Kuanasi Uato For Flute, Clarinet, Violin, Cello and Piano.

 

Kuanasi Uato I by Edgar Barroso performed by Argento Ensemble at Harvard University – 2012 by edgarbarroso-4

Performed by: http://www.argentomusic.org/

Commissioned by the International Cervantino Festival based on the city of Guanajuato – Mexico. “Kuanasi Uato” comes from two words that formed the current name of this city: Kuanasï and Uato from the Purepecha language. The name means “hill of frogs”. It was given this name because for the ancient Purepechas, it seemed that they were shaped like frogs. Because of the geographical characteristics of the city, where you can only access the city going through tunnels, the contrast in environmental changes is dramatic. Therefore contrast is very important in the piece. Kuanasi Uato is made up of different materials that collide against one another, separated, incapable of mixing. Throughout the piece, sound starts modeling the interaction among these materials until they get trapped in a flow of events which overlap constantly. This overlapping of energies create a vocabulary of gestures that compose the entire energy profile of the piece. This energy, and this piece is a sort of melancholic homage to Guanajuato, where I did my undergraduate studies and where I have dear friends and family.