This work was inspired by the short stories of the Mexican writer Juan Rulfo. As well as his very acute descriptions of the landscape and the use of a very colloquial language, his stories are also full of very vivid descriptions of the aural landscape of Mexico. It is very tempting to translate this literally into music, but this is an option that I found a little naïve and perhaps too limited for my purposes. This piece is more about what is behind those sounds and what is not been said or the resonance of sounds that stay behind in a landscape or in our memory. If some musical material was originated from a visual or naturalistic imagery like the sound of bullets, in Páramo de voces acquires a meaning of its own and takes the music into its own dramatic development. Therefore the elements that conform the basis for this work are more subjective than literal: being that of the aggression within a battle, the expression of a distant melody or an inner melody of those whose voices are not heard. Many of these musical elements go through a process of transformation and in this way define the shape and dramatic development of the work as a whole.

The inspiration of this work owes a lot to Ian Pace’s virtuoso abilities and our conversations and it is dedicated to him.