Salvador Contreras Sánchez (10 November 1910 – 7 November 1982) was a Mexican composer and violinist, a member of the Grupo de los cuatro.

Life

Contreras was born in

Cuerámaro Cuerámaro is a Mexican city (and Municipalities of Guanajuato, municipality) located in Southwest region of the state of Guanajuato. The municipality has an area of 254.85 square kilometres (0.83% of the surface of the state) and is bordered to the ...

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

, the son of José Contreras and Nemoria Sánchez. His musical education was at the Mexico City Conservatory, where he studied violin with

Silvestre Revueltas Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican composer of classical music, a violinist and a conductor. Life Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory ...

music theory Music theory is the study of the practices and possibilities of music. ''The Oxford Companion to Music'' describes three interrelated uses of the term "music theory". The first is the "rudiments", that are needed to understand music notation (ke ...

with Candelario Huízar, and composition and conducting with

Carlos Chávez Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by nativ ...

. Together with Daniel Ayala Pérez,

Blas Galindo Blas Galindo Dimas (February 3, 1910 – April 19, 1993) was a Mexican composer. Biography Born in San Gabriel, Jalisco, Galindo studied intermittently from 1931 to 1944 at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, studying with Carlos Chávez ...

, and

José Pablo Moncayo José Pablo Moncayo García (June 29, 1912 – June 16, 1958) was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican national ...

, he formed the Grupo de jóvenes compositores in 1935, which later became the Grupo de los cuatro.

Musical style

Contreras's early works from the 1930s and early 1940s were predominantly

contrapuntal In music, counterpoint is the relationship between two or more musical lines (or voices) which are harmonically interdependent yet independent in rhythm and melodic contour. It has been most commonly identified in the European classical tradi ...

and neoclassical, with folk-like tunes and brash rhythms. His ''Obertura en tiempo de danza'' (Overture in Dance Time, 1942), for example, prominently uses measures in 7/8 and 5/8, which alternate with the more common 2/4 and 3/4. In the mid-1960s he began using serial techniques, allying him with

Manuel Enríquez Manuel Enríquez Salazar (17 June 1926 – 26 April 1994) was a Mexican composer, violinist and pedagogue. He was a fellow member of the Academy of Arts of Mexico, of the National Seminary of Mexican Culture and the music director of the Nationa ...

and losing him his former broad public appeal.

Compositions

Among his best-known works are: * Sonata, for violín and cello (1933) * Piece for String Quartet (String Quartet No. 2) (1936) * ''Música para orquesta sinfónica'' (1940) * ''Obertura en tiempo de danza'' (1942) * ''Cuatro canciones'' (1959) * String Quartet No. 3 (1962) * Three Movements for guitar (1963) * ''Dos piezas dodecafónicas'' (1966) * ''Cantata a Juárez'' (1967) * Seven Preludes, for piano (1971)

Discography

, ''Sones de Mariachi'';

, ''

Sensemayá ''Sensemayá'' is a composition for orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, which is based on the poem of the same title by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén. It is one of Revueltas's most famous compositions. Poem Guillén's poem e ...

'';

, ''Amatzinac''; Salvador Contreras, ''Corridos'';

: Symphony No. 5. Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México; Coro Nacional de México; Enrique Arturo Diemecke, cond. Elena Durán, flute; María Luisa Tamez, soprano. CD recording, 1 sound disc: digital, stereo, 4 3/4 in. Sony Classical CDEC 471000. exico City Sony Music Entertainment Mexico, 1994.

Life

Musical style

Compositions

Discography

References

Further reading