Altar de Bronce

By the time Gabriela Ortiz completed her Altar de cuerda (2022) for violin and orchestra, she was already considering creating a counterpart for trumpet. As it happened, the versatile Venezuelan trumpet player Pacho Flores informed her that he had a consortium of five orchestras ready and willing to commission a new musical altar from the composer: Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería, New World Symphony, and San Diego Symphony Orchestra.

When asked about the thematic, expressive, or spiritual relationship between the new work and her other altars, the composer explained that Altar de bronce is rather close to her Concierto voltaje (2013) for timpani and orchestra. In the case of Concierto voltaje, the title and Ortiz’s research on electric voltage came before the music. Altar de bronce had a similar process: first the title, then research on the process of alloying copper and tin into bronze, and then the actual writing of the score. The idea that metal can exist in a solid or liquid state became a central metaphor, especially in the first part of the trumpet concerto.

The work opens with a fanfare whose essence comes from an earlier Ortiz trumpet solo work, Tin-Tan- Fanfarria y Mambo (2021). The core of the sonic materials of Altar de bronce arise from that initial fanfare; Ortiz imagined the fanfare music gradually permeating the entire orchestra (and the solo trumpet) like molten metal, granulating and diffusing through the orchestra.

The solo trumpet is accompanied by a medium-sized orchestra with a rich percussion section, which she uses for a powerful rhythmic impulse and instrumental color. Again, like Concierto Voltaje: the timpani plays a significant role. The central section of Altar de bronce has a very accentuated rhythm that refers to Igor Stravinsky, while the movement of the final section features a more clearly Latin spirit, at Pacho Flores’s request.

Altar de bronce is a single movement work, but in its development the composer clearly marks a series of changes of tempo and expression; specifically, the score contains this indication: Part II - Copper: reddish, metallic and shiny color. Further on, the score indicates: A ritmo di cumbia, and A ritmo di mambo - Sempre brillante al fine.

When asked if she consulted with the trumpeter for the conception and realization of the solo part. Ortiz answered:

Of course! I had a long Zoom meeting with Pacho, which overwhelmed me more than clarified concepts. It is overwhelming to hear Pacho play like that, and during our meeting he brought out and played about 20 trumpets. In the end it was useful. One of the consequences of that meeting is found in the last section of the work. Since this is a concerto tailor-made for Pacho Flores, there is a passage that the performer can play as written or improvise. This is very much in keeping with Pacho's temperament and skill. The same goes for the cadenza; it can be played as written, or it can be improvised.

Although the basic solo instrument is the trumpet in C, the soloist uses several trumpets throughout the work. Towards the end of Altar de bronce, Gabriela Ortiz makes a mambo reference to her symphonic work Antrópolis (2019), dedicated to the city of nightclubs, Mexico City.

The world premiere of Altar de bronce took place on April 13, 2023, at the Auditorio de Ferrol, in La Coruña, with Manuel Hernández-Silva conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia and Pacho Flores as soloist. The UK premiere with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra took place on July 8, 2023, conducted by Domingo Hindoyan. The Mexican premiere took place on August 19, 2023, with Carlos Miguel Prieto conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de Minería. These premieres represent the birth of Gabriela Ortiz's eighth musical altar. Altar de bronce is the most recent in this series, but most likely will not be the last.

—Juan Arturo Brennan