De jaque, sal gala y luna (1999) is subtitled Hommage to Pedro Infante, the actor and singer from Mexican cinema's golden age who is still a popular idol. Waller says that his work “is not an adaptation but an exuberant distoration of “Deja que salga la lunaâ€, a song by Jose Alfredo Jimenez that Infante used to court his lady loves to great effect. As the title suggests, I undertake a series of manipulations of the original; the end result is a conversion into violin idioms which relies on fragmentation, texture and virtuosity as dramatic features.†The wordplay alluded to by Waller arises from breaking up and regrouping the syllables of “Deja que salga la luna†(Just wait for the moon to rise), resulting in “De jaque, sal, gala y luna†(Of attack, salt, gala and moon). Waller continues: “Thanks to contrasts of color and gesture, the work moves in different planes. As it develops, the original material becomes ever more remote, deformed and mutilated.†This piece is dedicated to Julija Hartig, for whom it was written for and who plays on these excerpts.
