Program Notes


John Corigliano (arr. Ricardo Romaneiro): Hallucinations

"Hallucinations" is an adaptation of selections from composer John Corigliano's Academy Award-nominated iconic film score "Altered States", as re-imagined by Ricardo Romaneiro for chamber orchestra and live electronics. Surrealistic instrumental and electronic effects are combined with frenetic orchestral textures and sparse, eerie melodies to create a 5.1 surround-sound cinematic experience.


Ricardo Romaneiro: Strata

Exploring the boundaries of electronica and classical music, "Strata" weaves the listener through layers of pulsating grooves and radiant harmonies, creating a kaleidoscopic tapestry of sound and rhythm.


Gity Razaz: The Metamorphosis of Narcissus

The piece is structured as a triplex musical soundscape with each section exploring an internal/psychological stage of Narcissus' metamorphosis. Themes from the first section return as fragments in expanded form, giving an overall sense of perpetual development. Aside from classical music, Gity has recently taken interest in experimental and improvisational style of sound artists like Beth Custer and Kammerflimmer Kollectief, whose music conveys a general sense of eternal progression.


Du Yun: Fallen Warriors, the Cihuacoatl's Eye

Equally adept at writing for concert halls, art shows, experimental theatres, and dance, this new work is centered on Aztec mythology. Fertility and childbirth goddess Cihaucoatl, who is a fierce skull-faced old woman who carries the shield and spears of a warrior. She helped Quetzalcoatl create the current race of humanity by grinding up bones from the previous ages, and mixing it with his blood. In many traditions, childbirth has long been compared to warfare and the women who die in childbirth are honored as fallen warriors. At once chaotic and monstrous, this piece ultimately traces a sense of resilient lament. (The musical language of this work, however, has nothing to do with Aztec practices.)


Enrico Chapela: LiPo

This piece is based on the poem "Li Po" by the Mexican poet José Juan Tablada, who based this poem on the life of the Chinese poet Li Po. Tablada traveled to the Far East during the first years of the last century where he discovered the poetry of Li Po. This poem is based on Li Po's biography and on a free Spanish translation of his "Drinking alone with the moon" famous work.

"Li Po" is unique in Mexican literature for it depicts the story by drawing beautiful calligrammes with the words. The first time I saw this poem I was immediately captured by its visual presentation, but when I discovered that this nice set of calligrammes hided an even more exquisite poetry, I surrendered my self to Tablada. I recognized the power of combining the eye with the ear, semantics with phonetics, east and west, and I knew I had to compose a work based on this poem.

First, I recorded me reading the poem, once and again, until satisfied with my own interpretation. I then transcribed this recording into a musical score, writing down the notes, the rhythms and the phonetics. I also recorded each phoneme of the poem separately, and by means of a spectral analyzer, obtained the series of partial notes that constitute their acoustic spectra. Secondly, I prepared the electronic part of the work by using the separate phonemes as well as the recording of my reading. Finally, using the poem as structural basis, I composed the ensemble parts using the transcription of my reading and the analyzed spectra as raw musical material.