Liquid Borders

Liquid Borders (Fronteras Líquidas) represents a sonorous reflection of certain consequences—human and quotidian, historic and social—that have been generated by the political (artificial) creation of borders, walls, and territorial divisions. In and of themselves, these constitute limitations to the freedom of humankind to act and exist in the broadest philosophical sense.

The piece consists of three movements: “Liquid City” (“Ciudad líquida”) alludes to the cultural, social, and economic borders between rural Mexico and the capital, while “Liquid Desert” (“Desierto Líquido”) and “Liquid Jungle” (“Selva Líquida”) allude to the geographic borders of Mexico, touching on different phenomena—from tolerance to the particularly painful relationship between Mexicans, Central Americans, and US Americans, confronting different world views.

Musically speaking, in Liquid Borders I chose to elaborate on a formal construction model that would allow me to respond to the above border concepts, recognizing at the same time that their components and meanings are always fluid and changing, and that the selfsame cognitive process is an unstable constellation of networks, fusions, and hybrids. The material I used ranges from the most abstract, in terms of rational conceptualization, to the most audibly concrete, always in constant, organic flux, creating thus variable dimensions of reading. The main idea was to transgress the borders of time and space via a kind of reintegration of musical memory.

The instrumental colors that characterize each movement reflect the sonorous geography of these materials—proposed within metaphoric and aesthetic contexts, across diverse borders, reintegrated with their surroundings in alternative ways.

Last but not least, the metaphor of a liquid border alludes to the possibility of encountering a multicultural space, one with apparently irreconcilable differences that nonetheless exposes our shared elements of human expression: communication, tolerance, and understanding—a fundamental challenge that has yet to be met, one without which neither our survival as a future society nor our wellbeing can be guaranteed.

This piece was commissioned by the Banff Centre and is dedicated to the great American percussionist Steven Schick.

—Gabriela Ortiz