Audio samples in Catalogue section (Guitar and flute) of this website

This work is inspired by the chronicles of the Patagonian writer Asencio Abeijón and is dedicated to his memory. It has been composed in gratitude to a man who with a unique perspective and a keen sense of observation has allowed us to experience a version of Patagonian life that exists no more, vividly painting its landscapes and inhabitants with a simple and direct narrative. The composition consists of three movements:

   1. Cañadón Minerales (Mineral ravine)
   2. La mata de molle (The Molle shrub)
   3. Pampa del Castillo (Pampa of the Castle)

1. Cañadón Minerales. Cañadón Minerales is a natural land formation situated thirty leagues from the city of Comodoro Rivadavia. This was the destination of don Asencio Abeijón’s first muleteer journey, which he completed at the tender age of ten. The movement was inspired from a melody in “hueya”, which emerges from a typical opening and which proportions the melodic and rhythmic elements for their later development. Those who spent their lives on the roads of our country at a time when enormous distances could only be traversed on horseback or in wagon trains have used the “hueya” genre to sing of their experiences.

2. La mata de molle. Asencio Abeijón spent his childhood in the unique atmosphere of a post-house known as “La Mata” (The Shrub), located in the outskirts of the city of Comodoro Rivadavia and so named because a large Molle shrub on one side of the house identified it from afar. As an obligatory stop between the Atlantic coast and the Andes mountains, it was the scene of innumerable episodes permanently recorded by Abeijón’s pen.
Post-houses along travel routes were the real social epicenters of a region, amply transcending the mere role of a place for reprovisioning. In this second movement a serene melody, textured with loncomeo airs, alludes to the rest that precedes a long journey (loncomeo is the name of a type of Patagonian music that has its origins in certain rituals called “Rogativas” [Rogations] practiced by Araucanian indigenous groups).

3. Pampa del castillo. Pampa del Castillo is an arid, windswept high-plateau situated to the southwest of the city of Comodoro Rivadavia. Muleteer groups and wagon trains forced to cross it often found themselves exposed to onslaughts of wind storms and heavy snowfall, circumstances which almost always resulted in enormous physical losses and even cost the lives of men and women. Abeijón has frankly and truthfully described these unfortunate events, leaving behind an invaluable testimony to the sacrifices made by those who pioneered Patagonia in the early decades of the twentieth century.
This movement is rhythmically strong and harmonically "hard". It aims to mold my impression of the tales of the Pampa del Castillo into music.