Chamber Music
 

 

 

 

Charango Capriccioso  Op. 90  for string quintet and piano - 2006


Clocks Op. 58  for string quartet and piano - 1998



Life is a Dream Op. 76 (La vida es sueño) for string quartet - 2002



Latin Love, Op.82 for wind quintet and piano - 2004
Commissioned by Pacific Serenades Ensemble, LATIN LOVE is a nostalgic but optimistic revisit of youth, its emotions and places through the sounds of Latin American dance forms. The harmonic language here is traditional and evocative of Latin American music in the 1950’s. After a short introduction, the solo flute anticipates the dance theme and it is then joined by the others. There is excitement and beautiful chaos. The music here is simple and carefree, lacking emotional depth, until the solo Clarinet introduces the first expressive thought that triggers a long, meditative piano solo. The dance resumes, going through different dance styles and forms including a fugue, shifting time meters and percussion effects culminating in a passionate Tango. Stylistically, the work is built on three themes, all Latin in nature. The fast theme in 19/16 time is rhythmically complex challenging the rhythmic abilities of classical musicians.



Nostalgica Op.60 for bassoon and string quartet - 1998
Dedicated to bassoonist Barrick Stees who commissioned and performed it's world premiere at the 1998 International Double Reed Convention in Tempe, AZ.  "I wanted to write a piece in which the bassoon would be the "solo singer" of the ensemble. Soon after I started writing this work, the nostalgic and sensuous tone qualities of the bassoon started influencing the thematic material and even the form of the piece. Although the bassoon is the solo singer the strings have a technically demanding part which includes the use of extreme registers and numerous difficult harmonics. Nostalgica has four movements. 1. Long Ago: is a short, quiet and almost pastoral introduction to the piece which sets the mood for the next movement. 2. Blues: uses idioms from Blues and Jazz. The solo bassoon sounds at times like a sensuous saxophone or even a jazz trombone. 3. Nostalgica: is the central movement of the piece and the longest. It uses elements from Latin American and Brazilian folk music and it is nostalgic in nature. The bassoon's voice becomes in this movement that of a warm, sensuous Brazilian Samba singer. 4. Happy End: ends the piece in a lively Latin beat where the bassoon is used most of the time as a percussion instrument that beats time for the strings. Nostalgica features the bassoon in all its expressive and technical possibilities.



Ophelia in Seville Op.85 - 2005
Written for soprano, tenor, flute, clarinet, bassoon, trombone, and string quartet. The text for Ophelia in Seville was taken from Spanish Poet’s Gustavo. A. Becquer's "Rimas". Only one of his poems deals with the subject of Ophelia. Other subject related poems were chosen by the composer to obtain a theatrical sequence. The Shakespearean characters are here seen through the eyes of Becquer, and given a Spanish-romantic, symbolic character. Ophelia mainly represents poetic eternal love. Miguel del Aguila: "I tried to recreate musically the atmosphere of Becquer's poems, his dreamy and at times melodramatic moods, as well as the poetic romanticism of Becquer's Spain and more specifically his Seville of the 19th Century. The music mirrors Ophelia's moods and thoughts rather than a illustrating a particular music style. At the beginning of the work, Ophelia has already been abandoned by Hamlet and has lost her mind. In her heart, she feels Hamlet's presence (tenor) everywhere although he is in reality not there. At the end both lovers say a symbolical farewell to each other and to their love, using one of the most beloved poems of 19th Century Spanish literature." This work was written in 2005. It was commissioned by Utah State University for the inauguration of its new Recital Hall in October 2005, where it premiered.



Pacific Serenade for Clarinet (or sax) and string quartet. Also version with piano - 1998
Pacific Serenade is a “peaceful serenade”. A serenade as in: romantic, quasi improvised music which should be sung at night under the stars. The main “singer” here is the clarinet (or sax). In general the music is extremely quiet, delicate, sensuous and sentimental. The sensuousness is created by Latin song elements especially the nostalgic Brazilian folk song, which is at times combined with Blues style melody and harmony. The string quartet has a technically expressively challenging part which is not merely the accompaniment to the clarinet, but rather it is responsible for setting the mood in which the clarinet sings. The version with piano has one more piano solo movement and it is slightly different. This is Aguila’s opus 59 and it was commissioned by Pacific Serenades Ensemble of California who premiered the work in 1998. The ensemble’s name inspired the title of this work as well as its mood. “In an age of boom boxes, media bombardment of information and pop culture becoming increasingly aggressive, boisterous and violent, I felt the need to write just the opposite… to show once more that less is more”



Presto II for string quartet (also version for guitar qtet.) - 1996



Salon Buenos Aires Op.84 for fl, cl, string trio and piano - 2005
1. Samba, 2. Tango To Dream, 3. Obsessed Milonga.


Seduction Dance
(notes coming soon)



Summer Song
(notes coming soon)



Sunset Song Op.42 for bassoon and piano - 1994
It is the composer's second large work featuring the bassoon as soloists (after Hexen) and it is dedicated to bassoonist Judith Farmer who premiered it with the composer at Los Angeles' Bing Theater. The piece is technically demanding for both the bassoon and the piano. It is a happy, sensuous, rhythmically driven and at times mocking piece which conveys those times in which it was written: “for me, a time of change and exploration in many ways.” Sunset Song starts with a sensuous, blues inspired introduction played by the bassoon. A middle section fallows where a static -almost Middle Eastern- ostinato rhythmic pattern beats with increasing obsessiveness. This pattern is transformed to a Latin beat and finally returns the piece to the opening mood where the bassoon ends the piece in an irreverent tone, with a high note played only with the mouthpiece.



Tango Trio Op.71 for violin, cello and piano (also cl, cello and pno) - 2002
A short, bright concert opener, or closer, TANGO TRIO was written in in New York and it premiered the same year at Chautauqua Summer Festival, NY by the New Arts Trio. The work evokes Argentine-Uruguayan tango idioms, especially those of the early tango period between 1910 and 1940. The musical language is intense, dramatic and direct, becoming at times melodramatic and humorous. The tango rhythmic pattern is present through the whole work undergoing several transformations of tempo and meter becoming at times highly syncopated and with unusual asymmetrical time signatures. The form is ABA , a typical Tango form. The harmonic and melodic material also evokes the neo-romantic and sentimental feeling of the tango era.
Although the piano part is very virtuosistic, it never takes over the musical discourse, blending instead with the others to create that highly rhythmic, sharp and bright sound characteristic of the tango ensemble.

 

Wind Quintet No.2
(notes coming soon)

 

 

 

Orchestra


Chautauquan Summer Overture, Op.80- 2004
Commissioned by the Chautauqua Institution in celebration of the 75th anniversary of the Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra. The work is scored for triple winds, 4 horns, 3 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, harp, perc. and strings. It was premiered in 2004 at Chautauqua Summer Festival by Chautauqua Symphony Orchestra cond. Uriel Segal. “As the work begins it is winter and a cold wind blows over the frozen lake. As the piece progresses it portrays the changes that take place in the landscape over spring and finally the arrival of summer. Two motifs are heard constantly throughout the piece. First introduced in a darker, mysterious mood by the horns and double Basses, the themes are transformed into a lyrical, nostalgic Tango in the middle section. After a dramatic climax, the main theme returns transformed into humorous, carefree carousel music with an ever-increasing circus-like street-fair character. The work ends with an upbeat, triumphant finale that challenges the orchestra’s technical and endurance abilities.


now playing 
Conga for orchestra (also chamber ensemble and solo pno. -1994

Conga-Line in Hell" or Conga, began as a dream.  At first there was the visual image of an endless line of dead people dancing through the fire of hell. I gradually started hearing the music, which was flowing spontaneously out of me in an effort to entertain and alleviate the pain of those poor souls. I woke up and wrote the music as I remembered it.

As the name implies the work has a definite Caribbean flavor. The rhythmic pattern of the conga dance beats throughout the piece and is at times distorted into a 13/16 pattern.

It employs unusual percussion and rhythmic structures, and instruments are often playing at their most extreme registers. The piano is used 'obbligato' as a sort of metronome, very much like the harpsichord of the old Baroque times. The music is humorous, sarcastic, grotesque, sensuous and at times also terrifying. I rely mainly on the dramatic and expressive qualities of rhythm to convey the evil forces that govern my imaginary hell. As thematic material I primarily use rhythmic claves (Spanish for clef or key) as they are used in Latin American music: a sort of 'rhythmic tonality' to which harmony and melody must conform. After the sensuous middle section the work rushes frantically toward the end to explode in a dramatic finale.

 

 

Concerto for Violin and Orchestra Op. 94  - 2007
The Journey of a Lifetime (El viaje de una vida)

 

 

 

 

 

 The Giant Guitar Op. 91 - 2006
Was jointly commissioned  by WNED-FM Radio of Buffalo, NY and by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra for the 2006 JoAnn Falletta International Guitar Concerto Competition. It was premiered at Buffalo’s Kleinhans Hall in 2006 by Buffalo Philharmonic conducted by JoAnne Falletta. A short overture-like work inspired in the guitar and by Andean folk idioms. The opening theme and harmony originates form the  guitar’s open strings (E A D G B E). The Harp introduces this theme as the strings, and later the horns, use the same notes to provide harmony. Having lived the first twenty years of my life in South America I can’t think of a guitar without associating its music to my early memories there. I often view South America as a “giant guitar”…friendly, sentimental, nostalgic, apparently week, and yet concealing a great power, only suggested by occasional “rasqueado” chords or historical revolutions. As in the political events of the 1970’s. Thus this work starts in a somewhat nostalgic mood which seems to transport us to a place high in the Andes. After these few introductory bars the flutes re-introduce the guitar theme now in a very rhythmic pattern resembling an Inca Andean-flute chant. The orchestra strings accompany the melody through rhythmically complex pizzicati, imitating a giant guitar or “charango”. The drama begins almost unnoticed as the originally delicately strummed chords turn into violent bass-drum and timpani hits. A final chord, from a third higher then the rest of the piece, offers a last note of defiance as it confronts a police siren, only to be quickly crushed by the overwhelming percussion. 



 

 

Time and Again Barelas  Choral Suites No.1 and No.2
for orchestra and chorus (opt. solo tenor) (20 and 33 minutes.) 1. Overture (only Suite No.2) 2. Ignacio’s Dream 3. The Rhythm of the city 4. Ave Maria 5. River’s Death (only Suite No.2) 6. Sunrise. Both Suites are taken from del Aguila’s third opera: Time and Again Barelas which was commissioned by the New Mexico Symphony, the National Hispanic Cultural Center, Meet The Composer and the City of Albuquerque in celebration of the 300th. anniversary of its founding. The Opera premiered in April 2006 By New Mexico Symphony under conductor Guillermo Figueroa.  Choral Suite No.1 premiered in 2005 by NMSO conductor R. Melone. The longer Choral Suite No.2 was written for The Lancaster Symphony and its music director S. Gunzenhauser. It includes some of the main choral numbers from the opera as well as a new overture on themes from Time and Again Barelas. The score has been enlarged by extra winds, brass and strings, and the chorus has been expanded into a large symphonic chorus. About the opera: “Rather than writing an incidental work for the event,” wrote del Aguila, “I was more interested in writing a dramatic work that would be of timeless and of universal interest. In summer of 2004, I finished a synopsis of the story: a love story that lasts 500 years with the neighborhood of Barelas as background.” Situated on the Camino Real that ran from Mexico to Santa Fe, Barelas had been settled by the Spanish sonce early 17th century. Although most characters are fictional, the opera starts with the historical event of Don Barelas’s murder. The soldier who commits the crime, Don Ignacio, and Barelas’s daughter Marcelina, are the central characters of the story.  Following a shaman’s curse, they are fated to fall in love through the ages.  While Don Ignacio lives in shame and remorse, Marcelina only gradually becomes aware of his true identity as the murderer of her father. Her forgiveness of Ignacio ends the work in hope and affirmation. The composer states:  “I did not try to write music that is true to a particular historical time or place. Instead, my music is mainly "Latin" in a broad sense and it conveys the story and the place of Barelas in a cohesive unity of style and form. I use music themes to represent events and places to create a sort of familiar musical landscape in which the action takes place.” Choral Suite No. 2 - Synopsis: 1. Overture 2. Ignacio’s Dream World War Two. An ocean apart, Marcelina and Ignacio think of each other. Ignacio prepares for yet another assault on German lines. Back in Barelas, Marcelina wonders when people will abandon violence and learn to forgive, love, and live together in peace. 3. The Rhythm of the city.Building a city, 1650-1850. The town of Barelas rises. Its hard working people build the town house by house.  Slowly the wide open sky of the New Mexico desert is transformed into a modest city skyline. Marcelina presides over a happy and thriving community. Ignacio enters, pursuing an escaped slave Marigold. The people of Barelas help Marigold escape. 4. Ave Maria. River has just revealed  to Marcelina that the man she loves is a monster who has killed Marcelina's father. Marcelina recoils in horror as we are transported to Los Alamos/While Sands, 1945.  Humanity attains the ultimate violence – the ability to destroy itself. The famous news photo of scientists at White Sands is recreated as the first nuclear test occurs. Horrified, Marcelina and the people of Barelas watch the eerie cloud and silent fallout that ensues, as a heavenly chorus sings an Ave Maria imploring for human forgiveness. 5. River’s Death A cold winter night on a deserted street in Barelas, 1980's. Ignacio's guilt has driven him to the street, homeless. Marigold has become a drug addict, and as she tries to buy drugs River enters. In a struggle River is stabbed, by one of the dealers. Ignacio comes to her aid and takes her to Marcelina's house. River is amazed at the transformation in Ignacio; Marcelina's love has re-awakened humanity in him. For the first time he feels the full weight of his guilt. As River lies dying, she tells Marcelina that Ignacio has changed and that he deserves forgiveness. As River's soul leaves her body she calls on the Shaman to lift the curse 6. Sunrise A place out of time. As the curse is lifted, Marcelina forgives Ignacio as they clasp hands and see a vision of the future. Barelas, 2206. The people of Barelas watch the sun rise over a sky as bright as their future. Learning from the past everyone has come to love, forgive and erase spite from their hearts.


Toccata Op.28 - 1988
Toccata was written in Vienna where it premiered at the Konzerthaus in 1989 by American Music Ensemble, cond. H. Earle. Toccata is built on one theme, a rhythmic cell of 6/8 + 7/8 of a Latin nature. A toccata is traditionally a technically demanding work for keyboard, rhythmic, brilliant and often driven by an ostinato motif. This form and concept is here transferred to a whole orchestra. The theme starts slowly, played in the highest register by the violins as eerie harmonic sounds. It slowly speeds up, becomes more rhythmic and obsessive driving the piece to a final climax and collapse.