Daniel Toledo Guillén and the reflective spirit of orchestral music

October 1, 2020

An approach to the work in orchestral music within the Cuban scene through the young Daniel Toledo Guillén was the opportunity recently offered to us by the television program Del agua que bebemos.

This proposal with the sponsorship of the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS), the Ministry of Culture, Alma Films Producciones and the Instituto Cubano de la Música, is directed by filmmaker Rolando Almirante and is a successful production that makes visible the best of the creation of outstanding young members of the AHS. It is a minimalist presentation, very sober, where music, language and the interviewee are responsible for providing the thread and coherence in the space. That is why I consider it correct to show the creations of these artists, because no matter how much one may talk about it, nothing is better than listening to them firsthand to have a clear conception of creative intentions.

Few proposals offer that opportunity and Del agua que bebemos exploits it wisely. During this episode in which musician and composer Daniel Toledo Guillén was invited —graduated in composition in 2019 from the Universidad de las Artes de Cuba (ISA), under the tutelage of masters Roberto Valera and Juan Piñera— we learned some keys to his creative thinking and details about his first record production titled Abismos.

Demystifying and very practical is how Toledo Guillén revealed himself to us, who shattered in his statements that romantic myth in which suffering is conceived as a source of inspiration for the composer. "Composing requires a technique and continuous, sustained work, it is not about waiting for that inspiration to come and illuminate us, it is not such a mystical fact. There is an initial moment that has no tangible explanation, where the first idea begins that makes a work germinate and that, yes, comes from imagination, it has no rational sense.

But what differentiates a professional composer from one who is not, what does he do with that idea," he reflected. For this composer, orchestral music requires an intellectually prepared listener who meditates on what is heard: "you have to put yourself in a state of 'I am going to listen to music that will make me reflect in some way,' and sometimes, unfortunately, music becomes a background art and always remains in the background, in simple enjoyment, beyond any reflection and this music in my opinion always implies some kind of reflection".

During the meeting he also spoke about how important his education at the Universidad de las Artes de Cuba was as a space for dialogue and interaction among all the arts, and about teacher Juan Piñera, whom he considered "a wise man who guides young people, beyond composition; you can talk about the most diverse topics because he has tremendous culture. Everything revolves around him, not from an egocentric point of view, but from all the energies he transmits to students".

At the end of 2018 Daniel Toledo Guillén won the artistic creation scholarship "Conmutaciones," awarded by the Asociación Hermanos Saíz (AHS) to classical music composers to produce a phonogram; regarding this he commented: "It is titled Abismos, it is an album for you to sit and listen to, I made it so you reflect on yourself, on your relationship with the world. Perhaps a bit ambitious on my part, but that is what I wanted".

Within this production is the piece Superficie, performed by the renowned Cuban flutist Niurka González, who skillfully defends this work in which the composer bares the instrument, leading it through a monologue in which he exploits the maximum possibilities of the flute. "It is that impression of the surface, of playing upward. The theme is a solo flute piece—whose register is generally mid-high and, above all, high—with that always being upward. I wanted to make a more elaborate melody at the beginning and end; it is almost a cry from the flute that segments and shortens itself," the musician concluded.

Enjoy the entire program Del agua que bebemos, in which young composer Daniel Toledo Guillén was invited: