questions & Aphorisms

During the summer of 2019 I used to write a lot.

One day the words ran out, I don't know for what reason, nor if it was definitively, but the words were no longer with me. Instead, the thoughts were recurring, with their images loaded with meanings, strange and obsessive messages that I did not know how to decipher, sensations that I hardly recognized. I started to compose small pieces, small musical phrases that, at least for me, took the place of the words, without replacing them, just waiting for them to reintegrate into my daily thoughts. Many times they were just questions. Other answers, little meaningless sentences. Other times just a word.

Some of us will interpret all these little compositions together to share the parenthesis of my thoughts. A life that is in constant composition, in pieces, although from time to time, some of them are lost or stray.

In a broad sense all the pieces in this series maintains its simple, contained, concise modal character, linked in many cases to traditional melody.

This series of compositions is titled: Questions & Aphorisms

Questions & AphorismS #18 (JANUARY, 2021)

for Piano, Vibraphone & Drum Set

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 18 (Enero, 2021)

para piano, vibráfono y batería

Duration 2’ 38”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #18

Is nostalgia the hidden memory of losers? The penance of defeat? Or is it the necessary food of hope?

The memory is full of forgetfulness. But nostalgia remains in us, that mixture of melancholy and memories. She takes us back to early childhood, to the moments of calm and quiet of music or a pleasant reading; to walks without destination and close conversations, to hugs, kisses - even to the glances, slight, elusive-

Nostalgia placed us at the foot of Purgatory also those of us who lost our gods, and clings, abdicators, to our walls of pain.

Sorley wrote, "It's easy to be dead."

It is difficult to live

(Charles Sorley, Scotland, 1895 -1915)

Questions & AphorismS #17 ‘The LITTLE VIRTUES’ (MAY, 2020)

for Piano, Viola, Violoncello, Vibraphone, Percussion & Drum Set

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 17 ‘The Little Virtues’ (Mayo, 2020)

para piano, viola, violonchelo, vibráfono, percusión y batería

Duration 8’ 01”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #17 ‘The Little Virtues’

«As far as the education of children is concerned, I think they should be taught not the little virtues but the great ones. Not thrift but generosity and an indifference to money; not caution but courage and a contempt for danger; not shrewdness but frankness and a love of truth; not tact but a love of one’s neighbor and self-denial; not a desire for success but a desire to be and to know.»

[Natalia Ginzburg, The Little Virtues ]

You can also hear a small tribute to Igor Stranvisnky.

Questions & AphorismS #16 ‘Impermanence’ (SEPTEMBER, 2020)

for Piano, Viola, Violoncello, Vibraphone & electronics

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 16 ‘Impernanencia’ (Septiembre, 2020)

para piano, viola, violonchelo, vibráfono y electrónica

Duration 1’ 38”

About fragility and impermanence there is not much to say, or rather everything can be said. Life is made up of randomly arisen fragments, some rhythmic, others unconnected, some slow, denser, more or less ethereal that, finally, combine in a magical and unexpected whole.

A melody (a fact, an image, even an appearance) emerges as a constituent part of the event. Nothing to do, nothing to say. In this musical fragment, without metaphorical links, the instruments are located in a vertical time line but each instrument maintains its expressive and functional autonomy, its own being. Still, despite its apparent desynchrony, everything is situated in its precise place, without pretensions or preconceived forms, it is the voice of chance that flows in the river of life.

Nothing is exempt from a subtle melancholy.

Questions & AphorismS #15 (APRIL, 2020)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 15 (Abril, 2020)

para piano

Duration 4’ 30”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #15 ‘Parenthesis’

Suddenly we are all in a parenthesis. But it is not a lack of movement, nor silence, nor the stop of time. Everything changes, everything is heard, everything continues, despite the parenthesis. Only time, here and now, is judge and measure. Perhaps the many parentheses of life are part of our way of being in the world.

[This composition was added to the homonymous short film, a Time-lapse series, filmed by producer Javier Díez with images of the sky at his confinement place in La Eliana, Valencia, Spain, during the March and April 2020 quarantine.]

Questions & AphorismS #14 ‘Cantus for…’ (January, 2020)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 14 ‘Cantus for…’ (Enero, 2020)

para piano

Duration 3’ 07”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #14 ‘Cantus for…’

This Cantus, this song, is a lament, a calm and slow musical sentence that replaces words when they no longer make sense. It takes its title from a personal Cantus Firmus, a form of musical discourse that is the structural base of this short piece. It is part of the series 'Questions and Aphorisms', a short piece book that I started to compose in 2019 and that still continues today. Like all the pieces in this series, it maintains its simple, contained, concise modal character, linked in many cases to traditional melody.

Questions & AphorismS #13 (December, 2019)

for Electric Piano, Violin, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass, Vibraphone & Drum Set

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 13 (Diciembre, 2019)

para piano eléctrico, violín, viola, violonchelo, contrabajo, vibráfono y batería

Duration 1’ 21”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #13

Dedicated to my father.

Questions & AphorismS #12 ‘Night blurry’(December, 2019)

for Electric Piano, Violin, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass, Vibraphone & Drum Set

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 12 ‘Noche confusa’ (2019)

para piano eléctrico, violín, viola, violonchelo, contrabajo, vibráfono y batería

Duration 2’ 30”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #12

This work maintains a calm rhythm, a distant presence, where the vibraphone is presented as the closest instrument to the listener, almost welcoming, warm, but still unattainable. What to do? What to say? What to desire ? This little piece tries to suggest one of the most characteristic forms of melancholy: confusion. We do not recognize the way.

Questions & AphorismS #11 (October, 2019)

for Electric Piano, Violin, Viola, Violoncello, Double Bass, Vibraphone & Drum Set

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 11 (Octubre, 2019)

para piano eléctrico, violín, viola, violonchelo, contrabajo, vibráfono y batería

Duration 2’ 30”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #11

What is the real presence of a cloud? Where do the things that disappear go? Where are the soul? And the hope? Is it just waiting time? Nothing can be explained with words, not even with music. Perhaps, and only this time, only with silence. But tell me: how can silence be understood?

Questions & AphorismS #10 (August, 2019)

for String Orchestra

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 10 (Agosto, 2019)

para orquesta de cuerda

Duration 2’ 21”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #10

Many times heading towards the conventional means assuming failure. Other times it means accepting the way. a form of victory. Other times it doesn't mean anything. Not a beginning, not an end.

Questions & AphorismS #9 (August, 2019)

for Violin, Viola, Violoncello and Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 9 (Agosto, 2019)

para violín, viola, violonchelo y piano

Duration 1’ 09”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #9

It all starts when you perceive the absence. An unmade bed. An empty drawer. The silence of time.

Questions & AphorismS #8 (August, 2019)

for String Quartet

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 8 (Agosto, 2019)

para cuarteto de cuerda

Duration 2’ 19”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #8

Maybe we don't take care of ourselves enough.

Questions & AphorismS #7 (August, 2019)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 7 (Agosto, 2019)

para piano

Duration 1’ 05”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #7

Is madness a state or a desire? Does the madman know more about being old than about being crazy? Was it worth pretending to be sane?

Questions & Aphorisms #6 (August, 2019)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 6 (Agosto, 2019)

para piano

Duration 1’ 36”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #6

We need to put a map in our life that tells us where our rivers are born and die, where our highest mountains are, the most populated cities, or more elementary things like: where is the north and the south ?, or where is it hot or cold? As simple as that. And also to include a map of the seas and oceans, to find the exact place where our bodies were locked in the tangled sargassum of the day to day.

Questions & Aphorisms #5 (August, 2019)

for Harmonium

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 5 (Agosto, 2019)

para armónium

Duration 1’ 36”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #5

Take decisions it seems to be courageous but often it's just cowardice, fear or despair. Who knows if we should not have let time weave a net to cushion the weight of our pain, our doubt, or, most likely, our forgetfulness.

Questions & Aphorisms #4 (July, 2019)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 4 (Julio, 2019)

para piano

Duration 1’ 02”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #4

Could it be that in the confusion of the night and the perjury of the dawn we do not perceive the dictatorship of the evidences? Any detail would have helped us.

Questions & Aphorisms #3 (July, 2019)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 3 (Julio, 2019)

para piano

Duration 28”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #3

That life was serious ... Gil de Biedma already said it; that it was also a game I have also discovered, and, as in all games, you can win or lose. I bet on being. I am waiting for the result.

Dedicated to György Kurtág

Questions & Aphorisms #2 (July, 2019)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 2 (Julio, 2019)

para piano

Duration 28”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #2

The most difficult thing is not knowing who I really am, but deciding who I am of all those who I say I am.

Questions & Aphorisms #1 (July, 2019)

for Piano

Preguntas y Aforismos Nº 1 (Julio, 2019)

para piano

Duration 48”

Notes on Questions & Aphorisms #1

Was it worth getting so close to loneliness?