Flute, clarinet and baritone saxophone
✉️ If you wish to perform the piece, please contact me
Duration: ≈ 12 minutes
🏆 Portuguese winner of “Prémio Ibermúsicas de Composição e Estreia de Obra 2021“
Year: 2021
“cae mi voz” is based on the poem “Nocturno en que nada se oye” by Mexican poet and playwright Xavier Villaurrutia. The structure follows the chronology of the verses, transcribing most of their descriptions/soundscapes. Continuing to develop my musical language and giving free rein to what I heard in each verse or group of verses, the work is essentially composed of multiphonics, sounds of undefined pitch, unusual requests such as stirring water in a container, and microtonal scales. These scales, of eighth tones for the clarinet and a quasi-glissando of semitones for the flute, have a muffled sound and convey the idea of a fall in a breathless character that the poetic subject employed. At times, the verses are transposed into rhythm as if they were a recitation, and at the end there is a verse transformed into Morse code (“muda telegrafia”). In many moments there is a literal word painting, as in the case of “dentro del fuego lívido,” which is represented by the sound of a match. At other times, the ambiguity works in my favor, allowing me to develop the previously presented elements musically, as in the case of “juego angustioso de un espejo frente a otro” (distressing game of one mirror in front of another), represented by the irregular imitation of two instruments. The biggest challenge was to maintain a musical narrative while giving the verses a sound form. Nothing in the score indicates which parts of the poem correspond to each section of the work, but any curious listener will easily distinguish them.
Luís Neto da Costa 