The most Cuban of musicians

August 21, 2018

Ernesto Lecuona, the great composer, is often attributed Spanish nationality on many occasions. This is fundamentally due to his passion for that European land, which in various ways underlies his music. Thus, the Maestro gifted the national musical staff works such as the Spanish suite Andalucía and the world-famous Malagueña, the sixth movement of this suite. In both one can discern abundant inspiration from that European vein. Moreover, he was the first musician to dedicate a piece to El Escorial, —titled Ante El Escorial—, that Spanish majesty. Madrid, likewise, turned out to be one of the happiest settings of his career, since there he shared with soprano María Fantoli.

However, Lecuona is truly Cuban. He was born in Guanabacoa, La Habana, on August 6, 1985. He was registered as Ernesto Sixto de la Asunción Lecuona Casado, by a Canary Islands journalist, Ernesto Lecuona Ramos, who together with his sister Ernestina took him by the hand to his first piano recital when he was only five years old. On this island he composed his first piece and already the universality that would define the artistic trajectory of this great man could be foreseen, as at 13 years of age he had a band of musicians perform a piece of his own composition. This was titled Cuba y América.

The Maestro was recognized as the most universal of Cuban musicians, and his compositions position him as a transgressor, as the artist who defended in every stage of the world the cultural identity of his country. And it is that the author of Siboney made clear in Paris, in Barcelona, Málaga and other distant lands, that Cuban music had its particular refinement. Even though it could be nourished by Siboneyism and folklore, the Parnassian forms of the old continent were blended in the melody, and that was a formula of exquisiteness.

It is also possible that Lecuona be confused among Spanish composers since some masters of the mother country such as Isaac Albéniz, Enrique Granados, Joaquín Turina or Manuel de Falla, among others; on more than one occasion flirted with the Greatest of the Antilles, even, dedicating complete pieces to the "most beautiful land". But Lecuona is Cuban through and through. So much so that he earned a gold diploma from the National Conservatory of La Habana, at only 16 years of age. And from here he took flight to first world countries, where he conquered truly demanding audiences.

He triumphed in the United States and, of course, in Europe; he recorded discs with companies as resonant as Columbia and RCA. He happily enjoyed the applause in Nueva York, and sealed his commitment to Cuban culture and to Latin America at every turn. Thus he was the first Latino to bring his style to North America, with the particular orchestra Lecuona Cuban Boys. He became the Caribbean composer par excellence during the twentieth century, for to this day his legacy transcends for the creation of rhythms and mixtures that attempt that Caribbean flavor.

And the nature of the composer flourished in the most diverse formats: jazz, ballet, zarzuelas, boleros and others; fused in that infinity of recordings that he left for the following generations. From the famous piano he drew successes valued in the style of María La O and, from Crisantemo, Vals azul or Negra Mercé. As if there were no limits to creation in the hands and mind of that singer so beloved inside and outside his native country. According to the Cubadebate website, his incomparable creations carry within them the soul of dance, which "flows in each note to traverse the most singular corners of Cuban culture".

This Hispanic-American musical genius embraced, it is true, tendencies from three countries fundamentally: Cuba, Spain and Africa. He made them vibrate in each production, and like one who explores a ridiculously chaste girlfriend, he stripped melodic essences of stereotypes and moralisms from his three muses. Exposing them again and again to the entire world, making them protagonists of a work that encompassed more than 400 magnificent songs, operettas, zarzuelas and pieces for piano alone. He mixed the charms of one with the secrets of another, or with the grace of the second; and from all this he drew a divine mixture with which subsequent generations continue to sweeten musical scores.

He composed for cinema, with successes in the Hollywood industry, even to the nomination of an Oscar for his Siempre en mi corazón for the film directed by Warner Bros. of the same name (Always in my heart). There too he planted the seal of his land. He achieved resounding success in countries like México, with strong acceptance on the radio, television and press of the time. He defended a spectacle that integrated Creole musicians and artists.

Lecuona died in the Canary Islands, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, during those vacation days when he decided to visit the native land of his parents. His remains do not rest in Cuba, nor in Europe, nor in Africa, but in the Gate of Heaven cemetery, in Nueva York. But let us have no doubt, the author of Siboney and Malagueña is the most Cuban of our musicians.