Latinas: Music by Women composers and arrangers.

­Program Notes, Latinas concert Spring 2014

Today’s concert is the result of this year’s research at the Women’s Studies Research Center at Brandeis University, where I am a resident scholar. It presents women composers and arrangers from different historical periods, music styles, and countries. Alas, South America is too big a continent to pour it all into one concert. That is why I will concentrate on a few countries and apologize for my Venezuelan bias, as I could not trim down the pieces from my country of origin.

We will experience today how Early Music is interrelated with folk music, how art music and popular music can coexist, and how the unifying thread of woman creators can bring us enrichment, catharsis, and joy.

We begin the concert with the oldest piece in the program. We are certain that Teodora Ginés (Dominican Republic–Cuba? 1530–1598) existed and that she was a musician, but we cannot be certain that she composed this piece because the extant manuscript dates from a much later century. It is certainly an example of the mix of music cultures: a Spanish-sounding melody and harmony, and reminiscences of the rhythms and call-and-response native to African traditions. Today we perform this simple “son” in an arrangement by Francisco Vielma, our percussionist.

The next two pieces have texts by the famous Mexican poet Sor Inés de la Cruz, but the music is considered anonymous, perhaps just because it is not possible to prove that de la Cruz wrote it. This example is illustrative of the current state of research in South America about historical women composers in the early period.

We now make a dramatic turn, not only by moving on to the southern part of South America (Chile and Argentina) but also in the musical language. Christine Gevert’s “Soneto a Laura” is in an avant-garde language, but it is clear that the composer draws on the Renaissance tradition of vocal writing. The viola da gamba and the harpsichord are added to the vocal mix, creating a unique composition.

Although we stay in Chile, we have another dramatic turn with the tonal and popular song “Gracias a la Vida,” by Violeta Parra (1917–1967), here in an arrangement by Nelson Gutiérrez. Although it was conceived for voice and instruments, we were happy to find that the beauty of the piece is brought out more by the use of unaccompanied voices.

We end this section on the southern hemisphere with “Milonga de mis amores” composed by Pedro Laurenz (1937) and arranged for us by Christine Gevert. We decided to add two percussion and bass solos to give Sarah Cantor a chance to change recorders within the piece.

We end the first half of this program with the music of Consuelo Velázquez, the composer of one of the most famous “boleros” of all time: “Bésame mucho” (1941). She composed both music and words. Today we have an arrangement by Esther Rojas, who is also one of our two bass players, the other being Tal Shalom-Kobi. In the second half of the song, Ms. Rojas changes “Bésame mucho” into a Landó rhythm, a very popular musical style in Peru that mixes Spanish and African rhythms. 

The second half of the program takes us to Venezuela. It begins with a contemporary composer, Diana Arismendi. We will perform about two minutes of her eleven-minute Stabat Mater. The movement called “Dejame llorar” (let me cry) does stand alone as a single piece. [Here is my little comment about Venezuela and the performance of this this piece

We continue with the music of Adina Izarra, another living composer. Ms. Izarra’s “Desde una ventana con loros” (From a window with parrots) is an exploration of an instrument’s sonority. It was originally written for modern guitar, but we found that the harpsichord lent itself perfectly well to this aleatoric and minimalistic piece.

Another piece by Ms. Izarra, “El amolador,” reflects a Venezuelan tradition of people carrying trunks who came to our neighborhoods offering to sharpen our cooking knives. We could not help ourselves throwing in a little rhythmic nuance, changing the meter to duple for a small portion of the piece and then going back to triple time, and ending with the final variation of Narvaez’ “Las vacas” superimposed on the last bit of Modesta’s Polo arrangement.

We continue with Bor’s arrangement of folkloric music from Venezuela. To her “Fulia de Cumaná” we added a short introduction based on traditional melodies. The Fulia and all the following pieces are from the eastern coast of Venezuela, where she was born. This piece accompanied the rites of the May cross (on May 3rd). It is a traditional feast in honor of the cross on which Christ died: that is to say, a Christian celebration that coincides with the some of the indigenous celebrations of the area in honor of nature. This music is not danced but rather used in procession, with someone holding up a cross as they walk. 

We continue with a short vocal original composition “Mariposa del aire,” performed in its entirety on the guitar and then by the voices alone as it was originally written. (We dedicated this piece to the Mariposa Museum in NH)

We end our concert with Modesta Bor’s “Aguinaldo Margariteño.” Feel free to join in and sing along. The text is in this program. Thank you for attending our concert. We look forward to your comments.  

                                                                                                         © Laury C. Gutiérrez