Description

Strange night…
I was sleeping peacefully when around 3 am the phone started ringing, the landline, the one that hasn’t been ringing since
cell phones came into our lives, except to sell us windows or a new insurance policy that we didn’t ask for.
I suddenly wake up and run to the phone to answer, thinking of a very serious news, given the hour. I answer:
– Hola Mario! habla Sebastián,… Sebastián de Albero, hombre!
– Sebastiáan WHO???
…and in a Castilian very «castizo» he continues the conversation, which I translate here for my French, Belgian, Swiss,
Québécois and African friends.
– Yes, Sebastián de Albero, you know me well since you play my music and you just recorded it, in addition.
I ripped the handset out of my ear and watched it with the most astonished expression, but it was useless… I had forgotten
that landlines do not have a screen; I could not see Sebastián, he only heard my voice.
Bewildered and half asleep I try to ask him how is it possible that he contacts me by this unusual way.
– It’s because I know you met my colleagues Scarlatti, Soler, Duphly, Forqueray and even a Flemish, Joss Boutmy, I believe.
So I wondered why you didn’t contact me when recording my music?
– I see…You are a little jealous. You have to know that I did not try to contact them, they came spontaneously to me! and
even that Mimo took advantage of my naivety to pluck me in a game of dice in the gardens of the Alhambra.
– I know, he cheated on me too in a game in a corner of one of the salons of the royal palace in Madrid. But he was a
very good colleague besides a very talented musician…I was inspired by his work to write my music, but…finally something
a little different came out of my pen. I retained the form we all cherish at that time: the two-part piece, sometimes called
sonata, sometimes exercise, finally.
– I regret I have not summoned you into my gallery of encounters, which some suppose to be imaginary – I replied – but
we were troubled by exceptional events on this earth to which you were more accustomed than us when you had to transit
through this planet. Excuse me, and I hope this conversation will compensate for this omission.
– Not at all! my dear Mario. You have to fulfill a task that I care about: you have to broadcast and make my music loved by
the public who appreciate you and love our instrument. Don’t forget I couldn’t stay on Earth very long. My time was limited,
and I couldn’t write everything I wanted. I’m very sorry ; so please make the little music I left still alive in your century.