Program notes / Notas de programa4 flutes quartet
Abyssal
Capricho for Clarinet in Bb and Youths Orchestra
Clarinet Quartet N#1
Danzas circulares
Mimic
Nestico
Skizo
Sonic tunnel
Tele-
Walls
4 flutes quartet
The piece is constructed over a simple "funk groove" pattern that is
combined with a chromatic descending line that appears in the piccolo. The register of the ensemble is totally developed,
ascending gradually to get its climax point towards the end of the piece when the three flutes become piccolos to play clusters
in the high register.
Skizo
Something wakens, rises, lifts itself (like a mast, an arm a head), something provokes, irritates.
Something begins moving (not too fast), something stirs without direction, like shifting branches, like a rustling agitation
of the body.
Directed speed, exactitude, precise rhythm (contrary to haste), rapid strides, surprise, the movement of
a serpent through leaves.
You conceive yourself in a limit state, by dint of inwardness, inside turns around, as if there
were an outside of the inside, though this were not, still, the exterior.
It stirs, it throbs so powerfully that it might
even crack - but doesn´t crack.
You take yourself deep inside, you collect yourself at the limit of this depth,
your body is internalized, loses itself inside, toward its own land.
(from "The
Responsibility of forms" by Roland Barthes)
Clarinet Quartet N#1
A
palindrome is a sequence of units that has the property of reading the same in either direction.
The piece
is based on the idea of a palindrome as a cadence. A palindrome
certainly creates the expectation of a return to a place
that is familiar, through an already transited path.
A deceptive palindrome is a form of cadence too, but, through the
same
path, it takes you somewhere else.
Walls
The piece is based
on a nine-note block that is always observed from a different perspective. At the beginning it is seen as a perfect vertical
simultaneity, then turning ninety degrees to become a horizontal succession of pitches that appears on the bass flute.
The unison represents the moment in a three dimensions rotation of the block in which all its components remain behind the
only visible one, represented by a single note.
These procedures continue all through the piece until the climax point
where seven piccolos gradually appear to overlap the horizontal line by the two lower flutes.
Towards the end the textures
become more irrupting to conclude with a
choral texture that emerges from the unison.
Sonic
tunnel
The piece is based on the idea of constantly mutating elements.
Mimic
The piece is the first of a series of compositions for solo acoustic instruments with an alternative
controller.
Conceived as a chamber music composition, the music is mainly governed by improvisation over general guidelines
given to the performers.
The structure of "mimic" is based on the idea of an illusory transformation in which
- throughout the piece - one instrument becomes the other one and vice versa.
Abyssal
The abyssal realm is very calm, being far removed from storms that agitate the ocean at the air-sea
interface. These low energies are reflected in the general character of the piece.
Nestico
The piece evokes in its very beginning the rhythmic drive of the compositions by the renowned jazz artist Sammy Nestico.
This texture suggests a big band "soli" section that gradually mutates into a more polyrhythmic material.
The
overall structure of the composition constantly expands and contracts to get the most intense moment towards the end when
the piccolo and the piano play in the extreme register with the always flowing rhythmical foundation.
At the end, the
solo piccolo makes the last introspection.
Tele-
The piece brings
back the origins of telecommunication. This idea severely limits the sonic environment: the rhythm is reduced to the basic
idea of "short" and "long" values, and only a few pitches are utilized throughout the piece.
Capricho for Clarinet in Bb and Youths Orchestra
The piece brings back one of the genres
of Argentine folk music, the "carnavalito". The rhythm of this genre is evoked all along the piece and its typical
harmonic progression emerges towards the end in its pure form. The solo clarinet develops an improvised-like line always counter
positioned with the orchestra keeping a musical dialogue until the ending.
Danzas circulares
The piece brings back in an avant-garde compositional language two expressions of argentine folk music: the "gato"
and the "baguala". The "gato" is a dance rhythmically vivid and picaresque, which gives drive and direction
to the overall structure of the piece.
The "baguala" - with indian origins -is a melancholic chant with a simple
melody built on three notes which opens an endless space for development and experimentation. This fusion with argentine tradition
and modernity reflects the necessity to continue and develop the Latin American legacy.
