Milton Estévez: Checa (Quito), Ecuador, 1947

Catalog

Orchestral And Mixed Works (in reverse chronological order)

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SIN TÍTULO

Untitled

(Louisville-Quito-Louisville, 2010)

ca 10:00 min.

For string orchestra

Scoring

Strings (minimum:6.6.6.6.6)

World Premiere

March 21, 2011

Teatro Nacional Sucre, Quito, Ecuador

Festival Orchestra / Andrea Vela

Study Score for sale ^[1]: Musicaviva

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva

^[1] 

You also may address your requests to:
miltonestevez@hotmail.com

The composition of this piece started following one of the threads of Estévez’ work: exploration of infrequent but characteristic colors of instruments at play, as in Guitarra…Guitarra…, for voiced classical guitar, Evocación Prematura, for piano, or Apunes con Refrán, for orchestra and electro-acoustics.
Along the way, however, it rather became a direct music kind of work, based on very few materials and developed as a very loose set of variations with two episodes. It also ended up working with the most conventional colors of the string orchestra.

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bAJO EL PESO DE LOS GUANDOS (rEFLEXIONES SOBRE EL CREDO)

Under The Burden Of The Guandos (Reflections About Credo)

(Louisville, 2003-04)

ca 23:00 min.

For symphony orchestra.

Commissioned by the Festival Internacional de Música Sacra of Quito,

sponsored by the Corporation for the Development of Historic Downtown.

I.

Introducción: La Caza de Guanderos

ca  5:55 min.

II.

Pasión y Retorno del Guandero

ca 17:00 min.

World Premiere

April 2004

Loja, Ecuador

Loja Symphony Orchestra / Jorge Manfredini.

Scoring

4(IV=picc).3(III=corA).4(IV=bcl).3-4.3.3.1-4perc*-harp-strings(minimum:6.6.4.4.6)

*4Perc:

Perc.I:

t.bells/SD/tgl.

Perc.II:

BD/SD/tgl.

Perc.III:

tam-t.

Perc IV:

timp.

Study Score for sale ^[1]: Musicaviva

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

^[1] 

You also may address your requests to:
miltonestevez@hotmail.com

Bajo el Peso de los Guandos (Reflexiones Sobre el Credo)
(Under the Burden of the Guandos) (Reflections About Credo)

Under the Burden of the Guandos is one of several reflections of an outsider with regard to the credo, or rather the credos, prompted by a commission from the Festival Internacional de Música Sacra (International Festival of Sacred Music) in Quito. This, however, is the only reflection translated into music. The reading of “Los Guandos”, an Ecuadorean novel by Joaquín Gallegos Lara, was the other source of association about power, religion, and guandos (crews of indigenous people forced to transport heavy, frequently European-luxury commodities, on their back, from the port to the haciendas or homes of wealthy people in the highlands. Priests and the church were part of the process of hunting for guanderos, crew candidates, and forcing them to submit).

The Introduction presents brief images alluding to the ‘draft’ of guanderos for the ruthless and frequently fatal journey to carry loads from the Coast to the Highlands, a practice the indigenous understandably feared and hated. Cristo Tucumbi, the fictional character chosen for the guando, and the recruiters forcing him to accept the ‘privilege’ converge in the process of coercion.

In the second part, The Passion and Return of the Guandero, painful images of the journey alternate and reiterate until Tucumbi, miraculously spared from death, enjoys a precarious relieve… (A new guando draft may be waiting for him around the corner.)

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Evbreves (Quito, 1988)

ca 5:00 min.

For orchestra and electro-acoustics.

World Premiere

May 1988.

Teatro Nacional Sucre, Quito.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador / Alvaro Manzano.

Scoring

4(II=flG,III=bfl,IV=picc).3.3.2-4.3.2.1-3perc*-strings-broadcasting equip-1sound eng.

*3Perc:

Perc.I:

tgl/crot/SD/t.bells/xyl.

Perc.II:

tgl/2cyms/2tom-t/BD/ch bl/2c-bells/whip.

Perc.III:

tgl/2cyms/2tam-t/BD

Study score for sale (under revision).

Full score, set of parts, electro-acoustics (CD),

for rent: (under revision)

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Apuntes con Refrán (Sketches with Refrain)

(Quito, 1987)

ca 10:00-11:00 min., depending on version.

For orchestra, principal harp, principal violoncello, and electro-acoustics.

IBM Commission for the first Ecuadorean Festival of Contemporary Music.

I.

ca 1:20 min.

II.

ca 9:40 min.

World Premiere

April 10, 1987, Teatro Nacional Sucre.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador / Alvaro Manzano.

USA Premiere

September 16, 1992, North Recital Hall, School of Music, University of Louisville, SoundCelebration II.

Louisville Orchestra / Lawrence Leighton Smith.

Recordings

CD 1 of Música Contemporánea, Convenio Andrés Bello - Sony Entertainment Colombia,

PTD 1441-96.

First released on record 1 of Música de Nuestro Tiempo (Music Of Our Times), stereo 301-0292, Archivo, National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador / Alvaro Manzano, Quito: National Conservatory of Music. DIC (Department of Composition, Research, and Musical Outreach), 1990.

Included in the web streaming Collection de musique électroacoustique latino-américaine (Collection of Latin American Electro-acoustic Music) compiled by Ricardo Dal Farra, Montréal: Daniel Langlois Foundation, 2004.

Included in Parte de la historia, Vol. 3, CD019. Collection of Latin American Electro-acoustical Music. compiled by Ricardo dal Farra, Morelia, México, Centro Mexicano para la Música y las Artes Sonoras, CMMAS, (Mexican Center for Music and Sound Arts), 2014.

Included in CD Milton Estévez, Symphonic And Chamber Music, Musicavia, Archivo MV5, CD Baby, Portland, Oregon, 2018.

Scoring

4(II=flG,III=bfl,IV=picc+flC).3(II=corA).3(III=bcl).2-4.3.3.1-3perc*-harp-vc-strings(minimum:6.6.4.4.6)-CD-broadcasting equip.1sound eng.

*3Perc:

Perc.I:

2cyms/BD/SD/ t.bells

Perc.II:

2cyms/3tom-t./2timp/4ch bll/2tam-t.

Perc.III:

tgl/BD.

Study Score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score and set of parts and electro-acoustics

(CD) for rent: Musicaviva.

Apuntes con Refrán
(Sketches With Refrain)
For orchestra and electro-acoustics.
This is a sketch of a “multiple solo” for acoustical and electro-acoustical instruments. It contains some “rough” materials (since they are ideas to evolve in the “multiple solo”) as well as some free exploratory approaches to other composing devices.
Within the first category, a short event plays the role of refrain. The individual quality of its solo lines, as they are played simultaneously, is dissolved within a large texture, which becomes characteristic, very bright and in some ways aggressive, since major seconds and perfect fifth intervals dominate its dissonant architecture.
The refrain interventions assume different shapes. Some of them (e.g. the first one) are immediately dissolved and somewhat developed through multiple and open repetitive evolution procedures. Others appeal to counterpoint variation devices.
This short event, dense and powerful, conducted in several ways, alternates with flexible contrasting ideas, mild and free-speech-like designed, which are played by principal interventions (violoncello, harp or small instrumental groups) included within the second category of materials, which explore
particular devices of chosen instruments.
The beginning and the end of the acoustical texture are marked by a tutti even more resonant than the refrain, reached by similar procedures but reinforced by color accents, absence of linear movement and use of larger space between the elements of the symphonic mixture. At the beginning, the tutti appears
suddenly; after the first refrain, it is dissolved in an orchestral decrescendo. On the contrary, at the end, the orchestral mass is reached progressively, starting at the bottom section of the strings.
In the refrain and the tutti interventions, the principal device is the vertical texture and its shape, each time renewed by open construction and performance.
In the alternate passages (based on modal materials from Ecuadorean music), on the contrary, line movement becomes conspicuous.
The electro-acoustical texture, constructed with the same material of the acoustic texture, uses both structural ways, but color variation is added in order to modify each appearance. The same electronic event of the introduction takes place in several reprises, albeit modified throughout most of the work,
alternating also with the solo acoustical interventions. In addition to the acoustical solo lines, except in the introduction, the electro-acoustical texture plays a subordinate role in its relationship with the global mixed texture, alternating or superimposing by analogy or contrast.

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Cinco Desencuentros con Episodio Cualquiera

(Five Mis-encounters With Random Episode) (Quito, 1986)

ca 17 min.

For orchestra, voiced flutes, principal percussion, and electro-acoustics.

I.

First Part

ca 6:30 min

II.

Second Part

ca 1:20 min

III.

Third Part

ca 1:20 min

IV.

Fourth Part

ca 4:12 min

V.

Fifth Part

ca 3:38 min

World Premiere

November 1986.

Teatro Nacional Sucre, Quito.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador / Alvaro Manzano.

Scoring

4(II=flG,III=bfl,IV=picc).2.3(I=bcl).2-4.3.2.0-3perc*-MIDI kyb-strings-CD-broadcasting equip.uni-dir mic susp from ceiling-sound eng.

*3Perc:

Perc.I:

tgl/crot/cyms/2tam-t/4cowbells/guiro/ch bl/2w-bl/2bongos/SD/2congas/3tom-t/2timp/BD/vybr/glock/t.bells/xyl.

Perc.II:

2cyms/2cowbells/2bongos/2congas/3t-t/guiro/maracas/whip.

Perc.III:

cyms/tgls/2tam-t/guiro/BD

Study Score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score, set of parts and electro-acoustics (CD),

for rent (pending)

The piece belongs to a prevailing mindset on a number of Estevez' works, i.e. the counterpoint between systems, which are whole and sufficient by themselves, but dissimilar. In this case, an autonomous orchestral texture dialogues with Patch 13, an earlier work for electro-acoustics, percussion and keyboard. Even the episode (IV movement, orchestra alone), which has no Patch 13 layer, superimposes opposite polyrhythmic layers.

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Introduction (Paris, 1983)

 ca 7:00 min.

For large woodwind ensemble and four percussionists.

World Premiere

November 1985.

Teatro Nacional Sucre, Quito.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador / Alvaro Manzano.

Scoring

3(II=flG,III=picc).4(IV=CorA).4(IV=bcl).1-2.3.3.1-4perc*

*Perc:

pft/xyl/cyms/2tam-t/tgl/claves/ch-bl/wdbl/rattle/bongo/3tom-t/timp/BD

(Four players)

Study score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score for sale: Musicaviva.
Set of parts for rent: (in progress)

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Campanas de Bronce (Bronze Bells) (Paris, 1982)

ca 10:00 min.

For orchestra, principal piano and percussion.

World Premiere

March 25, 1983, Teatro Nacional Sucre, Quito.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador / Paul Méfano. Piano: Jacqueline Méfano.

Scoring

2(II=picc).2(II=CorA).3.2-4.3.3.1-piano-3perc*-strings

*3Perc:

Perc.I:

cyms/SD/2BD/t.bells.

Perc.II:

cyms/3tom-t/2timp/ch bl/2tam-t.

Perc.III:

tgl/cyms/3tom-t/2timp/ch bl/2tam-t.

Study score for sale (pending).

Full score and set of parts for rent (under revision).

Chamber Music (in reverse chronological order)

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ESTUDIO ITINERANTE (Roaming Study) (Louisville-Quito, 2008-2015)

ca 11:50 min.

For classical guitar.

Time:

ca 11:50 min.

Scoring

Classical guitar

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

Estudio Itinerante
(Roaming Study)

The origin of this work is linked to the composer’s intermittent collaboration, as a guitarist and arranger, with a Louisville based group of pop-traditional music from Latin America and Ecuador. The initial phrases were created as a non-conventional material accompanying one of the Andean (Bolivian) pipe pieces from the repertoire played by the group. The broken chords of this section (based on a harmonic pedal oscillating between Em and Bm7m chords, distilled to their bones), however, had a conspicuous character, which kept asking to go further. This challenge was assumed somewhat loosely from 2008 to 2012 and more consistently from 2012 to 2014. The final adjustments were completed in 2015.

The sound material uses a combination of conventional tonal with non conventional modal spaces, distilled to their bones. The concept developed is a succession of ideas related not only to one but to several specific technical requirements for the classical guitarist (hence the name of the study).

Follows the introductory section a mutant refrain, which second phrase observes an expanding evolution every time the refrain appears, Great importance is given there to an overlapping slur, played over two strings (i.e. similar to a keyboard legato) instead of the characteristic guitar slur usually played over one string. This overlapping legato is mandatory and has to be observed by the guitarist in order to fit the approach resulting in overlapping resonances. The refrain occurrences open the way to each new feature of guitar technique to be addressed; among the technical features solicited are scales, broken chords and arpeggios, harmonics, tremolo, and chords. Slow tempo through the harmonics and tremolo sections give the work a calm break between the dynamic flow of the beginning and ending sections. Obviously, this study is more than a mere utilitarian work. It is rather conceived as a music work embedding the purpose of technical challenge.

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OUT OF THE BLUE (Preludiando) (Louisville-Quito, 2006-2013)

ca 12:00 min.

For classical guitar.

Time:

ca 12:00 min.

Scoring

Classical guitar

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

Out of the Blue
(Preludianco)

This piece was initially thought as a personal warm-up work, very much like some short preludes that instrumentalist-composers used to create for preparing before performance. During its extended period of development, however, the project has gone far beyond its simple functional role and has acquired the form of a musical work in its own right. It still serves to progressive finger-warming-up, but evolves as a more rounded musical discourse by elaborating and connecting the various materials used for the original utilitarian purpose. On the way, one of those materials, harmonics, acquired an important presence, but the work is not a study on harmonics; these are just one of the materials contributing to the music and to the practical purpose of the project.

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TONITOS SIN BIENAL (tunes Sans Biennale) (Louisville, 2007-2008)

ca 16:00 min.

For mixed septet. Commissioned and premiered by the Ensemble SurPlus from Germany.

I.

Biennale Tour 1

ca 6:20 min.

II.

Biennale Tour 2

ca 9:40 min.

World Premiere

December 20 2007, Freiburg.

Ensemble SurPlus / James Avery

Recordings

In SUMAK (CD) SurPlus Contemporáneos, Colección Sumak, Música Académica Ecuatoriana del Siglo XX, Ensemble SurPlus / James Avery, Cuenca, Ecuador: Casa de la Cultura Ecuatoriana, Azuay, February 2008.

First released in SurPlus ensemble für neue musik, 15 Jahre SurPlus (CD), 2007.

Scoring

Fl.ob.cl-pft-perc*-vn.vc.

*Perc:

marimba/tam-t/BD/timp/3tom-t/sizzlecym/3tgls

Study score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

Tonitos sin Bienal
(Tunes Sans Biennale)
Piano and percussion septet
(Fl, Ob, Cl, Pf, Perc, Vn, Vc)
Composed for and premiered by the Ensemble SurPlus (Germany)
Louisville, 2006-2007
Total duration: ca 16:00 min.
Biennale Tour 1: ca 6:20 min.
Biennale Tour 2: ca 9:40 min.

This work was originally intended as a concurrent project proposed by Mesías Maiguashca for the Cuenca (Ecuador) Art Biennale of 2007. The Biennale took place, but in the end it did not find the logistical capacity for the concert to take place alongside it. Hence, the title of the work...
During the composition process, the importance of the piano and percussion parts grew progressively to the point of taking over the ensemble and causing it to evolve into a piano and percussion septet. The music can be heard as a two-tour overview of the Biennale: Tour 1, showing mainly exhilarating and disparate paintings; and Tour 2, with a focus on a rather subdued, although extensively used, color pallet, mainly translated into the playing on the strings of the piano. According to the mood of the
spectator, the tour sequence may be 1 and 2 or 2 and 1.

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Aventure Divertimento (Louisville, 1999)

ca 14:55 min.

For woodwind quartet, percussion, piano, and double-bass.

Commissioned and premiered by the Ensemble Aventure from Germany.

I.

Evocación

ca 5:34 min.

II.

Episodio & Dal Segno

ca 9:21 min.

World Premiere

March 13, 2000, Freiburg.

Ensemble Aventure / Wolfgang Rüdiger.

Recording

Computer model by the composer, Louisville: composer's archives, 1999.

Scoring

Fl(+b-fl).1.1.1-pft-perc*-db-broadcasting equip-sound eng.

*Perc:

3 large almg glock over timp/timp/cym/tam-t/BD/glsp/vibr.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

Aventure Divertimento is the last module of a stage project: El Periplo Trunco de Yampís (The Unfinished Ride of Yampís). It became genetically intertwined with Evocación Prematura, 1998, for piano solo, which was composed during a break from the making of Aventure, at the request of pianist Gary Barnett. The materials of Aventure (at that time in progress), were borrowed by Evocación Prematura, yet at the same time developed through the piano solo. Upon resuming Aventure, the evolved materials were taken back and developed once more, this time in the context of the original project. Additional minor borrowings include brief souvenirs from older works, which were also submitted to transformation in Aventure.
The core of Aventure Divertimento consists of two extremely contrasting movements: Evocación, highly dynamic, resembling a toccata a sette; and Episodio, more quiet and somewhat lyrical, showcasing and extensively using specific instrumental colors: woodwind pizzicati, tongue-ram, and aeolian sounds; and harmonics, muted sounds, string glissandi and other strokes performed inside the piano. A partial reprise (dal Segno e Fine) of the first movement stands as the conclusive section.
This is the main version of this work (ca 14:55 min). An optional version consists of the first movement alone, performed straight to the FINE (ca 5:20 min).

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Evocación Prematura (Premature Evocation)  (Louisville, 1998)

ca 13:37 – 14:28min.

For piano solo.

I.

Evocación Prematura

ca 5:23 min.

II.

Episodio & Dal Segno

ca 8:14 min.

World Premiere

Several venues in Europe, 1999.

Gary Barnett.

Recording

Included in CD Milton Estévez, Symphonic And Chamber Music, Musicavia, Archivo MV5, CD Baby, Portland, Oregon, 2018

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

Evocación Prematura
(Premature Evocation)

For piano solo

Several materials from other works, still unfinished in 1998, are borrowed by Evocación Prematura (Premature Evocation) as a résumé and premonition at the same time. One of those works, El Clave Bien Destemplado (The Well-Mistempered Keyboard), in slow and irregular progress, was already a nearly ten-year-old project in 1998. On its path, El clave... neared completion on one or two different occasions, only to be scrapped to give way to an entirely new project. As Evocación Prematura was written while taking a break during the writing of another work, a commission for the German ensemble Aventure (1997-99, still unlabeled at that time), there are some borrowed premonitions of this music as well. Gary Barnett, a pianist in search of Ecuadorean scores for piano, triggered the proper atmosphere to round a less extended work, yet representative of the unfinished projects’ character. Therefore, the synthesis came alive before the works lending materials for the synthesis are finished...

...However, Evocación Prematura subsumes actual scattered reminiscences from other (finished) works as well: Fragmentos de Resaca (commissioned and premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam in 1996), and Cantos Vivos y Cantos Rodados (commissioned and premiered by the Institute für Neue Musik of Freiburg in 1997), and even some souvenirs of an old work: Guitarra... Guitarra...
The main version of this work (ca 14:55 min), includes the Episodio & Dal Segno. An optional version consists of the first movement alone, performed straight to the FINE (ca 5:20 min).

Gary Barnett writes:

In Evocación Prematura synthesis comes alive before the main work is finished. Estévez used as material for the Premature Evocation ideas from his unfinished Well‑Mistempered Keyboard, Guitarra...Guitarra... and other works.

Evocación Prematura is an exemplary model of constant permutation, which occurs in a variety of settings such as counterpoint and fragmentation.

Texture to begin with is very thin, but as the piece unfolds, it swells through the use of counterpoint and chords, growing to moments of grandeur, and then will slowly find respite in legato figures.

Large dynamic contrasts and emotional outbursts might be likened to the eighteenth century’s Sturm und Drang. Among the contrapuntal techniques employed are augmentation or diminution and displacement of the downbeat between contrapuntal lines.

The arch form of the piece begins as it ends, with a very soft dynamic level. At a dynamic highpoint of fortississimo, unison scalar material in octaves resolves in a long sustained pedal. This pedal marks a retransition to the final material of the opening. After a “fake or rather miscarrying stretto” (M.E.), evocation of the beginning, the music finishes pianissississimo, with a final touch of feroce.

In the main version of Evocación, an Episodio, linked to the Dal Segno, serves as an intermediary section to be played before the final measure of the piece (feroce). This episode draws an extreme contrast in timbre due to its extensive use of performance inside the piano.

Kansas, 1999

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Cantos Vivos y Cantos Rodados
(Raw Stones And Rolling Stones)  (Louisville, 1996-1997)

ca 17:20 min.

For chamber ensemble and electro-acoustics.

Commissioned by the Institut für Neue Musik der Staatlichen Hocschule für Musik of Freiburg.

Equipment and technical support from the University of Louisville, School of Music, at the Computer Music Laboratory. Financial support from the Organization of American States, and from the
Musikrat, Germany. Premiered by the Ensemble of the Institute für Neue Musik, June 9, 1997, Conductor: Johannes Schöllhorn.

I.

Citas y Clones

ca 6:32 min.

II.

Clone 2

ca 10:48 min.

World Premiere

June 9, 1997, Freiburg.

Hocschule Ensemble / Johannes Schöllhorn.

Recordings

Computer model included in CD Milton Estévez, Symphonic And Chamber Music, Musicavia, Archivo MV5, CD Baby, Portland, Oregon, 2018.

First movement included in DRAM, Database of Recorded American Music, and in and in Composers Recordings Inc. (CRI) ‎– CD 848, Hocschule Ensemble / Johannes Schöllhorn, New York: Composers Recordings Inc., 2000.

Scoring

3(II=flG,III=1bfl)-pft+kyb-perc*-strings-broadcasting equip-sound eng.

*Perc:

cym over timp/BD/tam-t/timp/tgl/crot/glassch/r-stick/maracas/guiro/ wdbl/congas/bongo/vib/t.bells.

(Two players)

Study score for sale: Musicaviva

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

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Cantos Vivos y Cantos Rodados
(Literally: Raw Stones And Rolling Stones)
For ensemble and electro-acoustics
Louisville, 1997
Citas y Clones ca 6:32min
Clone 2 ca 10:48min

This work is the next step to Fragmentos de Resaca (1995-96), commissioned and premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam, and precedes Divertimento Aventure (1998-99), commissioned and premiered by the Ensemble Aventure of Germany. Cantos Vivos y Cantos Rodados, like the two aforementioned works, is part of El Periplo Trunco de Yampís (The Unfinished Ride of Yampís), a stage music-project, finished in 1999. But, although they are modules of El Periplo Trunco de Yampís, Cantos Vivos y Cantos Rodados and the other two works are conceived as independent works for the concert.
In Spanish, cantos vivos y cantos rodados are polysemous expressions. Canto, for instance, can mean “song” just as well as it can mean “stone” or "stone-edge”.
If canto is taken to mean “stone”, a canto vivo refers to a sharp, unpolished stone or stone-edge—  that is rough stone, just cut from its quarry; a canto rodado, on the other hand, refers to a rolling stone, polished, sanded, or eroded,  or an eroded stone-edge. A canto rodado is softened, transformed stone, by water or another external factor of erosion, through the years.
But the rodado stones, despite their mutations, have not lost their essentials. They are always stones, only under a new appearance, sometimes more seductive than the original.
This image transposed into music covers previous approaches (Cantos Rodados, Guitarra...Guitarra..., ...) to particular instrumental colors which, regardless of being less familiar, are characteristic of each explored instrument.
The “traffic” of materials does not stop at instrumental color. It overlaps an interactive game of musical atmospheres, contents, or gestures, sometimes real, sometimes virtual, sometimes ambiguous, as some fictional relationships between notation and acoustical result.
Over this fundamental notion, the work develops a new encounter with the subject of dissimilar sound-ancestors, an old concern in constant, steady (and slow) progress:
Perhaps one feature of Ecuadorean music is the “anomalous” friction (to the “enlightened” ear, that is) between sound worlds of different origins. In this work, this process reaches some importance, as counterpoint between systems: native, European, and MIDI-”parvenu” materials, instrumental gestures, and atmospheres, cast on two textures, acoustical and electro-acoustical.
The “anomaly” also reaches the rhythmic shape through non-symmetrical construction.
Electro-acoustics is used in both, a “good” and a “bastard” sense: although most it shows consistent electro-acoustical sounds, when instrument writing is impossible for human musicians, the electro-acoustical texture takes over with samples in order to keep the music gestures (the vertiginous relay of “flutes” at the end, for instance) over the safeguard of “pure” means.

Louisville, 1999

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Fragmentos de Resaca (Fragments of a Hangover) (Louisville, 1995-1996)

ca 16:45 min.

For chamber ensemble.

Commissioned and premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam.

I.

El agua y el Aceite

ca 6:10 min.

II.

Canto Rodado

ca 6:10 min.

III.

La Hora del Pasillo

ca 4:25 min.

World Premiere

February 15, 1996.

Paradiso Theatre, Amsterdam.

Niew Ensemble / Ed Spanjaard.

Scoring

2(II=bfl).1.1(bcl)-harp-piano-guitar-mandoline-perc*-strings

*Perc:

cym-over-timp/tgl/crot/glassch/claves/wdbl/tambourine/guiro/

maracas/tam-t /BD/xyl/mar/vib/t.bells

Study score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

Fragmentos de Resaca
(Fragments of a Hangover)
For chamber ensemble.
This is another modular piece from El Periplo Trunco de Yampís (The Unfinished Ride of Yampís), a stage music-project, finished in 1999. Commissioned and premiered by the Nieuw Ensemble of Amsterdam, Fragmentos de Resaca precedes Cantos Vivos y Cantos Rodados and Divertimento Aventure (1998-99), two other commissions also belonging to El Periplo Trunco de Yampís . Unlike the title suggests, neither the music nor the stage project section refer to an alcohol hangover. They rather convey Yampís' disenchantment after experiencing the hardships of an extremely poor and undocumented immigrant through his journey into and amid the "dream" of a better life, turned nightmare in a big metropolis. Musically speaking, Fragmentos de Resaca shares several features of the other modular works belonging to Periplo, notably the dissimilar and autonomous layers in systemic counterpoint and instrumental color explorations. It also includes some identifiable materials loosely related to Ecuadorean popular music.

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Dos de Sal y una de Azúcar (Louisville, 1995)

ca 14:45 min.

For classical guitar.

I

ca 6:10 min.

II

ca 6:10 min.

III

ca 4:25 min.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

Dos de Sal y Una de Azúcar
(Bitter-Sweet)
For classical guitar
A nostalgic inflection, incursioning into mixed popular music from urban Ecuador of middle XX century, but polluting it with rhythmic asymmetry, yet keeping its basic and outdated flavor.

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GUITARRA… GUITARRA... (Paris, 1984)

ca 11:58 min.

For classical voiced-guitar (broadcasting equip.)

I

Cantaleta

ca 3:58 min.

II

Guitarra…Guitarra…

ca 4:22 min.

III

Cantaleta y Final

ca 3:38 min.

World Premiere

November 1984.

Espace de projection de l'IRCAM, Paris.

Jean-Luc Mas.

Recording

Included in CD Milton Estévez, Symphonic And Chamber Music, Musicavia, Archivo MV5, CD Baby, Portland, Oregon, 2018.

Study score for sale: Musicaviva

Full score for sale: Musicaviva.

Guitarra… Guitarra…
For classical voiced-guitar
This work was originally conceived as a sampler of a larger project, which intended to explore the less familiar resources of the instrument in an organic way, beyond the episodic decorative strokes that are found in some compositions for guitar. This exploration is more consistent in the second movement, which focuses on percussive colors of the instrument. Although these features of the instrument are unfamiliar, they are unmistakably identifiable as belonging to the guitar.
Another compositional feature, asymmetry, is also used intensively throughout the piece to shape its rhythmic personality.
The first movement could be a long introduction with a refrain. The third movement, which could be the conclusion of the larger project, could be seen as a more conventional toccata with a short evocation of the first movement.
The electronic amplification is not used as a sound manipulator; it is there only to enhance the perception of some strokes that are not as audible as conventional guitar sounds: harmonics and pizzicati belong to this category and are largely present in the second movement.
Guitarra… Guitarra… received the First Mention in the Rodrigo Riera International Composition Contest, Caracas, 1997.

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Patch 13 (Paris-Metz, 1984)

ca 7:51 min.

For electro-acoustics, keyboard, and percussion.

 I

ca 1:17 min.

 II

ca 1:23 min.

 III

ca 1:20 min.

 IV

ca 3:51 min.

World Premiere

November 1984.

Salle Cortot, Paris.

Diana Arismendi and Jorge Dayoub.

Recording

Included in CD Milton Estévez, Symphonic And Chamber Music, Musicavia, Archivo MV5, CD Baby, Portland, Oregon, 2018.

Scoring

1-2keyb-perc*-broadcasting equip-sound eng.

*Perc:

cym-over-timp/timp/cym/tgl/antcym/crot/glassch/tpl.bl/wdbl/bongo/ 2congas/3tom-t.

Study score for sale: Musicaviva

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

Repertoire Note

Patch 13
Electro-acoustics, keyboard and percussion
(Metz, 1984 - Louisville, 1994)

Originally conceived for tape solo, the electro-acoustic texture uses almost one exclusive material: a combination of sound generators and controls (patch). This particular patch was designed on the panel of the old AKS analog synthesizer, at the Centre européen pour la recherche musicale -CERM, Metz, as part of a personal sound-catalog research.
The catalog number (13) for the combination was adopted for the title of the work. Shaped in different ways, the material became a sort of delirious percussion, which alternates with calm appearances through a four “movement” global organization.
At the suggestion of Mesías Maiguashca (he was then professor at the CERM), an instrumental texture was superposed to the synthetic one. Both textures dialogue sometimes by analogy (wood-block appearances, for instance) or contrast (some independent keyboard events ...). A fourth alternative “movement” (ossia) for the instrumental texture (to be played instead of the original IV “movement”, if so desired) was composed in Louisville, 1994.

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Cantos Rodados (Rolling Stones)  (Paris-Quito, 1984-1985)

ca 16:00 min.

For picc.flC.flG.bfl (1 player) – prepared vertical piano and grand piano (one player)

I

ca 8:00 min.

II

ca 4:00 min.

III

ca 4:00 min.

World Premiere

July 1985.

Colegio de Arquitectos Hall, Quito.

Luciano Carrera and Christo Iliev.

Score for sale (under revision).

Cantos Rodados
(Rolling Stones)
Unusual exploration of color through the successive use of four flutes by one musician and an upright (vertical) prepared piano, as well as grand piano, also performed by one musician. The vertical piano preparation, although extensive, relies on only one category of piano-string color: harmonics, which completely derail the written music into an entirely different result, which is conspicuously evident only to the musicians. The mutations that rolling stones imply, therefore, is rather a conceptual feature, although the audience will yet listen to a crazy pallet pouring out from the keyboard.

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Anécdotas Vueltas a Contar, Nº 1  (Anecdotes Retold, Nº 1) (Paris, 1982)

ca 4:00 min.

For flute and piano.

World Premiere

June 8, 1982.

Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris.

Guillermo Portillo and Pinde Hajdu

Recording

In Flauta y Piano, Diapasón, LP-5434-A, Luciano Carrera and Marie Renée Portais, Quito: Vice-Ministry of Culture of Ecuador/Fediscos, 1983.

Score for sale.

Repertoire Note

Anécdotas Vueltas a Contar, Nº 1
(Anecdotes Retold, Nº 1)
For flute and piano.
Early work, a construct based on Ecuadorean pentaphonic scalar materials and popular forms. Unlike traditional Ecuadorean music, however, it derives (pentaphonic) harmony from the linear components, without referring to the way European tonal triads are put together. The whole makes a rigorously pentaphonic (sort of purist) piece.

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Anécdotas Vueltas a Contar, Nº 2 ( Anecdotes Retold, Nº 2)  (Paris, 1982)

ca 6:00 min.

For flute and mixed ensemble.

World Premiere

July 8, 1982.

Teatro Nacional Sucre, Quito.

Luciano Carrera, Marie-Renée Portais, Mikhael Czerwinski, Andrés Carrera, and René Bonilla.

Scoring

fl-pft-2perc-db

Ful score and parts for sale (pending).

Repertoire Note

Anécdotas Vueltas a Contar, Nº 2
(Anecdotes Retold, Nº 2)
For flute and mixed ensemble.
Composed almost simultaneously with Anécdotas Vueltas a Contar, Nº 1, it expands the use of its Ecuadorean pentaphonic scalar materials and popular forms, notably by including percussion.

Original Popular and Miscellaneous Music
(in reverse chronological order)

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New Neighbors Canon (Louisville, 2009)

ca 3:10 min.

For children voices and variable ensemble. Lirycs by Karen Dunnagan..

World Premiere

May 13, 2009, New Albany, Indiana.

Fairmont Elementary School / Sally Barret.

Recording
Computer model, in house production, Louisville: Milton Estévez, 2009.

Scoring

Voice 1, Voice 2, Panpipes, Perc*

*Perc:

Perc.I:

vibraphones.

Perc.II:

glocks, vibratones

Perc.III:

cymb/ BD or temple block, or gong

 Perc.IV:

variable, according to local available instruments

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

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Paramera (Moorlander) Quito,1987 - Louisville, 1997

ca 3:40 min.

For orchestra.

World Premiere

January 17, 1998, Quito.

National Symphony Orchestra of Ecuador / Alvaro Manzano.

Recording

Computer model, in house production, Louisville: Milton Estévez, 1997.

Available on CD or as an audio file: Musicaviva.

Scoring

3(II=flG,III=bfl).0.0.0-0.0.0.0-pft-perc*-guitar-strings(minimum 8.8.6.5.5).

*Perc:

Perc.I:

crot/glsp/SD/3cyms,high,med,low.

Perc.II:

trgls/tamb/cast.

Perc.III:

cymb/ BD/ tam-t

Study score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

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Bomba de las cuatro esquinas (Quito,1977 - Louisville, 1997)

ca 3:15 min.

Ensemble.

World Premiere

2006, Freiburg.

Ensemble Aventure / Wolfgang Rüdiger.

Recording

Computer model, in house production, Louisville: Milton Estévez, 1997.

Available on CD or as an audio file: Musicaviva.

Scoring

2.1.0.0-4.0.0.0-perc*

*Perc:

Perc.I:

guiro

Perc.II:

SD

Perc.III:

BD

Study score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

Popular Music Arrangements and Transcriptions
(in reverse chronological order)

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CUATRO SEVILLANAS

(Louisville, 2013)

ca 2:30 min.

Light Flamenco, by ?, as heard on LP by David Moreno (guitar).

Transcirption from oral tradition for classical guitar.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

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La partida

Latin American waltz (Louisville, 2009)

ca 3:20 min.

Traditional.

Transcirption from oral tradition and arrangement for classical guitar.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

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Greensleeves (Louisville, 2006)

ca 3:00 min.

Traditional English tune (ca XVI century)

Transcirption and arrangement for classical guitar, from oral tradition.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

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scarborough fair/canticle (Louisville, 2000)

ca 3:00 min.

Traditional Scottish ballad (XVII century).

Transcirption and arrangement for classical guitar, from arrangement by Paul Simon and Art Garnfunkel.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

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Tanguillo (Louisville, 2000)

ca 3:00 min.

Light Flamenco, by ?, as heard on LP by David Moreno (guitar).

Transcirption from oral tradition and arrangement for classical guitar.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

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¡Ay Pena, Penita, pena!
(Oh Sorrow, Sorrow, Sorrow!) (Louisville, 2000)

ca 3:00 min.

From original work (1953) by Ignacio Fernández Esperón, (México City, 1894-1968),

as heard on LP by David Moreno (guitar)

Transcirption from oral tradition and arrangement for classical guitar.

Score for sale: Musicaviva.

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REÍR LLORANDO (Louisville, 1995),

ca 2:42 min.

From original Pasillo (ca late XIX – early XX century?) by

Carlos Amable Ortiz (Quito, 1859-1937)

Transcirption from oral tradition and arrangement for ensemble.

Recording

Computer model, in house production, Louisville: Milton Estévez, 1995.

Available on CD or as an audio file: Musicaviva.

Scoring

1.1.0.1-0.0.0.0-pft.harpsischord.vyb-db.

Study score for sale: Musicaviva.

Full score and set of parts for rent: Musicaviva.

Composition and Performance
Services Available

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Educational and Consulting Services Available (Music)

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Composition on commission:

Symphonic, chamber, electro-acoustical, computer, and mixed music.

Film music.

Incidental music.

Children's music.

Arrangements on commission.

Music desktop-publishing.

Guitar performances.

Ensemble performances (Musicaviva).

Classical guitar technique training:

Private lessons and coaching, all levels, repertoire au choix.

Guitar ensemble training.

Computer assisted notation workshops: Finale.

Composition, orchestration, musical analysis, music theory training: private lessons, groups, and workshops.

Art-music literacy:

Understanding through listening and analysis sessions: individual, groups, and workshops.

Consulting on music-related planning and research projects.

Musical direction and conducting.

Publications, Essays, Lectures, Articles... (Music)

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"Ecuadorean Music at a Glance", on savant and traditional music from Ecuador.

PowerPoint presentation, video projection, and lecture on a multimedia project directed by Estévez while he was serving as an adviser to the Ministry of Culture and produced by the Ministry in 2012.  Louisville, 2015.

Available in English and Spanish.

“Shifting Ancestors And Ecuadorean Music”, about interactivity between music of different cultures,

Louisville, 1997-2008.

PowerPoint presentation and lecture, available in Spanish, French or English.

"Le Mandarin Merveilleux, de Bela Bartok", Paris, June, 1983, 43 pp., unpublished.

Text available in French.

Lectures& seminars available in Spanish, French or English.

"Paradoja y Subsistencia", about the musical commission, Opus, (musical magazine of the Cultural and Research Center of the Ecuadorean Treasury, September, 1988), 22-26.

Text available in Spanish.

"Contribuciones de la Música Popular a la Cultura Nacional e Identidad Cultural", Conservatorio (National Conservatory of Music magazine, No. 2. Quito, February, 1991), 25-34.

Text available in Spanish.

"Década Perdida u Obertura?" about Ecuadorean art music in the 1980s, Signos de Futuro (book about Ecuadorean culture in the 1980s, Quito, April, 1991), 189-221.

Text available in Spanish. Lecture available in Spanish, French or English.

"Ecuador's Music Profile", for The Universe of Music: a History, New York, UNESCO/IMC (International Music Council), 1991, 10 pp.

Text available in Spanish.

"De las Computadoras a la Creación", about computer-assisted music and cultural information networks, for the First Latin American and Caribbean Symposium on Computer-Assisted Cultural Development,

May, 1992, 15 pp.

"De las Nubes a las Cacerolas", about art music composers' survival, VI Latin American Music Festival Memory, Caracas,

November, 1992, 50-58.

"Sentido y Significación Musical", essay on musical semiotics, VII Latin American Music Festival Memory, Caracas, November, 1993, 41-49.

Lecture & seminar available in Spanish.

"Implicit System In Andean Music" Lecture available in Spanish, French or English.

Analysis seminars, and lectures available on own works, Ecuadorean and Latin American composers.

You also may address your requests to:
Milton ESTÉVEZ
miltonestevez@hotmail.com

From ..\Music\Catalog(ME)\Catalog.*1-16-17