Review

María Pérez Díez
I dreamed that I woke up, but it was a lie :

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Publisher:
Date of Publication: 2023
URL: http://maria.perez.diez@student.bruckneruni.at

Primary Genre: Solo Tenor Trombone - with piano

María Pérez Díez was born in Valladolid, Spain in 1996. She began her musical studies at the Conservatorio de Música de Valladolid, majoring in cello, and later entered the Conservatorio Superior de Música Manuel Castillo in Seville, where she received a Bachelor’s in Composition, studying with Francisco Martín Quintero. She is finishing her Master’s in Composition at the Anton Bruckner Privatuniversität in Linz, Austria, studying with Carola Bauckholt. Her works have been performed in Spain, Italy, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. She has won prizes in several contests, including the Mayseder Composition Competition for violin and the Concurso Nacional de Compositoras Ana Valler de Utrera. Her music is characterized by using elements of traditional Spanish music from Castile. Recently, she started working with her texts that interact with her compositions in different ways, and she is also composing a series of pieces called SOUNDESCRIPTIONS, based on ordinary experiences of her daily life.

The composer wrote the following:
“I dreamed that I woke up, but it was a lie was composed for trombone and piano based on, as the title indicates, a dream I had in which I woke up from another dream--a nightmare--, but nevertheless I was still asleep. I woke up exalted, I thought I was in my room; it was my room but much larger, with elements foreign to it that, in those moments, were more than familiar to me. The atmosphere was comfortable but impersonal. I explained to someone who was there, what I had dreamed. When I left that room, I was back in a place I knew but had never really been to. Suddenly, I was once again immersed in the nightmare I had never woken up from. The work is composed of repetitive elements, which reappear over and over again, trying to recreate a scene in which everything makes sense but that ends up vanishing at the end, where the motif finally becomes what it was in the beginning: the nightmare from which I had never awakened.”

The piece was premiered on August 27, 2023, in Linz, Austria, by trombonist Stefan Obmann and pianist Mathilde Hoursiangou at a Recital: Beim Festival Leicht über Linz 2023

There is an excellent recording of that recital at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1mWAIOTtsrARGD9cmcEjBsoP32CZzMKJ2.

Its 7’30” length includes a traditional formal design (ABA’). The trombone and piano are equal partners in the music. The trombonist has to navigate a wide dynamic range, have good control in the low register, and deal with flutter tongue, air sounds, and multiphonics (with a choice of octaves that fit a particular voice type). Range and technical requirements are minimal.

The harmonies (as they exist) are not based on traditional tonality, but the repetition of the note F gives it a sense of tonality and arrival. This is well-written, good and interesting music that lies in between tradition and more modern effects. It creates an innovative and compelling sonic palette that helps to illustrate the programmatic content. The piece is available from the composer: maria.perez.diez@student.bruckneruni.at