Dances and Meditations for Viola and Guitar-L. Coral (mexican composer)

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    Leonardo Coral is one of the Mexican composers most active. His works have been premiered and played by the main orchestras and artists in Mexico, the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia, and Latinoamerica. Besides, he has 23 CDs with his works of chamber music and orchestra, actually maestro Coral teaches at the National University of Mexico.

    

    He began with the piano and at 18 years old he started to study in the Faculty of Music of the National University, where he studied with Federico Ibarra. His first work was a piano piece: Preludio (1982), and now his catalog has more than 130 works, Cycle of life and death was the work with which he obtained the master's degree. Into his work, he has some viola pieces, Coral has written Triptych for Viola and Piano, Visions for Viola and Piano, Concerto for Viola and Chamber Orchestra, Hallucinations for Viola alone, and Dances and Meditations for Viola and Guitar (this is the piece we are listening to).

    Dances and Meditations was written and dedicated to Dúo Ditirambo, with violist Noelia Gómez and guitarrist Alfonso Aguirre. The work was premiered in 2020 and has six movements: I-Ritual Inmemorial, II-Fluir del tiempo, III-Pasos del Ayer, IV-Ríos Interiores (Blues surreal), V-Introspección, VI-Son cubista. The work in general has quiet movements loaded with nostalgia, although the last movement presents a change of tempo more quick.

    

    Finally, it is important to mention the performance of the Duo Ditirambo, a group founded in 2008 while they were studying at Yale University. They have played in Europe, the USA, and Mexico; they want to diffuse the works of the composers from Iberoamerica.

See you next Monday!

Luis Chab

References:

https://www.posgrado.unam.mx/musica/div/docentes/personal_docente/coral.html#:~:text=Leonardo%20Flaviano%20Coral%20Garc%C3%ADa&text=Ha%20compuesto%20m%C3%A1s%20de%20130,23%20CD%20con%20su%20m%C3%BAsica.

https://sacm.org.mx/Informa/Biografia/27453