Alap

Death, that most unavoidable common fate, robbed us of a great Montreal composer in January 2023. Through his works, and his many students who now lead bright careers in composition, José Evangelista forever changed the musical and cultural landscape of Quebec. Born in 1943 in Valencia, Spain, Evangelista moved to Montreal in 1970 and began his studies in composition with André Prévost and Bruce Mather. He quickly excelled and became a defining figure of contemporary music, cofounding with Lorraine Vaillancourt and Claude Vivier Les Événements du neuf, an organization dedicated to presenting concerts of new music. 

 Strongly drawn to Southeast Asian musical styles, he travelled to Bali, Java, and Myanmar, learning to play the gamelan and the Burmese piano. With the aim of showcasing this music back home, he also took part in founding the concert society Traditions musicales du monde, dedicated to promoting non-Western music. 

 Alap & Gat is a fine example of José Evangelista’s fascination with Eastern musical idioms: this piece is based on a musical structure from the north of India. Broadly speaking, the Alap is a slow introduction which presents a piece’s mode and melodic motif, while the Gat is a fast and rhythmical section whose melody is repeated in multiple ways as it steadily accelerates. 

 “I designed my piece based on these ideas. The first part, Alap, slowly explores the notes of the melody, from low to high. The second part, Gat, is pulsating music organized over a long accelerando. The piece ends with a coda which resumes the character of the beginning.” 

—José Evangelista 

 Evangelista dedicated this work to his friend and longstanding collaborator Lorraine Vaillancourt, as well as to the musicians of the Nouvel ensemble moderne, who premiered Alap & Gat on April 29, 1998.