2002 — percussion and electroacoustic sounds
maldita luna was commissioned by the percussionist Ricardo Gómez, to whom it is dedicated. The only guideline was to compose a mixed piece for a solo percussionist with electroacoustics, without defining the instrumentation. I decided to score the piece for metal instruments of the so-called ‘keyboards’: a vibraphone as the main instrument, extended by a glockenspiel and six crotales.
A single symmetrical nine-note scale is used throughout the piece, from which a limited set of chord typologies are extracted. These, in turn, are grouped into two families that are used in both halves of the piece. In this way, well-defined harmonic fields are established, but without any tonalizing tendency. Rhythmically, it is organized in hierarchical metrical structures of several self-similar levels, in the manner of tonal metrical structures. Unlike the latter, however, the levels have irregular durations and follow the numbers of the Fibonacci series. At higher levels, the same structure defines the formal structure of the piece, with its various sections and subsections.
The same kind of material would be further developed in the 2006 piece 23 [mirando al este]
for three solo percussionists and orchestra.
The electroacoustic part consists exclusively of synthetic sounds generated by a FOF granular technique, using only a Csound orchestra, without any editing or post-processing. Its function is to create a resonant halo that surrounds and expands the natural sonority of the instruments.
The commission was made possible thanks to the financial support of the Fondo Nacional de la Música (FONAM).
Premiere: 2003-11-10, Auditorium Hall, Quilmes National University, Buenos Aires Province, Argentina. Ricardo Gómez, percussion.