(2017) Chamber orchestra
Score PDF
{An ancient mountain arises in the middle of the mexican desert. Although it feels inherent to the landscape, it is of a different nature. Unlike the mountains around it, it once was a city built of clay. Now it has been reduced to vestiges; worn out by the air with quiet whispers and shaped little by little to blend with the environment.
At ground level, the city looks like any other mountain, complex in its form and impossible to decipher; but viewed from the right angle, the lines that interwove chaotically at first organize like a fish shoal and reveal its geometric maze of aisles.
Imagine entering a dark room. It´s just black. After some time, you start noticing some shades. Eventually they end up turning into clear forms, so it´s not just black anymore. Senses sharpen when they are forced to perceive where apparently there is nothing. So, if you choose to force yourself into the desert, you can start noticing the subtle chaos of a mountain and then a hidden geometric maze but, with openness and willingness, you might even end up hearing the whispers of the air.}
Wild Up/ Walt Disney Hall, LA
(2017) Electric cello and live electronics
Score PDF
{The Rhine river is one of the most important navigable waterways in Europe. There is a point near St. Goarhausen (Germany) where it surrounds a 132m rock and, as the river turns, an intriguing echo starts to emerge: diffuse and unintelligible at first, but slowly revealing an enthralling melody. Sailors look up, haunted by its sweet tone, and see nothing but the beauty of a maiden sitting on top of the rock. Unwittingly wondrous, Lorelei combs her hair and sings while the sailors are steeped in an enchantment. Little by little, her voice leads them to a deadly woe for they miss spotting the rocks below and they perish along with their barques fading away into the billows of the Rhine. Many sailors have disappeared in the past and still some are doomed by the song of Lorelei.}
Jeffrey Zeigler/CMMAS, Morelia
(2015) String Quartet
Score PDF
{A 3DOKU (three-doku) is a three-dimentional sudoku. As in the original sudoku, the objective is to conform series of numbers with one rule: each row, column and quadrant must contain every number without repetition. In addition, each face of a 3DOKU contains a different sudoku puzzle and border numbers as well as adjacent corner numbers have to be the same.
A number can be interpreted as a musical value. For example, the number 3 may refer to the third note of a scale or it could indicate a quantity of sounds to emit in a given amount of time. Under this premiss, it should be possible to turn a 3DOKU into music, although it must to be solved first...}
Cuarteto Latinoamericano/ La Caja Acústica, CDMX
(2015) Orchestra
Score PDF
{I remember being really impressed the first time I went into a subway station in Mexico City; overwhelmed about the amount of different people that crossed their paths in that single moment. That mass looked messy; everybody was tracing a different route—and, apparently, their focus wasn´t in anything other than themselves or their company—, but I started noticing that nobody collided with anyone, as if they were part of a huge choreography: precise as the finest machine, with an order so complex that it was´t evident for me.
I still observe masses of people and often wonder what would happen if they were music: how would they sound? I guess an apparent sounding chaos could be there somehow, but thinking more about the mood: would It be frenetic? Rushed? Dissonant? Or all that chaos in the detail would have a harmonic result as a whole? Of course there could be thousands of interpretations, but I like to go more with the latter—to think of it as a solved jigsaw puzzle with strange shapes in its pieces. Apparently messy if it is seen really close, but with a whole perceptible image if it is seen from a considerable distance—. This question and the idea of a complex order made by lots of elements with a harmonic result was what inspired this piece and its title “Cosmo”, which refers to an ordered harmonic system in its greek root.}
Fonobox Orchestra/ Teatro Ángela Peralta, CDMX
(2013) Miniature for Orchestra
Score PDF
{Thought puts itself in automatic pilot: it builds ideas.
When we realise, it stops an what was built vanishes without leaving an apparent trace...}
Orquesta Sinfónica de Michoacán/ Teatro Ocampo, Morelia
(2013) String Quartet
Score PDF
{Sudoku means “unique number”. Numbers can be interpreted as a musical values, so sudoku could mean “unique note”; a single note at a time or just a single pitch, for example. Under this premiss, it should be possible to turn a sudoku into music, although it must be solved first...}
Cuarteto Fundamental/ MCO Studios, CDMX
(2014) Wind Quintet
Score PDF
Quinteto de Alientos de la Ciudad de México/ Sala Manuel M. Ponce, Bellas Artes, CDMX
(2018) Symphonic orchestra
Score PDF
{An ancient mountain arises in the middle of the mexican desert. Although it feels inherent to the landscape, it is of a different nature. Unlike the mountains around it, it once was a city built of clay. Now it has been reduced to vestiges; worn out by the air with quiet whispers and shaped little by little to blend with the environment.
At ground level, the city looks like any other mountain, complex in its form and impossible to decipher; but viewed from the right angle, the lines that interwove chaotically at first organize like a fish shoal and reveal its geometric maze of aisles.
Imagine entering a dark room. It´s just black. After some time, you start noticing some shades. Eventually they end up turning into clear forms, so it´s not just black anymore. Senses sharpen when they are forced to perceive where apparently there is nothing. So, if you choose to force yourself into the desert, you can start noticing the subtle chaos of a mountain and then a hidden geometric maze but, if you are patient and open enough, you might even end up hearing the whispers of the air.
hybrid recording performed by }OFUNAM/ Wild Up