Finding a voice: post-revolutionary song cycles of México

I completed this DMA Recording Project to familiarize the English-speaking audience with the vocal music of México, which is relatively unknown in the United States. The research and recording focuses on song cycles composed in the decades following the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), a period in the country’s history that drastically changed the political and cultural climate in México. The included composers expanded on European compositional styles to create their own identity as Mexican composers. They infused modality, harmonic dissonance, and polytonality into impressionism and romanticism to highlight the meaning of the poetry they chose to set.

I recorded Tres canciones españolas by Roberto Bañuelas, Marinero en tierra by Rodolfo Halffter, Canciones al estilo de mi tierra by Eduardo Hernández Moncada, Seis poemas arcaicos and Tres poemas de M. Brull by Manuel M. Ponce, Cuatro canciones de amor by Luis Sandi, and Dibujos sobre un puerto by José Rolón.

This essay provides a brief biographical portrait of each composer, an interpretive analysis of each song cycle, and offers original translations as a reference tool for performers and educators.