Concerto Gaucho

From Wind Repertory Project

Kevin Walczyk

Kevin Walczyk


General Info

Year: 2007
Duration: c. 16:00
Difficulty: VI (solo) / V (ensemble) (see Ratings for explanation)
Publisher: KevEli Music
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $185.00   |   Score Only (print) - $18.00


Instrumentation

Full Score
Solo B-flat Trumpet
C Piccolo/Flute III
Flute I-II
Oboe I-II
Bassoon I-II
E-flat Soprano Clarinet
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II-III-IV
Trombone I-II
Bass Trombone
Euphonium
Tuba
String Bass
Harp
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III-IV, including:

  • Bell Tree
  • Bongos (2)
  • Cabasa
  • Conga (2)
  • Dumbeg, wooden (medium and large)
  • Glockenspiel
  • Marimba
  • Shakers (3)
  • Suspended Cymbal
  • Suspended Triangle
  • Tambourine
  • Vibraphone
  • Xylophone


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

Concerto Gaucho was composed for Oregon native and trumpet virtuoso Tim Morrison. The work’s central building blocks stem from the African-influenced music of Uruguay, which is the birthplace of Oregon Symphony Music Director Carlos Kalmar, to whom the work is dedicated.

The gaucho was traditionally known as a horseman who freely traversed and lived off of the unclaimed lands of Uruguay’s Rio de la Plata region. The gaucho symbolized freedom and mobility during the first half of the nineteenth century and came to represent a national heroic archetype in Uruguay and throughout the southern cone of South America.

Typically equipped with a guitar, the gaucho was a wandering minstrel of sorts, performing music that described the vagabond’s life. The trumpet soloist is the protagonist of Concerto Gaucho, which features two distinctive musical identities indigenous to the Rio de la Plata region -- the milonga and the candombe. The slow, lyrical second movement of the concerto is based on the milonga, a song form that was a hallmark of the payadores (folk singers of improvised verse) who, by the end of the nineteenth century, played a vital part in preserving the vanishing image of the world of the gaucho. The lyrics of the milonga often featured political, historical, and patriotic themes that helped chronicle real historical events and pay tribute to local heroes, especially the gauchos.

The first and third movements of Concerto Gaucho are created from the energetic candombe -- an African-derived rhythm that has been an important influence on Uruguay’s musical culture for more than two centuries. The candombe’s unique rhythmic structure is achieved by layering three separate drum patterns, each named for the specific drum that performs that pattern -- the piano drum, chico drum, and the repique drum. The three short, repetitive drum patterns that comprise the candombe, along with the madera - the rhythmic ‘key’ to the candombe - provide nearly all of the rhythmic elements for the outset movements of the concerto. As with the formal construct found in the concerto’s milonga section, the decima plays a vital role in structuring the two candombe movements. Concerto Gaucho pays tribute to the wealth of historically-enriched music indigenous to Uruguay, which is rarely heard outside of its region.

- Program Note by composer


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project

  • Valdosta (Ga.) State University Wind Ensemble (Benjamin Harper, conductor; Javian Brabham, trumpet) - 8 April 2022
  • Pacific Lutheran University (Tacoma, Wash.) Wind Ensemble (Edwin Powell, conductor; Zachary Lyman, trumpet) – 15 October 2017
  • Central Michigan University (Mount Pleasant) Symphonic Wind Ensemble (John E. Williamson, conductor) – 1 December 2016
  • University of Kansas (Lawrence) Wind Ensemble (Paul Popiel, conductor; Joey Tartell, trumpet) – 9 November 2016


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

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