Leaderboard

Maseuayotl Op.31 Remembranza indigena. This year Mexico celebrates the Bicentenary, (two hundred years of the Independence and A hundred years of the Revolution) much has been said about it, that we must celebrate our freedom and we must do something good for our country etc... I don't know if all this Patriotic rumble influenced me or not, but I decided that I should compose a work with a Mexican feeling because I have none in my portfolio. (check my other orch. works: Op.12, Op.24, Op.25) Due to I don't like Mariachis and most of post-columbine local music I chose something older: The Concheros in the "Acueducto" - Queretaro, Mex. This work is based on the rhythms of "Concheros", these are dancers who keep performing the original rituals of the Chichimecas Indians. I don't belong to this people but I have seen them many times. You can see them on this (please allow this link)The "Conchero" rhythms are basically a variety of 12/8 beats, performed by the lead drum called "Huehuetl" and the rest of dancers follow the beat with other percussions called "Coyoleras" (which are a sort of sleigh bells made of vegetable seeds that they carry on their feet) and "Sonajas" some shakers (sometimes made of metal).To give the true Conchero feeling to this work I do call for these 3 percussions (which are not difficult to find here in Mexico) the rest of content would have to be created by me because the Conchero music doesn't include very much elements but rhythm.I found this project difficult to achieve, because my personal style is usually far from these matters and perhaps not very much "compatible" with the ethnic element I planned to use. I think is normal if you feel some kind of conflict between different segments of the work, first because to this ethnic music has been rarely taken to a symphonic level, and because I was not able to mix both styles as good as I thought. Maybe you will say that this is nothing but one of my common works with the ethnic percussions added, could be truth, but the "Concheros" music doesn't have very much to offer either so, "fill" the rest with my personal music was the only option. Other aspects I wanted to follow was to write a piece without a clear war segment, (because I very much tent to fall into that) for this I decided not to use the snare drum at all, kinda worked but you tell me... (Remove the xylophone too.) About the Genre I handle here I don't think any of you know this genre well enough to write an extended critic (unless you tell me you know Carlos Chavez Sinfonia No.2 "India")... but I don't mean I don't want you comments, I do want the other kind of critic, the one from a person is not used to this and listen to it like any other audience. About the Recording: I created the samples of the Conchero percussions by editing samples of tenor drum (for the huehuetl) common sleigh-bells and shakers for the others. Harp, Timpani, Bass drum, Cymbals and Tam-tam by GPO v.1 Ethnic percussions loaded into FL Studio working a VST Rest of orchestra by EDIROL Orchestral. Sequenced and Recorded on Sibelius 6.1 Note: These Indians have nothing to do with the ones you see in the western movies Maseuayotl

Henryk Melcer-Szczawiński His Piano Concerto no.1 and 2 are fantastic. His first concerto, is my favorite piano concerto of all time, even more than Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev.

I'll check the woodwinds, sometimes I feel they will be drowned, but I check it.. I guess I cannot hide the European influence on this one, like I said before, a composition is the vivid image of the composer and might fake other things but not when composing... What can I do now , not much, is already made, and is not bad. EDIT: "Maseuayotl" means "Dance", in "Nahuatl" the language of the original dancers and remains in use by their contemporary decendants, I don't speak it, I found it in a Nahuatl-Spanish dictionary... EDIT2: I update the score to transposing score

Well, first... I think your woodwinds at times are overpowered by the remainder of the orchestration. I would recommend supporting them just a tad bit better. You have a very powerful wall of sound here. Second, I tend to agree with madman, this doesn't sound Mexican to me. When I think of ancient mexico.. I tend to think of the Aztecs, Toltecs, Olmecs, and Mayans and NOT the Spanish conquerors (I am about 1/32 native american myself.) This has a strong European influence to it - and I think that really shows a lot. I like your ideas here and I love the rhythm at measure 138. Good work here!

I have updated the recording with a new render with less Reverb on the strings, I think will be more clear to you... -------------- The situation was.... When we talk is about Mexico one imagines something like this: But actually I wanted to do it about this: Now I see this work ended being something like this: The antique element right in the middle of a modern ambient (I used to be the Pianist in a Restaurant is/was about 200mts from these arcs) EDIT: The current score... I see I forgot to switch on the transposition in Sibelius before making the PDF, do you want me to leave this score in concert pitch for a few days, before uploading the final one ?

The orchestration sounds great, I really like this piece although I'm not sure how mexican the actual piece sounds apart from the percussion. Maybe I'm just thinking too much about the sorta music that would accompany speedy gonzales though. But I did like it

Oo you did comment... Thank you. The Reverb is a problem because it drastically changes from one speakers or headphones to others, besides the String section is the worst part in EDIROL Orchestral, I will surely create more renders, I'm only waiting for what you comment, and make a better render. I could show you some segment I deleted, it had simpler harmoniy and sounded perhaps more mexican, but it was taking down the quality of this piece, I removed it (about 60-70bars) it was in page 36 after the break.. Actually I re-wrote that part several times until I found the next A minor ambient that worked very fine to go bak to the Dm I really had to repeat. Thanks for listening

First of all, I love the first two pages of illustrations ^_^ First of all, I agree with you on the fact the Mexican ethnic music is tricky to symphonise. Wait, is that even a word, symphonise (meh!! :P )?? Overall, it's pretty nice - I loved that moment from 4:30 onwards, it put me in mind of a jolly saunter through the seaside. I totally got engaged in that Mexican feel. I think a overlying comment is that the strings overpower everything else - their texture's often too thick for any clarity along with what could be excessive reverb??. I suspect that your samples are also having trouble coping, though the sound quality's actually quite reasonable - I'm presuming it isn't MIDI?? Anyway, it's a pretty good shot at symphonising a ethnic piece, I've tried myself, and this is a admirable attempt. I'd suggest that you go for a very harmonic and light stucture and texture to make it sound more authentic and 'Mexican', but that's just my opinion, and TBH, I'm a complete noob at commenting on orchestral works myself :D Not much else that I'd point out, enjoyed the music, and thanks for sharing!!