This is the opening piece of the album “Omphalos”. It is a very particular piece because I wrote it when I was 20 years old (1981) and it was originally just a piano piece. In case you haven’t noticed, the piano plays continuously during the entire song.
As you may know, careful observance of the structure of pieces is central to my approach to writing music (the article on issue #7 May 2017 will discuss this process). However, I wrote this piece well before the period when I devoted myself to writing only classical music (roughly from 1990 to 1999) and had still not fully developed my skills as a composer.
The positive side, is that this piece has a greater level of spontaneity if compared to most of my repertoire. The downside, is that it is less rigorous in terms of structure. Even though there is a reprise of the initial theme (at the middle and end of the piece), the song is a sort of “chasing the rabbit” where ideas flow one after the other like a kaleidoscope. Nothing wrong with this if it is a “one-off” type of endeavor, but if it is your usual way of writing, it can reflect a lack of composition skills that may affect the overall quality of your pieces. More on this in the article on issue #7 May 2017.
Ra is the ancient Egyptian god of the Sun:
In 2004, I asked my wife Nathalye to write a poem about “Ra”, inspired in this piano piece that I had written 23 years before. So, in this case, I used an opposite approach to my usual writing method: I had to fit the lyrics within an already existing piece.
This is the poem:
RA
En la tarde limpia de aleteo corto
“In the clean afternoon of brief fluttering”
Juega sentado a pensar en grande
“He sits and plays about thinking big”
Buscando la paz del minuto trágico
“Looking for the peace of the tragic minute”
siente los pasos de un deseo errante.
“feels the steps of an erring desire.”
Graba tus ritmos
“Record your rhythms”
Escucha tus horas
“Listen to your hours”
Come despacio
“Eat slowly”
alimenta a las diosas
“feed the goddesses”
Repite
“Repeat”
Reparte
“Deliver”
Constante
“Steady”
Contento
“Pleased”
Palpa el espacio
“Touch the space”
Respira tu aliento.
“Breathe your breath.”
El pensamiento avanza marcando el sol
“The thought moves forward, signalling the sun”
gigante que observa y reserva su voz.
“giant who observes and reserves his voice.”
El tiempo se agota, él desmaya sus manos
“Time runs out, he faints his hands”
Y atrapa en su pecho la paz del ocaso.
“And captures the sunset peace in his chest.”
Nathalye Engelke S.
July 2004Translation by: Vilma L. Sánchez. 2005.
“Omphalos” is the only Kotebel album featuring 7 musicians, including flute (Omar Acosta) and Carolina Prieto (voice). I took this old piano piece, and Nathalye’s poem, and went off to the task of developing a piece for this 7 member Kotebel configuration.
I tried to give as much coherence to the piece as a whole when working on the arrangements. Much more than arrangements, I had to write a lot of melodies because most of the original piano piece consisted of harmonic and rhythmic ideas. So, even though some motifs appear throughout the piece, in essence, the structure is:
Intro – Theme A – Fantasy section 1 – Theme A – Fantasy section 2 – Theme A
Where the fantasy sections are ideas the morph into other ideas. In spite of the lack of a rigorous structure, the composition is very coherent and intense. In fact, in my opinion, the music of the last 4 verses are among the most beautiful passages that I have ever written.
This is a previously unreleased version of “Ra”. It is a totally remixed version done in 2015 and it is intended for a future release of “Omphalos” with all tracks remixed and remastered. The album will be called “Omphalos – Revisited”. There is still no release date for this album.
The original piano piece from which “Ra” emerged, is related to an earlier piece called “Chromatisms” that I wrote in 1977, when I was 18 years old. It is also a piece that features piano throughout, supported by synthesizers, bass and drums. A few years later, in 1981, I recorded this piece in a studio in Miami called Prisma. I recorded the piano part first, then played the drums on top of it, followed by the bass and finally recorded the synthesizers. I recorded the piano directly without a metronome, so it took me a while to learn all the subtleties in tempo before recording the drums and bass.
About 15 years ago, I took on the task of recovering and digitally restoring this recording. It was a challenging task because in the 90’s the master tape had some damage because it was stored in a basement that suffered from extreme humidity. However, after a lot of post-processing the result is fairly decent. This is the master tape and the control sheet:
And here’s “Chromatisms”:
Credits
“Ra” – written by Carlos G. Plaza Vegas. Arrangements by Carlos G. Plaza and Kotebel.
© 1982 and 2005. All rights reserved
Omar Acosta – Flute
Carlos Franco – Drums and percussion
César G. Forero- Guitars
Jaime Pascual Summers – Bass
Adriana Plaza Engelke – Keyboards
Carlos Plaza Vegas – Piano
Carolina prieto – Voices
Lyrics by Nathalye Engelke Santos. English translation by Vilma L. Sánchez.
Ra image by Jeff Dahl [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
“Chromatisms” – written and arranged by Carlos G. Plaza Vegas.
© 1977. All rights reserved.
Carlos Plaza Vegas – Piano, keyboards, bass, drums.
