Alejandro García Caturla

Two Cuban Dances

Alejandro Garcia Caturla (1906 - 1940) was a Cuban composer of art music and creolized Cuban themes. He was fascinated by creolized Afro-Cuban rhythms and these Creole themes were characteristic of his compositions: the division between art music and popular music did not influence Cuban composers of this period.
His 'Two Cuban Dances' (1927), 'Danza lucumi' (Allegro Salvaje) and 'Danza del tambor' (Allegro molto vivo) are expressed in E flat-minor and A-minor in 1927, fourteen years after Strawinsky's 'sacre', seventeen years after 'Allegro barbaro' by Bartok and twenty-two years after the death of Ignßcio Cervantes (1847-1905) whose 36 Cuban Dances he certainly did not ignore.