Music

Enrico Chapela: “Young people give everything”

One of the leading composers of Latin America, wrote a piece commissioned by Deutsche Welle about a strange Moment in the German-Mexican history. In an interview with DW Chapela will speak about his work.

The Mexican composer Enrico Chapela is one of the most important representatives of contemporary music in Latin America. His training, the 42-Year-old in Mexico city, Paris and London received. His best-known work is the award-winning orchestral piece “Ínguesu”, to change the course of a football game, office game, goals and Red cards musical.

In the framework of the annual campus project, the Deutsche Welle has commissioned him to compose a work that uses both the sound-worlds of his native Mexico as well as the music of Beethoven. 15. September 2016 is the premiere of the work “room, grams,” at the Beethoven festival in Bonn. The composition for orchestra, choir and soloists is a reference to an Episode of Franco-Mexican history in the year 1917, in the agent, Revolution, freedom, and a secret telegram.

The DW has met Enrico Chapela in Mexico city.

Deutsche Welle: What does it mean for you to compose a piece for the Beethoven festival?

Enrico Chapela: It is very special for me. Beethoven has always been one of my favorite composers. Because of him, I already knew as a child that I would like to be a composer.

Your work should be influenced by Beethoven, and also of the music of Mexico. How they managed to combine both?

In this case, I tried to orchestrate my own composition language, which is heavily influenced by Mexican music, as did Beethoven. It was a big challenge – but I am very satisfied with the result.

The national youth orchestra was as early as 2015, will be a guest at the Beethoven

They tell in their works, always a story, such as, for example, in “Ínguesu” from the soccer game between Mexico and Brazil at the soccer world Cup in 1999. What is the history of their new commissioned work “the room grams” for the Beethoven festival in Bonn?

“Room g,” based on a story that has wear in the First world war. The then state Secretary in the Reich Ministry of foreign Affairs, Arthur Zimmermann, sent in January 1917, an encrypted telegram to the German Ambassador in Mexico, in which he proposed to the Mexican President Venustiano Carranza an Alliance against the United States. For this, he promised that the States of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas would go again in the possession of Mexico.

The musicians of the national youth orchestra are aged between 14 and 19 years old. Had you composed for such a young orchestra?

This is the second piece I’ve written for a youth orchestra. The first was “Ínguesu” for the Carlos Chávez Symphony orchestra. Today, I have 15 years more experience and know much better how I write for the individual orchestral groups. I was very composed like a youth orchestra, because these young people give everything. You study the work from one day to the other, and I’m sure it will sound good. Maybe even better than with a professional orchestra, the trade Union is organized and sometimes less enthusiastically than young people.

How would you describe your work in “room grams”?

This piece is written in two tonal languages. The first is the “Sonos Mexicanos” the connection to the popular music of Mexico. The choir sings here, and provides the historical context: the First world war and the Mexican Revolution. This is how tonal music: Mexican music with a look and feel in the orchestration, as in the case of Beethoven. And we have the scenes with the soloists, who represent the President Carranza, and the German and the American Ambassador. The offers of the Pact and the other threatened with an Invasion. These scenes with the soloists are decorated in a modern musical language.

Do you have a favorite piece of Beethoven?

I don’t really have a single favorite piece. Beethoven is one of my favorite composers. But the first sentence of the 5. Symphony, the second, slow movement of the third and the Scherzo and the second movement of the 9. Symphony might be my favorite sets of the Beethoven.

The interview was conducted by Kathrin Lemke