Hacia el umbral del aire

program note

“Hacia el umbral del aire” (towards the threshold of the air, composed in 2005), for accordion and electroacoustic device, is a work that I composed as a preparatory study to "El Suspiro del Ángel", for 3 instrumental groups and electroacoustic system, which was commissioned by the Nouvel Ensemble Moderne that same year. The initial gestural idea comes from a dream I made in a previous period, at a time when I could not find an idea that would convince me to start another work that has a direct relationship with those already mentioned; that piece is "Luz", for accordion and string Quartet. According to what I remember of that dream, I was in a room that, due to its lighting in "chiaroscuro" and fantastic shapes, resembled Rembrandt's painting "The Philosopher in Meditation". In the middle of this room it was lying an angel that slept peacefully; while I watched him I noticed that his breathing became sighs and these in turn, through a constant and incredible transformation, became music ...
This idea comes together for the first time in the IV movement of "Luz" and also, in a different way, in “Hacia el umbral del aire” and “El suspiro del ángel”. In all cases the instrumental behavior manifests mimetically, that is to say that both the instrumental and the electronic part adopt gestures that suggest the idea of transforming a non-human breathing; these are combined with sound objects of concrete origin and with transformed vocal sounds from fragments of the V book of Madrigals by Monteverdi. 

Javier Torres Maldonado