David Rejano

Cristina Montes

El juego del Cíclope / The Cyclops game

For Harp and Trombone

Commentary

This work was written at the request of its dedicates, the couple formed by the harpist Cristina Montes (who premiered my work for harp Notas dormidas in January 2006) and the trombonist David Rejano, who during a working perios of the National Youth Orchestra of Spain - of which they were both members between 2001 and 2004 - held in Zaragoza in January 2017 and of which they were teachers in their respective sections, they asked me to compose a piece for them both for its concert performance and for an upcoming recording of a CD that at that moment they had in project.
I don't know if because of the affection towards the couple or because of the inevitable assimilation of both instruments with femininity, in the case of the harp, and masculinity, in the case of the trombone, the proposal led me to return once again to the novel Rayuela ("Hopscotch"), by Julio Cortázar, whose chapter 68 inspired my string quartet Clémisos y Sustalos, from 2001, approaching this time to chapter 7 ("Toco tu boca" ("I touch your mouth"), in whose second paragraph is the justification for the title of my piece:

"Me miras, de cerca me miras, cada vez más cerca y entonces jugamos al cíclope, nos miramos cada vez más de cerca y los ojos se agrandan, se acercan entre sí, se superponen y los cíclopes se miran, respirando confundidos, las bocas se encuentran y luchan tibiamente, mordiéndose los labios, apoyando apenas la lengua en los dientes, jugando en sus recintos donde el aire pesado va y viene con un perfume viejo y un silencio. Entonces, mis manos buscan hundirse en tu pelo, acariciar lentamente la profundidad de tu pelo mientras nos besamos como si tuviéramos la boca llena de flores o de peces, de movimientos vivos, de fragancia oscura. […]"

"You look at me, you look at me from up close, closer each time and so we play cyclops, we look at each other closer each time and our eyes enlarge, come closer to each other, they overlap and the cyclops look at each other, breathing confused, the mouths find each other and struggle warmly, biting each other’s lips, merely leaning the tongue upon the teeth, playing in their premises where a heavy wind comes and goes with an old perfume and a silence. But then my hands seek to sink into your hair, to slowly caress the deepness of your hair while we kiss as if our mouths where full of flowers or fish, of lively movements, of dark fragrance. […]"


El juego del Cíclope ("The Cyclops game") does not, of course, have any descriptive claim in relation to Cortázar's text, but it does pose a framework of strong contrasts that are naturally given by the characteristics, both timbre and character, of the two instruments for which it is composed. And although their respective treatments are clearly differentiated, there are still moments when there is a rapprochement -or perhaps an exchange- between them, taking advantage of the trombone's singable resources and leading the harp to clearly energetic gestures.
The Cyclops game was written in Madrid between the months of January and March 2017, and had not been premiered at the time of writing these lines.