The title of this work refers to Melquíades, the Gypsy’s room in Gabriel García Márquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude. In this room time passes in a very peculiar way: it is always Monday, and always March. This piece is then based around the fig- ure of Melquíades, who is one of the most intriguing characters in the novel. This orchestral work is not programmatic or narrative. Instead, each movement can be seen as a vignette inspired by the various aspects, or episodes related to Melquíades.

I. Melquíades and the Gypsies Bring Ice to Macondo: Melquíades has his own room in the Buendías' house. In this room, time passes in a circular way (or sometimes it doesn't pass at all). The beginning of the movement alternates between two dif- ferent types of music: that of the beginning, which is mysterious and without a clear sense of pulse, and a second kind of mu- sic, which does have a clear sense of motion yet seems to be stuck in a roll that repeats again and again. Neither music has a clear sense of forward motion, it is as though the music could go on for an eternity. After the alternation of these two different types of music, we arrive at a magical moment in the piece where the the novel’s famous first line is referenced. The opening sentence tells of the episode in which the Patriarch José Arcadio Buendía takes his sons to see the ice that the Gypsies had brought to Macondo. This is a passage of iridescent beauty, which is meant to depict the moment when the children touch the ice, and feel its icy burn for the first time. 

II. Aureliano’s Little Gold Fish: Melquíades is responsible for bringing a variety of new technologies and ideas to Macondo, including alchemy. This area of study fascinates the young Aureliano Buendía, and he begins to make little gold fish, in his attempt to forget all about his love for Remedios the Beauty. The music in this movement is centered around one single motive that is omnipresent, yet always changing. The energy present in the music is reminiscent of the almost industrial zeal with which Aureliano continues to make the gold fish, even melting them once he’s finished so that he may begin again.