Work for string quartet and orchestra recorded by the White Quartet and the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, conducted by Jose Areán.

1 De mis días en el Campo

2 Otoño Pentagonal

3 Puntos en Eje

4 Un primer hola para un último adiós

5 Memorias Futuras

Una pieza con poesía de Luis Felipe Fabre y mi propia re-interpretación de una petenera, con la voz de Mariana Gaber

Petenera

During my days as a youngster I did quite a lot of travelling around Mexico by asking for rides at motorway entrances. On a certain occasion, I was given a ride on a large timber-carring truck across the mountain ridge which lies between Puebla and Veracruz. After settling down on my seat and a little later having exhausted the expected small talk, the truck driver immersed in great detail into his lifelong predilection for Mambo music ( which of course, we heard incessantly on the radio). It was very late at night and I was very tired, so I spent a strange night trying not to fall asleep, yet waking up between wild dreams invaded by the sounds of engine acceleration and the air brakes of the enormous machine, the blaring radio and the over enthusiastic conversation of the driver...

It is on the basis of that trip that I drew the psychological frame for Mambo Vinko. The piece is a sort of construction, or rather a deconstruction of this experience, organised as personal "road movie", complete with quotes from the different sonic characters who inhabited my dreams, including the unmistakable grunts of the 50's great king of mambo music, Dámaso Perez Prado. 

The work was composed for Vinko Globokar on a commission from the Groupe de Récherches Musicales in Paris in 1993. Vinko gave the première in Radio France on May 1993 to a fully awake audience.

Mambo Vinko

Te Espera Esa Chispa
SATB choir and instrumental ensemble

Te Espera esa Chispa  takes its name from the opening line of a poem by Mexican poet  José Carlos Becerra. The work of this great poet has always been an inspiration for me - already by 1965, as an aspiring music student I was reading his poems. Later on, when I had the chance to write a large piece for choir, this became one of my chosen favourites. As anyone who has set words to music will know, a poem invariable tends to dictate the dramatic direction of the music. This work is no exception; in Te Espera esa Chispa I have tried to relay the state of mind of the poet as he muses on the transition between life and death, light and darkness, fear and peace.

Te Espera esa Chispa is scored for SATB chamber choir, 2 horns, 2 trombones, percussion, piano and double bass and lasts for about 10 minutes. It was premiered in Milwaukee  in 1982 as part of a concert featuring my work.


Poem by Jose Carlos Becerra (1936-1976)

[cortocircuito]

te espera esa chispa,
ese alhambre que de pronto se arquea,
el enchufe de Dios con los muertos, 
el enchufe de tu caricia
con el cuerpo que no aparece

te espera ese chispazo, la azulosa maniobra
del apetito arañado por la Madre del Cordero,
esa parte del fuego que sirve
para cubrir y defender a los muertos

y después, la Plaza de Chirico negociada
por una obscuridad de bolsillo



[shortcircuit]

this spark awaits you
a cable that suddenly arches
the connection of God with the dead
the connection of your caresse
with the body which doesn't appear

this sparking awaits you, the blueish manouvre
of the grinding appetite of the Mother of the Lamb,
that part of fire used
to cover and defend the dead

afterwards, the Plaza de Chirico is negotiated
for a pocketfull of darkness


Te Espera Esa Chispa

A commission from Radio France for percussionist Florent Jodelet and the Orchestre National de France. Five movements, each representing a garden, make up a suite that explores the sounds of a battery of hand percussions in an orchestral context. The soloist performs on a set which includes cajon, steel pan, triangles, 4 berimbaus, roto-toms and güiros. The work was recorded in Paris in May 2012, conducted by maestro Didier Benneti.

Jardines con Palmera

Overture

Track featuring Banda Elástica on their CD "ai t'encargo"

Modelo para Armar

Kery Lynn Wilson conducting the venezuelan  Simon Bolivar Orchestra

Metro Chabacano

Lluvia de Toritos

 SATB and instrumental ensemble. Performed by the Milwaukee Starlight Choir conducted by Javier Alvarez

Te espera esa Chispa

In Calacas Imaginarias I chose as my sources poems ranging in era, style and intention but all concerned with death as contemplated by poets related to the Spanish speaking world: a Mexican, a Spanish and one of untraceable origin. Of these, however, only that by Teresa de Jesús (16th Century) was originally written in Spanish. The words by Nezahualcoyotl, the 15th Century Texcocan king- poet, were written in Nahuatl (the Aztec tongue) and translated into Spanish in versions by Angel Maria Garibay and Miguel León Portilla in the 40s. I also took words ( for Remover Migaja completo) from an anonymous instruction booklet belonging to an American export slice toaster. This booklet was innocuously translated from the English into a highly non-sensical yet astoundingly poetic sequence of sentences. Ironically, the strange force of these words forebodingly suggests a disturbing prospect for contemporary Spanish language, more so in the context of North American and Mexican cultures’ economic fusion.

In addition to the abstract qualities of words as pure sounds in these poems, I was fascinated by the manner in which the recurrent themes of death, absence and removal suggested landscapes and images beyond the historical. Imagine, for example, Nezahualcoyotl’ s frequent addresses to ceremonial rites, Santa Teresa’s confrontations with the Inquisition, or the multicultural solitude of an unknown translator, capable of mixing technical gibberish into eloquent poetry, a true magician of the hybrid 2 minute culture... 

In keeping in line with this approach, my choice of words and phrases departed from the narrative to illustrate character but without being literal. Mostly, however, I set the words as written but focused on their dramatic conotations to characterise the music’s direction, especially in terms of the electroacoustics. As far as the title is concerned, I made up Calacas Imaginarias (Imaginary Squeletons) by freely associating that strategy with the prevalent Mexican symbol for death, the calaca or squeleton, an icon which often accompanies poetry as a form of popular vignette.

The piece was co-commissioned by the Phoenix Arts in Leicester and the New London Chamber Choir with funds made available by East Midlands Arts in 1993. The piece is dedicated to my friend James Wood and the New London Chamber Choir. 


Calacas Imaginarias - I. Remover Migaja Completo

In Calacas Imaginarias I chose as my sources poems ranging in era, style and intention but all concerned with death as contemplated by poets related to the Spanish speaking world: a Mexican, a Spanish and one of untraceable origin. Of these, however, only that by Teresa de Jesús (16th Century) was originally written in Spanish. The words by Nezahualcoyotl, the 15th Century Texcocan king- poet, were written in Nahuatl (the Aztec tongue) and translated into Spanish in versions by Angel Maria Garibay and Miguel León Portilla in the 40s. I also took words ( for Remover Migaja completo) from an anonymous instruction booklet belonging to an American export slice toaster. This booklet was innocuously translated from the English into a highly non-sensical yet astoundingly poetic sequence of sentences. Ironically, the strange force of these words forebodingly suggests a disturbing prospect for contemporary Spanish language, more so in the context of North American and Mexican cultures’ economic fusion.

In addition to the abstract qualities of words as pure sounds in these poems, I was fascinated by the manner in which the recurrent themes of death, absence and removal suggested landscapes and images beyond the historical. Imagine, for example, Nezahualcoyotl’ s frequent addresses to ceremonial rites, Santa Teresa’s confrontations with the Inquisition, or the multicultural solitude of an unknown translator, capable of mixing technical gibberish into eloquent poetry, a true magician of the hybrid 2 minute culture... 

In keeping in line with this approach, my choice of words and phrases departed from the narrative to illustrate character but without being literal. Mostly, however, I set the words as written but focused on their dramatic conotations to characterise the music’s direction, especially in terms of the electroacoustics. As far as the title is concerned, I made up Calacas Imaginarias (Imaginary Squeletons) by freely associating that strategy with the prevalent Mexican symbol for death, the calaca or squeleton, an icon which often accompanies poetry as a form of popular vignette.

The piece was co-commissioned by the Phoenix Arts in Leicester and the New London Chamber Choir with funds made available by East Midlands Arts in 1993. The piece is dedicated to my friend James Wood and the New London Chamber Choir, who conducts this recording.


Calacas Imaginarias-II. Vivo sin vivir en mi  + III.Aqui yace la púrpura dormida

Calacas Imaginarias
for chamber choir and electroacoustic sounds (1994)


In Calacas Imaginarias I chose as my sources poems ranging in era, style and intention but all concerned with death as contemplated by poets related to the Spanish speaking world: a Mexican, a Spanish and one of untraceable origin. Of these, however, only that by Teresa de Jesús (16th Century) was originally written in Spanish. The words by Nezahualcoyotl, the 15th Century Texcocan king- poet, were written in Nahuatl (the Aztec tongue) and translated into Spanish in versions by Angel Maria Garibay and Miguel León Portilla in the 40s. I also took words ( for Remover Migaja completo) from an anonymous instruction booklet belonging to an American export slice toaster. This booklet was innocuously translated from the English into a highly non-sensical yet astoundingly poetic sequence of sentences. Ironically, the strange force of these words forebodingly suggests a disturbing prospect for contemporary Spanish language, more so in the context of North American and Mexican cultures’ economic fusion.

In addition to the abstract qualities of words as pure sounds in these poems, I was fascinated by the manner in which the recurrent themes of death, absence and removal suggested landscapes and images beyond the historical. Imagine, for example, Nezahualcoyotl’ s frequent addresses to ceremonial rites, Santa Teresa’s confrontations with the Inquisition, or the multicultural solitude of an unknown translator, capable of mixing technical gibberish into eloquent poetry, a true magician of the hybrid 2 minute culture... 

In keeping in line with this approach, my choice of words and phrases departed from the narrative to illustrate character but without being literal. Mostly, however, I set the words as written but focused on their dramatic conotations to characterise the music’s direction, especially in terms of the electroacoustics. As far as the title is concerned, I made up Calacas Imaginarias (Imaginary Squeletons) by freely associating that strategy with the prevalent Mexican symbol for death, the calaca or squeleton, an icon which often accompanies poetry as a form of popular vignette.

The piece was co-commissioned by the Phoenix Arts in Leicester and the New London Chamber Choir with funds made available by East Midlands Arts in 1993. The piece is dedicated to my friend James Wood and the New London Chamber Choir, who conducts on this recording






Calacas Imaginarias - IV. Percute tu atabal

Metal de Corazones was commissioned through a collaboration between TM+ Ensemble Orchestral de musique d'aujourd'hui and Tambuco Percusiion Ensemble. This recording was made at the premiere of the piece in April 2012 in Nanterre, France.

Metal de Corazones

In the words of musicologist, Yolanda Moreno Rivas, “ Javier Alvarez (Mexico City, 1956) is probably the most interesting Mexican musician born in the 1950’s. An alert musical intelligence, sustained by the command of a plurality of techniques and an eclectic perspective has yielded a vigorous and multifaceted oeuvre with a highly original evolution. “

Composer of a large body of work, which encompasses music for the concert hall, the cinema and electroacoustics, Javier Alvarez began composition studies with Mario Lavista at the National Conservatory of Music, obtaining a Masters Degree at the University of Wisconsin with John Downey. In 1980, he continued his studies at the Royal College of Music, obtaining a Doctorate at the City University in London, in England, where he lived until 2005. In addition to his prolific creative career, which has won him ample international recognition, Alvarez boasts a 25-year long academic calling, having taught composition at the Royal College of Music and at the University of Hertfordshire. During 1989 he headed Sonic Arts Network, the society for electroacoustic music in Britain and, in 1995, he held the Artistic Directorship of the Society for the Promotion of New Music (SPNM). In addition to a 3-year residency at the Music Academy in Malmö, in Sweden, Alvarez has been visiting professor at the Paris Conservatoire and at the City University in London, becoming involved in 2004, as a founding director of the Escuela Superior de Artes Musicales de Yucatán educational project. In 2000 he was awarded the Mozart Medal and subsequently distinguished by the Sistema Nacional de Creadores  (FONCA). Since 2005, Javier Alvarez is a Member of the Mexican Academy of Arts and, in 2007, he was appointed Dean of the Conservatorio de las Rosas, position held until 2011. He currently lives in Mérida, in the Yucatan peninsula, where he is active as an independent composer. 


Javier Alvarez

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