Recuerdos del Porvenir
Written in response to a request of Ensemble Recherche for their In nomine series.
Premiered at Sala Blas Galindo, Mexico City by Ensemble Recherche.
This title alludes playfully to a folk anecdote in Mexico about a bar, El Porvenir, that was demolished to make room for a highway, then reopened nearby as Recuerdos del Porvenir – a joke relevant to a piece proving the resilience through time, from five centuries ago to now and implicitly on into the future, of the plainchant “Gloria Tibi Trinitas,” on which the English Tudor composer John Taverner based a mass, whose Benedictus, beginning “In Nomine,” prompted a whole tradition of polyphonic inventions that lasted a century and a half to Purcell.
Paredes is among the composers who have been invited by the Ensemble Recherche to revive this tradition, her contribution starting, after the initial flourish, with a clear statement of the chant’s first notes from the English horn, joined by shadows, counterpoints, and embellishments from the others. Everything that follows is drawn from this same material.
– Paul Griffiths