Category «Evaluation»

Is There Parnassian Music? (A Brief Look at the Six Pieces for Flute & Piano by Eduardo Calcaño)

Parnassianism was a French poetry movement that developed during the second half of the 19th century. It’s located chronologically after Romanticism and before Symbolism. Theophile Gautier, Leconte de Lisle and José María de Heredia were Parnassian poets; also, Stephane Mallarme and Charles Baudelaire wrote some Parnassian poetry before becoming Symbolists. Parnassians declared art for art’s …

A Brief Overview of Latin American Chamber Music for Winds

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 …

A Reflection on a Perception

Alcides Lanza (1929-) is an Argentinean composer who has been living in Canada since 1971, when he joined the music faculty of McGill University in Montreal. His extensive catalog includes works for conventional instruments as well as for electronic media of various types. I am familiar with only one of his compositions, his Tres piezas …

Female Latin American Composers of Chamber Music in the U.S.

Although chamber music composition in the Americas is still a field largely populated by men, there are nevertheless encouraging signs that this tendency is changing; indeed, since about the 1990s there are increasingly more Latin American women who are gaining prominence and recognition as composers. In this article, I would like to review the contributions …

The Intermixture of Percussion in Latin American Chamber Music

Within the context of Latin American chamber music there is a small subset of compositions that are distinguished by their use of percussion. However, when percussion is added to smaller ensembles its purpose—rather than mainly rhythmic or dynamic—is to create or suggest a particular soundscape or dramatic element. Perhaps the first work in this category …

A Handful (with a few extra fingers) of Notable String Quartets from Latin America

The were few, if any, string quartets composed in Latin America during the 19th century; rather, the earliest examples of music of this type and from this period were composed by Latin Americans in Europe. For example, in 1888 Brazilian composer Alberto Nepomuceno (1864-1920) left his country for Italy, and later moved to Berlin where …