jmc's classics
When we think of "Indian" we can think of people from India or Native Americans. We get that term from Christopher Columbus' mistake when in 1492 he thought that he had landed in India. The term "Indian" is not politicly correct any more. American Indians now prefer the term "Native Americans" instead of Indian.
Today is the premier of Carlos Chavez's Sinfonia India in 1936 with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the composer conducting. It was his second symphony out of six. This symphony is only in one movement and lasts about 12 minutes. Less than many movement from a works with three or four movements. Some of the movements of Bruckner's symphonies last 20 or more movements-The first movement of Brahms' First Piano Concerto lasts for 22 minutes. This is the most popular of the works of Mexican composer Carlos Chavez(1899-1978). He was also a conductor. Chavez to some extent is to Mexican music what Greig was to Norwegian Music and Dvorak was to Czech music. He was part Spanish and part Indian. His father died when Carlos was three years old. Carlos' father invented a type of plow which is used in the United States. He spent his vacations in Oaxaca and other places with Indian influence. He worked for the Mexican newspaper El Universal starting in 1924. Chavez was friends with American Aaron Copeland. In 1928 he was appointed director of The Mexican National Conservatory in Mexico City where. he led efforts to study native Mexican music. After the Mexican Revolution in 1910, interest grew in Native Mexican culture including music. As a boy he frequently heard the music of Mexican Indians. He started working on this symphony in 1935. It is related to his first symphony. There are three themes in this work. The first is from the Huichol Indians, the second form the Yaqui Indians and the third from the Seri Indians. These are all tribes from the north part of Mexico. The last part makes use of percussions. The first part sounds more European or American to me. The last part does sound like Indian Music. I have heard several versions of this work. The version that I have is of the London Symphony Orchestra with Eduardo Meta conducting. It features Chavez' five other symphonies. This is on the Brilliant Classics label. I am not familiar with this label. The first movement of his Fifth Symphony and the Third movement of his Sixth Symphony last longer than the Second Symphony! The First Symphony is also in one movement. This one is called "Sinfonia de Antigona". It was composed as music for the Ancient Greek Tragedy Antigone. Was based on an Ancient Greek tragedy by Sophoclese. Antigone was a character in Ancient Greek mythology. I am not in to Ancient Greek mythology. I had to study it in school. It was worked in to a play by the French writer Jean Cocteau (1889-1963). I have not seen this play. I don't know much about ancient music. However, Chavez did use some ancient Greek themes in this work. It lasts a little over ten minutes in length. Chavez also wrote chamber music including sting quartets and solo piano music. He wrote one each concerto for piano, violin and trombone. I have not been able to find any recordings of his violin concerto. There are recordings of Native American music available. Some of the American, as well as Canadian and Latin American genres of music are influenced by Native American music!
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
May 2024
Categories |