Tríptico: Caligrama, A contraluz, Parábola
Commissioned by Dirección de Actividades Musicales UNAM, in Mexico and it was completed in 1994.
Premiered in 1996 at Sala Carlos Chávez, University of Mexico City by Ana Maria Tradatti, piano.
The three pieces under the title Triptico were my first incursion in writing for the piano. So much great literature already written for the piano, makes it a rather daunting enterprise to undertake. I approached it as if it were pencil drawings, without the extra colours that an ensemble could provide and I limited the writing to the use of the keyboard, to fulfil this task. The result was three contrasting pieces each one of them based on one idea.
Caligrama, has an introduction on the high register of the piano which breaks into the full flow of running figurations across the keyboard, from the bottom F# of the piano. This first piece is dedicated to the Mexican pianist Raul Herrera. The introduction of A Contraluz, is free and cantabile and it contrasts with the repetitive figurations that keep reappearing in different shades. Finally in Parabola I explore virtuoso possibilities of the instrument and has more contrasting elements in it than any of the other three.