Mauricio Sotelo

Mauricio Sotelo (born 2 October 1961 in Madrid), is a Spanish composer.

The Spanish composer and conductor Mauricio Sotelo begun his musical studies as a self-taught learner with the guitar, and later at the Real Conservatorio de Música de Madrid. In 1979 he moves to Wien to study at the Universität für Musik. Four years later, after finishing his cours with Dieter Kaufmann, among others, he's admitted in the Chair of Composition commanded by Francis Burt –Sotelo will devoted him the piece De Vinculis: Ge-Burt. A Francis Burt (2001) for violin– and, decisively for him, in Roman Haubenstock-Ramati's Seminars, to conclude this academic period in 1987, being awarded the Prize of Honour for graduated studies. During his time in Wien (1979-1992) Sotelo works, creates (…et l’avare silence (1988), among others) and participates, together with Beat Furrer, in the naissance of the Societé de l'Art acoustique, later known as Klangforum Wien. This group has to be considered a sort of 'fetish' ensemble to Sotelo because of two reasons: first, the personal relationship with Furrer and the musicians; second, the close and continuous work with them to create many pieces, from the Trio Basso – a R.H.R. (1988–89) to Klangmuro... I (2009) for flute, double bass and ensemble. In Vienna he also studied electroacoustic music with Dieter Kaufmann and conducting with Karl Österreicher. Also at this time, Sotelo also came into contact with Luigi Nono, a composer who excerses a lively influence in his musical thought, today even stronger than at those years. He also met the poet José Ángel Valente (Orense, 1929-Geneva, 2000) -an unavoidable figure to comprehend Sotelo's catalogue [1] between 1994 and 2000- at the end of the eighties.

Already in Spain, after the successful première of Tenebræ Responsoria in the XXXII Semana de Música Religiosa de Cuenca (1993) with the cantaor Enrique Morente, Sotelo begins an important teaching activity. As invited professor, he participates in the Aula de Música at the University of Alcalá de Henares (1993-1995), in the Seminar of Composition at the Columbia University in Nueva York (1996), in the Summer Courses of Composition at the International Festival Órgano de León – widely known as Cursos in Villafranca del Bierzo– and, more recently, in the Seminar of Composition Casa da Musica in Oporto (2002), the Chair Manuel de Falla in Cádiz (2007) and the Course of Composition at the Conservatorio Superior de Música in Córdoba (2009).

From the turn to the 21st century, Sotelo consolidates his career in contemporary music, being institutionally recognized and finishing many main pieces like the cicle Wall of light (2003-2007) -devoted to the figure of Sean Scully-, Sonetos del amor oscuro. Cripta sonora para Luigi Nono (2003-2005) and Muerte sin fin (2010), among others.

Mauricio Sotelo has been awarded numerous prizes including the Composition Prize by the Joven Orquesta Nacional de España (1986), by the Sociedad General de Autores y Editores (1989) and by the WDR Forum Junger Komponisten (1992), the Ernst von Siemens Composer's Prize (1997), the Queen Sofia Prize of Composition (2000) and the Spanish National Music Prize (2001). He's been composer in residence at the Wissenschaftskolleg zu Berlin (2011-2012) –just where he met the composer Luigi Nono at the end of the eighties. He lives in Berlin and works today as a Professor of Composition at the Escola Superior de Música de Catalunya in Barcelona.

Creation

The first of the Sotelo's creative features is, with any genre of doubt, the presence in his musical thought of the Venetian composer Luigi Nono. Actually Sotelo devotes several pieces like Nel suono indicibile – a Luigi Nono (1989-1990), Due voci… come un soffio dall’estrema lontananza (1990-1991) where he uses texts from Massimo Cacciari – a philosopher deeply close to Nono–, Frammenti de l’infinito. Lorca-Nono. Diálogo del amargo (1998), where the poetic figure of Federico García Lorca appears –also used by Nono in Epitaffi per Federico Garcia Lorca I-III (1951-1953) and the ballet Der rote Mantel (1955)– or Cripta. Música para Luigi Nono (2009). This biographic and musical affinity with the Italian artist will get several branches in Sotelo's composition: architecture of memory, oral tradition, act of performing, sound, Andalousian cante jondo. We will see how the attraction and analysis of all these concepts lead Sotelo to a deep connection with Flamenco in all its forms: cante, guitar, percussion and baile.

José Ángel Valente

Also at the end of his years in Wien, but materialized after his back to Spain in 1992, the composer came into contact with the poet José Ángel Valente, other of the key figures in Sotelo's creation. Actually, as imbued by Valente's poetry, Sotelo writes pieces like Memoriae. Escritura interna sobre un espacio poético de José Ángel Valente (1994) –a key work in his career–, Nadie (1995–97), Epitafio (1997), In pace (1997), Si después de morir... In memoriam José Ángel Valente (2000), El rayo de tiniebla (2008), Arde el alba (2008-2009) and Muros de dolor ... V: José Ángel Valente – Memoria sonora (2009).

Federico García Lorca

The figure of Federico García Lorca also appears in Sotelo’s music in 1998, for the first time, when he finishes the pieces Canta la luz herida por el hielo. Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, Frammenti de l’infinito. Lorca-Nono, Diálogo del amargo and Interludien zu Lorcas ‘Canciones Populares’. From that year, Lorca’s lyrics arise in Sotelo’s catalogue till today because of two reasons: on one side, a shared attraction for Flamenco –also a very inspiring music for the poet–, and, on the other, the enchantment that Lorca’s poems have caused in Luigi Nono’s music already in the fifties. This seduction for the lorquian world is again reinforced in Sotelo’s creative life since 2012, when he’s invited to create a new opera: El público -commissioned by Gerard Mortier for the Teatro Real- in a prologue and five scenes, with a libretto by Andrés Ibáñez, after the text by Lorca published around 1930, performed for the first time in Puerto Rico in 1979 and seven years later in Spain. This opera will be premiered in the winter of 2015 at the Teatro Real in Madrid.[2]

Sean Scully

As we’ve just seen with Valente, the composer finds a closely similar thought in the abstract paintings by the Irish-born American painter Sean Scully (Dublin, 1945). Sotelo meets him in 1997 in Seville, in the II International Festival of Arts Sibila.

Sotelo is largely interested in '... the process of its creation, It is certainly the clarity of the composition through which the light is liberated from material bonds and which can come to light as oscillations of air, and respectively ultimately as music' [3]

As the composer thinks, one of the most interesting series made by the painter is the Wall of light cycle, officially launched in 1998, with Wall of light Pink, yet whose leading beginning can be located fourteen years earlier with Wall of light 4.84 (1984). The cycle runs until today so this is a main Project in Scully’s career.

Sotelo has created his own cycle of compositions devoted, at least in his conceptual aim, to Scully’s work. Between 2003 and 2007, he wrote Chalan – Wall of light earth (2003), Wall of light red – für Beat Furrer (2003-2004), Sonetos del amor oscuro. Cripta Sonora para Luigi Nono (2005) –with Scully’s paintings projected in the background as we shall see–, Wall of light sky (2005-2006), Wall of light black – for Sean Scully (2005-2006) and Night (2007). What should be underlined is that we do not talk about a mere translation of art into music but a deep and complex contact between the artistic and musical disciplines. It’s possible to check this from the own Sotelo’s words:

'…two essential characteristics of the painting of Sean Scully, which (…) are fully in accordance with my concept of sound: the formal aspect and the oscillations of color (…). In Scully’s pictures the many overlapping layers of color create a deep vibrating space (…). In a certain sense, the flare of color of the various strongly luminescent layers creates a kind of ‘dance’'[4]

All these poetic and artistic influences have to be understood as aæthetic keys to analyze the way in which Sotelo sees his own process of composition, but also as conceptual, textual and visual references to have in our minds when listening his music. They also take part of the score, even if they are not written in it.

Sotelo and Flamenco

Since 1993, Mauricio Sotelo has written a great number of pieces in which the Flamenco gets a strong presence. But why?

We shall propose two answers.

The first has to do with the guitar itself. When he was a child, the composer chooses this instrument to begin his musical studies. As he will say many years later, the guitar is closely linked to Flamenco with all its symbolic and artistic imaginary. Since then, Sotelo shows a deep knowledge of it and devotes it a great attention but always looking for his own way to use it, maybe not too obvious at the beginning of his career –as we see in pieces like Soleá or Bulería (1984)– but well defined most recently in Como llora el viento (2007), a work for guitar and orchestra.

The second has to do with Flamenco as a way of thinking and creating music that embodies all Sotelo's compositional questions. The matter was, therefore, to go beyond the topic, to erase the boundaries and to hold a musical land where it could be possible to create a new kind of tradition, a new form of contemporary Flamenco.

Sotelo quickly understood that the cante was the key to open a wide door in Flamenco music, not only because of its aesthetic and artistic qualities but also of its technical and strictly music attributes. And the composer found them in Enrique Morente’s singing. As an experienced and wise cantaor, Morente came to Sotelo’s life in 1993 to participate in the premiere of Tenebrae Responsoria. Two years later, both artists work together in the piece Expulsión de la bestia triunfante (1995), premiered in the International Festival of Arts Sibila in Seville (1996). After that, Sotelo has relied on the Flamenco singers Eva Durán and Marina Heredia (to the opera De Amore. Una maschera di cenere, 1996-99), Carmen Linares (In pace, 1997), Esperanza Fernández (Nadie, 1995-1997), Miguel Poveda (Sonetos del amor oscuro, 2003-2005) and Francisco José Arcángel Ramos 'Arcángel'. With him, Sotelo has created the most of his recent pieces, from Si después de morir…, In memoriam José Ángel Valente (2000) to Muerte sin fin… comentario, a la memoria de Enrique Morente (2011), among others.

From the turn to the 21st century, Sotelo is immersed in a deep research into de timbric qualities of the cante flamenco and, specifically, that of Enrique Morente’s. Being helped by the composer Fernando Villanueva (Ciudad Real, 1976) and using programmes like AudioSculpt or Sonogram, the composer has managed to extract the cante’s whole physical spectrum. From this huge source of material, Sotelo establish a sound palette to create every piece.

This kind of creative method has led to Sotelo’s music being dubbed ‘spectral Flamenco’, in a sort of adaptation of the French Spectral Music.

Sotelo has recently begun to introduce a flamenco female dancer in his pieces. Maybe not the first in his catalogue but the most relevant pieces with bailaora are: Muerte sin fin (2010) with cantaor and ensemble, Muerte sin fin... comentario, a la memoria de Enrique Morente, with reciter, cantaor, ensemble and electronics (2011) and Luz sobre lienzo (2011) with violin, percussion and electronics.

Here, Sotelo's efforts are directed to create not only a conversation or a dialogue, but a new idiom, a contemporary understanding of what flamenco has to be today. It's obvious that the baile has a strong presence.

In this sense, Luz sobre lienzo has to be seen maybe a main example. Only four elements: violin (truth), bailaora (history), cajón (time) and live electronics (light) –according with the programmatic reference to Goya's painting of 1812– show a more minimal work, with an intense and vivid co-participation between the Moldavian violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Fuenstana 'la Moneta', who premiered this piece in Madrid.

Sotelo also calls for the 'compás' through the use of a specific rhythm or tempo in the most of his pieces from the middles nineties, even if there's no other reference to any other form of flamenco –title, instruments, performers or poetic allusion-. Here we find how the composer has absorbed the deep conscience of what this tradition has to mean to the musician: after the years of study and the hours spent in developing the technique, flamenco –and also any kind of music or art– is a sort of inner language in which memory and experience are re-invented. The composer, in this case, is meant to make the occasion to happen, that is, to create, through the score and above all through a close work with the musicians, a new artistic milieu.

Alterflamenco

In Sotelo's hands, flamenco is no longer an exotic musical style linked to the conventional topics of the Spanish touristic image or a bourgeois approche of a strictly academic composer. Flamenco is today, with his work, an art that can be naturally integrated in the avant-garde expressions of contemporary art and music.

Many other artists have felt the attractive power of flamenco sound or, by extension, of other music traditions rooted in the memory of a specific culture. From Manuel de Falla and Béla Bartók to Klaus Huber and Toshio Hosokawa, from the music Nationalism to the postmodernist artists, we could find many examples of stylized ways to insert oral traditional musics into academic catalogues. But, which of these composers would identify himself with a popular tradition with any nationalist aim? Sotelo asserts: 'I am a composer, but above all, I am a Flamenco. Here we'll have a great sound architecture with its well sinked columns in the Flamenco roots'.

To arrive to this 'manifesto', Sotelo changed his own artistic identity. After the years in Wien and the academic studies, after the art and poetry influence and his recent spectrum researches, he acts, finally, like a 'cultural nomad', as Nicolas Bourriaud has defined the artist's role in the altermodernity[5] of today.

That's why we shall define Sotelo's music as a new form of tradition, a kind of 'alterflamenco', taking the prefix 'alter' as the sign of “an art-form exploring all dimensions of the present, tracing lines in all directions of time and space”<Ibíd./> –in Bourriaud's words–.

Sotelo's work has been published by Universal Edition since 1991.

Works

Music for scene

Opera


Orchestra


Chamber music


Solo Instruments

Piano

Organ

Guitar

Violin

Violoncello

Flute

Clarinet

Saxophone

From it: Liebeslied I –parts I, II and IV– [saxophone alto]; Liebeslied II –parts VI, IX and X– [saxophone tenor] and Cantabile amoroso –parts IV and
VI– [soprano, alto or tenor saxophone]

Percussion

Bouquet of short instrumental Encores

Withdrawn works

Works written before 1989 have been withdrawn by the composer

References

  1. ↑ Mauricio Sotelo's works at www.mauriciosotelo.com.. Retrieved September 11, 2014
  2. ↑ http://www.teatro-real.com/en/espectaculos/1838
  3. ↑ Mauricio Sotelo, Wall of light. Music for Sean Scully, Wien, Kairos, 2008, p. 23
  4. ↑ Sotelo, Wall of light..., op. cit., p. 22
  5. ↑ Nicolas Bourriaud, Altermodern, Tate Triennial, Londres, Tate Publishing, 2009, p. 13

Sources

Bibliography

Cureses de la Vega, Marta. ‘Polisemias del flamenco en la música española actual’. Música Oral del Sur, 6 (2005), 321-335.

Fernández Guerra, Jorge. ‘La trascendencia de la memoria’. Notes of the première, Sonetos del amor oscuro. Cripta sonora para Luigi Nono

Granada: Festival Internacional de Música y Danza de Granada, 2005.

Gan Quesada, Germán. Mauricio Sotelo. Música extremada, XXIV Canarias Music Festival 2008. Las Palmas de Gran

Canarias: Festival de Música de Canarias, 2008, 308-347.

Gan Quesada, Germán. ‘Un jardín de voces que se bifurcan’, Mauricio Soteo, De oscura llama. Madrid: INAEM-Anemos, 2009, 22.

Gaviña, Susana & Mauricio Sotelo. ‘Esta música sólo está en la mente del cantaor’. ABCD Las Artes y las Letras, ABC, 7.

Ibáñez, Andrés. ‘Mauricio Sotelo en siete piezas’. Mauricio Sotelo. De oscura llama. Madrid: INAEM-Anemos, 2009, 18-22.

Lledó, Emilio. ‘A la memoria de un poeta y de un músico, en el aire sonoro de Mauricio Sotelo’, Mauricio Sotelo. Si después de morir… In memoriam

José Ángel Valente. Madrid: Círculo de Lectores, 2003, 3-6.

Marco, Tomás. ‘La composición mística y la mística de la composición’. MusicadHoy Festival 2010. Madrid: s. e., 2010, 67-99.

Moya, Enrique & Mauricio Sotelo. ‘Mauricio Sotelo, la necesidad del riesgo’. Scherzo, 53, abril (1991), 111-113.

Ordóñez Eslava, Pedro (2011). La creación musical de Mauricio Sotelo y José María Sánchez-Verdú: convergencia interdisciplinar a comienzos del siglo

XXI. Granada, Universidad de Granada.

Ordóñez Eslava, Pedro (2013). 'Walls of light and sound: Temporal and Musical Dimensions in Sean Scully’s Work', Filigrane. Musique, esthétique,

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General de Autores y Editores, 1999-2001, vol. VII., 36-39.

Pérez Frutos, Iluminada. ‘Tratamiento de la voz. Tradición oral en la obra de Mauricio Sotelo’. Papeles del Festival de Música Española de Cádiz,

3 (2007), 139-160.

Sotelo, Mauricio & José Luis Ortiz Nuevo. ‘Conversaciones’. Seminar ‘Flamenco, un arte popular moderno’, Universidad Internacional de Andalucía, 2004. : http://ayp.unia.es/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=336 [13.10.2014]

Sotelo, Mauricio et al. De amore, una maschera di Cenere, libretto by Peter Mussbach, music by Mauricio Sotelo, Madrid, Teatro de la Zarzuela,

1999.

Sotelo, Mauricio. ‘El espacio de la escucha’. Revista de Arte, Música y Literatura Sibila, 6 (1997), 49-51.

Sotelo, Mauricio. ‘Luigi Nono o el dominio de los infiniti possibili’. Quodlibet, 7 (1997), 22-31.

Sotelo, Mauricio. ‘Memoriæ’, Cuadernos de la Huerta de San Vicente, 1 (2001), 52-59.

Sotelo, Mauricio. ‘Se oye tan solo una infinita escucha’, Si después de morir… In memoriam José Ángel Valente. Madrid: Círculo de Lectores, 2003,

9-11.

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