Música Nueva was released on EGREM by the Instituto Cubano de Amistad con los Pueblos (ICAP), a so-called NGO established in 1960 and used to raise international support after the US 1962 embargo. Electroacoustic music composer Juan Marcos Blanco became director of the ICAP in 1970. As with too many other Cuban releases, the LP is undated and years of composition are omitted. What is known is that Fariñas’ Tientos (presumably Tiento I & II) won first prize during the Biennial for Young Composers in Paris, 1970. Tiento II only is included in this LP. Brouwer’s piece Concierto para Violín y Orquesta was composed 1972. Música Nueva was then possibly released around 1972-75.
Leo Brouwer‘s Concerto is a dreamy, semi-hypnagogic affair where the violin delivers hallucinatory traits amid the orchestra’s oneiric sonorities. The music suggests desolate, surrealist landscapes ala Roberto Matta, with implausible lights, color explosions, and out-of-this-world figures typical from the Chilean painter.
Carlos Fariñas (1934-2002) was a contemporary music composer who turned to electroacoustic and electronic music during the 1980s. He published the Aguas Territoriales – Música Electroacustica LP on EGREM (LD 4230) in 1984. Fariñas founded the Estudio de Música Electroacústica y por Computadoras (EMEC) in 1989, a facility opened to young Cuban composers wanting to compose electronic music. His piece Tiento II on this LP is for piano and percussion. The score makes extensive use of inside the piano and extended piano techniques, while the percussion parallels the unsual keyboard playing with semi-aleatoric sounds from a variety of instruments. The piece deliciously sounds like early AMM, ca. 1966.
Leo Brouwer Concierto para Violín y Orquesta (1972)
01 Toccata I (3:31)
02 Nocturno (6:56)
03 Toccata II (4:50)
Alfredo Muñoz, violin
Orquestra Sinfônica Nacional
Manuel Duchesne Cuzán, cond.
Carlos Fariñas
04 Tiento II (1970) (16:35)
Pura Ortiz, piano
Rafael Somavilla, percussion
Total time 32:12
LP released by EGREM, APLD 202, Cuba, ~1972-75
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FANSTASTIC!!!!!
Thanks, Sergio. More Cuban records to come.
Bravo! Beautiful record!.
You’re welcome.
Thank you.. gracias..wonderful lp…hay mas?
Hi, Stephen. Yes, there’s more Cuban and Brazilian composers scheduled on the blog soon. Thanks for your interest.
Hi – I need background info on Cuban composer Leo Brouwer’s 1964 solo guitar work, Elogio de la danza. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
Some info on Brouwer here, here and here.
Does anyone here know the song from I am Cuba (Soy Cuba) where the children of the peasant farmers are dancing to a beautiful Cuban song? I think it was composed by Carlos Farinas but don’t know how to get hold of a copy. I would LOVE to find it!