Release Date: 01 February 2004
Label: Naxos / Naxos Classics
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 747313588725
Genres: Classical
Composer/Series: Guitar Music from Cuba
Description
Cuban Guitar MusicCuban culture is essentially an amalgam of three dominantfactors: 400 years of Spanish colonial rule, ending in 1901; the impact ofreligion as a result of white and African slave immigration; and the 60-yearexposure to North American culture, ended by the 1959 revolution.Latin-American flexibility facilitated the assimilation of all these elementsinto the national culture. It is easy to see how these influences have shapedCuban music, which now incorporates Afro-Cuban rhythms, twentieth century harmonies,characterized by the juxtaposition of major and minor modes, and elements ofjazz and impressionism - typically in the music of Jose Antonio Rojas - as wellas traditional European forms of composition - as in the melancholy Suite breveof Harold Gramatges. One of the finest solo instruments for best givingexpression to this unique aspect of Cuban musical culture is the guitar. Themusic on this recording ranges from the popular appeal of the son montuno, thecountry dance form found especially in the Oriente region, to the contemporaryharmonization of Yoruba melodies by Hector Angulo. All the pieces convey adiverse picture of Cuba in music that is nostalgic yet fresh-sounding,elaborate yet pure in its relative simplicity of expression. Jose Antonio (?æico) Rojas Beoto was born in Havana in 1921.A civil engineer, guitarist and composer, he is one of the exponents of theso-called 'Feeling' trend in Cuban music, which brought about a revival inCuban popular song in the 1940s. His works combine the sonority of the guitarwith the complex rhythmic and melodic elements of Cuban traditional music. Hislanguage is defined by an improvisatory influence, and this is noticeable inre-expositions of themes and in passages where the melody combines with a freerhythm. Carlos Farinas was born in Cienfuegos in 1934 and studiedfirst at Santa Clara. In 1948 he entered the Conservatorio Municipal de M??sicain Havana, where he studied with Harald Gramatges. He joined the SociedadCultural Nuestro Tiempo in 1950, an organization for the promotion ofcontemporary Cuban music, and in 1956 studied composition at Tanglewood withAaron Copland, and conducting with Eleazar de Carvalho and Seymour Lipkin. Hecompleted his studies at the Havana Conservatorio in 1957. His earlycompositions were strongly influenced by nationalism and neo-classicism. From1961 to 1963 he studied in Moscow, and in 1969 won a prize at the Fourth ParisBiennale for his Tiento II, an example of avantgarde work of the time. He wasinvolved in the establishment of the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional and served asdirector of the Conservatorio Alejandro Garcia Caturla. From 1966 to 1976 hewas director of the music section of the Biblioteca Nacional Jose Marti, andheld the chair of composition at the Instituto Superior de Arte. In 1989 he setup the Estudio de M??sica Electroac??stiva y por Computadora (EMEC), a reflectionof the later direction his music took. He died in 2002. The Preludio hererecorded w
Tracklisting
Dariia Lytvishko
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra; Marin Alsop
Alice Di Piazza; Basel Sinfonietta; NDR Bigband; Titus Engel
Anna Alas i Jove; Miquel Villalba
David Childs; Black Dyke Band; Nicholas Childs
Yaqi Yang; Margarita Parsamyan; Robynne Redmon; Minghao Liu; Frank Ragsdale; Kim Josephson; Kevin S
Vilmos Csikos; Olivier Lechardeur; Manon Lamaison
Tomas Cotik; Martingale Ensemble; Ken Selden
