Iterating Absences: Composition Portfolio

The works that form this portfolio share some common premises fundamental for the style and interest of the composer. All the works are based on algorithmic and serial strategies that provide unifying and underlying structures. The works nourish from the notions of harmonic rhythm (Cowell), trigger impulse (Ferneyhough), time-point, time-span and convergence point (Nancarrow), hence, the present works discursive strategies are bound to the logic of time-oriented music. These concepts provide a sense of coherence as the music ideas coincide and diverge in time; otherwise the chosen music material (pitch, timbre, articulation) tends towards heterogeneity.

The rigid serial and algorithmic structures are filtered through a more intuitive manipulation of sound material that could be understood as kariotic drawing extensively from live coding practices. Many decisions on timbre, articulation, gesture, pitch and dynamics are the outcome of the present decision-making of the composer as he reacts to its current environment, state of mind, interests, etc. Agency in the composition process becomes fundamental as the ability to change directions and transform ideas is clear and explicit in the scores. In this sense, the scores seem disarticulated, out of phase and non-causal.

Different strata are formed and are autonomous and distinguishable among them as they present different trajectories, function and weight. Simultaneously, the sense of discursive linearity is challenged by non-relational sections that suggest that i) such lack of linearity reveals a virtual form of temporality which enables listeners to unfold their attention into different planes, enabling the listener with a sense of simultaneity between the actual sound and the virtual aspects of the work. Thus, a way of listening parallel phenomena is proposed in the present music pieces. ii) The non-causal concatenation of ideas instead of suggesting a unified discourse may present an exploration of a topological rhythmic field. Such rhythmic space may affect the way we apprehend time; the proposition is to perceive it in a ‘spatialised’ manner. This means to conceptualise time in a way reminiscent of space.

Alejandro Franco Briones

2nd of June, 2017

Mexico City