The brilliant challenge of Yalil Guerra to capture the essences of a country

July 24, 2019

The phonogram Cuba: The Legacy (RYCY Symphonic Series, Vol. I), by Cuban-American composers Aurelio de la Vega and Yalil Guerra, is among those selected this year for the Latin Grammy.

The album, recorded in the Caribbean nation with the National Symphony Orchestra of Cuba, under the direction of maestro Enrique Pérez Mesa, includes the piece Intrata, by Aurelio de la Vega –which had never been heard before in Havana–, and the world premiere of the symphony La Palma Real, by Yalil Guerra.

With this material, the largest of the Antilles presents itself as a world of sonorities beyond what is popularly known internationally, with two symphonic music composers who exploit all its potential.

However, due to its beauty, density and significance, the work La Palma Real stands out in the recording, his first symphony, a piece that manages to capture the deepest essences of a country.

With it, Yalil pays homage to the most universal of Cubans, José Martí, who gave his life for the freedom of the nation and in his existence found inspiration to compose the four movements, which are a reference to the illustrious Cuban patriot: The Exile, The Battle of Dos Ríos, The Elegy and, finally, The Legacy.

In exclusive statements to Radio Enciclopedia, the maestro responds about the emergence of this grand project:

"I have been since 2017 doing my doctoral studies in composition at the University of Los Angeles (UCLA) and as part of the Orchestration course the professor asked us to make a four-minute work that would only be performed with the school orchestra and from that first moment I said to myself: 'I am not going to waste four minutes of music so that it is only a class exercise' and I set out to make a work of longer duration that would endure as part of the catalog".

The composer reveals that he began the project and when he was around the middle of that first movement, it appeared to him like a ray of light that illuminated him and the name of José Martí emerged; and so, from that moment on, he focused much more his thinking on a work of greater scope.

"After finishing that first movement which is The Exile, it captures that fear of what is to come, that anguish, united in the choral part that the first movement has, plus the part of the battles, which he had for the liberation of Cuba and that was the basis of what founded the rest of the symphony".

The gestures of the talented composer, his hands, his voice express how much strength it produced in him to evoke such a beautiful deed made music in the second movement titled The Battle of Dos Ríos.

"In that battle I insert the beginning of the National Anthem of Cuba and the first trumpet is Martí, it is like a character, the second is Antonio Maceo, but there comes a moment when they diverge, one way and another, that represents the differences that existed in the thinking between the generals and the Apostle."

At this point Yalil Guerra immerses the work in the historic appearance of the captain general of Cuba, Valeriano Weyler, who decreed the reconcentration that is one of the bloodiest chapters in the history of the nation: "it is a moment of great tension, tragic, it is the reminder of why the struggle for Cuban independence and the need to rid oneself of the Spanish yoke".

Subsequently, maestro Yalil decides to end the second movement: "I asked myself how it would end, it required a climax, something very strong, and I decided to seek the ending of the National Anthem of Cuba which is 'to die for the Fatherland is to live', and there is a movement in the orchestra that symbolizes what is the shot they give to Martí and he dies. If you close your eyes you will see the battle and you will be able to guide yourself by that historical journey".

In his narration, he notes that he also includes in The Battle of Dos Ríos, the Invader's Hymn, covertly present in passages assumed in the percussion and trumpets, mixed in.

"The third movement enters, The Elegy, it is the end of that combat, where all that tranquility is, dead people, wounded, you hear solos, souls that are rising and a lament begins, an elegy that I use the same choir that was heard in the first movement, the same, in the second and reappears in the third, but in a different way. All this musical poetry closes with bells, because just as it began, it culminated, the bells of the National Anthem, in honor of the Cubans who claim the freedom of the Fatherland, offering their lives in battle".

Guerra himself confesses that he decided to title the fourth movement The Legacy because he thought of the legacy that José Martí has left to all Cubans, since from that sap the sense of patriotism is nourished, the national pride of Cubans.

"For this I chose to use the fugue, which is a very difficult musical genre to do, very complicated, very few composers in the history of music have dedicated themselves especially in the last 100 years to composing fugues, Max Steiner was one of them, from there back Johann Sebastian Bach is the king, Ludwig Van Beethoven, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart cultivated it one or another time, but it is not a very used genre, it is very difficult to do… and I am a person of challenges, I like to do things that seem impossible".

"The final part –explains the author– is a double fugue in four voices, at first; then I open a second fugue inspired by the second theme of this first one, at six voices, something quite complex".

"In this last movement, The Legacy, I recapitulate everything that has been heard, they are themes of exile, the presence of Valeriano Weyler, death in Dos Ríos, until the coda, all this tension becomes a major tonality, with a positive breath, an ending of hope".