A POWERFUL COMPOSITION BY YALIL GUERRA

ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Cuban American composer Yalil Guerra recently posted a recording accompanied by a visual of the score of his Sonata No. 1, Siglo XXI. The pianist is fellow Cuban Marcos Madrigal.

Guerra’s previous compositions had not prepared us for this new sound, one as energetic, as free-wheeling in tonality and structure as nothing heard before in his vast oeuvre, where this valuable artist has repeatedly embraced his roots as a musical artist equally at home in music that borders the Cuban pop world only to transition into elegant compositions firmly anchored in the classical idiom.

Guerra’s Sonata No. 1, Siglo XXI begins with a Larghetto movement, the work’s tonality not established at first. After a stretch of time during which the music visits several episodes, there is a return to the initial Moderato Misterioso motif and to its subsequent Allegro Furioso with its bass pattern of pounding triplets that characterize the movement. Save for one or two brief oasis of calm and an Allegretto Grazioso that quickly transitions to impassioned and restless, the opening Allegro Furioso dominates the movement.

The second movement is a lyrical Adagio Cantabile that seeks in vain a tonality to which to anchor itself. The music leads to an Adagio Amoroso, and from that onto a Largo Maestoso. Constant changing time signatures and keys – Ab…A… G… F… and their relative minors – resolve atonally at the end.

The third movement is rhythmic, in 6/8 and driven by cascading figures in the right hand’s highest register, with 2 against 3 duplets and triplets in the left hand. A Db Molto Espressivo section marked pp and further on a section marked Cantabile hint at Guerra’s Cuban DNA in a rhythm redolent of a 19th century Habanera.  That moment is bluntly interrupted by a return to the initial 6/8 pattern this time played ff and driven at full throttle to a dramatic ending.

Guerra’ new composition reveals yet again a fertile musical mind at work. The music of his Sonata No. 1, Siglo XXI seems to be in search of a tonal and harmonic center, looking for a melody, but set upon by uncertainty and emotional upheavals given expression in the highly rhythmic sections that threaten to drown out, though never vanquish the moments of lyricism.

Marcos Madrigal delivers a powerful performance heightened by awesome technical prowess and uncanny sensitivity.

(320) Yalil Guerra: “Sonata No 1. Siglo XXI” performed by Marcos Madrigal (Score) – YouTube

Rafael de Acha     ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Published by ALL ABOUT THE ARTS

Rafael de Acha has enjoyed a distinguished career in the arts as a performer, stage director, producer, and educator. He was born and grew up in Cuba. At the age of 17 he moved to the United States to study Drama at the University of Minnesota, and later Languages at L.A. City College, Music at the Juilliard School of Music, at the University of Cincinnati’s College Conservatory of Music, and at the New England Conservatory of Music, from which he received the Master's degree. He has taught courses on the History of Music at the University of Miami’s Frost School of Music and at Florida International University, and contributed writings and reviews to Seen and Heard International (www.seenandheard-international.com ) and to this blog. He co-founded the award-winning New Theatre in Coral Gables, Florida, where he produced and staged twenty seasons of classical and contemporary theater, including fifty world premieres of plays that went on to have international and national productions on and off Broadway, including Ana in the Tropics by Nilo Cruz (Pulitzer Prize for Drama 2002 and Tony Nomination 2003.) In 2006 he was presented with a citation from The Dade County Cultural Affairs Council for “trailblazing contributions to the arts in South Florida.”