Guatemala

Description

RicardoCastillo (1894 - 1966) Guatemala Ricardo Castillo was born in Quetzaltenango on 1st October, 1891 and died in Guatemala City on 25th May, 1966. His childhood interest in music persuaded his mother, fulfilling one of his father's great wishes, to send him to Paris to study the subject.From 1906to 1922 he lived in Europe, studying violin with A. Lefort and harmony withPaul Vidal. Gradually, he focused on composition, abandoning his violinstudies. During his stay in Paris he composed his first piano works, publishedin that city and in 1918 married Georgette Contoux Quante, a French pianist whohad obtained the Prize for Excellence as a pupil of Alfred Cortot at theConservatoire. They moved to Guatemala in 1922 and a few years later Castillowas appointed harmony, composition and music history professor at the NationalConservatory of Music. In 1948, using three different pseudonyms, Castillo wonthe three prizes at the Science, Literature and Arts National Contest inGuatemala and in 1951 the same prize in that contest with his Eight PianoPreludes.Castillonever showed special interest in opera, the Lied or choral music and for thisreason his personality reflects the autochthonous musical culture of Guatemala rather than the use of limited melodic contours or rhythmical formulae offolklore music. Musical culture in the pre-Columbian civilization in thisregion was merely instrumental; expression through the human voice was not asappreciated or developed as in other civilizations.The orchestral work of Castillo is symphonic (Sinfonieta, Xibalba) or dramatic (ballets La Doncella Ixquic and Paal Kaba). His piano works are mainly descriptive (Escenas Infantiles, El Agua que Corre, Guatemala: impressiones, Poema Pastoral, San Andres Xecul. The series of Nocturnes, Preludes and the Seven Piano Pieces contains his only abstract musical compositions.RicardoCastillo was largely a composer of short pieces, and the attraction of his musicderives from a certain quality and freshness of ideas, as well as his candour,bordering on ingenuousness. Paal Kaba The music for the Paal Kaba ballet is Ricardo Castillo's most complete and elaborate work. Its composition took so long that it makes one reflect on the fact that Paal Kaba took up a long period of the composer's creative activity, owing to the fact that we can foretell this ballet elaboration from his works in 1940.Paal Kaba's subject is based on a Mayan legend which tells of the sacrifice of a young maiden in honour of the young God of Corn so that there would be many fruitful crops.After being painted blue, Paal Kaba is sacrified before the villagers in Tikal's Central Temple after the priest has performed an exorcism in order to dispel the evil spirits. The Paal Kaba's sacrifice is followed by the ceremony where several ritual dances are performed, and it is during the culminating moment of the War Dance that the God of Corn, unexpectedly, falls and is destroyed. This i