Soli II

The Solis belong to the more "experimental", high-modernist strand of Chávez's compositional output, in contrast to the more traditional character of most of the large-ensemble works.

3 for harp, 1967) and the orchestral compositions Resonancias (1964), Elatio (1967), Discovery, Clio (both 1969), and Initium (1973), features an abstract, atonal musical language based on the principle of non-repetition.

Soli II is in five movements, which are played without a break: The suite-like design suggests a neoclassical formal approach, but a constantly evolving treatment of materials in the five movements masks the subtle use of repetition of slight motives and row forms within the continually evolutionary process characteristic of Chávez's work.

[5] As in the other works in the Soli series, each movement features a different solo instrument, though the others are rarely absent, and its harmonic language draws equally on diatonic and chromatic scales, while remaining resolutely atonal.

[8] In fact, both the Aria and the Sonatina are based almost exclusively on all-combinatorial twelve-tone rows with inherent repetitive properties.