La luz bermeja (2024)
for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano
Moscow Contemporary Music Ensemble, Synesthesia Future Lab, Kazan
Programme note
In his novel Pedro Páramo, Juan Rulfo describes the moment he saw his lover departing the earthly realm, a long time ago. On that day, he says, the light was the same as today, only "...not as crimson". He warns against sighing too much, because sighs are "sips of life that we throw away" and we might die of sadness. This is a piece about the moment when breathing becomes sighing.
Ehecamalacotl II (2024)
for string quartet
Mivos Quartet, Sounds of Now Vienna
Programme note
Ehecamalacotl II, for string quartet, takes its title from Nahuatl. The words ehecatl (wind) and malacatl (spindle) suggest a cyclical movement animated by the wind. The quartet extends its sonic lines like threads that tremble under tension in space, gathering and unfolding at their own pace. The music advances in spirals: its cycles come to an end and are continually revived, yet the extremes never meet, and the circle is never completed; nothing is the same when it returns, but nothing is entirely lost. Like a spindle spinning at the touch of the wind, the motion continues without apparent beginning or end, driven ever forward in its spiral, concentric logic.
Mikropornografie II (2023)
for piano
Ian Pace, Sounds of Now Vienna
Programme note
“Pornography is the quadraphonics of sex. It adds a third and fourth track to the sexual act. It is the hallucination of detail that rules. Science has already habituated us to this microscopics, this excess of the real in its microscopic detail, this voyeurism of exactitude.”
— Jean Baudrillard
An Orchestra Piece for 43 Missing Students. (2017)
for symphony orchestra
The Manhattan School of Music Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: David Hoose
Programme note
Virtually any illusion of normalcy shattered after the events of that early fall. In late September, 2014, a convoy with 43 students was hijacked by cartel hitmen colluding with elements of the Mexican army. Vital evidence points to a coordinated effort sanctioned at the highest levels of government. Outraged, a majority of Mexicans took action: a series of mass protests led to some arrests.
Still, the major culprits of this crime have not yet been brought to account, and to this day nobody knows what became of the 43 young students.
Crónica de las soledades del viento (2023)
for flute, clarinet, bassoon, and piano (and two improvising actors)
Decoda Ensemble, Kornfeld & Andrews
Programme note
The original project for this piece involved a collaboration between the composer, Decoda, and improvising actor duo Louis Kornfeld and Rick Andrews. The music sets out to capture a quiet sense of dread and tense expectation beset by moments of explosive outbursts. Kornfeld and Andrews utilise this soundscape to full effect by using it as a springboard to launch into a short masterpiece of horror comedy.
Ehecamalacotl (2022)
for string quartet and piano
Decoda Ensemble
Programme note
The opening work of the Ehecamalacotl cycle. The Nahuatl words ehecatl (wind) and malacatl (spindle) suggest a cyclical movement animated by the wind, with the implication of spiral motion. The meaning translates into the musical material in a bid to capture a glimpse of recursive, infinite flow.
Coatlicue barría la escalera del templo (2020)
for cello
Aurélienne Brauner
Programme note
Aztec legend recounts the story of Coatlicue, the goddess of life and death and the mother of the Four Hundred Southerners, Centzon Huitznahuac, gods of the Southern Stars, and Coyolxauhqui, who ruled over her brothers. Coatlicue lived at the temple, where she did penance sweeping. One day, a feather fell from the sky; she picked it up and stored it on her breast. She then realized she was pregnant.
Enraged, Coyolxauhqui and her brothers decided their mother should die, and rushed to attack her. Coatlicue’s son spoke to her from the womb and asked her not to fear, for he would defend her.
Her son Huitzilopochtli, the Left-sided Hummingbird (a symbol of the heart), would be born a warrior and a poet, whose first feat would be to defend his mother, thus shaping the landscape of our modern night sky in the process…
Introduction and Prelude (2018)
for vocal sextet (3M, 3F)
Ekmeles, DiMenna Center, NYC
Programme note
When composing for the human voice, one is confronted with the inescapable fact that the performer is also the instrument. Following this premise eventually led this work in a direction where a strong histrionic element took hold.
At the center of the narrative lies the nature of performance itself: the peculiar circumstances and often highly-artificial idiosyncrasies of the "concert hall recital" are constantly represented, misrepresented, deconstructed, and denatured in front of the audience.
Ultimately, the audience may come to realise that they are perceiving themselves during the act of perceiving. This is a piece of musical theater with a plot about itself and its audience and performers, with the latter playing as main characters.