{trés}: Angélica Negrón's Pedacito de Tierra
Navona Records

Commissioned by José Antonio Zayas Cabán and performed by him on soprano saxophone and his {trés} partners Ryan Smith on tenor saxophone and Casey Rafn on piano, Pedacito de Tierra (“little piece of land”) is a single-movement work that lasts a mere eleven minutes yet nonetheless makes a strong impression. Composed by Angélica Negrón, the work originated out of Cabán's desire to honour the people constituting the Puerto Rican diaspora in the Twin Cities (he being one of them) and their personal stories. While the project is grounded in Minnesota, the stories they share about the challenges of migration and issues having to do with identity, acceptance, longing, adaptation, and resilience will resonate with immigrants everywhere.

What makes the work riveting is the effectiveness with which Negrón weaves oral histories, chamber instruments, and electronics into a multi-hued tapestry that meditates thoughtfully on issues of cultural identity. Puerto Rican-born herself, Negrón is the perfect choice of composer for such a project; that she's someone comfortable operating in classical and electronic milieus also makes the Brooklyn-based composer an excellent fit.

Interviews with the five storytellers—Tamara Ramírez-Torres, María Inés Cerra Castañer, Juan Aponte, Reinaldo Ayala Aponte, and Arturo Steely—were conducted at El Colegio High School by historian and writer Katheryn Lawson, whose text, “'Everyone Should Experience This At Least Once': The Documentary Music of Pedacito de Tierra," accompanies the release and helps illuminate it. As she astutely notes, the project's heart and soul are the stories the five generously shared with Cabán, Negrón, and Lawson at the high school. The Puerto Ricans are united in many ways, yet their experiences are all, of course, different; they're also, however, all relatable as human stories.

As engrossing as their words is the instrumental component, which gradually grows into a mosaic of voices, ethereal electronics, and the acoustic instruments. Tension is generated as the voice and instrumental elements converge and the overall form of the latter develops. As the first storyteller, Ramírez-Torres, shares her feelings of homesickness for her home country and its people, gentle flurries of electronics, flute, and piano brush up against the words; with the arrival of the other voices, the sound design expands in complexity. At times the peaceful murmur of the instruments acts as a calming counterpoint to the intensity of the speakers. Fluttering saxophone patterns join the whispered flurries of electronics as the instrumental mass continues to expand in density. The listener's attention is pulled back and forth between the content of the words and the mutating backdrop. Picture the slow-motion capture of a multi-hued flower blooming and you'll form some basic idea of the work. With its own coupling of spoken and instrumental materials, Steve Reich's The Cave might be seen as a work of kindred spirit, despite its three-act structure and two-hour duration.

October 2025