¡Ay, Oí!

Marimba and Electronics (2014), Commissioned by Alejandro Ruiz.

Premiered in Zeltsman Marimba Festival 2014. Appleton, Wisconsin.

After our first collaboration with Alejandro Ruiz we both realized that he needed a highly contrasting piece in his recital and that perhaps a way of doing that was by adding electronics to his proposal. Also, I had always had a personal debt to the traditional “marimba de chonta” from Colombia and wanted to use some of its music to write a new piece. With all of these in mind, I started simply improvising on the marimba and on the piano using traditional melodies I heard during my childhood. This music is typically performed by traditional ensembles that use “marimba de chonta” accompanied by traditional drums and shakers.  The electronic part encompasses the sounds of water, wood, and samples from traditional music, to create – together with the marimba– a general soundscape that takes the audience into the warm and colorful Colombian Pacific coast.

A fact that not many people know is that in 2010 the “marimba de chonta” was declared an Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Check this link to learn more about it.