Sonoroson is a palindromic combination of the words “son” and “oro”. Son, in Spanish, has a myriad of meanings depending on its usage; it can mean a manner of doing, an affection, a notice or a passion… and better still, a type of popular song or a pleasing sound. On the other hand, oro, gold, in English, is a well-known chemical element of atomic number 79, a striking number. When son and oro are joined together they yield the word sonoro, which means “sonorous” and, with an additional repetition of son, the coinage bifurcates into a beautifully symmetric neologism: sonoroson, “sonorous song” or “sound-gold-sound”.
My Sonoroson, is brief invention for harp and electroacoustic sounds, which explores sound in its interaction with the miraculous resonance of the harp. Like in many of my recent works, in Sonoroson, the relationship between “live instrument” and fixed electroacoustic sounds evolves through shared “pools” of sound from which they influence and support each other. These timbre articulations involve rhythmic “cause and effect” type events, multi-grained textures and mutual colorations, all of which seek to rescale and magnify the sound of the harp, projecting it beyond the limits of its physical boundaries and causality.
Sonoroson was commissioned by an anonymous patron for harpist Mercedes Gomez who premiered it the 2011 Vancouver World Harp Congress.
