Alvarez - Metro Chabacano (string quartet)

The seminal idea for Metro Chabacano came from an earlier piece for string orchestra, Canci6n de Tierra y Esperanza, which I had presented to my parents as a Christmas gift in 1986. Having heard a recording of that piece, my friends from the Cuarteto Latinoamericano insisted that I should do a version for string quartet. But since none of us had a particular occasion in mind, the idea was abandoned for a few years. In 1990, the sculptor Marcos Limenez approached me with the idea to use Canci6n to accompany one of his astonishing kinetic installations, which was to be on display in one of Mexico City's busiest subway stations for a period of three months. This provided the perfect motivation for me to revise the piece and for the Cuarteto Latinoamericano to do the first performance, which took place in 1991 at the Metro Chabacano subway station as part of the dedication ceremonies. The piece was subsequently performed on tape for the next three months.

Metro Chabacano has a continuous eighth-note movement of moderately driving speed from which short melodic solos emerge from each instrument. The repeated notes give a false sense of simplicity; although the piece is brief and in a single movement, the rhythms, accents and melodic fragments that emerge from the perpetual motion background are intricately playful.

- Javier Alvarez

Javier Alvarez was born in Mexico City in 1956. He studied clarinet and composition in Mexico and in 1980 went abroad to pursue further studies, first at the University of Wisconsin in Milwaukee and then at the Royal College of Music and at the City University in London. Alvarez has lived in England since 1981, and has been the recipient of numerous international distinctions, including the Euphonie d'Or, prizes at the Bourges International Composition Competition in France, the Gemini Fellowship in England and The Prix Ars Electronica in Austria. He has taught composition and computer music technology at the Royal College of Music, the Guildhall School of Music and at the Dartington International Summer School. In 1993 he became a visiting lecturer at the Royal Academy of Music and a composition teacher at the University of Hertforshire.

Alvarez's works include chamber, symphonic and electroacoustic works which are frequently performed and broadcast by major orchestras and interpreters in Europe, the United States and Latin America.

Para el Cuarteto Latinoamericano

Metro Chabacano Semplice (J

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