spanish conductor who recently performed the work.