Works » By Title » S » Soledad (23:45 / 1988)

Solitude of long arms and many faces, in interchangeable spaces and multiple times. Solitude of art, of exile, of mourning. Solitude of those beyond yet within reach. Solitude of islands, intolerance, uniformity, absoluteness. “Soledad” (Solitude) is a piece having an instrumental character without resorting to direct orchestral impressions or the use of traditional instruments. Expressively the piece is influenced, like many other of my previous compositions, by the Latin American literary source of Magic Realism. Perhaps it could be termed a surrealist instrumental vision accentuated by the contrasting presence of coloratura voice gestures and color, all achieved via FM synthesis. An IBM-XT computer and modified CMU MIDI Toolkit software was used to convey subtle strings of voice parameter data in real-time to the DX7 and TX7 setup during performance. Composed at IREME studio in Vancouver and premiered in 1988 at the Vancouver Art Gallery, “Soledad” is dedicated to Manon—in memoriam—and to my children, hostages since 1980 of the Cuban regime in desperate iniquity against my voluntary exile. SB