Branching Paths

Pfade, die sich verzweigen (2024) is a work for ensemble by Ángel Hernández Lovera, inspired by Jorge Luis Borges’ short story The Garden of Forking Paths. In this tale, the linear concept of time is replaced by a model in which every possible outcome of an event exists simultaneously in parallel realities. This idea of multiplicity and infinite bifurcation forms the conceptual and formal basis of the piece.

The music unfolds as a web of sonic paths that intersect, break, and branch off without apparent hierarchy. Fragments of sound reappear in shifting contexts—like echoes of decisions made and not made. The instruments—ranging from flute and trumpet to mandolin, prepared piano, and extended percussion—act as narrative voices that coexist, contradict, and mirror one another.

Rather than illustrating the story, the use of instrumental color and extended techniques embodies its structure: a network of paths that bifurcate not only space but also the perception of time. The piece is an open map, where each performance reveals a different sequence of possible events.

Dedicated to the ERMA Ensemble, Pfade, die sich verzweigen will be premiered on May 10th, 2025 at the ACHT BRÜCKEN Festival in Cologne.