Amadeo Roldán y Gardes (

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, 12 June 1900 –

Havana Havana (; ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

ist. Roldán was born in Paris to a Cuban mulatta and a Spanish father. It was his mother, the pianist Albertina Gardes, who initiated her children to music (his sister María Teresa was a mezzo-soprano and his brother Alberto a cellist). Roldán came to Cuba in 1919 after studying music theory and violin at the

Madrid Conservatory The Madrid Royal Conservatory () is a music college in Madrid, Spain. History The Royal Conservatory of Music was founded on July 15, 1830, by royal decree, and was originally located in Mostenses Square, Madrid. In 1852 it was moved to the Roy ...

, graduating in 1916. He became the

concertmaster The concertmaster (from the German language, German ''Konzertmeister''), first chair (U.S.) or leader (UK) is the principal first violin player in an orchestra (clarinet or oboe in a concert band). After the Conducting, conductor, the concertma ...

(leader of the first-violin section) of the new Orquesta Sinfónica de la Habana in 1922. In the mid-1920s he was appointed concertmaster of the Orquesta Filarmónica of Havana (he would assume the position of conductor in 1932) and founded the Havana String Quartet. During this period, Roldán, one of the leaders of the ''

Afrocubanismo Afrocubanismo was an artistic and social movement in black-themed Cuban culture with origins in the 1920s, as in works by the cultural anthropologist Fernando Ortiz. The Afrocubanismo movement focused on establishing the legitimacy of black ident ...

'' movement, wrote the first symphonic pieces to incorporate Afro-Cuban percussion instruments. Roldán's best-known composition is the 1928 ballet ''La Rebambaramba'', described by a critic of the era as "a multicolored musicorama ... depicting an Afro-Cuban fiesta in a gorgeous display of Caribbean melorhythms, with the participation of a multifarious fauna of native percussion effects, including a polydental glissando on the jawbone of an ass

Roldán's compositions included ''Overture on Cuban Themes'' (1925), three little poems: (''Oriente'', ''Pregón'', ''Fiesta negra'': 1926), and two ballets: ''La Rebambaramba'' (a ballet colonial in two parts: 1928) and ''El milagro de Anaquille'' (1929). There followed a series of ''Rítmicas'' (1930), ''Poema negra'' (1930) and ''Tres toques'' (march, rites, dance) (1931). The fifth and sixth of his ''Rítmicas'', composed around the same time as

Edgard Varèse Edgard Victor Achille Charles Varèse (; also spelled Edgar; December 22, 1883 – November 6, 1965) was a French and American composer who spent the greater part of his career in the United States. Varèse's music emphasizes timbre and rhythm; h ...

's ''

Ionisation Ionization or ionisation is the process by which an atom or a molecule acquires a negative or positive charge by gaining or losing electrons, often in conjunction with other chemical changes. The resulting electrically charged atom or molecule i ...

'', were among the first works in the Western classical music tradition scored for

percussion ensemble A percussion ensemble is a musical ensemble consisting of only percussion instruments. Although the term can be used to describe any such group, it commonly refers to groups of classically trained percussionists performing primarily classical ...

alone. In ''Motivos de son'' (1934) he wrote eight pieces for voice and instruments based on the poet Nicolas Guillen's set of poems with the same title. His last composition was two ''Piezas infantiles'' for piano (1937). His work was regularly featured in concerts sponsored by the Pan-American Association of Composers, founded by

Henry Cowell Henry Dixon Cowell (; March 11, 1897 – December 10, 1965) was an American composer, writer, pianist, publisher, teacher Marchioni, Tonimarie (2012)"Henry Cowell: A Life Stranger Than Fiction" ''The Juilliard Journal''. Retrieved 19 June 2022.C ...

, including the inaugural, March 1929 performance in

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York New York may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * ...

.Orovio, Helio 2004. ''Cuban music from A to Z''. Revised by Sue Steward. A biographical dictionary of Cuban music, artists, composers, groups and terms. Duke University, Durham NC; Tumi, Bath. p185 Roldán died at the peak of his creative powers at 38, of a disfiguring facial cancer (he had been an inveterate smoker). His career followed a similar path to

Alejandro García Caturla Alejandro García Caturla (7 March 1906 – 12 November 1940) was a Cuban composer of art music and creolized Cuban themes. Biography Caturla was born in the town of Remedios, Villa Clara, Cuba. With only sixteen years old, in 1922, he won ...

, and the two men are considered to be pioneers of modern Cuban symphonic art.

References

External links

Amadeo Roldán y Gardes
– Composer's page at AfriClassical.com {{DEFAULTSORT:Roldan, Amadeo 1900 births 1939 deaths Cuban classical violinists Cuban male classical violinists 20th-century Cuban classical composers Concertmasters Musicians from Paris Deaths from cancer in Cuba 20th-century classical violinists Cuban male classical composers 20th-century French male musicians Spanish expatriates in France Spanish emigrants to Cuba

See also

References

External links