Roque Cordero - 100 Years, 3. Orchestral and choral works

When I write for orchestra, the truth is that I see two conductors for my music: that one there [referring to a photograph on the office wall of conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos] and myself. Although I am not writing for either one but I feel how I would conduct the score. Many conductors will come and do something else— especially those dance conductors. They like to dance in front of the orchestra and I doubt that they can be playing my music dancing— and that is why my music is not played by many orchestras. - Roque Cordero ⁽¹⁾

In the interview with Tomas Carl Towsend ⁽¹⁾ Roque Cordero (1917-2008) identified his three favorite compositions. Two of them were orchestral, the third choral, and we're fortunate to have them on YouTube. Cordero composed a number of other orchestral and choral works.

These works tend to be larger in scale or compilations of shorter pieces and are largely written in Cordero's signature blend of modern twelve-tone technique with Panamanian folk rhythms en melodies.

   - We start, however, with a youthful pasodoble for band dating from before 1943, Reina de amor, one of two works Cordero brought with him when he came to the United States. The other work was Capricho interiorano (1939) based on a popular Panamanian mejorana folk dance which he had composed four years earlier.

        After hearing Reina de amor at a university concert, the critic John K. Sherman (1898-1969) introduced Cordero to Dimitri Mitropoulos (1896-1960). Cordero would study with Krenek for three and a half years learning a.o. the serialist twelve-tone technique.

        Let's listen to this charming, rather old-fashioned work which proved so important for Cordero's subsequent career.



   - Ocho Miniaturas (Eight Miniatures) (1948) for small orchestra was the work in which Cordero first to used twelve-tone technique. It became his most popular orchestral work.

And they are the children of my brain; some are big, some are small, some have been played more than the others, especially the Eight Miniatures for Orchestra. It has been played by many orchestras and many conductors, because it is the easiest one, I suppose.⁽¹⁾

        The video includes an introduction by Dr. Marie Labonville of Illinois State University. ⁽²⁾ The Miniatures start @ 3:45 and are titled 1. Marcha Grotesca, 2. Meditación, 3. Pasillo, 4. Danzonete, 5. Nocturno, 6. Mejorana, 7. Plegaria, and 8. Allegro Final.



   - Sinfonia No. 2 (Symphony No. 2) (1956) in one movement is one of Cordero's favorite works. It was written during Cordero's time back in Panama. Cordero wrote it much faster than some of his other works.

I started thinking about that as soon as I heard about the contest [Second Festival of Latin American Music in Caracas], and when I sat down to write I knew the structure I wanted to use, the transformation, working in my head to solve the problem before I sat down to write. I wrote that in 55 nights... ⁽¹⁾

        That structure was 'the transformation of the sonata structure to create one sonata inside the other.' He was awarded a prize. It gained him international recognition and a path of return to the United States.



   - Concerto for Violin and Orchestra (1858-1962) was another of Cordero's favorites. It was commissioned by the Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation and later later won the Koussevitzky International Recording Award. The composer returned to 'his draft of the violin concerto he had begun in 1958, but which he had put aside to work on his first string quartet.' It was a labor of love that took more than two years.

        The concerto's twelve-tone style is 'largely contrapuntal with constant doubling, repetition, and imitation between the parts,'⁽³⁾ but it has a distinct and powerful individuality which override the technical details. ⁽⁴⁾ The first video features 1. Largo - Allegro Strepitoso - Allegro Moderato and 2. Lento, the second video the finale 3. Allegro Vigoroso.





   - Cantata para la paz (Cantata for Peace) (1979, premiered Oct. 2017) for mixed chorus and orchestra was the third of Cordero's favorite works and one that he was very proud of. It was commissioned by the National Endowment of the Arts for America's bicentennial celebration. ⁽⁵⁾

For example I have a piece in which I am speaking of peace, not as opposed to war, but as an inner peace which allows you to be at peace with your neighbors, and that is in my most ambitious work Cantata For Peace which was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts.⁽¹⁾

        Cordero used texts by Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948), John F. Kennedy (1917-1963), Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968), and Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865). He had previously thought of writing a piece in honor of the four men who promoted piece and victims of violence, 'but also for all men, women and children who died in the name of peace.' He did not write the piece to associate his name to these famous men in order to be recognized, but to convey a musical message of peace.

        He recognized it is a very demanding piece to perform and requires the right conductor. At the time of the Towsend interview in July 1997, almost twenty years after it was written, the work had not been performed yet, and Cordero was wondering whether it would ever happen. ⁽¹⁾

        The work was finally premiered at the 11th Latin American Music Festival performed by the Texas Christian University Symphony Orchestra Concert and the university's Concert Chorale under Dr. Germán Gutiérrez, featuring soloists Tuyen Tonnu (piano) and Nate Mattingly (voice). This is the video of the premiere: an impressive cantata by any measure, a powerful plea for peace.



   - Dodecaconcerto (1990) was written for the North-South Consonant Ensemble for a German tour. Cordero was limited to just twelve instruments. The tour never materialized, and the work was eventually played in New York in 1997 in the garden of the New York Museum of Modern Art. It is in three movements, 1. Moderato-Allegro, 2. Largo, and 3. Allegro. Throughout this sophisticated work the conversation between the various instruments is sensitive and elegant.







This concludes my survey of Roque Cordero's interesting life and work.
________________________________________________________
⁽¹⁾ Tomas Carl Towsend, "A conversation with Roque Cordero." La MúsiCa, The Latin American Music Center Newsletter, Vol. 2, No. 4, May 1999. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/14341/lamusicav2n4.pdf;sequence=1 (12/09/2017)).
⁽²⁾ See also this paper by Dr. Labonville: "Roque Cordero (1917–2008) in the United States." Illinois State University, “Cultural Counterpoints: Examining the Musical Interactions between the U.S. and Latin America.” Latin American Music Center, Indiana University, October 21, 2011. (https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/15513/Labonville-LAMCConf2011-paper.pdf?sequence=3 (12/09/2017))
⁽³⁾ lendallpitts, "Roque Cordero, Concerto for Violin & Orchestra - 1st two of three movements." Notes to YouTube video, 12/23/2010. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzILEsPGPFU (12/09/2017))
⁽⁴⁾ lendallpitts, "Roque Cordero, Concerto for Violin & Orchestra, part 2- Finale - Allegro vigoroso." Notes to YouTube video, 12/29/2010. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dzILEsPGPFU (12/09/2017))
⁽⁵⁾"Latin American Music Festival honors influential composer." TCU News and Events webpage, 10/04/2017. (https://newsevents.tcu.edu/stories/latin-american-music-festival-honors-influential-composer/ (12/09/2017))