Works by Alejandro Castaños, Cassandra Miller, and Liisa Hirsch

---

---

Chromaticity
by Alejandro Castaños

Specially written for Modelo62’s full line up, this composition takes color and mechanical music as the driving subjects to structure a musical narrative based on contrasting sections where virtuosity manifests and a wide range of material can be exposed.

↘︎ This score was realized thanks to the support form the National Arts Fund in Mexico.

Alejandro (1978) holds a master’s degree from the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. He then attended the yearlong course for computer music and composition at IRCAM/Centre Pompidou in Paris. Major performances include a portrait concert given by the Chamber Music Society of Luxembourg, a presentation by Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra at Dark Music Days in Iceland, a US premiere in New York by the New Juilliard Ensemble at Lincoln Center and a world premiere by the LA Phil New Music Group. Match, for percussionist and video projection, was among the jury’s selection at the Gaudeamus Competition in 2008. A substantial part of his work includes music for film, dance, theatre and close collaborations with visual artists. He currently lives and works in Mexico City. 

---

Bel Canto
by Cassandra Miller

Bel Canto is a portrait of Maria Callas, based on her live recordings of Puccini’s Vissi d’arte. How can a piece be a portrait of Maria Callas? The instruments zoom in on minute details—as a magnifying glass getting closer and closer to the vibrato and swoops of her specific voice—almost as a way to understand her physical presence. Time slows down to allow for an engagement with detail, for a submersion in the sound, and for meditative stillness. 

Cassandra Miller (1976) is a Canadian-British composer living in London. Her composition methods incorporate a unique practice of meditation-based uncontrolled singing to learn about melody and repetition from a deep-tissue perspective. She uses these vocal exercises together with creative transcription processes to transform pre-existing musical sources (from both within and outside the classical tradition), to magnify their expressive, personal, or fragile qualities. 

---

Glides
by Liisa Hirsch

Glides belongs to a series of works that use “gliding”: sliding very slowly along the piano’s strings until the vibrations begin to produce rising clusters and overtone-rich harmonies, sometimes fluctuating within near-unison spaces. The technique resembles a way of painting in which a wide ink brush makes one long sweep across the paper. Every sweep leaves its own unique markings and ends when the brush reaches the edge. The other musicians respond in various ways by listening: they pick up the sounding frequencies and extend the harmony with their instruments.

Liisa Hirsch is a composer whose work is characterized by a sensitivity to sound and a research-driven approach to composition. Engaging with microtonality, her music unfolds in expansive sonic processes and sculpted forms, shaped oftentimes by a fascination with the musicality found “outside” music.

“Pitch, resonance, beating patterns, microtonal deviations and instrumental colour become materials from which musical form itself can emerge. Hirsch composes not so much with notes as with the relationships that become audible between them.” — Marc Bollansee

---

Line-up:
Alfrun Schmidt – soprano
Jana Machalett – flute, piccolo
Enric Sans i Morera – clarinets
Chloë Abbott – trumpet
Klára Van de Ketterij – percussion
Reinier van Houdt – piano
Santiago Lascurain – guitar, electric guitar
Hadewijch Hofland – violin
Maya Felixbrodt – viola
Nina Hitz, Cèlia Torres Ruiz – cello
Vasilis Stefanopoulos – double bass
Ezequiel Menalled – conductor 

---

→ Supported by

Sound or Not is made possible with the generous support of Fonds Podiumkunsten NL, Gemeente Den Haag and Konrad Boehmer Foundation