SUITE “INCIDENTAL” (English Translation)

For Flute and guitar by Juan Carlos Urrutia Palacio

This suite was written in 1997. It is a collection of three short pieces which were written in different instances for these two instruments (namely flute and guitar) and later encompassed in this Suite form.

The first movement “Ostinato” is built in a repetitive rhythmic motif played by the guitar in which the flute moves around in a flirtatious way.

In the second movement, “Tema de Mariana” / “Mariana’s theme” the guitar provides an arpeggiated accompaniment to a melancholic theme. It was written for one of the composer’s flutist friends, who desperately wanted to impress through his flute playing a woman named Mariana who lived in a foreign country. The composer never met the girl, the flutist friend never played the piece and the woman never heard it.

The third movement, “Vals de burla de los ratones”/ “The Mice Sneer Waltz” has a comic component. It was based on one of the composer’s real-life experiences, which is that there was an infestation of mice in the house he was living in with his mother. His mother was desperate to put an end to the infestation; therefore, she prepared some poison with lots of “love”, however, time and time again, the vermin very cleverly avoided the poison resulting in a type of dance/waltz in which the flute represents the lady singing a love theme while preparing the poison, and the guitar represents the mice.