Milonga meets malambo

Milonga meets malambo (2011) joins aspects of Viennese atonalism with rhythms of urban and rural dances from Argentina in a vigorous work for violoncello and piano. In 2010, Argentine composer and pianist Juan María Solare proposed to me to compose a tango-related piece for these instruments to be recorded and included on a CD, which was planned to be released in 2011. As a European artist and scientist, I gladly accepted his proposition, since I had previously composed classical music works related to tango by following in the footsteps of composers such as Igor Stravinsky, Erik Satie, John Cage, Milton Babbitt, Isaac Albéniz, etc.

In the strict sense, for composing Milonga meets malambo, I chose the milonga over the tango as a source of inspiration. More specifically, the milonga ciudadana, a tango-related urban dance that originated in Argentina during the second half of the 20th century (not to be confused with the milonga campera, a song genre from rural zones of the River Plate area). Then, as an antagonistic element for this piece (hence its title), I chose the malambo: a male dance found in Argentina that can be performed alone or in competition with other dancers.

Being a classical music composer and conductor, but also a musicologist and historian, allowed me to use my previous knowledge of world dances to identify and isolate the significant rhythmic structures of milonga and malambo that were found in the numerous musical sources I collected and analyzed before starting the compositional process of this piece. Then, after a rework process, I created a motivic material that I used to build the musical discourse of Milonga meets malambo, including the sections of this piece and their corresponding transitions. To do that, I employed constructive and deconstructive procedures while choosing a pitch organization based on the tradition of Viennese atonalism, in which I was educated.

In 2011, the recording and release of the mentioned CD started to be postponed. But in Mexico, thanks to musicologist Luisa Vilar-Payá and cellist Juan Hermida, the chamber music group Trío de las Américas proposed Milonga meets malambo to the selection commission of the Manuel Enríquez International Forum of New Music (FIMNME), which selected my piece for being performed. Commissioned by and dedicated to Juan María Solare, my work Milonga meets malambo was premiered in Mexico City (Mexico), on 18 June 2012, by the Trío de las Américas (Misa Ito, piano; Juan Hermida, violoncello) at the Manuel M. Ponce Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts (Palacio de Bellas Artes), during the 34th Manuel Enríquez International Forum of New Music (Mexico).

Dr. Jan Emanuel Abras, Ph.D. (born 1 February 1975 in Stockholm, Sweden)

www.janemanuelabras.com