Composed by Jochi
Barret Ham, clarinet
Justin DeFilippis, violin
Drew Wesley, guitar
Stratis Minakakis, conductor
Nawi Ollin, written for guitar, clarinet, and violin trio, is the first piece I wrote which uses systems of precomposition. The rhythmic material uses Aztec Dance rhythms which are compartmentalized and combined into sets, then organized by section, and the harmonic material is grouped into pitch sets which are derived from the harmonic series up to the 13th partial (13 is one of the most important numbers in Nahua numerology being observed in the rotation of the sun and the thirteen joints of the human body). The final section was loosely composed by ordering and pairing material from the previous sections and manipulating the pitch and rhythmic definitions to create new material. Nawi Ollin in Nahuatl literally means “four movement” which refers to the cycles of many things in nature: four seasons, the cycles of the sun (two solstices, two equinoxes), four phases of the moon, four main phases of the day, as well as what the Nahua people saw as the four fundamental principles of movement and activity: Tloke – generation, Nawake – congregation, Mitl – displacement and Omeyotl – duality. In this piece it is conceptualized as the four seasons with subtle connections to the four cycles of 6,625 years which it takes the Sun to orbit the Pleiades; this is recorded in the famous Tonalmachiotl or Sun Stone.
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