Baja California Composer by Enrique Gonzalez-Medina

The opera was recently premiered in January 2004 and has had many performances by Cincinnati Opera Education touring ensemble. He was also a recipient of a grant by the Baja California Cultural Institute, for the "Baja California Songbook" ("El cancionero bajacaliforniano"), a song collection project of twenty-five settings of poems by Baja California poets.

Enrique Gonzalez-Medina studied composition in Mexico attending the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and in the United States, he graduated from The Mannes College of Music (B.M.) and CSLA (M.M.). Since 1997, he is a member of the piano faculty of the Pasadena Conservatory of Music.

about the music:

Some years ago, I felt that, in spite of having studied with wonderful and inspiring teachers, the compositional processes that I had learned were too restrictive. I needed to change direction and compose a different kind of music.

I was, and still am, very much attracted to Latin American dance rhythms, and I decided that I would try my hand at composing music by incorporating these wonderful rhythms. The compositons on this CD present examples of this new practice.

All the music heard here originated with my improvisation at the piano, and involves combining traditional structures, modern Latin American dances, functional tonality, as well as non-traditional chord sequences.

BAROQUE CONCERTO

I had the opportunity to read the novel "Concierto barroco" written in 1974 by the brilliant Cuban writer

Alejo Carpentier (1904-1980). The novel mentions a chance encounter in the city of Venice at the beginning of the 18th Century between three great musicians of the time: Domenico Scarlatti (1685-1980), George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) and Antonio Vivaldi (1678-1741). In an amusing passage, it tells how they get together and play their favorite instruments, Scarlatti at the harpsichord, Handel at the organ and Vivaldi at the violin, and perform an exceptional jam session.

I did borrow the novel's title for my quartet but, in spite of my great admiration for the music of Scarlatti, Handel and Vivaldi, my intention in "Concierto barroco" ("Baroque Concerto") was not to imitate these or other great composers of the 18th Century, but rather, to create an original baroque musical style of my own. My objective was not unlike that of the Mexican composer Manuel M. Ponce (1882-1948) in his baroque compositions for guitar, or the Brazilian Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959) in his Bachianas Brasileiras cycle. The composition of the pieces involved combining traditional forms of the baroque period, of the Spanish baroque as well as modern Latin American dances.

The live recording is from the performance of the composition's premiere, during Pacific Serenades 16th Season in Los Angeles. The concerto's performers were Clayton Haslop, violin, Mark Carlson, flute, David Speltz, cello, and Patricia Mabee, harpsichord.

MUSIC FOR COOKING

Written shortly after finishing my first opera, the three piano dance pieces that make up the suite "Música para cocinar" ("Music for Cooking") were composed in the Autumn of 2001 and are here performed by my good friend, the pianist Elizabeth Babor.

THE FOUR IMAGINARY SEASONS & NINE WAYS TO CARESS A WOMAN

Not being a guitarist myself, I've had the luck of meeting many fine guitarists willing to help me understand this extraordinary instrument. The guitarist Felix Bullock has been an excellent collaborator and friend, and with his help, I've been able to compose and record several works for the guitar. In this CD there are two examples of this: in a duet with the cellist Daniel Pereira, three of the four movements from the guitar and cello suite "Las cuatro estaciones imaginarias" ("The Four Imaginary Seasons"), and performing as a soloist, four of the nine pieces from the guitar suite "Nueve maneras de acariciar a una mujer" ("Nine Ways to Caress a Woman").

SEVEN POEMINIMOS

Now and then, I find myself composing in a more humorous vein. A while back, while reading a newspaper on a bus on my way to the University in Mexico City, I discovered Efraín Huerta's "poemínimos" (minimal-poems). I was delighted to read a few of them that were printed and I thought that they would make fine lyrics for songs. Many years later after that bus ride, I finally set seven of Huerta's poemínimos to make this orchestral cycle. The songs are scored for tenor and chamber orchestra, and are sung in the original Spanish. The Mexican Efraín Huerta (1914-1982) wrote throughout his lifetime about 150 humorous poems which he titled "poemínimos". They make fun of sex, unrequited love, politicians, international corporations, and of course, himself as well as other poets.

In the recording, we hear the tenor Gabriel Reoyo-Pazos, with the Baja California Orchestra, under Eduardo García Barrios.

The poems from "Siete poemínimos" ("Seven Poeminimos"):

1. MANSA HIPÉRBOLE

Los lunes, miércoles y viernes

soy un indigente sexual;

Lo mismo que los martes,

Los jueves y los sábados.

Los domingos descanso.

1. TAME HYPERBOLE

Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays

I'm a sexual beggar;

The same on Tuesdays,

Thursdays and Saturdays.

On Sundays I rest.

2. ¡ACCION!

Voy

A poner

Manos

A la obra

Comenzaré

Por el

Muslo derecho

2. ACTION!

I'm going

To get

My hands

On the job

I'll begin

With the

Right thigh

3. EL CINTURON

Lo compré

Como tres meses

Antes de

Conocerla

Pero ya sabia

Que iba

A gustarle

3. THE BELT

I got it

Three months

Before

I met her

But I knew

That she

Would love it

4. PLAGIO XVI

La que

Quiera

Azul

Celeste

Que

Se

Acueste

4. PLAGIARISM XVI

If you

Want a

Blue

Heaven

You

Gotta

Get laid

5. ¡CUAS!

No fué

Una separación

Ni siquiera

Un desgarramiento

Simplemente me dijo

Que me fuera

Mucho

Pero muchísimo

Hacia

Los confines

De ninguna

Parte

5. CRASH!

It wasn't

A seperation

Not even

A tearing apart

Quite simply I was told

To get my butt

Very much

But very muchísimo

To

The confines

Of

Nowhere

6. PLANES

Todos

Los hacen

Para un

Borroso futuro

Yo los hago

Para un

Siniestro

Pero clarísimo

Pasado

6. PLANS

Everyone

Makes them

For a

Sketchy future

I make them

For a

Sinister

But very clear

Past

7. MERCADOTECNIA

Salido

El poema

No se

Admite

Reclamación

7. MARKETING TECHNIQUE

Poems

Purchased

Are

Non-

Refundable

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