Terry Riley conceived his two-movement suite, Dias de los Muertos, as a musical exploration of the untimely and unexpected ways in which Death manifests itself. This idea was inspired by a passage in the writings of Carlos Casteneda, in which Don Juan warns Carlos to always be on the lookout for Death, because it is always lurking nearby and can appear without warning. Riley extrapolates this concept into two musical scenarios, which are executed by an acoustic guitarist and a percussionist. The first of the two movements, bearing the title "Innocencia—Se Aparace la Muerte Inocentemente por la tarde" (Innocence: Death Appears Innocently in the Afternoon"), begins with the guitar in a series of blunt figurational statements punctuated by tiny cymbals. This texture gradually coalesces into a more coherent dialogue between the guitar and the marimba, which trade figurations and execute clever countermelodies that spiral into and out of each other. Eventually the marimba assumes a more accompanimental role, and delegates duties to the tabla and other drums, while the guitar indulges in more lyrical and virtuosic play. By the end of the movement the guitar has fallen into a steady stream of angular chords, stepping in strict time with the expressionless beat of the drums—vividly depicting the narrative suggested by Riley's title. The title of the second movement is slightly less ominous: "La Muerte en Medias Caladas Negras" ("Death Appears in Black Fishnet Stockings"). The movement begins with mysterious and sometimes coy exchanges between the marimba and guitar, in what sound like some king of Spanish "Dance of the Seven Veils." In fact, the composer tells us that the movement, which he counts among his favorite compositions, was "inspired by a private concert I gave for a certain American Holyman whose female devotees were exposing lots of bare belly and naval"—and wearing black fishnet stockings. The dance of seduction that comprises this movement is this a dance of death disguised as a beautiful woman. The movement alternates between fits of busy tension and languorous repose, finally settling into a kind of ethereal dream-state in which the guitar and marimba are kept in check by the intermittent clap of a high hat. As the title suggests, however, the movement ends not in amorous bliss but deception and death; indeed, instead of a final cadential resolution, we are left with an utterly irresolute dissonance.



Though an independent piece commissioned for and recorded by guitarist David Tanenbaum and percussionist William Winant in 1998, Dias de los Muertos forms one portion of a larger project by Riley, a series of works for solo guitar or guitar with one other instrument, all inspired by Spanish musical styles and all bearing Spanish names. The collection as a whole is comprised of suites as well and individual numbers, collected under the mythical and entirely fictitious title, The Book of Abbeyozzud.

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