Classical Cuba
Five composers to discover
Carlos Fariñas (1934-2002)
Alongside Leo Brouwer, Fariñas was one of Cuba’s most important avant-garde voices but composed in a variety of styles. He studied with Copland in the US and returned to Cuba to found a computer and electroacoustic music department at the Instituto Superior del Arte.
Leo Brouwer (b1939)
Brouwer is one of Cuba’s greatest guitarists and a prolific composer for the concert platform and film. In the 1960s, with fellow composer Juan Blanco, Brouwer helped develop Cuba’s modern voice, although his later works are more traditional.
Ernesto Lecuona (1896-1963)
Cuban-born Lecuona made his name in New York writing for musicals, films and radio. His salon piano pieces incorporate Afrocuban rhythms, but fragments of a string quartet suggest a more sophisticated, modernist side.
Manuel Saumell (1818-70)
The first composer to develop Cuba’s musical nationalism, Saumell wrote a collection of contradanzas that incorporate Cuban folksong. His plans for an opera set in 16th-century Havana came to nothing.
Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905)
Cervantes studied with Gottschalk in the US and with Alkan (see p76) at the Paris Conservatoire. Back in Cuba, he championed a national style that draws on the country’s musical traditions but also shows the influence of Gottschalk.