A forum for the appreciation of all things related to the classical music of Latin America.
Background and Analysis. Composed in Florence, Italy, in July 1901, Henrique Oswald’s Ofelia is a five-song setting of poetry in Italian by Solone Monti.1)The titles of the songs are (in order), *******, “Ofelia,” “Il Genio della Foresta,” “L’Angelo del Cimitero,” and “La Morta.” Except for his association with biographer and writer Dame Iris Margaret Origo—Monti …
Teresa Carreño finished the composition of her Serenade for String Orchestra on September 13, 1895 during a summer stay in Pertisau, a small village located on the Archensee Lake of the Austrian Tyrol. She visited Pertisau for the purpose of resting from her busy concert touring engagements while meeting with a group of piano students …
With the notable exception of a few early examples, the era of Latin American chamber music for wind instruments began with a smattering of compositions around the period of the First World War. One of the first of these, Villa-Lobos’s Sextuor mystique (1917), for flute, oboe, saxophone, celeste, harp and guitar, was followed with a …
Not only in Venezuela, but also throughout Latin America, 19th century secular music was largely dominated by opera and to a lesser extent, zarzuela and ballet. Indeed, at the beginning of that century the citizens of Caracas were treated to season after season of foreign troupes that staged a mostly well-worn repertory of dramatic works …