Stages and turning points on the composer’s path

I would say that the Beatles had a great impact on me. They were the ones who first influenced me, because when I was about ten or eleven I started listening to their music obsessively. I simply loved it. Childishly, I felt that I would like to make the same kind of music. I think that’s how it all started (as far as I can tell). Afterwards, some time later, I learned to play the piano and when I was 16 started composing my own songs as well as writing some texts. But as for my transition or evolution to Classical music, it was mainly related to the influence of Cristopher Bochmann who was my composition teacher and with whom I studied at the Gregorian Institute. At that time I started to listen to a completely different kind of music. I was both interested and encouraged by this.

From very early on I was very enthusiastic about synthesizers and all the possibilities offered by computers. I had an Atari at the time and could simulate sets of instruments. As I was not someone who had been used to playing instruments from childhood (such as the violin, for example) or who was part of any instrumental ensemble, the computer was a great help. For example, it allowed me to write for four or five instruments and more or less listen to the results. At the same time, I was quite fond of electronic music, of the Vangelis type, either because of its sonorities or simply because I have always related strongly to that kind of music. I think that, at the beginning, this helped me a lot because, in fact, I could have a very good idea of how an immediate result of what I was writing would sound like (a simulation of how the music would sound) and this fascination been with me ever since.

In fact, I started using the computer for composing to emulate orchestral sounds because that helped me in my work process. And also because I was already fond of electronic music and electronic sounds – this has nothing to do with computers specifically. For example, Stockhausen, who was one of the first contemporary music composers that I really liked, had those sonorities that were completely new to me; they were different, in a different world. Therefore, for me the computer has two different roles, one is the reproduction of the sounds of the orchestra which is just a help to compose, because in my electronic music I don’t think that happens … or rather it may have happened in one of my first pieces, as in Ping-Pong Dance (1990), an almost instrumental piece and which could perhaps be played with other instruments, but which was composed at the time with sounds from synthesizers. Now with my other more recent pieces, those that I consider are composed more specifically for the computer, those already have sounds that have nothing to do with instrumental gestures. I think they are really exclusively for the electronic world.

Languages and technical / artistic options.

I believe there is an influence in my instrumental writing that comes from the fact that my interest in electronics began because of the sonorities which I like to get in relation to instrumental music even. For example, what we call “webs”, those textures that are a little undefined, like in Ligeti – there are a lot of people who say that his orchestral thinking is influenced by electronic music. I agree and in a sense it has also happened to me. On the other hand – that is, electronic music influencing instrumental writing - I’m not sure that happens as often. Electronic music is freer from traditional musical theory, including from the tempered system that still governs instrumental music. Another question has to do with the harmonic language of my pieces, which, I believe, has changed over time. When I wrote my first pieces, when I was still a student and still learning. They were not pieces with which I identified completely. I must confess that I found some of them a little artificial. Now I don’t have so much trouble finding my own orientation. And perhaps that has to do with my relationship with electronic music, although I never thought of it in those terms – it may have something to do with a certain freedom of thought or a different approach to sound. Lately I have been more interested and given more importance to simplicity. It has a little to do with minimalism. That is, as I was saying a moment ago, there was an initial process in which I got in touch with various 20^th century techniques. But one of the characteristics of contemporary music, at least until the 1960s, was the fact that it was completely atonal music, extremely irregular in terms of rhythm which, at least as far as serial music is concerned, seemed to cut completely with the past and create a new world. It is, somehow, fascinating and also quite attractive, but quite honestly I don’t feel I can identify with that trend.

Of course, there’s a lot of music I quite like and even the attitude we have to music now is only possible because that kind of music went so far, perhaps because the intention was to create something completely different and radically dissociated from tradition. And I recognise that this is a very important factor, in particular for minimalism and for the new “simplism”, these being not neo-Classical but post-modern movements. That is to say, from what was achieved by modernism, each person should be able to take what is of particular interest to him. Presently, one of the composers I most admire is Arvo Pärt. I quite like that simplicity, that does not really sound to me like a return to the past. For example, dissonance is part of this music, although it is a diatonic dissonance, not so complex as the dissonance in the music by Stockhausen or Pierre Boulez. But, for me it is a much more human music, meaning more accessible and more expressive. Even on a rhythmic level, I think that total and systematic irregularity leads nowhere. Of course, with electronic music it is a different matter, because it has no rhythm. There are people who say that electronic music is not music at all and I agree, up to a point. Perhaps it is more like a sonic landscape rather than actual music, at least in the traditional sense.

World Symphony

I think that the piece we have already mentioned, 2001:World Symphony, is a little different from the others and it was very important for me to write it, although there is at least one movement that is still a little tied to so-called “serialism” although purposefully, in that case, a movement that has to do with Europe. That symphony is, so to speak, a kind of voyage through various continents where I tell, in my way, the history of civilisation, or rather, how I see it, starting even from the pre-civilisation period, that I identify as Oceania (very subjectively, of course) and it is almost exclusively electronic, a little vaguer musically or almost a landscape, perhaps …

Africa comes next; subjectively I identify it with the war period in which man, still in an animal-like, in a savage state, can only solve his problems through violence. Right at the beginning, there is an important part for two percussions … two drums … drumming … almost everybody relates this to Africa, and already a link is created there. In terms of language, I draw on my cultural references, but I did not study anything in particular. It’s more about my impressions of that culture and what it means to me. It is a piece with a very strong rhythm, really powerful, where it is not just percussion but where all the instruments come in. Perhaps it relates to the really basic musicality that exists in all of us.

Then comes Asia that is more civilised but still a little primitive, still very connected to mysticism, religion and a peace that is not enduring – contrasting with Africa that I associate more with war – because it is not based on real evolution but on mysticism, perhaps a little fanciful (this is, of course, an allegory that I make). Here there is the sound of the sitar that I use to convey a sensation of peace with a very long sound. There is also a melody on the oboe that evokes Arab music. I invented a scale and from there I improvised a melody, together with some percussion sounds, which somehow suggest ethnic music and that kind of reference. I think that everything is more or less integrated with the rest of the language. There is a harmonic language that almost covers the whole piece and that I would classify as post-modern (although this is very vague), because it has some modernist elements.

Europe is really the more modernist tempo, so to speak. It is almost serial. For me, it has to do with the excessive rationalisation that characterised Europe in the 20th century – in particular in the Socialist and Nazi systems in which society was more important than the individual, on whom these ultra-rational regimes ideals were imposed, with the results that we all know.

Finally, there comes the last movement which represents America and which I identify with the more advanced stage of civilisation – the new continent – where there is a greater mix.

I lived in the United States for a time and that really influenced my present opinion. Naturally, once again, it is a subjective opinion and one cannot be sectarian. There are probably places in Europe where, at least in theory, things happen like in America but, in the university I went to, for example, the number of foreign students was amazing and it was a very diversified set of people who co-existed peacefully and where everybody made an effort to pronounce everyone’s name as it is pronounced in their country. Therefore, for me this piece stands for some hope and the same goes for music. The musical language in this last movement (America) is a mixture. It has parts that are quite traditional, moments that present a very regular rhythm, but at the same time there are also some more modern aspects, so nothing is rejected except what is clearly negative.

Languages and technical / artistic options.

I believe there is an influence in my instrumental writing that comes from the fact that my interest in electronics began because of the sonorities which I like to get in relation to instrumental music even. For example, what we call “webs”, those textures that are a little undefined, like in Ligeti – there are a lot of people who say that his orchestral thinking is influenced by electronic music. I agree and in a sense it has also happened to me. On the other hand – that is, electronic music influencing instrumental writing - I’m not sure that happens as often. Electronic music is freer from traditional musical theory, including from the tempered system that still governs instrumental music. Another question has to do with the harmonic language of my pieces, which, I believe, has changed over time. When I wrote my first pieces, when I was still a student and still learning. They were not pieces with which I identified completely. I must confess that I found some of them a little artificial. Now I don’t have so much trouble finding my own orientation. And perhaps that has to do with my relationship with electronic music, although I never thought of it in those terms – it may have something to do with a certain freedom of thought or a different approach to sound. Lately I have been more interested and given more importance to simplicity. It has a little to do with minimalism. That is, as I was saying a moment ago, there was an initial process in which I got in touch with various 20^th century techniques. But one of the characteristics of contemporary music, at least until the 1960s, was the fact that it was completely atonal music, extremely irregular in terms of rhythm which, at least as far as serial music is concerned, seemed to cut completely with the past and create a new world. It is, somehow, fascinating and also quite attractive, but quite honestly I don’t feel I can identify with that trend.

Of course, there’s a lot of music I quite like and even the attitude we have to music now is only possible because that kind of music went so far, perhaps because the intention was to create something completely different and radically dissociated from tradition. And I recognise that this is a very important factor, in particular for minimalism and for the new “simplism”, these being not neo-Classical but post-modern movements. That is to say, from what was achieved by modernism, each person should be able to take what is of particular interest to him. Presently, one of the composers I most admire is Arvo Pärt. I quite like that simplicity, that does not really sound to me like a return to the past. For example, dissonance is part of this music, although it is a diatonic dissonance, not so complex as the dissonance in the music by Stockhausen or Pierre Boulez. But, for me it is a much more human music, meaning more accessible and more expressive. Even on a rhythmic level, I think that total and systematic irregularity leads nowhere. Of course, with electronic music it is a different matter, because it has no rhythm. There are people who say that electronic music is not music at all and I agree, up to a point. Perhaps it is more like a sonic landscape rather than actual music, at least in the traditional sense.

World Symphony

I think that the piece we have already mentioned, 2001:World Symphony, is a little different from the others and it was very important for me to write it, although there is at least one movement that is still a little tied to so-called “serialism” although purposefully, in that case, a movement that has to do with Europe. That symphony is, so to speak, a kind of voyage through various continents where I tell, in my way, the history of civilisation, or rather, how I see it, starting even from the pre-civilisation period, that I identify as Oceania (very subjectively, of course) and it is almost exclusively electronic, a little vaguer musically or almost a landscape, perhaps …

Africa comes next; subjectively I identify it with the war period in which man, still in an animal-like, in a savage state, can only solve his problems through violence. Right at the beginning, there is an important part for two percussions … two drums … drumming … almost everybody relates this to Africa, and already a link is created there. In terms of language, I draw on my cultural references, but I did not study anything in particular. It’s more about my impressions of that culture and what it means to me. It is a piece with a very strong rhythm, really powerful, where it is not just percussion but where all the instruments come in. Perhaps it relates to the really basic musicality that exists in all of us.

Then comes Asia that is more civilised but still a little primitive, still very connected to mysticism, religion and a peace that is not enduring – contrasting with Africa that I associate more with war – because it is not based on real evolution but on mysticism, perhaps a little fanciful (this is, of course, an allegory that I make). Here there is the sound of the sitar that I use to convey a sensation of peace with a very long sound. There is also a melody on the oboe that evokes Arab music. I invented a scale and from there I improvised a melody, together with some percussion sounds, which somehow suggest ethnic music and that kind of reference. I think that everything is more or less integrated with the rest of the language. There is a harmonic language that almost covers the whole piece and that I would classify as post-modern (although this is very vague), because it has some modernist elements.

Europe is really the more modernist tempo, so to speak. It is almost serial. For me, it has to do with the excessive rationalisation that characterised Europe in the 20th century – in particular in the Socialist and Nazi systems in which society was more important than the individual, on whom these ultra-rational regimes ideals were imposed, with the results that we all know.

Finally, there comes the last movement which represents America and which I identify with the more advanced stage of civilisation – the new continent – where there is a greater mix.

I lived in the United States for a time and that really influenced my present opinion. Naturally, once again, it is a subjective opinion and one cannot be sectarian. There are probably places in Europe where, at least in theory, things happen like in America but, in the university I went to, for example, the number of foreign students was amazing and it was a very diversified set of people who co-existed peacefully and where everybody made an effort to pronounce everyone’s name as it is pronounced in their country. Therefore, for me this piece stands for some hope and the same goes for music. The musical language in this last movement (America) is a mixture. It has parts that are quite traditional, moments that present a very regular rhythm, but at the same time there are also some more modern aspects, so nothing is rejected except what is clearly negative.