Horacio Fernández

There is a very talented fellow at The Juilliard School, who will go by the name of Ian. He is an outstanding pianist, a composer and a conductor and, just to be really honest here, his talent is kind of ridonculous, so naturally many of the other composers and pianists in the school are, let’s say, a little too aware of what he is up to. So, one day I am having one of my usual strolls around the third floor at Juilliard where all of the big dance studios are located and I begin to hear some really awesome music coming from... somewhere. It is a music that I had never heard before, it sounds like a silver cascade that’s just pouring in the most amazing way. I go around looking for it, whatever it might be. Then, after confusingly navigating that maze that passes as our third floor, I finally reach the room and I can see it… It is a piece for giant flute ensemble that is being rehearsed. It was nothing but an army of flutists, all standing up, playing some really awesome music and then, sitting in a chair in the middle of the room with his hands placed on his lap, there was Ian. Now, I have no idea if these people are rehearsing, recording, let alone what piece they are playing but being who I am, I immediately jumped to the conclusion they must be playing Ian’s piece. You would not believe how jealous I felt! I had no idea how he had gotten all of these people to play his music but if he did, there was no way that I wouldn’t try to do the same thing! After that I basically ran away back home and began writing my Montuno for Six, a composition for six flutes. The process for writing it was pretty normal and I wrote a very good theme for it, one that I would eventually recycle as the main theme of the first movement from Tumbao, because I wasn’t going to waste a good theme on a Flute Sextet! In an effort to try to open the piece in a very memorable way, I have 5 of the flutists doing beatboxing while the first flute plays the first theme and that’s how I wrote that.