Pasaje Abierto Edín Solís (1963)
Beckie Ray Tico (1928-2007)
Brazilian Suite No. 4 Sergio Assad Caterete (1952)
Jongo Toada Batuque
Choro da saudade Agustín Barrios (1885-1944)
Colombian Suite No. 3
Gentil Montaña Dreamer’s song (Pasillo) (1942-2011)
I never forget you (Danza)
Daniela (Guabina)
Germán (Bambuco)
Porro
Euclídica Javier Contreras (1983)
"Latinoamérica Viva" is a program made up entirely of works that reflect the folklore of different Latin American countries, Brazil, Colombia, Chile and Costa Rica, showing their similarities and also their differences, from the point of view of five composers who went to their roots to combine the sonorities of folk music with the compositional techniques of academic music and the possibilities of the classical guitar.
The idea of this program is to mix music by composers who are already part of the guitar canon such as Agustín Barrios and Gentil Montaña with living and still active composers such as Sergio Assad, Edín Solís and Javier Contreras, along with the Costa Rican singer-songwriter Ray Tico, who also contributed to the guitar repertoire with the work Beckie. In this way, it gives voice to today's composers who continue to create new works for the instrument while at the same time keeping alive the legacy of Latin composers who were pioneers in bringing traditional music from rural areas to concert halls.
All these works are challenging, because of the technical level required for their execution, but also because of the complexity of achieving that balance between academic music with the folkloric essence of each dance that inspired each movement of the suites of Montaña and Assad or the short but demanding works of Barrios, Contreras and Ray Tico. The idea is to make a journey through each country and its different regions through music since it has the power to transmit emotions, but also images and take the audience to know a little of what Latin America means to each of these composers.
“Beckie” by Ray Tico
This is a work written by Costa Rican singer-songwriter Ramón Jacinto Herrera, artistically known as Ray Tico. This composer is famous in Costa Rica for his songs, mainly boleros in the style of the "Filin" movement in Cuba, where he lived part of
his life and where he was the only non-Cuban who was part of this movement. "Beckie" is an instrumental piece that he used to play on the guitar sometimes accompanied by percussion, but he never wrote it in the score. It was the Argentine guitarist Ricardo Moyano who transcribed the piece to score, adding in the middle part a variation of the theme made by himself, in a section where Ray Tico used to improvise. In this work, Ray Tico introduces elements of different rhythms from Latin America. At the beginning, the work sounds like Brazilian “Samba” because of the rhythm of the accompaniment and the chords it uses, later there are sections where Ray Tico demonstrates his approach to Cuba through certain syncopations and “tumbao” in the style of the Cuban "son" and even his Costa Rican roots can be noted in the use of some basses and melodies that refer to the "calypso limonense", traditional Caribbean music from Costa Rica.
“Brazilian
Sergio Assad's "Brazilian Suite No. 4" is a set of 4 dances dedicated to Brazilian guitarist Paulo Martinelli. This work reflects Brazil's rural and African heritage. The first dance is called "Caterete", a very popular style in rural areas that has its origins in Indigenous music, specifically by the caboclos, which is how an ethnic group from the Amazonian part of Brazil that emerged from the miscegenation of Indigenous and Europeans is known. "Toada", also from the caboclos, is a style of free song, performed at popular festivals and other cultural activities. The third is "Jongo", which has its origins in the African dances brought by slaves to Brazil. It has a similar structure to spirituals, a call-answer system in an improvisational way starting with a soloist and followed by the group's answer. Finally, "Batuque" is the last movement, which is a generic name given to the percussion music played by slaves in their rituals or in their free time. It is built on a rhythmic cell of a dotted eight-note with a sixteenth note that is repeated every other beat in a 4/4-time signature.
“Choro da saudade” by Agustín
Barrios
This work was written by one of the most important guitarists in history, the Paraguayan Agustín Barrios. He composed a huge number of works for guitar that today are still present in the programs of most guitarists in the world, and the "Choro da Saudade" is undoubtedly one of his most emblematic works. Based on the "choro", which is an instrumental musical genre from Brazil, which have a rhythmic base played by guitars, a stringed instrument called “cavaquinho” and "pandeiro" (tambourine), while melodic instruments are played highlighting the virtuosity and ability to improvise of the performers. Barrios composed this work at a time when he was living for a few years in Brazil, inspired after listening to the guitarist and composer Joao Pernambuco in Rio de Janeiro, and synthesizes very well all the traditional elements of the choro with melodies of an improvisatory nature contrasting with more rhythmic sections. The word "Saudade" means nostalgia, so the meaning of the title is "Nostalgic Choro", although the word choro also means crying in Portuguese. So, in this case, the title "Nostalgic Cry" also refers to the melancholic and sad character with which the work begins.
“Colombian Suite No. 3” by Gentil Montaña
This work, like Sergio Assad's suite, is a set of folkloric dances from the composer's country of origin Colombia, composed by the Colombian guitarist and composer Gentil Montaña. The 4 suites for solo guitar of Gentil Montaña are compilations of works that were originally conceived independently but the composer himself grouped them in this suite format similar to the common practice of the Baroque period. In this suite, he used a variety of rhythms typical of the Colombian Andean region. In addition to drawing on his roots, Montaña uses compositional resources inspired by the suites of J. S. Bach, such as the treatment of counterpoint, the binary form in each movement and certain harmonic resources. The first movement is called “Dreamer’s Song”, in this piece Montaña used the rhythm of pasillo, an Andean dance in 3 beats with a lyrical character. Then, he introduced two slow dances, the danza called “I Never Forget You” a folkloric dance in 2/4 and “Daniela”
dedicated to his daughter, in a dance similar to a waltz called Guabina. To finish, he used two fast dances, the Bambuco “Germán” dedicated to his son, and the last movement is the only dance that is not from the Andes, but from the Caribbean coast called “Porro”, a more party and marked genre.
This work by living Chilean composer and guitarist Javier Contreras is inspired by the rhythm of "Tonada", a folkloric musical style from Chile, also present in other parts of Latin America with roots in Spain. It is very similar to another musical style from Chile called "Cueca", with the difference that the cueca is more rhythmic, to be danced, while the tonada is freer and more lyrical and is not usually danced. One of the elements of the tune is that the accents of the 6/8 and 3/4 meters are combined, sometimes feeling the bass in 3 beats and the accompaniment or melody in 2. This is something characteristic of many rhythms throughout Latin America and that also has its origins in Spanish music. Javier Contreras is a guitar virtuoso, so he shows his skills with fast and difficult passages in his works, and this piece is an example of this. It is very challenging technically, but thanks to its accessible language the work is easy to enjoy. Because of these complex passages and having very rhythmic sections, the work also presents some of the characteristics of the cueca, representing the two most important musical styles of Chilean folklore.