….DE TIEMPO Y DE METAL…for Brass Ensemble by MARTíN MATALON (Argentina, 1958)

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Jun 1
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[#306] June 02, 2025 2010 | Grade 6 | 15’ – 20’ | Chamber Music

Premiered by Ars Nova on Jul 10, 2010 at Noirlac Festival, France.

Publishing company - Billaudot

American composer, conductor, performer, and educator David Biedenbender

…de Tiempo y de Metal, by Argentinian composer and conductor Martin Matalon is our Composition of the Week.

De tiempo y metal was commissioned by the Ars Nova ensemble, who premiered the work on July 10, 2010, during the Noirlac Festival, in France.

The work is dedicated to Benoist Baillergeau, Philippe Nahon and the Ars Nova ensemble.

It has a duration of 16 minutes, and it is scored for 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 2 tenor trombones, 1 bass trombone and tuba.

The music is available at Billaudot, France.

“...De tiempo y de metal… is written for 12 brass instruments and structured in 6 uninterrupted sections or movements. One of my interests was to recreate and develop the antiphonal writing of sixteen and seventeen century Gabrieli's brass sonatas and canzone. The 12 instruments are spatialized throughout the hall except for the four horns, placed and treated always as a compact block. This specific ensemble provided me with an extremely rich palette of colors that are not only obtained by a wide variety of mutes and special playing techniques, changing their sound in a substantial way, but also by a large range of register and dynamics. Each one of these sections highlight solo instruments, or a specific groups, or even highlights an specific mute: the 3rd movement is based on the wa-wa mute sound, the tuba and low trombones are underscored in the 2nd mov., the horns in the fourth section, the trumpets in the two last movements and the practice mutes and special techniques as slaps, breaths and others in the first movement. The main element in this work is the sound itself. Everything that contributes to enrich, to obtain an "unheard sonority" it will be for sure used and exploited. ...De tiempo y de metal… is a highly virtuosic work, where spatialization, color and energy are the main components of a lively dialog that occurs and shape the 6 movements upon which this work is built.” Program Notes by Martín Matalon

Born in Buenos Aires in 1958, Martin Matalon studied at the Juilliard School in New York, where he earned a Masters degree in composition. In 1986, he received the Charles Ives Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Holtkamp AGO Award in 1988, and numerous ASCAP and BMI composition awards. During the summers of 1987 and 1988, he attended courses given by Olivier Messiaen and Pierre Boulez at the Centre Acanthes in Villeneuve-lès-Avignon and continued his studies in France with Tristan Murail thanks to a Fulbright scholarship in 1988 and 1989.

In 1989, he founded Music Mobile, a New York-based ensemble dedicated to contemporary repertoire, and served as its director until 1996.

In 1993, he settled permanently in Paris and began a long collaboration with Ircam on an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou on the world of Jorge-Luis Borges, which gave rise to the work La Rosa profunda. Ircam then commissioned him to write a score for the restored version of Fritz Lang's film Metropolis. After this long-term project, Martin Matalon immersed himself in the world of Luis Buñuel, writing three new scores for the Spanish filmmaker's three surrealist films: “Las siete vidas de un gato”, in 1996 for the film “Un chien andalou” (1927), which was orchestrated in 2001 as “El torito Catalán”, “Le scorpion” in 2001 for “L'Âge d'or” (1931) and “Traces II” (2005) for Las Hurdes (land without bread) (1932).

He wrote numerous chamber music works, including “Formas de arena”, for flute, viola and harp, and “Lineas de agua” for cello octet.

A significant part of his catalog consists of two series of works: the Trames, begun in 1997, which are works on the borderline between solo concerto and chamber music, and the Traces series, which constitute a kind of “compositional diary” for the composer and are intended for solo instruments with real-time electronics.

In 2005, Martin Matalon received the J.S. Guggenheim Foundation Award in New York and the Institute de France Académie des Beaux-Arts Award.

In 2001, he received the City of Barcelona Prize for Music for Metropolis, the Charles Ives Scholarship from the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters, and the “Opéra Autrement” prize (1989) from the Centre Acanthes for the commission and production of the chamber opera “Le Miracle secret”, based on the story of the same name by Jorge-Louis Borges.

Several of his recent works are intended for young audiences, such as these three musical tales: “La légende de M. Chance” (2006), “Tulles et les ombres” (2007) and “Har le Tailleur de Pierre” (2008). He received the Prix des Lycéens in 2007.

Composer in residence at the Arsenal de Metz in 2003-2004, Martin Matalon recorded three symphonic pieces there with the “Orchestre National de Lorraine” and its conductor Jacques Mercier, released on CD by Universal in spring 2006. He was a visiting professor at McGill University in Montreal from 2004 to 2008 and at the “Domaine Forget” with the Nouvel ensemble modern in 2009. He was also in residence at “Muse en Circuit” from 2005 to 2010, where the Sillages ensemble premiered the complete cycle Traces, which was also released on a monographic disc by Sismal Records in 2010.

He was artist-in-residence at the Stavanger Festival (Norway) in 2011 and guest composer at the Les Arcs Festival in 2014.

Since October 2010, he has been teaching composition at the Aubervilliers-La Courneuve Regional Conservatory. He is also a guest professor at McGill University, Ircam, the Centre Acanthes, and numerous summer academies, including CompoLab, Injuve, and the “Institute Français” in Barcelona. He has been teaching at the CNSM in Lyon since 2017.

His opera “L'Ombre de Venceslao” was nominated for the Victoires de la Musique in 2017.