WHAT MY MOTHER WROTE (2020)

Instrumentation:

flute, clarinet, percussion, piano, violin, and cello

Duration:

10 mins.

Program notes:

As a Puerto Rican people expect a sound from you, thus, sometimes Puerto Rican composers are tied to the exotic mold of the artist and the sound of the Caribbean. This piece is my view to that constant struggle that many other Puerto Rican composers have about what it means to make Puerto Rican music, or what things I should talk about, and how it should sound? Based on the rejection of that concept I asked my mother to write anything that she wanted and ex-press whatever she thought that she needed to say. This way I separate my self – the composer
– of the story teller, therefore, creating a work that is Puerto Rican, not because it falls into the mold of what elements should be present, but because it treats universal ideas (like the love of a mother) through Puerto Rican lens where the rhythms and elements of the Caribbean are em-bedded in the very fabric of the music, sometimes in a discrete manner and other times as a driving force of the piece. Here is the text that she wrote translated:

I wasn’t expecting you, but when I had you,
it was love at first sight.
I felt your heart beating.
In my heart a new woman was born,
Sensible, fearful of all the dangers, wary and protective.
Between us there is a dedication, and
a disinterested love.
A pure feeling, there is nothing in this
world compare to my love to you. You
transformed my world.