El Pessebre

El Pessebre, Volume I

A discourse on music and politics

Part I

Chapter 1(.doc)
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A brief history, combining fact with fancy, of the musical life of Philadelphia

Chapter 2(.doc)
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In the summer of 1980 the Philadelphia Orchestra announces its intention to prepare a concert for Christmas Eve to honor the cellist Pablo Casals. The program will conclude with a performance of the 2-hour oratorio by Casals, "El Pessebre", (The Crèche). Auditions for the Orchestra Chorus, to be held in September, will be open to qualified amateurs from the general public. Among the applicants is the protagonist of this novel, Gilbert Fabre, 45, Assistant Director of Social Services for the city of Philadelphia.

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Fabre shows up for the auditions. He runs into an old schoolmate from the Musical Academy, Patrick Clancy, a traditional Irish tenor, and his wife. Clancy is friendly but rather insensitive.

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Fabre talks with the young woman in charge of the auditions administrative details, Susan Spiegel. During their conversation Fabre informs that he is fluent in Catalan, the language of El Pessebre, and that he has a degree from the Philadelphia Musical Academy. Fabre auditions for the choral conductor, Aldo Falcone.

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The rejection letter comes in the following week. As a life-long bureaucrat he is all too familiar with its style of clichés and hypocrisies. It will turn out later that his rejection was an oversight. In addition to receiving a rejection form letter which he considers demeaning, Fabre jumps to the conclusion that the Orchestra had some specific personal grudge again him.

Chapter 6(.doc)
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Christmas Eve, 1981. A dazzling array of celebrities from the musical and political establishments, of the US, Spain and Puerto Rico, have been assembled to honor Pablo Casals with speeches and presentations. The concert has been sold out months in advance. Despite the presence of ice and snow a long line forms at the back entrance to Philadelphia's Academy of Music as early as 9 PM, December 23rd.

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Anxious to avoid political confrontations, the Philadelphia police send all demonstrations outside the Academy to Independence Square, a mile away. A group calling itself the "Puerto Rican Strike for Independence" ( Huelga para la Independencia de Puerto Rico ) decides to return to the Academy around 7, mount their demonstration and court arrest. When the limousines of Hernando Guzman and his entourage arrive the members of the H.I.P.R. reveal their picket signs, throw their leaflets above the heads of the crowd and bark through their bull-horns. The police wade in,arrests are made, the demonstrators dispersed. Despite this interruption, the concert begins on schedule at 8.

Chapter 8(.doc)
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The narrative now takes us to the home of Gilbert Fabre in Germantown. Fabre, dressed in a tuxedo, is listening to the Klemperer recording of the Bach St. Matthew Passion. Some more details of the character and life-history of the protagonist are presented.

Chapter 9(.doc)
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A description of the first part of the concert, speeches by various dignitaries and the presentation of awards.

Chapter 10(.doc)
Intermission. We meet several new principal characters: Dr. Theodore Sokoloff, cello professor at the Curtis Institute; Bella Sokoloff, his wife; Nadja, his daughter. William Jansen, his best student; and Anne Goldstein, a student at the Moore College of Art and Design, William's fiancée.

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After introducing them the novelist goes backstage to listen to 4 professional musicians of minor reputation who are trying to figure out what to say about Casals that hasn't been said before. This conversation is something of a satire both on the phenomenon of celebrity", and certain characteristic failings of classical musicians

Chapter 12(.doc)
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At 9:45 Gilbert Fabre picks up the receiver of his telephone and dials the box office of the Academy of Music. Mimicking a thick Hispanic accent, he tells the elderly woman at the box office that a bomb has been planted on the stage of the Academy, and timed to go off at 10:15. 5 minutes later, an official comes onto the stage and stops the concert. The auditorium must be evacuated immediately. A series of mishaps leads to panic and a full scale riot. In the mad stampede to the exit doors, many people are trampled and injured, and over 50 people are killed. Among them is Anne Goldstein.

Searches by the bomb squad throughout the following day, reveal that there was no bomb. The whole thing was a hoax.

Part II

Chapter 13(.doc)
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An essay relates the connections between the Catalan Renaissance of the late 19th century, the musical career and politics of Pablo Casals, and the historical significance of the oratorio El Pessebre.

Chapter 14(.doc)
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A survey of newspaper accounts of the bomb hoax

Chapter 15(.doc)
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Fabre waits until the second week of January to send off his press release, in which he invents a Puerto Rican nationalist group, the Jibaros de la Violenzia.

Chapter 16(.doc)
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The setting moves to the offices of the H.I.P.R. (Puerto Rican Strike for Independence) in New York City. A conversation is described, in the presence of an ACLU lawyer, between FBI agent George Baker and Rafael Montoya, president of the New York chapter of the HIPR. The conversation is stormy.Montoya tries to flee to Canada but is intercepted at the border, brought back to New York and charged with "conspiracy to commit terrorist acts." It's a tactical bluff and he is released after a few weeks.

Chapter 17(.doc)
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Mid-January, 1982: Gilbert Fabre in his offices in City Hall, Philadelphia. To throw suspicion away from himself he has launched a vendetta against the Puerto Rican community. He calls up the FBI and offers the services of his office in tracking down the "barbaric" terrorists who attacked one of the shrines of classical music, the Philadelphia Academy.

Part III

Chapter 18(.doc)
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In an interview conducted by a music reporter for Newsweek Magazine, William Jansen states that he's leaving the Curtis Institute to work in New York City, where he will try to unearth the terrorists who murdered his fiancée. His plans are revealed in more detail when he is invited to dinner with the Sokoloffs in their condominium off Rittenhouse Square.

Chapter 19(.doc)
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Gilbert Fabre in his offices in City Hall again. His schemes have back-fired. People are beginning to realize that the "Jibaros de la Violenzia" is a crude fiction

Fabre receives a call from Susan Spiegel. His audition forms had been misplaced. He is admitted to the Chorus, which will be performing that summer at the Marlboro music Festival. Rather than being mollified, his rage increases, and he plots further revenge.

Chapter 20(.doc)
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William Jansen comes to New York City. He and some friends visit The Red Star, a leftist Spanish language bookstore managed by a Puerto Rican political exile, Antonio Rodriguez.

Chapter 21(.doc)
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The Red Star Bookstore is a front for the real activities of its' owner, Antonio Rodriguez: maintaining an information center for radicals and refugees fleeing wars and oppression throughout Latin America. William returns to the bookstore. Antonio and William agree to work together to uncover the true authors of the Academy of Music disaster.

End of Volume I

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