SURQUILLO
piece in the style of a Peruvian marinera norteña (2013)
available in the following instrumental combinations:
violin and piano (original)
“Surquillo was created for my master’s recital and it was a hit, the most acclaimed piece of the recital. The piece is beautiful, unique and very original. What I loved about it is that it gives the sense of the marinera dance, the folk and original taste, but it also provides great opportunity to show difficult skills in the violin.”
2. flute and guitar
3. flute and piano
“I just adore this piece, I used it in my project about Latin American music for flute and I premiered it in Norway. You get the feeling of the marinera from the first bars, and the piece itself invites to dance. I didn’t find many Latin American pieces for flute that were not Caribbean rhythms, so to discover Surquillo was absolutely amazing. I got good feedback from the audience, who loved the piece, so this is a must when it comes to a concert with world music/Latin American music.”
4. trumpet and piano
5. flute quartet (arr. by Sini Rueda)
6. brass octet
7. string orchestra
8. string quartet
9. vibraphone and marimba (arr. by Miguel Cruz)
10. clarinet and marimba (arr. by Miguel Cruz)
Details
Duration: 3 minutes
Written for: Cecilia Pinto
Premiere:
April 3rd, 2013
Cecilia Pinto (violin) and Flor Canelo (piano)
Cecilia Pinto´s Masters Recital
Boston University School of Music (USA)
About the work
Marinera Norteña is a Peruvian courtship dance that uses handkerchiefs as a means of expression. It consists of three parts: an introduction, where the two dancers invite each other to dance, a central courtship part, “paseo”, where they greet and get closer to each other, and a final and energetic part, “zapateo”, in which both dancers stomp their feet rhythmically on the ground, while challenging each other to continue their courtship. The dance is usually performed twice; the first time it ends in a very intimate pose, while the second time it ends with the woman in a triumphant pose and the man on his knees beside her, surrendering himself to her.
As a musical genre, the Marinera fuses several different influences present in Peruvian culture: on one side, Spanish influences can be heard in the harmony, the melodic ornaments, and the metric structure that alternates between 3/4 and 6/8. At the same time, the use of bimodality is characteristic of Andean music. The Marinera also reveals influence of African music, especially in the use of the cajón, an instrument of Afro-Peruvian origin, which always accompanies the sung Marinera.
"Surquillo" was written for Cecilia Pinto, young violinist and marinera dancer who is a good friend of the composer. Surquillo means “small groove”, and is the name of the Lima district where Cecilia lived for many years.