[Rítmicas; Tambuco Percussion Ensemble; Dorian 90245 (1997). Centenario Natalicio de Amadeo Roldan (Centennial of Birth of Amadeo Roldan) Cuba Stamp 2000]
Amadeo Roldán (1900-1939) was an Afro-Cuban composer, violinist, conductor and professor. He was born in Paris to Cuban parents on July 12, 1900, we learn from Prof. Dominique-René de Lerma, Professor at Lawrence University, whose website is http://www.CasaMusicaledeLerma.com. Prof. De Lerma has compiled the complete works of Amadeo Roldán, which are featured at AfriClassical.com.
He points out that Roldán's full name was Amadeo Roldán y Gardes. He
also tells us Roldán was only 5 years old when he began studying the
violin.
Roldán
graduated from the Madrid Conservatory in 1916 after studying music
theory and violin. He later took private lessons in composition from
Conrado el Campo, according to Prof. De Lerma. The young musician also
played the violin on tour in Spain. Prof. De Lerma continues: “He
moved to Havana in 1919 and became a student of Pedro Sanjuan. In 1924
he became concertmaster of Havana's Orquesta Filarmonica and, following
the death of Sanjuan, its conductor.”
Roldán was promoted to conductor of the Orquesta Filarmonica in 1932. Suite de La Rebambaramba (8:56) and Rítmica V
(2:42) were recorded on CD by the New World Symphony, conducted by
Michael Tilson Thomas, Argo 436 737 2 (1993). In the liner notes Simon
Wright appraises Amadeo Roldán's role in the classical music of Cuba:
“An enthusiastic conductor and composer, Roldán put 'serious' Cuban
music on the map by primarily bringing Afro-Cuban rhythms and sounds to
the concert hall. They were the inspiration behind the ballet La Rebambaramba (1827-28), based on a scenario by Alejo Carpentier depicting Havana's low-life on the day of Epiphany in 1830.”
Carol
J. Oja writes in her book “Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s”,
Oxford University Press (2000), that the Pan American Association of
Composers performed works of Amadeo Roldán and other Latin American
composers at its March 1929 concert in New York. The Tambuco Percussion
Ensemble has recorded Roldán's Rítmica V (2:14) and Rítmica VI (2:00), both composed in 1930, on the CD Rítmicas, Dorian 90245 (1997). The liner notes compare these to Edgar Varése's Ionisation.
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