Tania León - Rítmicas (2019)

00:00 I - A sturdy clave groove drives wild, almost improvisatory gestures from the ensemble
01:36 II - Lyrical inventions overlapping in free rhythm form a delirious soundscape
03:10 The clave groove returns to restore order, and the ensemble takes on jazzy, forward-moving lines
06:04 ...before falling back into the delirious state of before
07:30 III - Lyrical wind solos over a sentimental string ostinato form a dreamy soundscape
09:30 IV - A boisterously fun groove as the performers trade improvisations
13:08 V - Development of the clave rhythm by the ensemble and memories of the previous movements

Program Note:
This is a five-movement work I based on a rhythmic spectrum that creates a rainbow of polyrhythmic inventions emerging from the Son and Guaguancó clave—a key pattern used as a tool for temporal organization and as a ground or rhythmical motive, and which is at the basis of each movement.
The clave pattern is a fundamental African-derived rhythmic device which consists of the addition of irregular pulses repeated as a persistent structure—ostinato—throughout a piece.
This rhythmical tool creates and instills music with a sense of energetic groove and can be found in the music of Cuba, Puerto Rico, throughout the rest of the Caribbean basin, in Brazil, in Latin America and in sub-Saharan cultures.
Ritmicas was inspired by the legacy and the title of a work by Cuban composer, violinist and conductor Amadeo Roldan, who in 1930 wrote the first symphonic pieces to incorporate Afro-Cuban percussion instruments.
The fifth and sixth of Roldan's Rítmicas, composed around the same time as Edgard Varese's Ionisation (1929–1931), where among the first works in the Western classical music tradition scored solely for the newly conceived Percussion Ensemble: an ensemble comprised exclusively of all types of percussion instruments.
— Tania León

Score available from Peermusic: https://issuu.com/peermusicclassical/...
Original Audio:    • Rítmicas by Tania León  

Composer: Tania León (May 14, 1943 –)
Ensemble: Grossman Ensemble conducted by Michael Lewanski

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