Metro Nativitas, Metro Taxqueña, and Metro Chabacano are stations belonging to one of the lines of the vast Mexico City subway system. My pieces, however, do not seek to portray any particular sonic or visual aspect of the subway. Rather, I hear these pieces like short imaginary cyclical journeys across fleeting urban landscapes. And given their similar inspirational origins and styles I have recently decided to group them under the collective title of Línea 2.

Metro Chabacano has a continuous eighth-note movement of moderately driving speed from which short melodic solos from each instrument emerge in turn. The repeated notes give a false sense of simplicity for, although the phrases are mostly periodic, the rhythms, accents, and fleeting melodic fragments intricately belie the flow of the moto perpetuo.

Metro Chabacano (1988) was commissioned for the Cuarteto Latinoamericano by visual artist Marcos Límenez.

- Javier Alvarez