One song, in particular, was to become ingrained in my memory, as it did in that of many Cubans of my generation and before, for it was the most celebrated "hit" among the many of the great Cuban "sonero" Miguel Matamoros: the song is titled El Son de la Loma.

Written in the 1930's, it soon became one of those musical cultural icons that every country has and that, in many ways, help define the essence of a people better than volumes of socio-political or historic treatises. Since my childhood, I always found especially poignant the first line of the song, "Mamá, yo quiero saber de dónde son los cantantes" (Mamma, I want to know where do the singers come from).

Roughly translated, the complete lyrics of the song read,

"Mamma, I want to know where do the singers come from, for I find them so gallant, that I want to meet them, and their fascinating ballads, I want to learn them. Where could they come from, oh, mamma? Are they from Havana, are they from Santiago, sovereign land? They are from the hills! They sing in the plains! Yes, sir! Of course!"

Let us hear this famous song, in two versions. The first is an arrangement for a cappella choir, and it is here sung by the Cuban Orfeón Holguín, in a recording dating back to the early 60's. The second, more typical, arrangement, is a dance band version, from the 50's. The unidentified orchestra might have been the famed Orquesta Aragón, although I have not been able to verify this fact (At this point in the lecture, these pre-recorded musical examples were played).

These, my family traditions, my heirlooms, in a way, for my family had no material possessions, either in Cuba or out, are all present in the work that it is my honor and privilege to present to you tonight, this Tiempo Muerto, that I and my friends, the wonderful artists of the Lamont School of Music, will perform in a few minutes.

I have purposefully used the idioms of popular Cuban dance music, without quoting literally any folkloric material. Matamoros' El Son de la Loma, however, becomes an iconic presence in the work, and is quoted almost in its entirety, although in fragmentary and highly distorted ways. Furthermore, all of the internal relationships among the various themes, the motivic and intervalic construction, and, of course, many rhythmic elements, derive from the song, without in any way being "variations" thereof.

Tiempo Muerto owes much also to more vernacular forms of Afro-Cuban rhythms, primordial among them, the guaguancó, with its extraordinarily captivating accentuation, fountainhead of all of the many dances that the ingenuity of Cuban musicians have created and exported throughout the world.

The orchestration, a challenge in any work for guitar and orchestra, tries to capture the colors and the flavor of the Cuban dance band sound, so popular in the 40's and 50's, with its prominent use of the brass, the piano and the typical Caribbean percussion instruments, bongos, conga drums, the gourd or güiro, the clave, the cowbell and the maracas.

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