Music:
- combination of monophony, heterophony, polyphony
- displacement of rhythms
- implementation of traditional folk songs (El Palo Verde, La Jesusita, El Mosco)
- use of hemiolas, changing meter
- instrumentation: strings, winds, percussion, brass, piano
- embellishment, ornamentation, eg: clarinet solos
Structure:
- Introduction: unusually long, introduction of folk songs-individually, changing tempos
- Development: exploration of themes, folk songs, rhythmic & melodic changes, fragmentation, sequences, ostinatos
- Coda: increased intensity from heavy use of brass, loud dynamics (eg: fortississimo), closely related to introduction, opening figure in high voices
Context:
- Aaron Copland was American composer, typified American music
- also wrote “Billy the Kid”, “Appalachian Spring”, “Fanfare for the Common Man”
- written after visiting Mexico in 1932 for first all-Copland orchestral concert, invited by Carlo Chavez
- impressed by Mexico and inspired to compose by culture and peoples
- based on nightclub “El Salon Mexico” that he visited, wanted to show culture beyond tourist view, “one felt a really live contact with the Mexican people”
- premiered in 1937 in Mexico City
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