Estudio 5 (2017)

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The number 5 in the title of this rhythmic study does not represent an index that denotes other four previous similar pieces, it describes a relevant structural aspect of the work. The main structural device of the present work is a recursion process found in the metric values in which a a measure of 7/8 is repeated three times as a first state, in the second iteration the numerator diminishes one unit as the number of bars augments by one as well: 6/8 x4, etc. The recursion process is repeated five times, until it becomes the exact opposite of the first idea: 3/8 x 7. A mirror image is juxtaposed to the aforementioned one starting with an explicit attack every three quavers seven times with the inverse recursive process (next state would be 6 quavers repeated 4 times, etc). A broad interest of the work relies on the tension between these two metric ideas that create four different poly-metric textures plus an unanimity (or convergence) in the 5/8 measure in which a free use of rhythm is often proposed.

The macro-form of the work is defined by three proportional temporal modulations. A quintuplet in the first section (with a tempo of 90 bpm per crotchet) reveals the temporal proportions of the next section in which the value of the crotchet becomes 113 bpm. A second temporal modulation occurs in the same way; from this point forward the number of bars per measure bar are doubled (instead of 7: 14, etc). At the coda, the crotchet-as-quintuplets marks a final modulation to a proportion very close to the starting 90 bpms: 88 bpms. The metric material of the coda is simultaneously the next and previous state in the metric iteration process as it denotes a 2/8 x 8 or it may as well be 8/8 x2.

The macro-form in this study depends in the micro-formal; form becomes circular by linear processes of iteration and recursion. A repetition that enables differenc. The texture that emerges from the tension between the juxtaposed rhythmic and metric processes is rich and intuitive; It successfully keeps the structural level of the work suggested rather than evident. A topological music that spatialises time is produced in which form relies on substance.

[This work has never being performed publicly or otherwise :( ]