Estampas criollas (Créole Portraits) was written in 2005 by Ernesto Cordero. It was commissioned by the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture as part of the celebration of its 50 th anniversary. The work was premiered with great success at the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra's 2005-2006 Season Opening Concert, where it was conducted by Maestro Guillermo Figueroa. The performance featured César Hernández as tenor soloist, Welmo Romero as rapper, and the Orfeón San Juan Bautista chamber chorus. In the compact disc the tenor soloist is Joel Prieto, alongside the rest of the premiere cast.
The Fantasía para cuerdas (Fantasy for Strings) employs as its theme, fragments from the popular Puerto Rican children's melody Brica la tablita (Jump Over the Small Board). The music (as well as the lyrics of the children's song) promotes the change and outgrowing of old behavioral patterns in an atmosphere of frequent and unexpected musical contrasts. Said fragments imitate the typical Latin American round games and with that, the sounds of youngsters as they react and poke fun at each other. Next is Canción de cuna (Cradle Song), for choir and orchestra, a delicate lullaby with impressionist overtones based on oral tradition texts compiled by Professor Marcelino Canino. This movement employs subtle dissonances and harmonic changes that transmit the mother's tenderness as she lulls her baby to sleep.
 The second movement is Guanina, for tenor, choir and orchestra. This musical portrait inspired on a Puerto Rican legend by Dr. Cayetano Coll y Toste (1850-1930), narrates the love story between Guanina, a Taíno Indian, and the Spanish conqueror Don Cristóbal de Sotomayor. It is the longest movement of the piece and includes a section in the Taíno language extracted from an Arawak prayer written by Coll y Toste. The musical vocabulary employs modal and archaic sonorities which function to recreate the historical environment of the story. The tenor soloist alternates with the choir and works as a narrator through various passages in recitativo accompagnato, and just like in the ancient greek tragedies, reacts dramatically through the entire narration.
The next movement is entitled Voz del güiro (Voice of the Güiro). It is a patriotic chant based on a poem by Andrés Castro Ríos (1942-2006). For this section the choir takes the protagonist role and personifies the poet's melancholic voice. The orchestra part is modal in character and functions occasionally as a fifth voice that complements those of the Soprano, Alto, Tenor and Bass sections.
Estampas criollas concludes with La hija del viejo Pancho (Old Pancho's Daughter), for choir, orchestra and rapper, based on verses by poet Luis Llorens Torres (1874-1944). This movement is characterized by the employment of a syncopated rhythmic structure and traditional harmonic vocabulary. Its central part consists of a beautifully elaborate a cappella passage modeled on the manner of the Renaissance madrigals, and a rap which works as a recitative that compares and contrasts the Créole and urban cultures.
In order to encompass Ernesto Cordero's entire choral works in this volume, the recording includes as a special bonus track the song Nácete aquí mi niño (Be Born Here, my Child), written for mixed a cappella choir. This brief piece functions both as a lullaby and as a Christmas carol. Its texture is entirely homophonic. Its beauty lies in its simplicity and in its direct message that concludes with a subtle bocca chiusa repetition of the melody.
This recording was made possible thanks to the joint support of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture, GD & E Orfeón San Juan Bautista Corporation, the Luis A. Ferré Fine Arts Centre, the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra Corporation, the National Endowment for the Arts, the Corporation for the Musical Arts, Digitec Studios, Onsite Recording, Mr. Rafael Cordero from Leonardo's Tuxedos, and the Puerto Rican artist José R. Alicea, who painted the beautiful image that elegantly adorns the compact disc cover.
For more information, or to purchase the CD, visit our Recordings page.
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The book is published by Editorial Tiempo Nuevo (December, 2008) and it is available in the following bookstores in San Juan:
