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Christopher Garcia y Tasha Smith Godinez
original compositions for INDIGENOUS INSTRUMENTS - PEDAL HARP - VIOLIN |
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MEETING
Christopher Garcia and Tasha Smith Godinez met during rehearsals for the performance of composer Joseph Julian Gonzalez symphonic oratorio MISA AZTECA in San Diego in Fall 2013. A composition utilizing rhythms of Mexica/Aztec danza played with instruments of Meso America. http://christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/misa-azteca.html HISTORY CHRISTOPHER GARCIA Christopher had previously performed Silvestre Revueltas' SENSEMAYA (1936) Carlos and Chavez' SINFONIA INDIA (1937) with the Bakersfield symphony Orchestra in 2008. Symphonic music whcih featured Indigenous percussion instruments with symphony orchestra. Garcia contines to be invited to provide Indigenous instruments and coaching for the percussion sections of various orchestra in the United States in order to get the instruments to SOUND and RESONATE the way the they were intended to. He was also invited to play Joseph Julian Gonzalez MISA AZTECA with members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011 at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA. USA in addition to chamber music versions of MISA AZTECA christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/symphonic-performances.htm Understanding the need to have audiences EXPERIENCE the beauty of these instruments more than once a year in a symphonic setting or in a traditional Mexica dance setting, he set out looking for willing collaborators with chamber groups and soloists interested in exploring and experiencing the possibilities. QUINTETO LATINO COMMISSION A woodwind quintet based in San Jose, CA were the first chamber group willing to participate in a world of sounds and ideas they had never previously been explored. There were premieres and numerous performances in Berkeley, Oakland, San Jose, and San Francisco in 2011, 2012 and 2013 and two of the compositions were played at the LATIN AMERICAN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/quinteto-latino.html TASHA SMITH GODINEZ During rehearsals for MISA AZTECA Christopher was able to experience the timbre, sonorities, and the color of sound of the harp in close proximity along with the interpretation and execution of the music by Tasha Smith Godinez. Intrigued by the possibilities of collaboration they spoke with each other after the performance and several emails were exchanged with lots of questions and answers in regards to their instruments, schedules and possibilities. MUSIC FOR HARP Christopher listened to music for harp on different recordings in various settings e.g., solo, duo, trio, chamber and orchestral as well as meeting with harpists in order to ask them questions about the instrument, and how it responds in different environments —solo, duo, trio, chamber with strings, with brass, with percussion etc. What they like, what they don't like, and what they have to do in order to be heard in a symphonic setting due to the nature of the instrument etc. REHEARSALS When Christopher and Tasha got together to play the music he had composed up to that point, he loved the dynamic range Tasha is able to elicit from her instrument e.g., melodies which are barley audible and can be played strictly thru the manipulation of the pedals, to the pianistic sonorities of the upper register, to the ominous harmonic residue when the lower strings are struck with the hand, or the percussive attack of a shaker scraped across the neck bow of the harp used to imitate the sound of a Yaqui rasp, or harp strings played with a conductors baton to replicate the sound of a tawitol. He wanted to incorporate all of these elements and more into the compositions so that everything from a whisper to a roar can be utilized. INSTRUMENTS CLASSICAL AND PRE INVASION Percussion and harp are two of the older instruments in the world and literally go back thousands of years in one form or another. http://christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/indigenous-instruments-images.html https://www.harp.com/history-of-the-harp.htm The unusual thing about using classic(al) western instruments with the classic Indigenous instruments of Mesoamerica and Mexico is that the music composed for these instruments up to this point has not been composed by an improvising/ composer multi instrumentalist with thousands of hours playing these instruments in real time, but usually by a composer who heard the sound of the instrument played by a person who has devoted his life to developing a sound on their instrument and then composing for it . Most who have played these instruments for a lifetime do so in non classical settings and in general cannot read or write music, while those that can read music have not spent a lifetime nurturing a "SOUND" on the instrument. Garcia is at a moment in time where this is possible and he has been blessed to find willing collaborators to participate In 2016 they were invited to Mexico City for a world premiere for the International Harp Festival, since that time they have grown organically thru dozens of performances |
