Dance with No Key
“Vals de Agotamiento”
For Wind Quintet
About “Vals de Agotamiento”
Many Mesoamerican cultures believed that the universe has been through five separate cycles of creation and destruction. Each previous reality had been destroyed by the gods as punishment for their inhabitants’ sins. In a similar manner, “Vals de Agotamiento,” Spanish for “Exhaustion Waltz,” has five sections, each varying wildly from the last. Each section also contains five parts – one for each member of the wind quintet – taking place at the same time, creating an intensely polyphonic texture.
Starting slowly, the waltz works itself into a frenzy before burning out and dying with a whisper. This namesake exhaustion following a fiery and passionate climax represents the composer’s strong feelings on the current state of the world, ranging from intense anger at the injustices being enacted upon the less fortunate to complete and utter dejectedness at the seeming victory of wickedness and greed.
The confusing chaos brought on by the crises of the world are inherent in the atonality of the piece: throughout the entire waltz, there is no semblance of key or tonal center. The final flute solo, lacking any true melodic direction, asks one question as it fades into nothingness: will we sit idly by and allow our world to fall apart, or will we speak out against the atrocities being committed by those in the highest echelons of power?
