[#20] December 9, 2019
2019 | Wind Orchestra | Grade 5 | 10’- 15’ | Contemporary
The latest work for Wind Orchestra of Spanish composer José Miguel Fayos Jordan is our Composition of the Week.
Vertigo y llama (Vertigo and Flame) was commissioned by the Banda Municipal de Barcelona and premiered on January 20th of this year. It has a duration of 12 minutes.
The work uses a good deal of modern extended techniques, such as quartertones and micro-intervals, as well as unconventional sound production techniques.
It is dedicated to Fayos Jordán’s grandparents “source of perpetual love and wisdom”
José Miguel Fayos Jordán tells us more about it:
“The starting point of this work is the poem "El cántaro roto" by Octavio Paz. The richness of the text’s images as well as its expressive potential are resources from which the sound and the discourse are outlined, therefore organizing the formal structure of the work. Although its language is fundamentally spectral, the sound material takes its starting point from the medieval polyphonic song "Imperayritz de la ciutat joyosa" by Llibre Vermell de Montserrat, which refers to the "return to the origin", subject also explored by Octavio Paz’s text. The medieval song serves as a constructive element in the generation of spectral harmony and melodic figures, while for the construction of discourse and gestural material, various generative procedures such as L-Systems have been taken.”
José Miguel Fayos Jordán (Chella, Valencia, 1980) studied composition at the Valencia Conservatoire of Music under R. Ramos, G. KIménez, E. Sanz-Burguete, C. Cano, E. Calandín and F. Tamarit among others. He also followed composition workshops with renowned teachers such as J. M. Sanchez-Verdú and Alberto Posadas. His music is played all over Europe as well as in America, been acknowledged with several awards.
On the field of conducting, Fayos Jordan followed lessons with José Rafael Pascual Vilaplana and Jan Cober.
He is professor for composition at the Conservatoire of Castilla la Mancha in Albacete and principal conductor of S.A.M. La Nova from Xàtiva as well as the Ateneu Musical from Cocentaina.