LISTEN TO MY MUSIC
You can listen to some of my works here. Click on the titles to find out more about a specific work!
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“Listening to my students’ performance of the Cuartetos Criollos by Daniel Cueto, I admire the effect that the work had on the audience and on the performers. The music was also highly praised by the professors, and the students were very motivated by the work’s Latin American rhythms and gestures. Even know the performers were from very diverse backgrounds, they became so intensely united -particularly in the last movement- in creating that warm and inspired “Peruvian song””
There are many clues that point to an ancient communication between South America and China. The Chilean investigator Jaime Errázuriz, for example, gathered a list of 89 towns and cities in Peru whose names have a meaning in Chinese. Peru and China also have 118 locations with the same name. Could this be just a coincidence?
The kipu is a system of recording information used in pre-Hispanic America. It consists of several hanging threads that bear knots of different colors and sizes, placed at different heights and distances. The oldest known kipus were found at Caral (Peru), a site believed to be 5000 years old.
Alexander von Humboldt was one of the first to associate the Andean kipu with very similar devices found in China. Gustavo Vargas, in his book “Fusang: Chinos en América antes de Colón”, corroborates this claim and goes on to share their Chinese name: “qi pui”.
If these two peoples really did come into contact... what sort of relationship did they have? How did they view one another? What principles or ideas guided their exchange? These are the questions that led me to write this piece. It is my own musical hypothesis; a "fantasy" on a long voyage leading to an encounter between two distant civilizations. Might a similar story lie hidden in a kipu we can´t yet read? Until scientists finally figure out how to decode the complex, colorful knots, their message will continue to be as abstract as music itself.
“As always, Cueto’s music gives the listener a Peruvian taste full of personality in its beautiful melodic lines, interesting harmonies and strong rhythm which won’t leave anyone indifferent. It’s both a delight to listen to and fun to play. I highly recommend this piece for any ambitious wind quintet”
“Das Stück stellt in einer Art Meditation einen Kontrast zwischen dem bekannten tiefen Bassklang und Flageolett-Tönen her, welche auf dem Kontrabass tatsächlich stark an die Panflöten der Anden erinnern.”
“A piece that emanates energy. The composer finds a way to make it shine in a simple and elegant way”
“A short, challenging but beautiful melody accompanied by warm harmonies that bring you into a nostalgia of Andean sound”