Transmutation – the birth of the poem is a piece of music inspired by the poetry of Luis Osberto Ressia (1931–2023). Luis was a deeply influential poet from my hometown in Argentina. His poetry explores a timeless, mythic imagery filled with angels, mirrors, nights, temples, and more. His style is extremely personal and unique, as is the universe he created. In this piece, I sought to bring one of Luis’s poems into sound. It is an attempt to recreate the poem’s world –its imagery and atmosphere. In this process, I found the necessity to invent a new language: one that might plausibly be spoken by the mythical beings inhabiting Luis’s poetry. I find the poem extraordinarily beautiful, and I hope this piece does it justice. That said, as with any premiere, the work has not yet existed outside my –rather poor– musical imagination, which can never fully anticipate the sounding reality of performance. However –and with the help of printed program notes–, the imagined musical result should move the audience to vividly imagine the poem: a primordial world; two distinct entities seeking one another; a consummation in a mythical realm; a new birth; and transformation: the birth of a cosmogony –a primal and poetic worldview–. Nothing in the score should be taken as rigid or definitive. The piece should remain organic, atavistic, and grow together with the performers. I have written with a high degree of detail not to constrain interpretation, but to spare the performers unnecessary speculation. Behind every sound lies an imagined idea; however, if any of these do not function as expected in practice, I am open –and eager– to explore alternatives. Thank you for your time, your commitment, and for bringing this transmutation into sound.
