During a tropical sunset in April of 2007, on the island of Long Boat Key in Florida, I attended a guitar recital in a intimate setting so close to the sea, one could hear the waves in the background. Captivated and inspired, by both the setting and the performance, I wrote "Serenata Del Mar" which is dedicated to the exceptionally gifted guitarist Ana Vidovic. Rex Willis - Bradenton, Florida - 2008
Recording the Classical Guitar charts the evolution of classical guitar recording practice from the early twentieth century to the present day, encompassing the careers of many of the instrument’s most influential practitioners from acoustic era to the advent of the CD. A key focus is on the ways in which guitarists’ recorded repertoire programmes have shaped the identity of the instrument, particularly where national allegiances and musical aesthetics are concerned. The book also considers the ways in which changing approaches to recording practice have conditioned guitarists’ conceptions of the instrument’s ideal representation in recorded form and situates these in relation to the development of classical music recording aesthetics more generally. An important addition to the growing body of literature in the field of phonomusicology, the book will be of interest to guitarists and producers as well as students of record production and historians of classical music recording.
Melodious panpipes and kena flutes. The shimmering strums of a charango. Poncho-clad musicians playing "El Cóndor Pasa" at subway stops or street corners while selling their recordings. These sounds and images no doubt come to mind for many "world music" fans when they recall their early encounters with Andean music groups. Ensembles of this type known as "Andean conjuntos" or "pan-Andean bands" have long formed part of the world music circuit in the Global North. In the major cities of Latin America, too, Andean conjuntos have been present in the local music scene for decades, not only in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador (i.e., in the Andean countries), but also in Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Mexico. It is solely in Bolivia, however, that the Andean conjunto has represented the preeminent folkloric-popular music ensemble configuration for interpreting national musical genres from the late 1960s onward. Despite its frequent association with indigenous villages, the music of Andean conjuntos bears little resemblance to the indigenous musical expressions of the Southern Andes. Created by urban criollo and mestizo folkloric artists, the Andean conjunto tradition represents a form of mass-mediated folkloric music, one that is only loosely based on indigenous musical practices. Panpipes & Ponchos reveals that in the early-to-mid 20th century, a diverse range of musicians and ensembles, including estudiantinas, female vocal duos, bolero trios, art-classical composers, and mestizo panpipe groups, laid the groundwork for the Andean conjunto format to eventually take root in the Bolivian folklore scene amid the boom decade of the 1960s. Author Fernando Rios analyzes local musical trends in conjunction with government initiatives in nation-building and the ideologies of indigenismo and mestizaje. Beyond the local level, Rios also examines key developments in Bolivian national musical practices through their transnational links with trends in Peru, Argentina, Chile, Mexico, and France. As the first book-length study that chronicles how Bolivia's folkloric music movement articulated, on the one hand, with Bolivian state projects, and on the other, with transnational artistic currents, for the pivotal era spanning the 1920s to 1960s, Panpipes & Ponchos offers new perspectives on the Andean conjunto's emergence as Bolivia's favored ensemble line-up in the field of national folkloric-popular music.
Now in its third edition, Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary provides a singular English-language resource for biographical information on hundreds of composers from Central and South America and the Hispanic Caribbean. Painstakingly gathered from a wide variety of sources, the information updates and expands previous editions and fills in the gaps left by the other major English-language music dictionaries and encyclopedias. Entries provide biographical data comprising full names, birth and death dates and locations, background, education, and training, as well as selective works lists more than 2,300 composers. An index of composers by country and women composers of Latin America complement the volume. An essential part of any music library, Latin American Classical Composers is an invaluable reference for librarians, musicologists, ethnomusicologists, researchers, and music students.
