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El Quinteto de las Preguntas (2001)
Wind Quintet (Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Horn, Bassoon)
Approximately 7 minutes
El Quinteto de las Preguntas was premiered in April 2007 by Quintet Attacca.

I. Quiénes gritaron de alegría cuando nació el color azul?
(Who shouted with glee when the color blue was born?)
MP3 (Excerpt 1)

II. Dónde puede vivir un ciego a quien persiguen las abejas?
(Where can a blind man live, who is pursued by bees?)

III. Por qué no nací misterioso?                        
(Why was I not born mysterious?)

IV. Si he muerto y no me he dado cuento, a quién le pregunto la hora?
(If I have died and don’t know it, of whom do I ask the time?)
MP3 (Excerpt 4)

V. Dónde está el niño que yo fui, sigue adentro de mí o se fue?
(Where is the child I was, still inside me or gone?)
MP3 (Excerpt 5)

VI. Oyes en medio del otoño detonaciones amarillas?
(In the middle of autumn do you hear yellow explosions?)

Excerpts from a live recording of Quintet Attacca’s premiere performance of Quinteto de las Preguntas in April of 2007.

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This is an odd little quintet. It is a short set of miniatures inspired by Pablo Neruda’s 1973 book El libro de las preguntas (‘The book of questions’), which is a series of unanswered (and largely unanswerable) questions. The movements range in length from a mere 30 seconds, to the longest of 2 minutes. My pieces are not intended as answers to the questions of their titles. Instead, they are my own reactions to the ideas of those questions. Most movements do not have a literal association between my music and the questions I chose. There are two exceptions. The fifth movement, "Donde está el niño que yo fui, sigue adentro de mí o se fue?(Where is the child I was, still inside me or gone?)", is an exception which utilizes one of my earliest pieces of music (a movement called "Gazpacho Para Todos") which has always had a dear place in my heart, and has a certain childlike enthusiasm. In the second movement, the horn is definitely the old man being pursued by bees.

The fourth movement, "Si he muerto y no me he dado cuenta a quién le pregunto la hora? (If I have died and don't know it, of whom do I ask the time?)" is one of only two instances in my career where I have used music that came to me in a dream. I immediately wrote down sketches of the piece upon waking up. In the dream, I was walking through a forest full of people chanting the underlying music of the piece. It was a little creepy in its realism, which is why it seemed to fit under the question I chose for it.

El Quinteto de las Preguntas, is dedicated to Peggy Moran, an excellent horn player and friend who kept bugging me (in the way only a good friend can do) for a wind quintet.

View and listen to the
score with Scorch Player

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