In the Garden of Eden - Juan Luis Madrigal

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Musical work by Juan Luis Madrigal for piano dedicated to the award-winning pianist Laura Ballestrino.

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Interpretation:

    Laura Ballestrino, piano

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Composition:

    Juan Luis Madrigal (2023)

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Recording and audiovisual production:

   Unidad de Audiovisuales of the Centro de Documentación de las Artes Escénicas y de la Música (CDAEM)

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Audio recording:

    Juan Vicente Chuliá Aylagas (Asociación Madrileña de Compositores, AMCC)

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Digital processing and audio optimization:

    Juan Luis Madrigal

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This piano work tries to evoke in the listener the transcendence of the limitations and sufferings of mundane reality, evoking a kind of garden of Eden, that is, a transcendent space of calm, well-being and happiness located beyond space and time, a dreamed paradise that hopefully helps the listeners to successfully face the challenges of their life in the contemporary world.

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To do this, the work contains a cantabile melody accompanied by a background of chords, mainly chords in fifths, which are based on the relationship between the second and third harmonics of the natural harmonic series of sounds (according to acoustics, that is, the physics of sound waves), in such a way that an essential basically consonant environment is created with soft dissonances (which appear when several fifths are superimposed). The piece uses an extended tonality due to the frequent use of harmonies in fifths, harmonies which enrich tonality and help provide the special atmosphere characteristic of the piece, harmonies which complement, enhance and accompany the main melody, which has, in turn, a certain calm and cyclical character, in relation to the theme of the piece of evocation of a place outside of space and a moment beyond time.

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Recording of the absolute premiere of the piece in concert, on 21st October 2023, at the auditorium of the Casa de Vacas Cultural Centre of Madrid, as part of the COMA'23 contemporary music festival organized by the Madrid Association of Composers (AMCC).