Concierto Candela, Concerto for percussion and orchestra

For a very long time, within the historical western music perspective, percussion instruments have been used to reinforce rhythmically a musical language based mainly in the development of melody and harmony, which used rhythm as a secondary element.

During the genesis of this concerto, I asked myself: What about inverting the role models? I came up then with the solution to use the orchestra as a rhythmic and colouristic platform, upon which the percussion would develop its own musical discourse.

Because of the wide variety of percussion instruments, I decided to use only those which would give me the right sonorous balance between the soloist and the orchestra. Moreover, to create a rhythmic musical dialogue, I decided to use the orchestra as a giant percussion instrument.

The percussion instruments assigned to the soloist in Concierto Candela, shows different features: the wide rhythmic and dynamic range of the marimba, the sparsely used tuned cow bells, the impressive sonorous projection of nine different drums played closely together (congas, bongos and tom-toms), as well as the expressive range of Mexican prehisphanic instruments such as Teponaxtlis.

The main cohesive characteristic of this concerto is its expressive strength and relentless vigorous performance, and adding to this piece those expression marks the italians refer to as Con fuoco, the latin-americans say Candela!.

– Gabriela Ortiz