Arturo Marquez, Danzón No 2

 
As Erik Satie did in his time (Trois Morceaux en forme de Poire), the Mexican composer Arturo Márquez Navarro was used to fiddle around with the titles of his works. Examples are the Leyenda de Miliano, a nice name to title a piece paying homage to Emiliano Zapata, and La Pasión según Marcos (because of the Subcomandante, from the Zapatist Army, I suppose).

Born in Sonora, Mexico, in 1950, Arturo Márquez arrived at the age of ten in Los Angeles, California, in 1960, by the hand of his parents (otherwise, he would not have arrived). There he forged his first ties with music and at sixteen he had already written his first pieces. Today he is a worldwide recognized author, whose work shows variety, richness and an indisputable craft, the product of his vast walk through various musical paths: first, it was the piano, the violin and the trombone, then jazz and rock; to all this, he added a musical education in France and at the California Institute of the Arts.

As a scholar and connoisseur of the popular music of Mexico, he has been able to incorporate its essence into his symphonic works without falling into nationalist or "folkloric" allusions. His most popular work is Danzón N° 2, whose inspiration came after a trip to Malinanco, in the south of the State of Mexico, in the company of a friendly couple, passionate lovers of danzón.

In his own words:

"From these experiences I begin to learn their rhythms, their form and their melodic contours by listening to the old recordings of Acerina and his Danzonera, and to my fascination, I understand that the apparent lightness of the danzón is only a letter of introduction to a music full of sensuality and qualitative rigor that our old Mexicans continue to live with nostalgia and joy as an escape into their emotional world, which fortunately we can still see in the embrace that music and dance are given in Veracruz and in the halls of the city of Mexico. Danzón N ° 2 is a tribute to that atmosphere that nurtures it. [...] Danzón No. 2 was composed thanks to a commission from the Directorate of Musical Activities of the UNAM and is dedicated to my daughter Lily."

The Danzón
It is a rhythm and a dance of Cuban origin created by the Matanzas composer Miguel Failde, back in 1879, born from another Cuban genre, the danza, a variation of the Spanish contradanza. In Cuba, it is performed with wind instruments, flute, violins, timpani and Cuban percussion.

The danzón arrived in Mexico around 1890, staying first in Yucatán, and later spreading to other areas. Very shortly after, it enjoyed great popularity in Mexico, thanks to the influx of Cuban musicians such as the Orquesta Aragón, Benny Moré and Acerina and his Danzonera.

The rendition is by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the Americas, conducted by its founder and artistic director, Alondra de la Parra, born in New York in 1980.