Colorines
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Colorines is a symphonic poem for chamber orchestra by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, written in 1932.
The score of Colorines was completed in May 1932.[1][2] Although Otto Mayer-Serra says it was composed in 1933, this cannot be correct,[3] because it was performed on 4 November 1932 at the New School for Social Research, PAAC Chamber Orchestra, Nicolas Slonimsky, conducting.[4] Deane Root, however, gives the year of composition as 1930 (apparently quoting from the programme for that 1932 performance), and also cites a programme given on 30 April 1933 in Havana (Conciertos de la Filarmónica, La Habana, Dos Conciertos de Musica Nueva, Teatro Nacional.) also conducted by Slonimsky, that included Colorines.[5]
Programmatic content
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Colorín (plural colorines) is the name of a type of tree, Erythrina americana, or Coral Tree, also called Tzompāmitl. The word colorín means color chillón—a “gaudy” or “loud” color.[6] The score of Colorines "not only evokes the deep color that the trees of this name give to the landscape, but also the feelings of the Indian women wearing necklaces made of the red and black fruit of this tree, or of children playing with them".[7]
Instrumentation
The work is scored for a chamber orchestra of piccolo, oboe, E♭ clarinet, B♭ clarinet, one or two bassoons, horn, trumpet, trombone, xylophone, drum, cymbal, bass drum, sonajas (maracas), violins I, violins II, and contrabasses.
Analysis
Colorines, like most of Revueltas's single-movement works, is constructed in a ternary ABA form, with a fast-slow-fast tempo structure. The arrangement of tempos is a natural consequence of the lyrical development of melodic thematic materials as they progressively unfold the narrative of the work.[8]
