Composed and premiered in 2024, revised and extended in 2025.
Commissioned by Mexico’s acclaimed percussion quartet Tambuco, Totacataca takes its name from the word “toccata,” which alludes to its technical virtuosity and constant activity. Additionally, it is inspired by the syllables that musicians use to read rhythmic notation. The result is an onomatopoeic word with five syllables that evoke the piece’s main rhythmic cell, present at both the beginning and the end. I invite the reader to pronounce the title of the piece several times in succession (TotacatacaTotacatacaTotacataca…), even at a slow tempo, to perceive the accents and rhythmic groupings that the consonants generate.
Percussion has played an important role in my work, although until now, I have always integrated it with pitched instruments. Totacataca is my first piece written exclusively for unpitched percussion—a creative challenge that allowed me to approach composition in a different way. In the absence of harmony and defined pitches, the composition focused on generating tension, resolution, contrast, and a playful character through timbre and rhythm.
The piece unfolds in three main sections, each with a distinct character. The opening (Totacataca) is energetic and assertive, shaped by sharp rhythmic unisons and a dynamic interplay of expansion and contraction. The central section introduces intricate rhythmic polyphony, where independent layers interweave to create depth and motion. In the recapitulation, these elements converge, bringing a sense of culmination as the full range of the instruments is explored.
This recording: Nextet concert series, performed by UNLV percussion students: Trevis Phillips, Nick Berkey, Xavier Mejia, and Elizabeth Lopes