Luis Humberto Salgado - Chamber Music Vol.1

Luis Humberto SALGADO (1903–1977)

Chamber Music Vol. 1

Viola Sonata

Selene

Cello Sonata

Woodwind Quintet

Kansas Virtuosi

 

Luis Humberto Salgado was an Ecuadorian pianist and composer whose musical output encompasses almost every existing genre in Western European concert music: nine symphonies, four operas, seven concertos, five ballets, three symphonic poems, two masses, and numerous works for chamber, piano, and voice. Born in Cayambe, a little town located 32 miles north of Quito, he grew up and lived his entire life in the capital. From an early age he began to learn the rudiments of music with his father, Francisco Salgado Ayala, one of the first Ecuadorian nationalist composers; he then studied at the National Conservatory of Music, where he graduated as a pianist in 1928. Unlike other Latin American composers who studied in or had connections with European musical centers, Salgado never left Ecuador and was essentially a self-taught composer, inspired by Ecuadorian folk music and the musical modernism of his time, especially the twelve-tone technique. He was a professor of music theory subjects at his alma mater and at the Instituto de Música Sacra. In addition, he wrote articles on music in local newspapers, where he kept his readership informed of the latest trends in European art music. Although he was highly respected as a public figure for his teaching, writing, piano recitals, and three tenures as director of the National Conservatory, his compositional style was misunderstood because it was considered too “advanced” for his time. Most of his symphonic works were never performed during his lifetime because they were written for a large orchestra, which Ecuador did not have at the time. He died in 1977, on the eve of a piano recital he was to give.

Although music encyclopedias identify Salgado as a “folkloric” nationalist composer, picking up on Ecuadorian folk music being an inspiration for his works, he described his compositional style as ranging “from neo-diatonicism to post-serialism, beyond Schoenberg,” thus identifying himself as a “polytechnic” composer, that is, one that syncretizes diverse compositional techniques from different periods in music history in a single work. Overall, his eclectic musical style idiosyncratically combines the Andean pentatonic scale with the twelve-tone technique, contrapuntal elements, atonal harmonies, and abstractions of Ecuadorian indigenous and mestizo dances, such as the sanjuanito, yaraví, albazo, and danzante. These elements are present in various ways in the four works included on this album.

Sonata para viola y piano (1973)

Salgado was 70 years old when he wrote his Sonata for Viola and Piano in G minor. It was inspired by Ecuador’s musical folklore, as seen in the pentatonic melodic inflections and rhythmic elements of all three movements. The folk idioms, however, are presented with contemporary aesthetics and sophisticated harmonies. The first movement is reminiscent of the sanjuanito, a lively duple-meter indigenous dance from the northern province of Imbabura, whose typical rhythm and pentatonic melodies are especially evident in the secondary theme. Salgado’s love of counterpoint is displayed in the central episode of the movement. The second movement exhibits the melancholy character of a yaraví with its slow tempo, solo viola sections, and pentatonic first and second themes. The third movement features the rhythmic impulse of the albazo, a mestizo dance, with the energetic piano accompaniment seeming to imitate the albazo’s guitar strumming style.

Selene, Trío Programático (1969)

Salgado wrote this work to commemorate the moon landing on 20 July 1969. He began composing it shortly after the Apollo 11 crew returned to Earth, and it took him only three weeks to finish it. Its title refers to Selene, the moon goddess in Greek mythology. Its three movements describe the three stages of the trip: Departure, Moon Landing, and Return. The selection of the flute, oboe, and English horn timbres is striking as it seeks to capture the cosmic scenario with unconventional sounds. The work is atonal and through-composed. Although the term “programmatic” appears in the title, Salgado claimed that no such a program exists: “This work is … a reflection of the author’s personal impressions psychologically influenced by the cosmic saga starring the Selenar heroes Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins. The subjective images that [this music] may suggest are left to the audience’s fantasy.”

Sonata para violoncello y piano (1962)

Salgado’s Sonata for Cello and Piano is not related to Ecuadorian musical folklore. Although its three movements are highly contrasting, the harmonic language of the entire sonata leans toward the neo-Classical style. Salgado was especially attracted to the idea of composing music that expresses a “neutral” sentiment, which he described as a vague impression conveyed by an indefinite tonality that is neither major nor minor. The first movement, Allegro con ánima, conveys this “neutral” feeling with its melodic themes formed by twelve-tone rows and a lack of a tonal center. The second movement, Andante sostenuto, is the lyrical focal point of the piece with its cantabile melody. In various passages the cello and the piano engage in interesting counterpoints. Of the three movements, the third is the most “polytechnical” and melodic. It combines fourth chords with twelve-tone rows and octatonic chords.

Quinteto para instrumentos de aliento (1958)

In an explanatory note about his Woodwind Quintet, Salgado wrote: “This work has three movements differentiated by their character and structure. The harmonic and contrapuntal techniques are peculiar to contemporary ideas, magnetized by ‘polyphony’ and ‘serial’ procedures and other factors of ultramodernist expression. The dialogue between the instruments and their solo passages create a polychrome fabric, as far as the timbral combinations are concerned, unfolding now in novel closed harmonies, now in sinuous contrapuntal lines and arabesques of polytechnic language, which taken together shape the dialectic of the work.”

In this reference to polytechnic language Salgado was pointing to the use of pentatonic scales and the twelve-tone technique in his musical language. The first movement, Allegro con vita, is based on the pentatonic “series” A–G–E–D–B, which Salgado enhances with additional notes and which is the basis for both the melodic and harmonic texture. The second movement, Andante sostenuto, is based on the twelve-tone system and uses the pointillism technique. At this point, the notes look more like they have been scattered on the staff rather than arranged in a linear manner. To hear how the individual notes of the twelve-tone row fit into the piece as a whole, they need to be heard as part of the wider sonic tapestry. The listener will easily discern the French horn playing a melody formed by twelve non-repeated tones, accompanied by the woodwind instruments whose fragmented parts, put together, form a new twelve-tone series. In the third movement, Allegretto giocoso, a new pentatonic series (E–F sharp–A–B–C sharp) forms the thematic foundation.

Ketty Wong (from Naxos Web site)