Australian Music Centre | Breaking sound barriers

Work Overview

'Una danza chilena' or 'A Chilean Dance' was commissioned by the Corporación Cultural de Viña del Mar as the 'Compulsory Chilean Work to be Performed by all Competitors' of the XXXVIII Concurso de Ejecución Musical 'Dr. Luis Sigall' 2011, Mención Violoncello (Viña del Mar, Chile). The work serves as an exploration of the musical implications of the square triangular (and tridecagonal) number 36, indeterminacy as an organizational determinant, and the post-tonal harmonic possibilities within the twelve-note chromatic scale as presented by Elliott Carter in his monumental publication of the Harmony Book, with pitch material directly derived from Carter's 3-note chord subsets of 6-note chord no. 35 (D#, E, F, G, A# and B), and structurally framed within three distinct Chilean rhythms: Cachimbo (3/4), Cueca (6/8) and Huayno (2/4). One interesting aspect of the adopted compositional process is a provision for melodic, harmonic and rhythmic development to be systematically influenced by True Random Number Generators (TRNGs are nondeterministic and aperiodic, and based on atmospheric noise, as opposed to Pseudo-Random Number Generators, or PRNGs, which are deterministic and periodic, and based on algorithms that use mathematical formulae) to make decisions on rhythmic and harmonic colour orderings on the basis of random integer generation and the rolling of a pair of virtual dice.

Work Details

Year: 2011

Instrumentation: Cello, piano.

Duration: 7 min.

Difficulty: Advanced — Professional

Commission note: Commissioned by the Corporación Cultural de Viña del Mar as the ‘Compulsory Chilean Work to be Performed by all Competitors’ of the XXXVIII Concurso de Ejecución Musical ‘Dr. Luis Sigall’ 2011, Mención Violoncello (Viña del Mar, Chile)

First performance: by Xian Zhuo, Mary Au — 1 Nov 11. La Corte Hall, California State University, Dominguez Hills, CSUDH 2011 Guest Artist Series, Carson, CA, USA

The composer cites the following influences on this work: square triangular (and tridecagonal) number 36 indeterminacy as an organizational determinant, true random number generators, Chilean rhythms: Cachimbo (3/4), Cueca (6/8) and Huayno (2/4)