MIGUEL FARÍAS Up and down Laurent Bruttin Ensemble Contrechamps . Michael Wendeberg Ensemble Zero PHACE . Simeon Pironkoff Ensemble Vortex 1999 20 YEARS 2019 © Max Sotomayor MIGUEL FARÍAS (*1983) 1 Up & down: Lecturas Críticas (2016) 22:56 for bass / contrabass clarinet and ensemble 2 Estelas (2010) 11:59 for clarinet, percussion, piano and violoncello 3 CBR (2013) 12:01 for flute, percussion, piano and violoncello 4 Palettes (2013) 09:03 for baritone sax, percussion, piano and violoncello 5 Une voix liquide (2018) 13:28 for ensemble and electronics TT 69:38 3 1 Laurent Bruttin, clarinet 4 PHACE: Ensemble Contrechamps Lars Mlekusch, saxophone Michael Wendeberg, conductor Mathilde Hoursiangou, piano Berndt Thurner, percussion 2 Ensemble Contrechamps: Roland Schueler, cello Laurent Bruttin, clarinet Simeon Pironkoff, conductor François Volpé, percussion Benjamin Kopp, piano 5 Ensemble Vortex: Oliviert Marron, violoncello Anne Gillot, bass clarinet Max Dazas, percussion 3 Ensemble Zero: Jocelyne Rudasiwa, cembalo Guillermo Lavado, flute Mauricio Carrasco, guitar Luis Alberto Latorre, piano Hannah Walter, violin Gerardo Salazar, percussion Benoît Morel, viola Celso López, violoncello Aurélien Ferrete, cello Arturo Corrales, electronics 4 28 32 7 121 respirations ad libitum 137 œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ 8 Fl. ° Fl. ° & bw ˙ ˙ bw & ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ p mp f f f mp Htb. œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & ∑ ∑ ∑ Htb. & œ #œ œ œ ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ œ #œ œ œ f f f mp œ #œ œ œ œ #œ œ œ Bson. ? ∑ ∑ ∑ Bson. ? ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ ¢ ¢ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ mp f f f Sourdine Wah ¯ Tptte. ° Tptte. ° œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ & ∑ ∑ ∑ & ∑ ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ ∑ f f f Sourdine Wah ¯ Tbne. ? ∑ ∑ ∑ Tbne. ? ∑ œ #œ œ ≈ ‰ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ ‰ ∑ ¢ ¢ f f f Triangle (triang.) j Perc. I ‰ Œ Perc. I Œ / œ — Ó ∑ ∑ / œ Ó ∑ ∑ mf f — j Perc. II Œ Perc. II °{ œ ‰ Ó ° ¢/ — ∑ ∑ ¢{ / ∑ ∑ ∑ slap ord. slap ord. slap slap ord. slap ord. slap ord. slap ord. ord. ord. slap slap simile 6 3 6 slap 3 6 3 6 3 3 3 ord. ord.slap ord.slap ord.slapord. ord. sim.ord. œ œB œnœ œ œnœ œ#œ slap nœ œ#œ Cl. basse ° #œ #œ Cl. basse µ œBœnœ œ bœ ? œ#œ œ#œ œ#œ œ œ œ œ#œ œ œ#œ œ#œ œ œ#œ œ °? #œ ‰ ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ œ#œ œ ¢ œ#œ#œ 6 œ œ œ # œ œ#œ œ#œ#œ œ#œ#œ œ#œ#œ œ#œ#œ œ#œ ¢ nœnœ œ œ nœ œ >6 >6 >6 > œ >6 >6 >6 œ >6 >6 œ >6 œ >6™ œ >6 œ >6 œ 6 6 œ 6 œ 6 œ 6 œ œ 6 6 œ 6 œ 6 6 œ 6 œ œ 6 œ 6 œ œ f > > > > > ff > > > > > > > > ff ff ff mf ff mf arco œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ b ~ O O O Vln. I ° w ˙ ˙ ˙ O Vln. I ° bœ & ˙ & bœ œ œ œ ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ œ œ œ pp mp f f f mp arco b O™ Vln. II b < >w~ Vln. II O œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙ & < > BBw~ w~ & ˙ ˙O ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ ™ œO pp f f f mp arco b <b>˙O ˙O O O bb˙O Alt. < > #˙ ˙ Alt. œ œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ nœ œ B B œ œ ≈ ‰ ‰ ‰ œ œ mp pp f f f mp arco Vc. ? µw w w Vc. ? ∑ œ #œ œ ≈ ‰ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ ‰ ∑ pp f f f arco Cb. ? ∑ ∑ ∑ Cb. ? ∑ œ #œ œ ≈ ‰ œ œ œ œ ‰ œ œ ‰ ∑ ¢ ¢ f f f 5 tal pieces for ensemble, from Estelas (2010, written for the Ensemble Con- trechamps) to Une voix liquide from 2018, for the Ensemble Vortex. I can imagine that a listener who has never heard of Miguel Farías, might be confounded by the names of the piec- es and performers: is he a French or a Chilean composer? I would argue that, like many Chileans working in contemporary music, Farías is trying to find a place as a cosmopolitan fig- ure. Born in Venezuela, he studied in France and Switzerland, and his music The rise of experimental and new mu- has been premiered and has received sic in Chile is a relatively recent phe- several awards in both those and ma- nomenon. Since the end of Pinochet’s ny other European countries. What dictatorship there has been an explo- sets Farías aside, both in Chilean and sion of names, festivals, works and global terms, is the consciousness he opportunities. Indeed, one could say brings to that borderline position, of that the Chilean contemporary music the difficult place his music (written in scene today is a lively one, with im- the academic Western written tradi- portant international connections. Few tion) has in a global world. Traditional- voices are more representative of the ly, for most Latin American composers success of that scene than the one of concerned with the place of their mu- Miguel Farías, particularly during this sic and their role inside that tradition, last decade. The recordings for this the solution has been the inclusion album, in fact, all come from this same and transformation of local elements decade, which saw some of Miguel’s into a language that could be read as most important successes, like his op- cosmopolitan. While Farías does this eras Renca, París y Liendres (2012) sometimes – subtly, as I will comment and El Cristo de Elqui (2018). However, below –, most of the time he goes be- this is an album of mostly instrumen- yond and besides that approach. 6 The disc opens with Up & Down, writ- the background, the music of Farías – pieces that are more abstract in na- ten for the Ensemble Contrechamps of which he becomes part –, being the ture, like Palettes or Estelas. In Pal- in 2016, and one of the most substan- relevant discourse. ettes, the process of sonic and musi- tial works he has yet composed, both cal exploration is very explicit, which in musical as in philosophical terms. In Farías, in his music, seems always in might be related to the origins of the the piece, Farías confronts the notion the search for a position, confront- piece. It was inspired by the photo- set by Theodor Adorno of music as a ing the listener too with that posi- graphic work of James Welling, and hierarchical construction in which cer- tion. His usual stance, at least in the feeling of confusion it provokes on tain musics (the European classical these pieces, is often one of appro- the viewer, who cannot discern what tradition) are above others (the pop- priation, but from a position that is is being portrayed. The same hap- ular music industry). That perspective, antithetical to the exotic appropri- pens with the music: the usual har- which has influenced ideas like “cul- ation that European music has do- monic blocks that appear in several tural industry” and “mass music”, as ne of Latin America. The soundscape works by Farías, occur here in a way well as approaches to popular music of the music is often fragmentary, that impedes the listener from con- and the media, is profoundly problem- were melodic and harmonic gestures necting with them in any emotional or atic when read from a Latin American are no more than that – gestures –, concrete way. Farías talks about “har- perspective, where those distinctions embroided in the complex universe of monic gradients”, a concept that con- and frontiers are often blurred. Farías, sounds presented to the listener and veys the problem of the piece visually, who is at the time of the publication of performers. He doesn’t reject melo- but perhaps one could also talk about this recording a candidate for a PhD dy, nor tonal or modal harmony, but all undeveloped harmonies, constructed in Latin American studies, searches these familiar elements are presented from a position of musical subalterni- a way to deconstruct Adorno’s dis- as equals, part of a network of several ty. It is the listener who is asked with course from a postcolonial perspec- other elements in the music, and thus making them become whatever they tive, through music. The clarinet, as as equally complex sounds. can become, from a position of listen- a voice that is both local and cosmo- ing power. This way of working is even politan in its turns, creates an oppos- But those appropriations, as well as more evident in Estelas, the earliest ing discourse to Adorno’s own voice, the rejection of those appropriations, piece on the disc. Here the problems presenting the listener with the lim- are not solely intellectual. The music are mostly vertical, rather than hori- its for an idea of “background” music. of Farías is often theatrical, in the best zontal, but the approach is very simi- In fact, particularly in the second half sense: full of turns and twists that cre- lar: there is a certain tension present- of the piece when the radio becomes ate a narrative tension, construct from ed to the listener, where objects are a more pervasive reference, one the central elements and topics of the never resolved in ways that defy the could ask if Adorno has not become piece. This is most evident in those cultural expectations. The music is 7 traced in blocks, but those blocks are not as forced exercises in communica- is only the suggestion of a story or of not determined by harmony here (as tion. Again, and considering that sev- certain emotions, rather than the pro- in Palettes), but rather as resonances eral of these pieces are meant for Eu- jected emotions themselves or the from two tone axis: the notes B and C.