Jesús Castillo Monterroso (1877-1946) was a

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

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 Defi ...

. He is the older brother of composer Ricardo Castillo. He was the first musician to collect a sizable amount of Guatemalan

folk music Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...

, which he later used in works such as his

opera Opera is a form of theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically a collaboration between a composer and a librett ...

''Quiché Vinak'', as well as

ouverture Overture (from French ''ouverture'', "opening") in music was originally the instrumental introduction to a ballet, opera, or oratorio in the 17th century. During the early Romantic era, composers such as Beethoven and Mendelssohn composed overtu ...

s and

symphonic poem A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music, usually in a single continuous movement, which illustrates or evokes the content of a poem, short story, novel, painting, landscape, or other (non-musical) source. The German term ''T ...

s. His piano music, as well as his orchestral output, reflects the fusion of his contemporary art with

Mayan Mayan most commonly refers to: * Maya peoples, various indigenous peoples of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Maya civilization, pre-Columbian culture of Mesoamerica and northern Central America * Mayan languages, language family spoken ...

mythology Myth is a folklore genre consisting of narratives that play a fundamental role in a society, such as foundational tales or origin myths. Since "myth" is widely used to imply that a story is not objectively true, the identification of a narrat ...

such as legends and myths from the ''Popol Vuh.'' The national youth orchestra of Guatemala, the Orquesta Sinfónica Jesús Castillo (established in 1997), was named in his honor.

References

Dieter Lehnhoff Dieter Lehnhoff Temme (born 27 May 1955) is a German-Guatemalan composer, conductor, and musicologist. Life Dieter Lehnhoff Temme was born in Guatemala City, Guatemala to German settlers in 1955. He has been a pupil of Klaus Ager, Gerhard Wimberg ...

. "Guatemala." ''Diccionario de la Música Española e Hispanoamericana'', 10 vols., ed. Emilio Casares Rodicio. Madrid: Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 2000, 6/1-11. *

. ''Creación musical en Guatemala''. Guatemala City: Editorial Galería Guatemala, 2005.

External links

* 1877 births 1946 deaths Guatemalan composers Male composers Guatemalan opera composers Male classical composers {{NorthAm-composer-stub