José Pablo Moncayo, Huapango for orchestra

As with Ravel, whose masterpiece and most popular work is known as "Ravel's Bolero" and not simply by its original title, Bolero, the symphonic piece Huapango for orchestra, by Mexican composer José Pablo Moncayo, is identified by all who know it as "Huapango de Moncayo". Since its premiere in August 1941 in Mexico City with composer Carlos Chávez as conductor, the work has become so popular that it has sometimes been referred to as "the second Mexican national anthem".

José Pablo Moncayo
(1912 - 1958)

Popular sources
The author of such a feat was born in Guadalajara, Veracruz, in 1912. At the age of seventeen, he entered the National Conservatory of Music. He had to pay for his studies by playing the piano in cafes and accompanying amateur singers on radio stations.

In 1941, Carlos Chávez sent him an invitation to be part of a concert that would celebrate the most promising national authors. Chávez suggested he take inspiration from the popular music of the Mexican southeast, for which he had to go to the sources.

Moncayo tells of his experience:

"... We went [...] to Alvarado, one of the places where folk music is preserved in its purest form. We spent some time collecting melodies, rhythms and instruments. When transcribing them we had great difficulty with the huapangos because [the natives] never sang the same melody twice. When I returned to Mexico I showed [a colleague] the material and he advised me: 'lay out the material as you heard it and develop it according to your own style'. So I did and I was satisfied..."

Huapango for orchestra
A must in the symphonic repertoire of Mexico's orchestras, "Huapango de Moncayo" is a celebration and reinterpretation of the typical traditional rhythms of Veracruz, the huapango among them – the result of the fusion of the musical traditions of the indigenous people with European instrumentation. The work is made up of three sones from Veracruz: Siqui sirí, Balajú, and El Gavilancillo, which by Moncayo's grace became a felicitous arrangement for symphonic orchestra.

The rendition is by the Simón Bolívar Youth Symphony Orchestra conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, for the BBC Proms 2007.