Amadeo Roldán

Amadeo Roldán y Gardes (June 12, 1900, in Paris – March 7, 1939, in Havana) was a Cuban composer and violinist. Born in France to Cuban parents, he studied music theory and violin at the Madrid Conservatory, graduating in 1916. Around the turn of the decade he moved to Cuba. In the mid-1920s he was appointed concertmaster of the Orquesta Filarmonica of Havana (he would assume the position of conductor in 1932) and founded the Havana String Quartet. June 12 is the 163rd day of the year (164th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1900 (MCM) was an exceptional common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar, but a leap year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. ... City flag City coat of arms Motto: Fluctuat nec mergitur (Latin: Tossed by the waves, she does not sink) Paris Eiffel tower as seen from the esplanade du Trocadéro. ... March 7 is the 66th day of the year (67th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1939 (MCMXXXIX) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display full year calendar). ... Nickname: (Spanish) City of Columns Position of Havana in Cuba Coordinates: Country Cuba Province Ciudad de La Habana Administrative Divisions 15 Founded 1515a Government  - President of the Peoples Power Provincial Assembly Juan Contino Aslán Area  - City 721. ... A composer is a person who writes music. ... A violinist is an instrumentalist who plays the violin. ... Madrid Conservatory (in Spanish: Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid) is a music school in Madrid, Spain. ...

During this period, Roldán, one of the leaders of the Afrocubanismo movement, wrote the first symphonic pieces to incorporate Afro-Cuban percussion instruments.> The fifth and sixth of his Rítmicas (1930) appear to be the first works in the Western classical music tradition scored for percussion alone. It has been suggested that Cuban folk music be merged into this article or section. ...

Roldán's best known composition is the 1928 ballet La Rebambaramba, described by a critic of the era as "a multicolored musicorama...depicting an Afro-Cuban fiesta in a gorgeous display of Caribbean melorhythms, with the participation of a multifarious fauna of native percussion effects, including a polydental glissando on the jawbone of an ass."> (The Score and Parts for La Rebambaramba are available to rent from music publisher Carl Fischer)

His work was regularly featured in concerts sponsored by the Pan-American Association of Composers, founded by Henry Cowell, including the inaugural, March 1929 performance in New York. Henry Cowell (March 11, 1897 - December 10, 1965) was an American composer, musical theorist, pianist, teacher, publisher, and impresario. ...