Vida Amor Libertad, by Regina Guerrero, used with permission
Three Sketches on Paintings by Regina Guerrero (2010)
For flute (dbl. piccolo), clarinet, violin, cello, and piano
Duration: 7 minutes
World premiere: April 28, 2011
Synod Hall, Pittsburgh
Alia Musica; Federico Garcia, conductor
This work is available for retail purchase from Theodore Front Musical Literature.
This work is available for institutional purchase from Harrassowitz (OttoEditions) and Theodore Front Musical Literature.
Program note: I met Regina Guerrero quite randomly on the streets of New York in 2009, when she asked me for directions. We became friends, and I took inspiration from three of her paintings for this early chamber work. “Vida Amor Libertad” shows figures in some sort of dance or ecstasy, with the words of the title repeated in the background. I turned this textual ostinato into a musical one, while in the foreground we first see little hints of the scene, like isolated details, before the grand scope of the full image is presented. “The Present” was one in a series of studies on vertical bars of color, this one with a simple outline of a giftwrapped box at the center. Quite literally, I chose to depict falling colors with a central shape emerging and receding. “Caos” speaks for itself.