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F9B16FC6-E257-4C5B-A3F9-68151FEEA52B
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Update Title: F9B16FC6-E257-4C5B-A3F9-68151FEEA52B
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Made up of tightly woven riffs, El Muro suggests a variety of Latin American musical styles, from the Colombian cumbia, Peruvian huayno, Mexican son, and the Cuban montuno. Venezuelan-born composer Ricardo Lorenz personalizes these styles, incorporating them seamlessly without compromising the underlying musical logic of his work. Conceptually, the piece challenges the notion of both physical and imaginary walls which divide and oppress people. The resulting drama that plays out in the piece portrays these rich musical traditions confronting "the wall."
Instrumentation
4(3dPicc).3(3dEH).2+Eb Cl,BCl.2+Cbsn: SATB Saxes: 6.4(C Tpts).3.2 Euph.1: Timp(5 drums).Perc(4).Grand Pno. (Alternate ending requires additional offstage musicians: Cl.ASax.TSax.Metal Plate.Crotali (B4,Eb5).Metal Wind Chimes.Beer Bottle.Double Bass
Commission
Commissioned by American Bandmasters Association and University of Florida.
Dedication
Dedicated to University of Florida
Program Notes
El Muro was composed with the generous support of The American Bandmasters Association/The University of Florida Commissioning Project. The title is Spanish for “the wall.” At a purely musical level, the wall I imagined is a ten-minute long sound structure made up of tightly woven riffs, each suggesting a different style of Latin American music. Some of the styles I suggest are the Colombian cumbia, the Peruvian huayno, the Mexican son, the Cuban montuno, to name a few. My goal was to personalize these styles and to incorporate as many of them as I could without compromising the musical logic of the work. I accomplish this by deriving the riffs from variations of a single folksounding tune heard at the beginning of the work. I pace these riffs and make them interact with more abstract musical elements so as to create drama, build tension, and keep listeners guessing what comes next. At a conceptual level, El Muro is my response to how I feel about walls, whether these walls exist in reality or in our minds. I should mention that I was raised in a South American city where most homes are surrounded by walls topped with barbed wire. To put it simply, I was raised in a land of makeshift fortresses. This is how I learned early on that walls not only exist to delineate space but also to keep people away. In my own imaginary way, El Muro humanizes those people that walls keep away by connecting them to their longstanding cultural traditions. As an adult I learned that these traditions breed soulful, exciting and sometimes even influential music capable of making even the most sturdylooking wall tumble down.
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"The Michigan State performance was on Saturday night. Holy HELL, it was incredible. The whole concert ? Copland, Carter Pann?s piano concerto, a fantastic new piece by Ricardo Lorenz called ?El Muro? (with one of the best endings I've heard in a long time)...Awesome." -- John Mackey, composer www.ostimusic.com/blog "Ricardo Lorenz, on faculty at Michigan State, burst onto the scene with his masterful first work for band, El Muro." -- Steven Bryant www.stevenbryant.com
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