''La noche de los mayas'' is a

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

by the Mexican composer

Silvestre Revueltas Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican classical music composer, a violinist, and conductor. Life Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory of Mu ...

for the 1939 film of the same name, Revueltas's score consists of 36 sequences without any organic relation to one another, composed to be easily fitted to an already-edited film. After Revueltas' death in 1940, the film score was arranged for performance in the concert hall. There are at least two such arrangements, that of the German composer

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( ; ; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advo ...

and that of the Mexican conductor . Both arrangers feature percussion sections which relate to Mexico's

pre-Columbian In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era, also known as the pre-contact era, or as the pre-Cabraline era specifically in Brazil, spans from the initial peopling of the Americas in the Upper Paleolithic to the onset of European col ...

heritage, but Limantour altered Revueltas' score extensively.

Concert suites

Hindemith

In 1946 the German composer

made a visit to Mexico where he met

Rosaura Revueltas Rosaura Revueltas Sánchez (August 6, 1910 – April 30, 1996) was a Mexican actress of stage and screen whose career was cut short by the entertainment industry blacklist in the 1950s. She is best known for her role in the 1954 film ''Salt of t ...

, sister of Silvestre. This led to his concert arrangement in two movements. Hindemith's version calls for a small orchestra consisting of: *2 flutes (both doubling piccolo) *1 oboe *2 clarinets *1 bassoon *4 horns *1 trumpet *1 trombone *1 tuba *timpani *percussion (tamtam, bass drum, cymbals, indian drum, maracas, güiro, xylophone) *strings

Limantour

In 1959, Mexican conductor José Yves Limantour made a four-movement suite from ''La noche de los Mayas''. In this version, Limantour "took every imaginable liberty", including the addition of a concluding, extended "improvisation" of exotic percussion instruments which is largely responsible for the music's success with audiences, who erroneously believe it to have been composed by Revueltas himself. # "Noche de los mayas", molto sostenuto # "Noche de jaranas", scherzo # "Noche de Yucatán", andante espressivo # "Noche de encantamiento", tema y variaciones It was premiered on 30 January 1961 by the Guadalajara Symphony Orchestra. It is scored for larger forces than Hindemith's version. *2 flutes (both doubling piccolo) *2 oboes *2 clarinets (both doubling E clarinet) *1 bass clarinet *2 bassoons *4 horns *3 trumpet *2 trombones *1 tuba *1 piano *timpani *percussion (12 players: bongos, conga, metal rattle (sonajes), güiro, 2 tom-toms, teponaxtles, bass drum (huehuetl), caracol, snare drum, tenor drum, Indian drum, suspended cymbal, tamtam, xylophone) *strings (Limantour's manuscript specifies 14 percussionists, but includes amongst them the timpani and piano.) Aware of the fact that Limantour's score specifies a percussion "improvisation" in the finale, more recent conductors such as

Esa-Pekka Salonen Esa-Pekka Salonen (; born 30 June 1958) is a Finnish conducting, conductor and composer. He is the music director of the San Francisco Symphony and conductor laureate of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Philharmonia Orchestra in London and the Sw ...

Enrique Diemecke Enrique Arturo Diemecke (born July 9, 1952) is a Mexican conductor, violinist and composer. He is currently the Artistic General Director of the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and music director of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic and the Flint, Mich ...

, and

Gustavo Dudamel Gustavo Adolfo Dudamel Ramírez (born 26 January 1981) is a Venezuelan conductor. He is currently the music director of the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He is scheduled to become the Music and Artistic ...

have ignored Limantour's written-out version and substituted their own "improvisations", often to better effect.

Recordings

A suite from the score was recorded by RCA with the

Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa The Orquesta Sinfónica de Xalapa is a Mexican orchestra located in the city of Xalapa, the capital of the state of Veracruz. It was founded in 1929, and is considered the oldest symphony orchestra in Mexico. History The orchestra was establishe ...

, conducted by

Luis Herrera de la Fuente Luis Herrera de la Fuente (April 25, 1916 – December 5, 2014) was a Mexican conductor, pianist, violinist, composer and writer of the 20th century. De la Fuente gained many recognitions and awards in Mexico and worldwide. He conducted the Nati ...

. The version by Hindemith was recorded by the Tempus Fugit Orquesta conducted by Christian Gohmer, and released by Quindecim Records in 2014. The version by José Limantour was recorded by the Orquesta Sinfónica Simón Bolívar, conducted by

and released on Deutsche Grammophon in 2010. Earlier, in 1959, Limantour had himself recorded his arrangement, conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica de Guadalajara. This was made around the time Limantour's arrangement was first performed.Silvestre Revueltas, ''Musica para charlar''; ''La noche de los Mayas''. Orquesta Sinfónica de Guadalajara; José Yves Limantour (cond.). Musart MCD 3022 (LP). Mexico City: Discos Musart.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Noche de los mayas, La Compositions by Silvestre Revueltas Orchestral suites