The Final Premiere
Edwin Guevara Gutiérrez is a long time coming guitarist and composer and recently performed in his world premiere: Ibero-American Landscapes. He performed at the Crowder Hall in the Fred Fox School of Music located at the University of Arizona in Tucson, AZ. The performers were, Edwin Guervara Gutiérrez who was the guitarist and composer for his quartet, Cecilia Palma on cello, Diana Schaible playing flute and Misael Barraza-Diaz also playing guitar. As the title suggests, this was the final premiere for the class of MUS 130B of Introduction to Music Literature; a class that is required for all performance majors studying at the Fred Fox School of Music. The class instructor was Matthew Mugmon who has given students the opportunity to look deeper into pieces that may changed the world and how great of an impact they had on the people at the time.
The students, including myself, explored 5 world premieres and gave our opinions and observations in the form of blog posts. These premieres include L’Orfeo by Claudio Monteverdi which premiered in 1607, Messiah by George Frideric Handel in 1742, Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Symphony №9 in 1824, Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz in 1830 and finally Rite of Spring by Igor Stravinsky in 1913. This time, we will be looking at a premiere without the need of primary sources. I will say that this performance was interesting and quite enjoyable.
The very first noticeable thing about this performance was that the composer was performing with his quartet. For a long time, possibly almost 200 years, composers and performers were separate however, in modern time, that line is now starting fade as more and more composers are performing their own works. Another was the quartet itself. At first, I believed it to be a strange combination as far as timbre. 2 guitars, a flute and cello? Should have been bizarre but it worked, the combination was brilliant. The last noticeable thing was the music itself. The composer explains that this performance has 15 different rhythms of latin tradition pieces of different latin genres native to, of course, Latin America. While including these elements, he also explained that the featured music actually is based on the names of the performers playing their instruments with the first letter of their name on a scale. Now lets move on the performance. Let’s take a look at Guevara’s world premiere.
As a student of MUS 130b, we found primary sources that related to the music but this time, I had the opportunity to experience a live premiere in Crowder Hall of the Fred Fox school of Music. The pieces were very well written. I will personally say that for my own taste, this is something that I do not and probably wouldn’t listen to on a regular basis. But that did not stop me from seeing it as a performer, composer, and audience member. As a performer myself, I could feel and see the passion the cellist was giving off with her movements and love for the pieces, however, not so much from the others. They were more focused on playing it perfectly rather than giving off that passion that this pieces were called to do. It’s like Beethoven once said, “To play a wrong note is insignificant, but to play without passion is inexcusable.” Latin music is all about the movement and joy and passion, and in my opinion, not enough was there.
Now, as an audience member, I would say that this was very enjoyable. There were no mistakes and the performers talked to one another with just looking at each other. There was a special connection between the four that truly, only they understood. This was a great performance.
Now as a composer, I don’t believe that there is anything negative to say. This was extremely creative. I also give great appreciation to a composer that can blend different elements together that work harmoniously like the rhythms and traditional latin genres that Edwin put together. I was blown away by the techniques of the flutist and the cellist and the fact that he wrote those in, blew my mind. He understood the instruments around him, not just the one in his hand. Each person was allowed to hold the melodies during the pieces I was impressed that he incorporated percussion elements. Quite amazing that not just melodies for rhythm, but also the guitars and cello were playing percussively in order to keep the piece moving. The level of creativity was quite astonishing to say the least.
This was a great performance without hardly any mistakes. I enjoyed it and wish the best of luck to Edwin Guevara Gutiérrez and his group. They will go far with his music and I predict, a solid performance streak for a long time to come.