Miles away
Commissioned by Ensemble Contrechamps for their 2015-16 season with funds provided by the Ernst von Siemens Foundation.
Premiered on Monday 23rd May 2016 by Ensemble Contrechamps with Pacho Flores as the soloist.
The structure and dramatic discourse of Miles Away display an array of instrumental extended techniques as well as the virtuoso abilities of the extraordinary musicians of Contrechamps and the expressive virtuosity of trumpet player Pacho Flores.
The introduction has a theatrical element to it as the soloist plays the flugelhorn off stage. As the soloist approaches the stage, the music also approaches the first section of the piece, which opens with a new harmonic element on the C trumpet and repeated notes material that have a fanfare like character. This material goes through different processes of transformation.The title makes reference to the late Miles Davis and in the middle section of the piece there are some references to his expressive solos, entwined with new melodic material as a tribute to his legacy. A dialogue is established in this section between the glissandi of the ensemble and the speaking qualities of the trumpet using the plunger mute. In this dialogue, the trumpet solo emulates a reading of an excerpt of a poem by the Cuban poet José Lezama Lima.