JUAN MANUEL MARRERO – STRING QUARTETS
About the album
I have always been of the opinion that a composer should show the diversity of his compositional language as well as deal with opposing or divergent aesthetics and techniques. In my opinion, the quartets presented in this edition do justice to both goals. Histoire éphémère d'une plume blanche, Atractivo ultimate de lo impossible and Quatuor pour un tableau (in two parts) are to be understood in the context and tradition of contemporary European timbres and sound textures. Significantly different from these, almost at their aesthetic antipodes Two American String Quartets, two repetitive and minimalist pieces.
To the works
Two American String Quartets: Lives in Central Park (2007)
The idea of approaching American contemporary music came to me naturally in New York, USA, when I won the New York City First Prize for Composition in 2003. After three of my works were performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, I composed these two pieces. In the first, every instrumental voice and every rhythmic motif develops its own routine. Just like the people who walk through Central Park over and over again.
Two American String Quartets: Hopper's Nighthawks (2010)
The four strings repeat and exchange their voices one after the other, creating a varied rhythmic and melodic network. Four strings, like the four figures in Hopper's painting: two men in hats, the red-haired girl and the barman. Everyone lives their own story, but all stories are similar and end in the same place: at the counter, behind the glass.
Histoire éphémère d'une plume blanche (2017)
Through a diverse and rich interplay of textures, motifs, colors and sound shapes, the work is the musical implementation of an extremely poetic image: the slow, gradual descent of a feather, with its multiple twists and turns, until it lies lazily on the ground. The work exists in two versions: for wind septet, percussion and strings - and for string quartet.
Atractivo ultimate de lo impossible (2015)
Precise musical gestures and strokes that gradually build and destroy the sound material itself.
Quatuor pour un tableau: premiere partie (2010)
As the title suggests, this quartet was composed for a painting: El ámbito del Demiurgo (Acrylic on canvas, 200 x 400 cm). The work is by the Spanish painter and close friend Juan José Gil (1947–2023). The composition is largely inspired by this painting. The intention was to create correspondences and parallels between sound textures and plastic forms.
Quatuor pour un tableau: deuxième partie (2010)
Expansion and completion of the original idea.
About the music
After all: I have always been of the opinion that music must first be heard, then discovered and therefore spontaneously assessed or understood before it is explained. Nonetheless, these notes are intended to serve as a brief introduction to this part of my musical work.
Juan Manuel Marrero