Week 10

Paulo Chagas (1953)

• Born in Brazil but spent many years in Europe where he earned a doctorate in musicology.

• He’s now on the composition faculty at UCR

• Specialty is music technology, or digital music, uses an array of computers and synthesizers

• Founder and Director of UCR’s Experimental Acoustic Reseach Studio (EARS)

• Music grapples with issues of politics and violence

RAW

• is a “techno-opera”

• The characters include Ogun, the Yoruba ( West African) God of war and his three wives along with a general and solider

• atonal

• anti-war message

• Televisions on stage were tuned to live coverage of NATO bombing attacks on Serbia

Gabriela Frank (1972)

• Born in the U.S to a Chinese-Peruvian and a Lithuanian-Jewish father

• Has a Doctorate in Composition from the University of Michigan and now composes and teaches in the Bay

Sonata andina

• Sonata is a genre of instrumental music that originated in the 17th century

1. it uses very advanced techniques of composition, especially in its harmony and rhythm

2. it is extremely virtuosic and can only be played by pianist with great technique

3. uses the keyboard to mimic aspects of Andean folklore, particular a small Andean guitar called a charango, and the panpipes called zamponas

4. exemplifies all these traits and reveals the huge impact that viewing live performances of Peruvian music and dance had on her musical style

Tania Leon

• Born in Cuba in 1943

• Was a prodigy that she moved to NY as a teenager in order to receive advanced training in piano and composition

• Conductor

• African, Asian, and Spanish ancestry

• Taught at Harvard and Yale and is a Distinguished Professor of Composition at the City University of New York

Horizons

• Very Progressive

• post avant-garde including atonality and rhythmic complexities

• Use of Afro-Cuban percussion (claves) and passes in the harp that suggest Andean folklore

• Premiered in 1999 by the North German Radio Symphony

Gustavo Santaolalla (b. 1951)

• Argentine musician

• Hollywood composing scores

• Won Oscars for his film work

• Brokeback Mountain

• Started off with Argentine rock music, called rock nacional

• Move to LA in 1978

Diarios de motocicleta

• won the 2004 award for best film music from the British Academy of Film and Televison Arts

• Talks about Che Guevara who sets out from her Native Argentina to tour South American on a motorcycle. he encounters poverty and injustice, making him into a revolutionary

• associated with the oppressed lower classes

Roberto Sierra (b.1953)

• Retired from Cornell University, was a distinguished career as a professor of composition

• Grew up in Puerto Rico

• setting of Roman Catholic Mass

“Agnus Dei” from Missa Latina “Pro Pace”

• Written between 2003-2006 during the Iraq War, it's a "Mass for peace" using traditional Latin texts.

• Agnus Dei text: "Lamb of God... grant us peace.

• Combines conservative musical style with strident dissonance and free rhythms for emotional impact.

• Features Afro-Caribbean rhythms for a Latin American character.

• Concludes with a joyous Alleluia.

Nationalist, Avant Garde, Colonol