Gabrieli según San Juan (U.S. premiere)
About this Piece
Based on Gabrieli’s Canzona per sonare No. 4, this piece uses the concept of spatial music, in its simplest and earliest form as it was used by Renaissance composers such as Palestrina. The 15 performers are divided into three groups around the hall, each one focusing on a different sound of the brass instruments: one is a traditional brass quintet, another is a softer version and uses flugelhorns and euphoniums, and the final one is composed of four horns with a more choral (vertical) approach than the other groups, with their more contrapuntal (horizontal) writing. Timpani and percussion join the central group of horns as a central element that serves as a rhythmic reference. The music passes through these groups slightly adapting its message to better fit the sound of the groups, sometimes one group at a time, sometimes merging two or all the groups to create a sense of ubiquity that wraps the audience, in an analogy with the current times where music is everywhere, from passing cars to phones, leaked through people’s earphones or restaurant backgrounds, whether heard willingly or unwillingly. - Juan J. Colomer