Obertures, for solo cello

‘Obertures’, commissioned by Erica Wise, is a cycle of pieces for cello conceived as a “whole”, to be performed consecutively, in attacca; but, in turn, these are also articulated as six independent pieces that act as openings for each of the preludes to Bach's six cello suites. World Premiere on September 18, 2022 in Ateneu de Barcelona (Barcelona/Spain). 

It should be said, first of all, that meddling in Bach's work is in itself a real danger, if not reckless. Obviously, this monument of the cello repertoire does not a priori need to be introduced or accompanied by any music other than that of Bach himself. That said, and with all the necessary caution, I do believe that a distant look at the suites as a whole can provide something original. It is not a frontal look that wants to build a new discourse based on variation, deconstruction or the mosaic of quotes and references from Bach himself, but rather an oblique look at the material of each of the suites. And if Bach's suites stand out for something, it is precisely because of their abstraction. And we have proof of that by the diversity of interpretations that have been made since Pau Casals rescued them from oblivion. This constant rereading by the cellists (changes in tempo, changes in articulation, phrasing, change in bow, change in instrument!, etc.) is paradigmatic: the timelessness of the material allows almost anything to be possible.

To construct 'Obertures' I have started from the deepest structure of each of Bach's six preludes, recurrently using a timbral dimension almost non-existent in the Baroque: that of the most extreme natural harmonics. Thanks to this technique, the material becomes ethereal and distant, like a fog where the sounds “break” due to their fragility (it must be said that the technique of natural harmonics was used in a residual way at the time, not for their lack of knowledge but due to the characteristics of the instrument and the instrumental technique of the time that did not allow us to go very far on this issue).

But paradoxically, and due to the timelessness mentioned above, this apparent timbral contrast between the two sound universes is completely diluted once we juxtapose them. The fluidity in the chain breaks the listening context between the two musics, creating a continuum that redraws all kinds of “a priori” both with regard to the perception of Bach's music and my own. However, as the suite progresses in time, progressively moving away from my sound universe, the perceptual context is transformed, leaving the initial opening a dream whose history we barely remember.