Colorines is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, written in 1932.
Colorines is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, written in 1932.
The score of Colorines was completed in May 1932. [1] [2] Although Otto Mayer-Serra says it was composed in 1933, this cannot be correct, [3] because it was performed on 4 November 1932 at the New School for Social Research, PAAC Chamber Orchestra, Nicolas Slonimsky, conducting. [4] Deane Root, however, gives the year of composition as 1930 (apparently quoting from the programme for that 1932 performance), and also cites a programme given on 30 April 1933 in Havana (Conciertos de la Filarmónica, La Habana, Dos Conciertos de Musica Nueva, Teatro Nacional.) also conducted by Slonimsky, that included Colorines. [5]
Colorín (plural colorines) is the name of a type of tree, Erythrina americana , or Coral Tree, also called Tzompāmitl. The word colorín means color chillón—a “gaudy” or “loud” color. [6] The score of Colorines "not only evokes the deep color that the trees of this name give to the landscape, but also the feelings of the Indian women wearing necklaces made of the red and black fruit of this tree, or of children playing with them". [7]
The work is scored for a chamber orchestra of piccolo, oboe, E♭ clarinet, B♭ clarinet, one or two bassoons, horn, trumpet, trombone, xylophone, drum, cymbal, bass drum, sonajas (maracas), violins I, violins II, and contrabasses.
Colorines, like most of Revueltas's single-movement works, is constructed in a ternary ABA form, with a fast-slow-fast tempo structure. The arrangement of tempos is a natural consequence of the lyrical development of melodic thematic materials as they progressively unfold the narrative of the work. [8]
By the early 1930s it was clear that Mexican audiences preferred compositions in which nationalism was represented not by the pre-Columbian element of Mexican culture, but rather by mestizo, popular music. By this time, Revueltas had developed a style in which, in a collage-like texture, disparate musical elements from Mexico’s cultural soundscape (the popular, the modern, the urban, the peasant, the Indian, the military, the street life, the market, or the dance) were often juxtaposed so that they often collided. Revueltas did not mean these materials to coexist peacefully. Although the music sometimes celebrates the plurality and vitality of Mexican society, there is audible violence of conflict of cultures, and between premodern and modern social structures. This style was sometimes manifested in a harsh, abstract, and modernist style, and these works, such as Esquinas and Ventanas (both of 1931) were not well received by audiences, but the more lyrical and tonal examples such as Colorines were warmly praised. [9]
Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez was a Mexican composer of classical music, a violinist and a conductor.
José Pablo Moncayo García was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationalism in art music, after Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez." He produced some of the masterworks that best symbolize the essence of the national aspirations and contradictions of Mexico in the 20th century.
Homenaje a Federico García Lorca is a work for chamber orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.
The Night of the Mayas is a 1939 Mexican film. It was directed by Chano Urueta. The film, which is called a "Mexican tragedy" set in the times of the Mayas, is remembered today for its musical score by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas.
Sinfonía de Antígona is Carlos Chávez's Symphony No. 1, composed in 1933. The music originated as theatre music to accompany the tragedy of Antigone, hence the title of the symphony. The material was reworked into a single movement and rescored for a large orchestra. It lasts about 11 minutes in performance.
Sinfonía india is Carlos Chávez's Symphony No. 2, composed in 1935–36. In a single movement, its sections nevertheless follow the traditional pattern for a three-movement symphony. The title signifies the fact that the thematic material consists of three melodies originating from native-American tribes of northern Mexico. The symphony is Chávez's most popular composition.
Symphony No. 5, also called Sinfonía para cuerdas is a composition for string orchestra by Carlos Chávez, composed in 1953.
Janitzio is a symphonic poem by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, composed in 1933 and revised in 1936. A performance lasts about 15 minutes. The work is a portrait of Janitzio Island in Lake Pátzcuaro, Mexico.
Grupo de los Cuatro is the name adopted by a group of four young Mexican composers in 1935, who organized together with the aim of propagating new music, particularly their own.
Caballos de vapor, sinfonía de baile is a ballet score composed by the Mexican composer Carlos Chávez in 1926–32. An abridged concert version is published as Suite sinfónica del ballet Caballos de vapor.
La noche de los mayas is a film score by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas for the 1939 film of the same name, which relates to Mexico's pre-Columbian heritage. Revueltas's score consists of 36 sequences without any organic relation to one another, composed to be easily fitted to an already-edited film. The work is best known in the symphonic suite extracted by the Mexican conductor José Yves Limantour, whose arrangement extensively alters Revueltas' original score.
Redes is a film score by Silvestre Revueltas for the 1936 eponymous film directed by Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel. Redes means "nets" in Spanish. It was the composer's first film score, begun in 1934, when he visited the film crew on location in Alvarado, Veracruz. The film concerns the efforts of exploited fishermen to unite. In the US it was issued as The Wave.
Planos (Planes) is a chamber-music composition by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, also slightly enlarged and scored for full orchestra and published under its alternate title, Danza geométrica. Both versions were composed in 1934, and the scores are both dedicated to the architect Ricardo Ortega.
Cuauhnáhuac is an orchestral composition by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. It exists in three versions, the first for string orchestra, the other two for full orchestra with winds and percussion. The first version takes nearly 15 minutes to perform, while the third lasts only about 11 minutes.
Ventanas (Windows) is an orchestral work by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, written in 1931. A performance of it lasts about 11 minutes.
Esquinas (Corners) is an orchestral composition by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, written in 1931 and extensively revised in 1933. The first version is in two movements with a duration of about 11 minutes in performance; the second is variously described as being in one or in three (continuous) movements with a total duration of about seven minutes. The scores of both versions are dedicated to Ángela Acevedo.
Alcancías is a composition for small orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, written in 1932. It is in three movements with a total duration in performance of about eight minutes.
Xochipilli, subtitled "An Imagined Aztec Music", is a short composition for four wind instruments and six percussionists by the Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, written in 1940. Its original title was Xochipilli-Macuilxóchitl, which is the double name of an Aztec god in two of his aspects, meaning "Flower Prince" and "Five Flower".
Soli I is the first of a series of four works by the Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, each called Soli and each featuring a succession of instrumental solos. Three of these compositions are chamber music, and the remaining one is a sort of concerto grosso for four soloists and orchestra. This first work of the series is a quartet for oboe, clarinet, bassoon, and trumpet.
Footnotes
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| Chamber music | |
| Film scores | |
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