Hominum - Concerto for Orchestra

During the process of composing HOMINUM: Concert for Orchestra, a kind of synesthesia evolved as certain colors, images, and/or moods took on a gradual and metaphoric significance vis-à-vis the social, philosophical, and political concerns that are central to the human condition. The work is divided into four movements;: their titles allude to the mysterious associations and creative manifestations of music through a series of characteristics that represent our existence as a society.

BLACK marks the beginning of our primitive, archaic, primeval coexistence among dark rituals, habits, and customs ruled by instinct, elements, and the chaos that prevents humankind from looking out for the common good. LIGHT, on the other hand, represents the world of ideas, laws, concepts tailored to a social coexistence founded on principles that, first and foremost, prioritize organization and order.

IN WATER describes the equilibrium between the needs of the individual and society at large, the reconciliation of both sides of humanity; two spheres that, floating in suspension, levitate to enable the generation of creativity, transformation, and fulfillment. Finally, RED represents our strength upon confronting different manifestations of injustice; it is the emotional product of chaos caused by a lack of equilibrium, impunity, and the corruption of ideas and matter; it is the indignation and struggle against all that which keeps us as a society from living together in harmony.

From the perspective of orchestration, Hominum-Concert for Orchestra (2016) employs a series of musical strata represented by various families of instruments. The work is built out of organic forms, that is to say, composed of independent elements that are gradually intertwined, their development manifested through a discourse that unmasks the plasticity of timber and sonorous expressiveness that are characteristic of the music of Gabriela Ortiz.

— Alejandro Escuer

HOMINUM was commissioned by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México and its artistic director, Carlos Miguel Prieto –to whom this work is dedicated, in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Political Constitution of Mexico (1917-2017).