Instrumentation: Flute in G / Flute in C, Bass Clarinet in Bb / Clarinet in Bb, Alto / Tenor Saxophone, Violin, Cello and Piano.
Duration: a.c. 7 minutes.
Year of composition: 2014-2015
Premiere: May 11, 2015. French Institute of Barcelona.
Marc Moncusi (conductor)
Program notes:
This work made on the occasion of the I Composition Course organized by the Institut Francés de Barcelona in coordination with the composer Martin Matalón and the Ensemble Barcelona Modern Project.
It is inspired by a painting by Pablo Palazuelo entitled “Segundo Cantoral III” from 1978, due to the fact that, it is dedicated to the memory of him on the centenary of his birth. The idea of cantoral refers to the musical and this painting leads us to the scores where the notes that signify a gesture, a tone, a timbre are written – as Gregorian chant-, an energy converted into sound but which is visible here .
As for Palazuelo, the real object of the work is energy, and not the representation of something belonging to reality that we can recognize. An energy that is expressed through vibrations, resonances, lines of force … In this piece the Ensemble interacts as a single instrument in continuous movement. The timbral work causes this energy to be transformed in the passage of the piece. For Palazuelo, matter is energy and his goal as a painter and sculptor was to achieve a plastic representation of the internal rhythms of matter, considering geometry as a measure of matter. As with Palazuelo, the idea of rhythm is fundamental in this piece, hence the consideration of the work as a process, by allowing the ability to order and transform. Thus, this type of work manifests itself in the development and organic growth of its formal structures. This journey is absolutely linear and predictable from the beginning.
The crystalline skin, penetrable by the gaze, is one of the landmarks of modern architecture, as it succeeds in substituting the solid structural wall-bearing facade, with limited gaps, by a thin glass epidermis that, like a light and light garment, it simply delimits the border between inside and outside. Mies van der Rohe recognized his fascination with glass: “I discovered working with glass models that what is important is the play of reflections and not, as in an ordinary building, the effect of light and shadow.” This piece is impregnated with this game of reflections that interact in the course of it. This type of architecture has also been a source of inspiration in this work.
Another important factor in the piece is its staging, as the stage is in darkness. All the musicians have a lamp that they turn on during their first intervention and turn off as they conclude in the piece. Creating a play of light and shadow that connects directly with the music.