Huapango

• Moncayo composed this orchestral piece in 1941.¹ He had been commissioned by Carlos Chávez to write a work inspired by the music of the Veracruz region on the Gulf of Mexico.²
• Chávez conducted the Mexican Symphony Orchestra in this work’s premiere in August of 1941 in Mexico City.³
• This piece uses the melodies of popular Mexican huapangos, or folk dances: “El siquisirií,” “El balajú” and “El gavilán.”⁴

“Blas Galindo [a fellow composer and colleague] and I went to Alvarado, one of the places where folkloric music is preserved in its most pure form; we were collecting melodies, rhythms, and instrumentations for several days. The transcription of it was very difficult because the huapangueros never sang the same melody twice in the same way. When I came back, I showed the collected material to Candelario Huízar, who gave me a piece of advice that I will always be grateful for: ‘Introduce the material first in the same way you heard it and develop it later according to your own ideas.’ And I did it, and the result is almost satisfactory for me.”

Moncayo, on composing Huapango⁵

1. Ricardo Miranda Pérez, “Moncayo (García), José Pablo,” Grove Music Online (2001), accessed July 2, 2021,  https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/view/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-0000018936.  
2. “Huapango,” Los Angeles Philharmonic, accessed July 2, 2021, https://www.laphil.com/musicdb/pieces/1956/huapango.
3. Ibid.
4. Pérez, “Moncayo (García), José Pablo,” Grove Music Online.
5. Quoted in “Huapango,” Los Angeles Philharmonic.