Master Valera's Sonatonga, where music and life meet

January 5, 2024

Master Roberto Valera, National Prize for Music, is a simple man as true geniuses usually are. That said, he speaks with authority and passion about his favorite subject: music.

Presenting the music video of his Sonatonga was the pretext that brought him to the most recent edition of the Dale Mambo Colloquium, of Habana Mambo Festival, but once he had the floor, he began, without protocols, an entire lesson on life and creation:

"I often hear people say: I went to conservatory to study classical music. No, sir: you did not go to study classical music, you went to study music. Now, you have to study Bach to know what polyphony is, yes, you have to study it. And Chopin to know what it is to sing on the piano, an instrument that does not sing, because they are separate notes; you have to play Chopin. That later you can apply to your music your experiences, what you brought from the world, that is what matters," he affirmed.

"Sometimes I fear that in teaching we could kill the golden goose and, if we have great teachers currently, it is because we have known how to combine the historical knowledge of classical music with the knowledge of popular music. The important thing is to encourage musical practice: whoever has a vocation for the Cuban punto, let him take the tres and play punto cubano; whoever has a vocation for jazz, let him play jazz; that is, to give the opportunity for praxis, because that is what matters in popular music," added the distinguished Cuban composer and pedagogue.

And precisely in that symbiosis of academy and experiences, Roberto Valera is recognized:

"When I am among classical musicians, they tell me: you are very influenced by popular music, and when I am among popular musicians, they start saying: no, but you are cultured... They don't know that if I tell them the story of my life, all my refined Black argument will fall apart. I have done everything: electroacoustic music, music for film, music for teaching... because the only thing I have never liked is being bored, so to not bore myself I do everything. The same year I composed Iré a Santiago, which is a son for choir, I wrote Conjuro, which is an avant-garde work; that is, I have always done many different things."

And through those diverse paths of creation came Sonatonga, which "means sonata conga; I took the two words—like when I studied German, where they unite two words and form a new one—, so sonatonga came out, because it is a conga in the form of a sonata.

"What does the conga have to do with me? That since I was a child I have been involved with the conga, because in my neighborhood the conga of Los Marajá de la India used to rehearse, so I would organize congas with my neighborhood friends. We made the drums from some round tambuches that I don't know where we got them from. Later it got into my head that if Cuban armies marched at conga pace, they would be invincible, because the conga is the only thing in Cuba that makes everyone advance at the same rhythm."

He even proposed a march in conga time at some point and, in fact, military bands are among the tributes that the audiovisual accompanying Master Valera's piece intends to pay, where cinema is also honored, specifically with the film Fantasía; that is the reason why the musicians of the National Symphony who participate in the piece appear covered with hoods. The video was filmed at the National Theater of Cuba and produced by Almar Productions.

Roberto Valera has never celebrated "that thing people say: 'so many years of artistic life,'" do you know why? Because I don't know when my artistic life begins. I'm from Pueblo Nuevo, very close to the La Victoria neighborhood, and I have never known, because one of my first artistic activities was dancing rumbas at the Palacio de los diecistas, which was a little theater that was near my house," recalled this man who was born with music in his soul.