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Leo Brouwer

Leo Brouwer, one of the major figures in 20th-century guitar music, was born in Havana in 1939 and was largely self taught as a composer apart from two short periods of study in the United States. Although he has written many works for the guitar, his output is on a much wider scale, embracing numerous symphonic works (La tradicion Se Rompe... scored for large orchestra is particularly noteworthy). concertos for flute, harp and violin respectively, and much chamber music including three string quartets. The orchestration is unusual, for apart from the strings it calls only for two percussionists - one at four timpani and the other playing side-drum, tom-tom, marimbaphone and glockenspiel. Although the composer has drawn attention to a number of influences in the Concerto Elegiaco-in particular Javanese gamelan music, consort music and Afro-Cuban ritual rhythmic patterns - he explains that, above all, he aims to recapture a spirit of romanticism that affords him a period of rest and tranquility after the preoccupation with the avant-garde that characterized many of his symphonic and chamber works of the 1960s.

Composer Index
Leo Brouwer Leo Brouwer, one of the major figures in 20th-century guitar music, was born in Havana in 1939 and was largely self taught as a composer apart from two short periods of study in the United States. Although he has written many works for the guitar, his output is on a much wider scale, embracing numerous symphonic works (La tradicion Se Rompe... scored for large orchestra is particularly noteworthy). concertos for flute, harp and violin respectively, and much chamber music including three string quartets. The orchestration is unusual, for apart from the strings it calls only for two percussionists - one at four timpani and the other playing side-drum, tom-tom, marimbaphone and glockenspiel. Although the composer has drawn attention to a number of influences in the Concerto Elegiaco-in particular Javanese gamelan music, consort music and Afro-Cuban ritual rhythmic patterns - he explains that, above all, he aims to recapture a spirit of romanticism that affords him a period of rest and tranquility after the preoccupation with the avant-garde that characterized many of his symphonic and chamber works of the 1960s.
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