Truccorchéstra

In 1994, I received a commission request for a direct orchestration of my string quartet, Trucco, from Alfredo Rugeles, conductor of Venezuela's Simon Bolìvar orchestra, for the 9th Latin American Festival of Music in Caracas. Despite the compliment, I was hesitant to do such an "orchestral version" since the work had been conceived as a string quartet, with all its ideas idiomatic to that medium. However, after some reflection, the ideas in the quartet began to suggest orchestral proportions, and a whole new piece evolved. This orchestral realization resembles the quartet motivically, but structurally and coloristically it is new, with figures and gestures which either do not exist in the original, or which greatly changed within the orchestral medium. While the string quartet is in three sections (a large central movement framed by a Prelude and Postlude), Truccorchéstra is a seamless work in one movement.

In the classic style of the symphony, Truccorchéstra begins with a pensive Adagio introduction. This prelude is highlighted by a rhapsodic melody in the celli. The lone voice proceeds in quiet, lyrical assurance, oblivious to the mild discords which surround it in the other voices of the orchestra. The discords become ever more intrusive, finally overcoming the quiet melody and asserting their own identity and their own impetus.

The main section of the work opens with a tenuous, skittish, passage which gradually gains momentum and runs headlong into the main motivic idea, a driving combination of rhythmic patterns which combine and then transform in each of the sections of the orchestra. This passage reaches a dramatic climax, then gives way to an espressivo center section which makes use of lyrical melodies, coloristic effects, and fluid rhythms. After a brief repose, the nervousness of the opening returns, but with increased direction. Fragments of the espressivo melodies lend focus and assuredness as Truccorchéstra builds to an emphatic conclusion.

“Trucco” is Italian for "trick," "disguise," or "sleight of hand," and refers to some compositional "conjuring" employed in the original Prelude and Postlude.

E.M.