Amadeo Roldán

From Wind Repertory Project
Amadeo Roldán

Biography

Amadeo Roldán y Gardes (12 June 1900, Paris, France – 7 March 1939, Havana, Cuba) was a Cuban composer and violinist.

Roldán moved to Cuba in 1919 after studying music theory and violin at the Madrid Conservatory, graduating in 1916. He became the concertmaster of the new Orquesta Sinfónica de la Habana in 1922. In the mid-1920s he was appointed concertmaster of the Orquesta Filarmónica of Havana (he would assume the position of conductor in 1932) and founded the Havana String Quartet. During this period, Roldán, one of the leaders of the Afrocubanismo movement, wrote the first symphonic pieces to incorporate Afro-Cuban percussion instruments.

Roldán's compositions included Overture on Cuban Themes (1925), three little poems: (Oriente, Pregón, Fiesta negra: 1926), and two ballets: La Rebambaramba (a ballet colonial in two parts: 1928) and El milagro de Anaquille (1929). There followed a series of Rítmicas (1930), Poema negra (1930) and Tres toques (march, rites, dance) (1931). The fifth and sixth of his Rítmicas were among the first works in the Western classical music tradition scored for percussion ensemble alone. In Motivos de son (1934) he wrote eight pieces for voice and instruments based on the poet Nicolas Guillen's set of poems with the same title. His last composition was Piezas infantiles for piano (1937).

His work was regularly featured in concerts sponsored by the Pan-American Association of Composers, founded by Henry Cowell, including the inaugural, March 1929 performance in New York.


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