“Antillas” for Chamber Orchestra is a work consisting of two movements: “Alborada antillana” and “Nocturno antillano”. The piece is a reflective soundscape on the diversity and magic of the archipelago of islands in the Caribbean known as the Antilles. The rich, colorful and mysterious musical energy is depicted through out these two movements. The first at daybreak and the second at night.

     The fusion of the distinct musical elements is recognized through the evolving musical discourse eventually connecting to its essential roots. The polyphony of timbres, rhythms and hoquet at the same time calm and restless, manifests the natural habitat that gives birth to this sound world.

Antillas

Rumbeando en la Melangolla

A cantata exploring the Latin urban experience. The text is trilingual (Spanish, English and Spanglish).

Musica de Ciudad

Solo flute piece with some extended instrumental techniques. Including "beat box" and harmonic tones.

Brisa Urbana

Bomba is an Afro Puerto Rican dance form and ritual.

Bombazo - Dancing in the heat of Ogun

Trio Concertante en 3 Realidades - 2nd mov. - Idylio Tropical

Trio Concertante en 3 Realidades - 3rd mov. - Musica Doméstica

"Una Visión Humilde" (Toccata for Organ) was written at the request of the American organist Michael Burke in 1985. It was then revised in 2023.
It is a compact work, of strength, which is intensified by the use of metric modulation technique. The fourteen sections or episodes, although ephemeral, are polarized into a simple, quasi-liturgical theme that is transformed in terms of meter, tempo, rhythms, registers and mood.
This metamorphosis of the sound material contributes to the desired spontaneous and improvisatory character. Unity is achieved by the continuity of both rhythmic and melodic sound motifs.
The organ, the instrument itself, is used to provide a metaphor of symbolic, i.e., ecclesiastical transcendence as well as a certain mysticism


Una Visión Humilde

“Rapid Transit Overture” is a high-energy orchestral work that captures the pulse, rhythm and controlled chaos of urban life in motion.

Inspired by the daily drama of mass transit systems – subways, buses and trains – the piece weaves together a sonic portrait of movement and momentum.

Throughout the piece, the orchestra shifts gears – sometimes smoothly, other times with abruptness. The overture builds toward a climatic crash ending

“Rapid Transit Overture” is a celebration of orchestrated rush hour and the shared humanity found in the everyday experience of getting here to there.


Rapid Transit Overture (para Orq. Sinfónica)

Puerto Rican composer William Ortiz was raised and educated in the United States, but his Latino identity plays a vital role in his music. Particularly, his experience as a Nuyorican in the 1970s have informed the aesthetics of his music, which transforms the sounds of the streets into art music. Unique in that respect is the use of instrumental and vocalized graffiti that are integrated in some of his works. A professor at the University of Puerto Rico at Bayamón, he has taught at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music and is Music Director of the Ateneo Puertorriqueño. 
He makes the following statement on his music: "I conceive of music as the 'vibrant beauty' of urban life; as the expressions of the cries and shouts of the street - cries and shouts that reflect the thoughts of those who are oppressed, of those who feel. It is my intent to convert the language of the street into a legitimate instrument".

New tracks tagged #Contemporary New Music