for solo bass trombone, violin, viola, cello, accordion and electronics
2021
This piece is a free interpretation of the concept behind Charles Ives The unanswered question from 1906. The model of multi layered time and dramaturgy of Ives work serves as a conceptual framework in which this work is inscribed. This piece proposes a contemporary view of that concept, a century after, in the post capitalist era. It reflects upon the human as specie but also as individuals, part of a global society that is becoming, on the one side more and more exclusive, and in the other, more controlled and less private.
Contrary to Ives, this character poses a rhetoric question, or even makes a statement, with frustration or even desolation. The response to the question comes from the electronic part in the form of a robotic voice located nowhere. This voice seems to answer but only throws words, phonemes, sings, and plays old songs, after the trombone’s request, but it never really answer. Its presence is an irruption in the fabric of time, it is out of context, and progressively contaminates the background by distorting the instruments sound, until it swallows it completely. The third element of the piece, is the background, represented by the strings. It is meant to be a stereotyped piece of ambient music/film score. It is static, deprived of direction, slowly moving in circles around the same sounds.
commissioned by ensemble Latenz
bass Trombone, Adrián Albaladejo