JOAQUIN ORELLANA
Joaquin M. Orellana was born on November 5th, 1933. Guatemalan composer. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music and was violinist in the National SO for many years. He distinguished himself as an important new composer early in his career. In 1958 El jardín encantado was awarded first prize in the annual Central American Science, Letters and Fine Arts Competition. In 1965 his String Trio was commissioned by the Third Inter-American Music Festival and first performed there in Washington, DC. These earlier works were essentially tonal, the String Trio using pan-diatonicism. In the 1970s he began experimenting with flujos sonoro-sociales, recombination on tape of ambient sound peculiar to the sonorous landscape of Guatemala. Two of his first and most successful compositions using this approach are Electroacústica and Imposible a la X: historia en redondo (1976), both presented in several international forums. An aleatory approach characterizes Híbrido a presión (1982) for two flutes, several specially created instruments and magnetic tape. He also investigated the sonorous possibilities of the Guatemalan marimba, considered the national instrument, by constructing new instruments from fragments of the marimba grande. These original instruments, which carry such names as ciclo-im, rastra-son and pandemarimbas, reproduce and expand certain aspects of the marimba's timbre, especially its percussive attack. Tzulumanachí (1974) features one of these, a sonarimba. Especially notable among these works is Evocación profunda y traslaciones de una marimba (1984), scored for marimba, narrator, mixed chorus, magnetic tape and several original marimba-derived instruments.
DISCOGRAPHY:
1. Contrastes
- (ballet music) for orchestra and tape,
- Tape portion produced at a commercial
- Recording studio in Guatemala (1963)
2. Metéora
- For tape
- Realized at CLAEM - Instituto Di Tella in Buenos Aires (1968)
3. Humanofonía
- For orchestra and tape
- with the tape portion also realized at a commercial recording studio in Guatemala (1971)
- and Humanofonía for tape only, this being the same recording used for the original work of the same name for orchestra and tape
4. Malebolge (Humanofonía II) and Entropé
- both for tape (1972);
5. Primitiva I, Asediado-Asediante and Itero-tzul,
- all for tape (1972);
6. Sortilegio
- for tape (1978)
7. Rupestre en el futuro
- for tape (1979)
8. Imágenes de una historia en redondo (imposible a la equis)
- for tape (1980)
9. Híbrido a presión
- for two flutes,
- special instrument and tape (1982)
10. Evocación profunda y traslaciones de una marimba
- for full Guatemalan marimba, choir,
- five recorders, reciter and tape (1984);
11. Híbrido a presión II
- for two flutes,
- special instrument and tape (1986)
References:
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=1611
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.lib.umb.edu/subscriber/search_results?q=Joaquin+M.+Orellana&search=quick&button_search.x=30&button_search.y=14
Joaquin M. Orellana was born on November 5th, 1933. Guatemalan composer. He studied at the National Conservatory of Music and was violinist in the National SO for many years. He distinguished himself as an important new composer early in his career. In 1958 El jardín encantado was awarded first prize in the annual Central American Science, Letters and Fine Arts Competition. In 1965 his String Trio was commissioned by the Third Inter-American Music Festival and first performed there in Washington, DC. These earlier works were essentially tonal, the String Trio using pan-diatonicism. In the 1970s he began experimenting with flujos sonoro-sociales, recombination on tape of ambient sound peculiar to the sonorous landscape of Guatemala. Two of his first and most successful compositions using this approach are Electroacústica and Imposible a la X: historia en redondo (1976), both presented in several international forums. An aleatory approach characterizes Híbrido a presión (1982) for two flutes, several specially created instruments and magnetic tape. He also investigated the sonorous possibilities of the Guatemalan marimba, considered the national instrument, by constructing new instruments from fragments of the marimba grande. These original instruments, which carry such names as ciclo-im, rastra-son and pandemarimbas, reproduce and expand certain aspects of the marimba's timbre, especially its percussive attack. Tzulumanachí (1974) features one of these, a sonarimba. Especially notable among these works is Evocación profunda y traslaciones de una marimba (1984), scored for marimba, narrator, mixed chorus, magnetic tape and several original marimba-derived instruments.
DISCOGRAPHY:
1. Contrastes
- (ballet music) for orchestra and tape,
- Tape portion produced at a commercial
- Recording studio in Guatemala (1963)
2. Metéora
- For tape
- Realized at CLAEM - Instituto Di Tella in Buenos Aires (1968)
3. Humanofonía
- For orchestra and tape
- with the tape portion also realized at a commercial recording studio in Guatemala (1971)
- and Humanofonía for tape only, this being the same recording used for the original work of the same name for orchestra and tape
4. Malebolge (Humanofonía II) and Entropé
- both for tape (1972);
5. Primitiva I, Asediado-Asediante and Itero-tzul,
- all for tape (1972);
6. Sortilegio
- for tape (1978)
7. Rupestre en el futuro
- for tape (1979)
8. Imágenes de una historia en redondo (imposible a la equis)
- for tape (1980)
9. Híbrido a presión
- for two flutes,
- special instrument and tape (1982)
10. Evocación profunda y traslaciones de una marimba
- for full Guatemalan marimba, choir,
- five recorders, reciter and tape (1984);
11. Híbrido a presión II
- for two flutes,
- special instrument and tape (1986)
References:
http://www.fondation-langlois.org/html/e/page.php?NumPage=1611
http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.ezproxy.lib.umb.edu/subscriber/search_results?q=Joaquin+M.+Orellana&search=quick&button_search.x=30&button_search.y=14