About mirrors (Analysis)

Composer´s Review:
Metaphorically speaking, mirrors are related to alternative realities and times. In the composer’s view, these unreal scenarios can be contradictory, behaving and developing independently, but also can coexist in the void. In this piece, different kinds of textures live together within multiple temporalities. Despite their differences of sound and time behavior, these multicolored textures can be listened to as a whole mass of sound, almost like a sound watercolor.
About the Composer:
ames Diaz is one of Colombia's most promising composers, currently pursuing a Ph.D. in composition at the University of Pennsylvania as a Benjamin Franklin fellow. James is currently working on his studio album “[speaking in a foreign language]” with violinist Julia Suh, as well as on a new orchestra work to be premiered by the New York Philharmonic and Juilliard at the Lincoln Center in 2023.
see his biography:
www.jamesdiaz....
About mirrors:
This piece has been built in the superimposition of textures, different temporalities, sound masses. The composer chose fragments of two
string quartets that he himself wrote as original material:
Journey 2 (Dynamics of a meteorite)
Link: soundcloud.com...
Pdf: drive.google.c...
Infrastructures I/II mov.
Link I mov.: soundcloud.com...
Link II mov.: soundcloud.com...
Pdf: drive.google.c...
The first version has been written for full orchestra:
Link: • Mirrors in the Void fo...
The work was well received, the composer then made a version for ensemble of 13 instruments, reducing to the unity each of the instruments, without the participation of the brass winds.
Technical Aspects:
Texture: Superposition of materials, sound mass, pandiatonicism.
Harmonic: Diatonic clusters, variation by orchestration, harmonic connections by timbre approach and common notes.
Counterpoint: Micropolyphony, heterophony, poly-temporality (poly-rhythmic, poly-tempo)
Time, Rhythm: Coexistence between static and dynamic writing, poly-temporalities, alterations of tempo ad libitum, all in the same verticality.
Key words:
Micropolyphony, Heterophony, Sound mass, poly-temporality, pandiatonicism.
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Following as an example the sound processes of composers like G. Ligeti in which he focused his interest in musical discourse based on pure sound and its slow transformation into another sound mass (elements such as individual concrete heights, harmonic contrasts, evident rhythms pass to the background) looking for non-brisk transitions between sections, rather gradual and elaborate transitions.
The sound surface of the "chaos" achieved by the coexistence in a single timeline of different rhythmic and temporal values, in order to achieve a static sound, will be the guiding thread of the whole piece, which is characterized by continuous gradual changes of textures.
The listener receives multiple sound information, which do not necessarily have to be individualized to understand the piece, but rather and doing the parallel in impressionist art where the small and fast brushstrokes lose their individualism, the information must be observed from a certain distance as a whole.
References:
n 1. Diaz, J. conversations with the composer. 2017-2018
pdf Score: drive.google.c...
n 2. Douglas, C. “Auditory scene Analysis and the perception of sound mass in Ligeti´s Continuum”, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.
pdf: drive.google.c...
n 3. Encyclopædia Britannica.
link: www.britannica...
n 4. Latham, A. Diccionario Enciclopédico de la Música, Fondo de cultura Económica (Mexico). 2010
n 5. Martin, J. “György Ligeti - Atmospheres”.
link: www.tallersonor...
n 6. Okonsar, M. Micropolyphony “Motivations and Justifications Behind a Concept Introduced by George Ligeti”
pdf: drive.google.c...
n 7. Slonimsky, N. “Music Since 1900”. 1937.
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Conservatorio della Svizzera Italiana
Mateo Sepúlveda Ríos
Master of Arts in Music Performance
Ensemble conducting (contemporary repertoire)
2018