The Collection

 

  During the past 15 years, Guarionex Morales-Matos (founder and co-director of Orfeón San Juan Bautista) has produced more than a hundred works between choral arrangements of popular music and original compositions. His work as arranger consists mainly of selections from the Puerto Rican popular tradition as well as music from Latin America and Spain. Amongst his compositions are motets and other secular a cappella pieces, which constitute the majority of his original opus. As arranger and composer he has written mainly for the human voice, with Orfeón San Juan Bautista as the principal performer of his output.

  His style is characterized by a colorful musical language rich in modern harmonies that are mainly organized around clearly defined tonal centers. Up to the present his work was essentially unedited, although many of the pieces regularly formed part of Orfeón San Juan Bautista's repertoire and were recorded by the ensemble. In similar fashion, several other Puerto Rican, North American and South American ensembles have performed his music in Europe and the Americas.

  After a long and careful editing process, and motivated by petitions from other choral conductors, Morales-Matos now makes accessible to all choirs a collection that includes 41 of his pieces (30 for SATB choir, five for SSAA choir, and six for TTBB choir). Aware of how fundamentally important it is to promote the Puerto Rican cultural patrimony, this collection consists mainly of popular Puerto Rican music arrangements. In it, there is a great variety of typical themes, rhythms and genres from the Caribbean that will delight singers and audiences alike. The collection's contents can be outlined as follows:

Puerto Rican Popular Music Icons (21 titles)
Three Puerto Rican Children's Songs
Six Traditional Christmas Carols (Puerto Rico and Spain)
Original motets: Ocho miniaturas sagradas (Eight Sacred Miniatures)
Two Puerto Rican Poems (part-songs)
A Marian Anthem (Gregorian hymn harmonization)

 

The collection will be available soon.

 

Puerto Rican Popular Music Icons

1. Puerto Rico
Author: Leopoldo González-Porrás
SATB a capella with divisi
and alto solo

2. Ahora seremos felices
Author: Rafael Hernández
SATB a capella with divisi

3. Y entonces
Author: Sylvia Rexach
SATB with divisi
 and piano accompaniment

4. Cachita
Music: Rafael Hernández
Text: B. Sancristóbal
SATB a capella with divisi

5. Mi negrita me espera
Author: Carlos Suárez
TTBB a capella and tenor solo

6. Preciosa
Author: Rafael Hernández
SSAA a capella with divisi

7. Preciosa
Author: Rafael Hernández
SATB a capella with divisi
and tenor solo

8. Capullito de alelí
Author: Rafael Hernández
SATB a capella with divisi

9. Olas y arenas
Author: Sylvia Rexach
SSAA a capella with divisi
and mezzo-soprano solo

10. Ausencia
Author: Rafael Hernández
SATB a capella with divisi
with alto and baritone solos

11. Santa María
Author: Manuel Jiménez
SATB a capella with divisi

12. El cumbanchero
Author: Rafael Hernández
SATB a capella with divisi

13. Obsesión
Author: Pedro Flores
SATB a capella with divisi

14. Amor robado
Author: Esteban Taronjí
SSAA a capella with divisi
and mezzo-soprano solo

15. Campanitas de cristal
Author: Rafael Hernández
SATB a capella with divisi

16. Luna de miel en Puerto Rico
Author: Bobby Capó
SATB a capella with divisi

17. Piel canela
Author: Bobby Capó
SATB a capella with divisi

18. El buen borincano
Author: Rafael Hernández
SATB a capella with divisi
and baritone solo

19. Tanta vanidad
Author: Manuel Jiménez
SATB a capella with divisi

20. Alondras en el bosque
Author: Carlos Padilla
SATB a capella with divisi

21. El eco y el carretero
Authors: Claudio Ferrer y Paul Márquez
SATB a capella with divisi

  

Three Puerto Rican Children's Songs

1. El mangó
Poem: Virgilio Dávila (1869-1943)
Music: Braulio Dueño Colón (1854-1934)
TTBB a capella with divisi  

2. El platanar
Poem: A. Fernández Grillo
Music: Braulio Dueño Colón (1854-1934)
SSA a capella

3. Bella es mi Tierra  
Author: María Cadilla de Martínez (1886-1951)
SATB a capella

 

Six Traditional Christmas Carols

1. La nana (España)
Traditional Spanish Christmas Carol
Author: J. R. Gomis
SATB a capella with divisi

2. El Niño Jesús
Traditional Christmas Carol  
TTTBBB a capella  

3. Villancico yaucano  
Author: Amaury J. Veray Torregrosa (1922-1995)
SATB and piano accompaniment

4. Aguinaldo
Author: José Ignacio Quintón (1881-1925)
TTBB a capella

5. Las flores (Hermoso bouquet)
Traditional Christmas Carol
SATB a capella with divisi

6. Pastores y zagalas
Traditional Christmas Carol 
TTTBBB a capella

 

Ocho miniaturas sagradas

I Ficus enim non florebit
Habacuc 3:17-18
SATB a capella with divisi

II Ave Maria
Liber usualis
SATB a capella with divisi

III Dixit Deus ad Moysen
Exodus 3:14
SATB a capella with divisi

IV Dominus regit me
Psalmi 23:1-3
TTBB a capella with divisi

V De Profundis
Psalmi 129:1-2
SATB a capella with divisi

VI Kyrie
Liber usualis, Ordinary of the Mass
SATB a capella with divisi

VII In Paradisum
Liber usualis, Misa pro defunctis
SATB a capella with divisi
and soprano solo

VIII Ave verum Corpus
Liber usualis, Sacred Sacrament
SATB a capella with divisi

 

Two Puerto Rican Poems

1. Nana negra
Poem: Fortunato Vizcarrondo (1896-1977)
Music: Guarionex Morales-Matos (b. 1968)
SSA a capella

2. Fisuras
Poem: Magali Quiñones (b. 1945)
Music: Guarionex Morales-Matos (b. 1968)
SATB a capella with divisi
and soprano solo

 

A Marian Anthem

1. Concordi lætitia
Pierre de Corbeil (d. 1222)
Gregorian hymn
SATB a capella

 
 
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