{"id":952,"date":"2015-06-12T14:39:57","date_gmt":"2015-06-12T14:39:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.harpblog.info\/?p=952"},"modified":"2017-07-02T21:49:50","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T21:49:50","slug":"mercedes-gomez-and-javier-alvarez-a-thirty-year-collaboration-between-harpist-and-composer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.camac-harps.com\/blog\/en\/news\/mercedes-gomez-and-javier-alvarez-a-thirty-year-collaboration-between-harpist-and-composer\/","title":{"rendered":"Mercedes G\u00f3mez and Javier \u00c1lvarez: a thirty-year collaboration between harpist and composer"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Because the harp is still something of a mystery instrument, harpists often collaborate particularly closely with composers. This leads to lifelong friendships, and wonderful examples of how our profession is a human matter, and doesn’t divide the personal and the professional.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mercedes G\u00f3mez<\/a>\u00a0has written a wonderful account of her work with\u00a0Javier \u00c1lvarez<\/a>. He has written two fascinating pieces for harp and electroacoustic sounds:\u00a0Acuerdos por Diferencia,<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Sonoroson.\u00a0<\/em>These are now being released on disc, as part of a retrospective collection of his music (Casete-Agricultura Digital, supported by CONACULTA and in co-production with CMMAS-org, Gobierno del Estado de Michoac\u00e1n, ENM-UNAM, MUAC, Camac Harps, and Radio France).\u00a0You can download the album from iTunes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u00a0well remember Mercedes performing\u00a0Acuerdos por Diferencia\u00a0<\/em>at the World Harp Congress in Dublin (2005). The\u00a0piece depicts a train travelling at speed, through a landscape dotted with electricity poles. The poles swoop by and seem to loop; similarly, the harp and the electroacoustic sounds interweave in a manner that is both clever and moving. \u00a0The tape imitates the harp sounds, but in unplayable figurations. The impossible figures weave about the live performer, entrancing us as much by their unattainability as by their brilliance. There\u2019s a powerfully plastic flow around both limits and the limitless. Alvarez writes: \u201cPicture yourself travelling at ease on a train. As you look through the window, you notice the power cables running parallel to the tracks. These tracks seem to turn as a volume that gently rotates and changes shape. This flow accelerates before being interrupted by the posts that hold them at more or less regular distances. In this piece, I have attempted to draw a musical parallel with a similar sort of speculation, playing with point of accord (Acuerdo), and variations, juxtapositions, superimpositions (Diferencia), between harp and tape. Thus my title could freely be translated as \u201caccords within differences.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Mercedes also played\u00a0Sonoroson<\/em>,\u00a0\u00c1lvarez’s second work for harp and electroacoustic sounds, at a World Harp Congress (Vancouver, 2011).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Read Mercedes’s account of her work with\u00a0\u00c1lvarez here!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Long tubes of patience: thirty years of collaboration between harpist and composer<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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