In MMD 040116, Christine Robinson asked who "Zuleueta" might be, and
Robbie offered the name Pedro de Zulueta as composer of a waltz from
1909 titled "Malmaison". I may be putting two and two together and
getting six, but I suspect that our friend Pedro may have been a
Mexican composer.
From what I gathered from listening to a classical DJ reading liner
notes on the air the other day, around the turn of the 20th Century
in Mexico the waltzes of the Strauss family had gained such popularity
that an entire group of composers in Mexico set about composing a
number of very Strauss-like waltzes, most of which, while quite nice,
indeed, are rarely heard today.
The one exception to this "rarely heard" rule is the waltz "Sobre las
olas" (Over the Waves) by Juventino Rosas, which, while a lovely waltz
in and of itself, has become such an ingrained part of our American pop
culture musicality that it is heard in a wide range of contexts and is,
as often as not, assumed to be "just another Viennese waltz"
Bryan Cather
|