Danzón no. 2 by Arturo Márquez Arturo Márquez is a Mexican composer, born in 1950. His father and grandfather were both folk musicians and Arturo began composing when he was a teenager.
The dance style danzón comes from Cuba but is an important part of the folklore in Eastern Mexico. Cuban music owes much of its style to African rhythm and dance, including complicated cross-rhythms. Cuban danzón festival
The members of this orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, all started off in youth orchestras all over Venezuela, learning their instruments under a music programme called El Sistema. This started off in 1975, with eleven students in an underground car park! Its founder, José Antonio Abreu, managed to fundraise quickly, and persuade the government that investing in his idea would be worthwhile. Forty years later, El Sistema has 400 music centres training 700,000 young musicians. Many of the musicians were from very poor backgrounds with few positive life opportunities.
From 1999, their principle conductor has been Abreu said "music the Venezuelan-born and very charismatic has to be recognized Gustavo Dudamel who you can see on this video. as an agent of social He himself started off with the El Sistema system, development in the learning violin and conducting. The orchestra highest sense has become very famous and has toured all because it transmits around the world. It is named after Simón Bolívar the highest values — who was a national hero in 19th Century Venezuela and elsewhere in South American solidarity, harmony, nations. He mutual fought hard Type to enter text compassion.”
Activities to do while you listen to this: • Many of the orchestral instruments play solos. Which ones do you recognise? • Dance! Make up your own version of a Cuban danzón • Write down how the music makes you feel • Find words to describe the rhythms of the music • Do you think the musicians are enjoying themselves?
https://youtu.be/ZXeWiixwEz4
And now watch this! At the end of every concert, the musicians play a final piece, an “encore”, wearing jackets with the Traditional Venezuelan colours. This is the wonderful Mambo from West Side Story, played by the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra.
https://youtu.be/RFUmQpjGZXE
And now, for anyone interested in maps, this shows the whole of the USA, Central and South America. See how quickly you can find Mexico, Cuba and Venezuela. How do you think people travelled between these places in the nineteenth century, sharing their music, food and other aspects of their culture?
Jose Abreu Gustavo Dudamel Simon Bolivar
Who is Who? • • • •
Composer Conductor and musical director Nineteenth Century General and President Founder of El Sistema
Arturo Marquez