José Pablo Moncayo - Huapango (1941)

José Pablo Moncayo García (June 29, 1912 – June 16, 1958) was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationalism in art music, after Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez. He produced some of the masterworks that best symbolize the essence of the national aspirations and contradictions of Mexico in the 20th century. Please support my channel: https://ko-fi.com/bartjebartmans Huapango (1941) Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra of Vene conducted by Maximiano Valdes Description by James Reel This lively orchestral rhapsody is probably performed more often than any other Mexican classical work, including Chávez's Sinfonía India, Revueltas's Sensemayà and Galindo's Sones de Mariachi. Like that last item, Huapango is an exuberant treatment of Mexican folk tunes, more integrated than in a medley but not too strictly intertwined. The word "huapango" may be a corruption of "fandango," or derived from a Náhuatl word meaning "dance floor," or it may have a number of geographic connotations. At any rate, it is irresistibly rhythmic and joyful but also, simultaneously, quite lyrical. The huapango style originated in Mexico's coastal Veracruz region; its usual instrumentation is a violin, a small folk harp, and various members of the guitar family, which Moncayo sometimes evokes with pizzicato (occasionally even strummed) strings and orchestral harp. But more often the orchestration is powerful and brassy. Moncayo based this work on three themes from Veracruz: El Siquisirí, El Balajú, and El Gavilancito. Toward the end, the composer creates a musical duel for the trumpet and trombone, in which they exchange musical phrases instead of the traditional insults of competing huapango singers.