Roldán’s Obertura sobre temas cubanos

1925-01-01 · 1925

In 1925, conductor Pedro Sanjuan premiered Amadeo Roldán’s Overture on Cuban Themes (Obertura sobre temas cubanos) in Havana. Near the end, Afro-Cuban percussion plays alone — something concert music had barely done. This is Roldán’s first orchestra work to give Afro-Cuban drums a real part. In 1930 he went further with Rítmicas, short pieces written for percussion alone. “Even though it is not a completely accomplished work, one can say that the premiere of this Obertura constituted the most important event in Cuban musical history of the twentieth century (as of this writing), in terms of influence and implications.” — Alejo Carpentier, Cuban novelist and music historian, Music in Cuba, trans. Alan West-Durán, ed. Timothy Brennan (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2001), p. 271.

Genres: Música clásica