Antonio Lauro

Antonio Lauro (born August 3, 1917 in Ciudad Bolívar, Venezuela, died April 18, 1986 in Caracas) was a Venezuelan composer, considered to be one of the foremost South American composers of the 20th century. Image File history File links Lauro. ... August 3 is the 215th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (216th in leap years), with 150 days remaining. ... 1917 (MCMXVII) was a common year starting on Monday of the Gregorian calendar (see link for calendar) or a common year starting on Tuesday of the 13-day slower Julian calendar. ... Ciudad Bolívar is the capital of the eastern Venezuelan state of Bolívar. ... April 18 is the 108th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (109th in leap years). ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... City motto: Ave María Santísima, sin pecado concebida, en el primer instante de su ser natural. ... South America South America is a continent crossed by the equator, with most of its area in the Southern Hemisphere. ...

Biography

Lauro's father, an immigrant from Italy, was a barber who could sing and play the guitar so he taught his son what he could, but died when Antonio was still a child. After the family moved to Caracas, Lauro pursued formal musical study (piano, composition) at the Academia de Música y Declamación, where among his teachers was the distinguished composer Vicente Emilio Sojo (1887-1974). A 1932 concert performed in Caracas by Agustín Barrios, the legendary Paraguayan guitarist and composer, so much impressed the young Lauro (already an accomplished folk guitarist) that he decided to abandon the piano and violin in favor of studying the guitar. From 1933, he studied with Raúl Borges (1888-1967), who introduced him to the traditional classical guitar repertoire. In the next decade, Borges' pupils would also include Rodrigo Riera, José Rafael Cisneros, and Alirio Diaz, who later was to be responsible for unveiling Lauro's works to an astonished international audience and introducing these novel, unheard-of works to the likes of Andrés Segovia and John Williams (guitarist). City motto: Ave María Santísima, sin pecado concebida, en el primer instante de su ser natural. ... Vicente Emilio Sojo (December 8, 1887-August 11, 1974) was a Venezuelan musicologist, educator and composer, born in Guatire (Miranda state) to a family closely related to the musical world, since both his great-grandfathers were Chapel Masters. ... Agustín Barrios Mangoré (May 5, 1885–August 7, 1944), was a Paraguayan composer and guitarist. ... Rodrigo Riera (1923 - 1999), was a Venezuelan guitarist and composer. ... Alirio Diaz in Concert Alirio Diaz is a classical guitarist. ... Andres Segovia classical guitarist Andrés Segovia, Marques de Salobreña (February 21, 1893 – June 3, 1987) was a Spanish classical guitarist and is considered to be the father of the modern classical guitar movement by most modern scholars. ... John Christopher Williams (born 24 April 1941) is one of the worlds best-known classical guitarists. ...

Like many South Americans of his generation, Lauro was a fervent cultural nationalist, determined to rescue and celebrate his nation's musical heritage. As a member of the Trio Cantores del Trópico in 1935-1943 (Lauro sang bass and played both guitar and cuatro), he toured nearby countries to introduce them to Venezuelan music. Lauro was particularly attracted to the myriad colonial parlour valses created in the previous century by accomplished national composers such as Ramón Delgado Palacios (1867-1902). Unfailingly melodic, alternately wistful and brilliant, and characterized by a distinctive syncopation (created by a hemiola in which two measures of 3/4 become a single measure of 3/2), such music was precisely the sort of folkloric raw material which the likes of Smetana or Granados had elevated to national art in Europe. The name cuatro can refer to any of several Latin American instruments of the guitar or lute family. ... Bedrich Smetanas statue in Plzen Smetana monument in LitomyÅ¡l BedÅ™ich Smetana listen â–¶(?) (March 2, 1824 LitomyÅ¡l, Bohemia,Czech Republic, (then Austria-Hungary) - May 12, 1884 Prague) was a Czech composer, whose best-known composition is the symphonic poem Vltava (The Moldau), second of a cycle of... Places called Granados: Granados, Sonora, Mexico People named Granados: Enrique Granados (1867–1916), Spanish composer Federico Tinoco Granados (1870–1931), [[President of Costa Rica|president of Costa Rica Miguel García Granados, (1809–1878) president of Guatemala This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might...

A concert whose programme was entirely comprised of such valses (waltzes) by the distinguished Venezuelan pianist Evencio Castellanos (1914-1984) convinced Lauro that the guitar, too, should have such pieces in its repertory. Among his first efforts in this genre were the pieces later known as Tatiana, Andreina, and Natalia, composed sometime between 1938 and 1940; their instant popularity inspired still others. In addition to his guitar pieces, Lauro composed dozens of works for orchestra, choir, piano and voice; many of which remain unpublished. He sometimes experimented with modern compositional techniques, but most of his guitar music remains essentially on the Calle Real or "main street," an expression used by musicians of Lauro's generation to refer to a straight and direct route, without distracting harmonic detours. The waltz is a ballroom and folk dance in 3/4 time, done primarily in closed position. ... Evencio Castellanos was born in Cúa, miranda (state), May 3, 1915, pianist, composer and director of choirs and orchestra. ...

In 1951-1952, the military junta of General Marcos Pérez Jiménez imprisoned Lauro for his principled belief in democracy. Lauro later shrugged off the experience, telling his friends that prison was a normal part of life for the Venezuelan man of his generation. He had continued composing even in prison, and after his release immediately returned to performing with a pioneering professional classical guitar trio, the freshly formed “Trio Raúl Borges”. In the following decades Lauro's compositions were published, recorded, and performed throughout the world, and his contributions to his nation's musical life were recognized and acknowledged everywhere. Lauro was appointed professor of guitar at several distinguished schools including the Juan José Landaeta Conservatory, and was named president of the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra. In spite of his modest insistence that he was a composer rather than a performer, he was persuaded by his friends to embark upon a solo concert tour which began in Venezuela and culminated in a triumphant 1980 performance at London's Wigmore Hall. Shortly before his death in 1986, he was presented with the Premio Nacional de Música, his country's highest artistic award. Marcos Pérez Jiménez Marcos Pérez Jiménez (April 25, 1914 – September 20, 2001) was president of Venezuela from 1952 to 1958. ... The Wigmore Hall is a concert hall specialising in classical music in Wigmore Street London. ...

Works

Seis por derecho: a Joropo, subtitled "al estilo del arpa venezolana" ("styled after the Venezuelan harp"), is an extraordinary version of this energetic regional dance. Like the vals venezolano, the joropo makes extensive use of a hemiola, in this case an alternation of 6/8 and ¾. The title of this work comes from the llaneros (inhabitants of the Venezuelan llanos or plains) who approved of its insistent rhythm (6/8 = seis), thus giving it the right (derecho) to be so named. The next four pieces were classic valses venezolanos (venezuelan waltzes): María Carolina, unpublished until 1983, named after one of the composer's nieces. El Marabino (a more common term is maracucho) refers to a native of Maracaibo, an important city where Lauro himself lived for a time. Lauro once told his pupil Luis Zea that he had named a new composition Maria Luisa after his wife, and that the piece was as difficult as she was – a comment which later caused Señora Lauro to burst into laughter. In fact, it is a very romantic work, the second section of which was inspired by Chopin's Waltz in A flat, Op. 69, No. 1. Angostura is the ancient name for Ciudad Bolívar, Lauro's birthplace. Venezuelan Joropo. ... In modern musical parlance, a hemiola is a metrical pattern in which two bars in triple time (3/2 or 3/4 for example) are articulated as if they were three bars in duple time (2/2 or 2/4). ... City motto: Muy noble y leal (English: Very noble and loyal) City nickname: La Tierra del Sol Amada (Spanish: The Land of the Beloved Sun) Location of Maracaibo Municipalities Maracaibo Municipality Mayor Gian Carlo Di Martino (2004 – 2008) Area   â€“Land   â€“Water 393 km² N/A km² N/A km² Population... Frédéric François Chopin as portrayed by Eugène Delacroix in 1838. ... Ciudad Bolívar is the capital of the eastern Venezuelan state of Bolívar. ...

Lauro wrote his impressive Suite Venezolana, consisting of Registro (Prelude), Danza Negra, Canción, and Vals, during his imprisonment in 1951-52. The curiously named first movement, Registro, refers to the sort of improvising (registrar) a musician might do to warm up his hands or to explore a new or unfamiliar instrument; it is therefore equivalent to the Italian term ricercare as it was used originally used in the Renaissance. Lauro used the identical title for the first movement of his Suite para piano. The Danza negra is a very difficult piece, frequently selected as the main or final challenge in international guitar contests, demanding not only a mature technique but a solid command of intricate Venezuelan rhythms as well. It is mainly an Afro-Venezuelan dance which quotes a Venezuelan folksong named San Pedro; another popular tune, La Tumba, is quoted in both of the last two movements, a typical canción de serenata (serenade song) and a vals. In 1971 Lauro wrote the waltz El niño, dedicated to his eldest son, Leonardo. A ricercar (or ricercare; the terms are interchangeable) is a type of late Renaissance and mostly early Baroque instrumental composition. ...

The first three of the Four Valses Venezolanos were composed in Ecuador in 1938-40 while Lauro was touring there with the Trio Cantores del Trópico; years later, after the pieces had been published, Lauro decided to name them after his niece Tatiana, her sister Andreina, and his own daughter Natalia, respectively. The latter is by far Lauro's most famous work, commonly known as Vals criollo (the title under which it was recorded by Andrés Segovia), or as Vals No.3 (the title under which it was published in 1963). The fourth waltz, Yacambú, is in rondo form having curious chromaticisms and unexpected harmonies; it was named after a picturesque mountainous area of western Venezuela. Andres Segovia classical guitarist Andrés Segovia, Marques de Salobreña (February 21, 1893 – June 3, 1987) was a Spanish classical guitarist and is considered to be the father of the modern classical guitar movement by most modern scholars. ... Rondo, and its French equivalent rondeau, is a word that has been used in music in a number of ways, most often in reference to a musical form, but also in reference to a character-type that is distinct from the form. ... In music, chromatic indicates the inclusion of notes not in the prevailing scale and is also used for those notes themselves (Shir-Cliff et al 1965, p. ...

El Negrito (referring to Lauro's youngest son Luis Augusto) and La Gatica (the kitten, a nickname for his wife) were published together in 1984; they were intended to be played as a pair. Lauro's Tríptico consists of three pieces in E minor which the composer collected together to comply with a request from Andrés Segovia. The first of these, Armida, is a contemplative canción named after the composer's sister. Madrugada ("before dawn") is an appoggiatura study inspired by one of Sojo's few original works for guitar. Lauro composed this piece in 1974, shortly after the death of his beloved maestro. La Negra was the nickname of Lauro's niece Armida, the daughter of his sister of the same name; this little waltz was composed in August, 1976. Andres Segovia classical guitarist Andrés Segovia, Marques de Salobreña (February 21, 1893 – June 3, 1987) was a Spanish classical guitarist and is considered to be the father of the modern classical guitar movement by most modern scholars. ...

Lauro's Variaciones Sobre Una Canción Infantil [venezolana] carries the dedication "Homage to the guitarists of the XIX Century;" that is, to Sor, Giuliani, Carcassi, and the others of their generation who loved the theme and variations form. The first half of the melody is the children's song Palomita Sentada, but the second half is original to Lauro, who found the little tune too brief to be developed successfully. Carora became a favourite vals of guitar virtuoso Alirio Díaz; when Lauro invited him to title the piece, Díaz chose the name of his home town (and that of his friend Rodrigo Riera), a city in Lara state, in western Venezuela. Rodrigo Riera (1923 - 1999), was a Venezuelan guitarist and composer. ...

Legacy

The works of Antonio Lauro have long been very popular with guitarists worldwide, yet there have been few recordings devoted exclusively to him. However, several recordings by John Williams and David Russell, in a fashion very similar to what these two virtuosos had already done for Agustín Barrios Mangoré, have set Lauro's fame in the honorific place he deserves. John Williams is quoted as having justly referred to Antonio Lauro as being the "Strauss of the guitar". David Russell (born in 1953 in Glasgow) is a classical guitarist. ... It has been suggested that Straus be merged into this article or section. ...

External links

• Photos
• Antonio Lauro: una música afianzada en la tierra (Article by Alejandro Bruzual, Revista SIDOR Literal, Año 2, Nº 3, 1994)
• Biography in spanish