Works > AH PAAXO’OB
Print

AH PAAXO’OB

Those Who Make the Music
Written in:
2001
Duration:
18'
Instrumentation:
fl (+picc.alto flute), ob (+cor anglais), Bb-cl. (+Eb cl.), A-cl. (+bass cl.), bassoon, horn, trumpet in C, trombone, perc (three players), celesta, harp, piano, three vln, two vla, two vlc, db
Buy (UK)
Buy (USA)
Commisioned by

Commissioned by the City of Frankfurt and Ensemble Modern in 2000.

Premiere

18th May 2001 at the Mozart Saal of the Alte Opera in Frankfurt by Ensemble Modern, conducted by Stefan Asbury

Programme Note

Working on a commission from ensemble Modern, Hilda Paredes found herself getting intrigued by a quite different and perhaps more abstract aspect of Mayan culture: its approach to measuring time. In the composer’s words, “the Mayas had 13 dyas and 20 different names for them, and overlapped them in cycles. It may be pure coincidence that the piece in question- AH PAAXO’OB (2001)-is written for 20 musicians.

Read More

But the number 13 certainly plays a major role, even if, as with the 13-note pattern on which the opening pattern is based, the listener is likely only to percieve the effect, not the cause. The work’s title means ‘those who play the music’, and this points to the fact that, once again Paredes was also thinking in terms of the actual performers.

– Richard Toop