Score and parts on special sale from the Hire Library

Cuando el niño era niño (When a child was a child) was written in 2008.  It was inspired by the poem Lied vom Kindsein (Song of Childhood) by the German writer Peter Handke. Color and expression are the main ingredients of the piece that might be placed aesthetically somewhere between neo-expressionism and neo-surrealism. Divided into three independent movements, (I…and it quivers there still today, II...look at me or don’t, III...I know you are the one), the piece continuously combines the transcendental and the grotesque, as well as mixing avant-garde techniques together with more traditional forms and methods such as fugues and taleas (repeated rhythmic sequences, commonly used in Renaissance music). Distortion also plays an important role throughout the piece, evoking a certain ‘feeling of time.’

The piece was first performed in 2008 at the CDMC Festival, Auditorio 400 del Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Reina Sofía de Madrid and won the "Carmelo A. Bernaola" Composition Prize SGAE the same year.

Francisco Coll