The child who doesn’t play is not a child, but the man who doesn’t play has lost forever the child who lived in him and he will certainly miss him. (Pablo Neruda, Memoirs, Penguin Books, 1978)

Through the hole in the window, he looked out at the empty street; sitting on the curb of the sidewalk, a blonde boy was playing with some small stones. He played very seriously, as one should play, gathering the stones, throwing them between his feet trying to make them clash, gathering them again, throwing them once more. (Julio Cortázar, Fantomas contra los vampiros multinacionales, transl. A. Castelló/deepl.com)

Is it possible in a music score to express the freshness and simplicity of children playing?

To describe their unawareness of time and their joy? To express the poetry of their concentration?

As a child, I loved the hours spent in front of a radio, listening to all kinds of voices and noises.

Could the vibrations coming from a speaker perhaps be a reverberation of our infancy?

For much of my life, I have worked with children as a teacher, and many of my inspirations have come from their direct and honest way of creating sound.

In this composition, I want the musicians to play and play, interacting with each other without knowing exactly what the others will do. The score will take the form of a card game, with each performer holding a unique set of cards. The rules will be inspired by five games from Francis Alÿs’s video series Children’s Games, along with elements drawn from Tarot and Mexican Lotería.

A piece where chance, accidents, and uncertainty are just as important as decisions and the musical poetic moments.

The Card Game

This card game is inspired by five videos by Francis Alÿs:

Children’s Game #7: Stick and Wheels
Children’s Game #8: Marbles
Children’s Game #10: Papalote
Children’s Game #15: Espejos
Children’s Game #18: Knucklebones

For each card, I imagined both the inner “rules” of the children’s games and the sonic qualities of the objects they play with. From their games five elements (symbols) were created: Stick and Wheels, Kite, Marbles, Mirrors, and Knucklebones.

Each musician has 15 cards combining these elements with durations and specific instructions: tones, sound materials, and pulsations — but also much freedom to shape the musical moment in relation to what the others are producing.

Time is relative. A central sand clock sets the overall duration of the piece, while the length of each card (1 minute, 2–3 minutes, or at least 3 minutes until a natural end) is left to the player and their own perception of time.

Alongside the live music, there is a playback made from sounds taken directly from the Alÿs videos as well as recordings of objects and other atmospheres tied to each symbol. There are five possible playbacks (one per symbol). At the very start of the performance, a dice is thrown to determine which playback will be used.

Each performer is provided with a box containing the complete set of cards and a selection of small objects to be used in the performance. The box functions as a personalized score: both a repository of instructions and a collection of materials that guide and shape the player’s contribution to the piece. The act of opening the box, selecting a card, or handling an object carries a ritualistic quality, framing each gesture as part of the performance itself

The piece will never be the same twice. Sounds unfold, situations shift, and the game continuously reinvents itself.

Angélica Castelló