Name: Hasta que no pueda (2023) by Christian Quinones
Duration: 7 min 47 s
Description: Written for Alarm Will Sound, amplified sinfonietta and live keyboard sampler for the electronics.

yo when they said ee-WAH-bwananananana-eeWAH-dookdookdookdookdookdook-rrg-ee-bwanananana-ee-WAH-drrrrr i felt that lol such a good piece

Mvt 1, 'Ice', of Martin Smolka's cycle 'All is ceiled' (2022) for soprano and double bass (Florentin Ginot). Performed at Sankt Peter, Köln, for Acht Brücken Festival, 4 May 2022; recorded by WDR.

All is ceiled

MARTIN SMOLKA All is ceiled mvt 1. Ice

𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔥𝔞𝔳𝔢 𝔞 𝔫𝔢𝔴 𝔥𝔶𝔭𝔢𝔯-𝔪𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔶 is about hyperreality manifest in the form of digital memory, and the ways in which memory is distributed, transformed, and modified through virtual space. It seeks to imagine the sounds of a cybernetically mutated digital fragment of the past that has taken on a ghost-like life of its own. ‘I’ll Never Smile Again’ (1940) by Ruth Lowe is a song about memory itself. It functions in this piece as a sort of metaphor for the way the past shapeshifts through different electronic media and is deconstructed, decontextualized and distributed through virtual spheres.

Ilana Waniuk - violin
Michael Jones - percussions
Robbie Bui - cello 
Matthew Henson - double bass 
Nikolas Vudu - mastering engineer

𝔥𝔶𝔭𝔢𝔯-𝔪𝔢𝔪𝔬𝔯𝔶 for amplified ensemble and electronics

Written for Alarm Will Sound, amplified sinfonietta and live keyboard sampler for the electronics.

Hasta que no pueda (2023)

The Power You Hold (solo cello)

Commissioned as the winner of the 2022 Barlow Prize, for the youth symphonies of Atlanta, New York, Seattle, and Guangzhou

Completed December 21, 2023

Premiered March 17, 2024 at Benaroya Hall by Juan Felipe Molano (cond.) and the Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra

Humans have a fascinating tendency to search for meaning or patterns in places where there might not be any. Be them faces in the clouds (pareidolia), coincidental events aligning with birthdays (synchronicity), or backward messages hidden in metal albums (patternicity), such moments of projected meaning have entered into the stuff of legend. This kind of magical thinking is well studied in psychology, anthropology, and beyond, perhaps because of the myriad truths it reveals about us as a species.

To me, pareidolia - finding meaning in nebulous stimuli - speaks to a natural desire for communication. There is a genuine thrill in believing one has deciphered an encoded message, especially when the implied author seems to have coyly concealed their words. From the quotidian (the chocolate chips in my muffin look like my cat, Whiskers) to the silly (someone embedded Donkey Kong in this AI-generated landscape) to the grandiose (the stars have arranged themselves into the face of God), receiving these supposed messages can make one feel special - like they’ve discovered a secret language. 

Pareidolia and Other Habits is a piece about finding meaning in the smallest of gestures. The work is built out of small, simple ideas that ripple and reverberate across the orchestra, echoing to and fro between instrumental sections. Individual string harmonics prefigure a vibraphone tune; dust-like, particulate sounds gather into ferocious tuttis; melodic motifs stretch and compress capriciously, notes dropping in and out at will. As vivid and dramatic as the music is, though, the piece was written without any program or image in mind. Just as we might see faces in rock formations, we try (and often are able) to derive story, emotion, and meaning from purely instrumental, abstract music. This piece, ultimately, is a celebration of that.

Pareidolia and Other Habits, for symphony orchestra

Performance by Albert Steinberger.

Note: The world of classical music is a lot like a video game. When first learning music, you start at level one. As the music becomes more and more challenging, you eventually level up. Winning a competition or an audition is akin to conquering a final level boss. In the virtual world of video games, losing often means losing a life. The stakes of performance are different, but the feeling of loss is equally disappointing. Such disappointments, however, serve as motivation for further improvement. In pairing violin virtuosity with video game violence, Videogame Vespers examines the ambition we have as artists, demands of performance, the pain of failure, and the fleeting pleasure of achievement.

Videogame Vespers – for violin & tape

Premiered by Gallicantus on February 29th, 2024 in Princeton, NJ. Photo by Bolton Howes.


TEXT

Ad mortem sic vita fluit, velut ad mare flumen.
Vivere nam res est dulcis, amara mori. 

— John Owen (1564–1622)


Translation: 

So life flows to death, as a river to the sea.
For to live is a sweet thing, to die is bitter

PROGRAM NOTE

The text of this piece, a latin epigram by the Welsh poet John Owen, touches on the inherent melancholy bound up in the human experience. My setting is an attempt to evoke certain facets of this melancholy, such as the unsettling feeling of time slipping away.

Sic vita fluit (2024) for five voices [ATTBB]

i don't know whether to believe you or not

give them your hand

Impulse ii - Copland House

The seemingly unconnected nature of words mingling with instrumental sounds lend themselves to an air of pretentious flourishes of superficiality, whose echoes of veracity and untruth reverberate in equal measure. Our realities and perceptions shaped by the expectations of what may be expressed, a palimpsest of all our cumulative experiences makes us question, anticipate, and judge the message or the art of the poet, their intention. Funnily enough in this absurd notion of how or what should the work of the composer be with the text, in all its tedium and criticism, they deftly try to fuse their and the poet’s figure in a bizarre pentimento to make every inquisitive notion both suggested and negated. To share their words and the poet’s music. Accepted and denied. North and south. Up and down.

Nada, poem by Julia de Burgos

Premiered at Elebash Hall, Graduate Center CUNY by:
Christopher Herbert
Josh Modney
Yezu Woo
Martine Thomas
Mariel Roberts

II. Nada, from reflejo cristalino, onírico, pétreo

time is an impatient thing (2018) for Alto Flute, Viola, and Harp

Composer from Puerto Rico who enjoys rhythmic music, sparkly textures, and dem-bow.

www.christianquinonesmusic.com

Hasta que no pueda (2023)

Christian Quinones

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