ABSTRACT
In this chapter, Mexican flutist, improviser, and composer Wilfrido Terrazas narrates several moments of his personal history to trace back (“to draw a trajectory”) the significant presence of the US–Mexican border in his life and work. Terrazas speaks about his early experiences as a border-crossing music student, as well as later and current music-making experiences and how they influence his work. He also elaborates on how he has used the border as a metaphor in bringing together seemingly opposite musical concepts and activities, such as composition, improvisation, and performance, in his recent works. In order to do this, he presents some of his explorations in musical notation and goes on to expound two important concepts of his devising, namely, mobile temporality and growth modules.
