Seis casi-sonatas en cuartos de tono para violoncello solo (review)

Reviewed by: Seis casi-sonatas en cuartos de tono para violoncello solo Alejandro L. Madrid Julián Carrillo . Seis casi-sonatas en cuartos de tono para violoncello solo. Jimena Giménez Cacho, cello (QP 182, Quindecim Recordings, 2007). Although the name of Julián Carrillo's (1875–1965) most famous creation, the so-called Sonido 13, has found its way into Mexican cultural trivia, a veil of mystery spreads over the music and figure of this composer. One of the earliest microtonal systems in the Western art music tradition, Sonido 13 was developed by Carrillo in the 1920s, and gained the composer a certain notoriety among international avant-garde musical circles toward the mid-20th century. However, the complex nationalist struggles that characterized Mexican musical life after the revolution, the egomaniac, almost messianic rhetoric that accompanied his microtonal crusade, and the cultlike character of the Sonido 13 scene after Carrillo's death have largely alienated the Mexican mainstream music community, and led to a pervasive misunderstanding and neglect of his musical contributions. The fact that commercial recordings of Carrillo's music are largely unavailable—SONY-Mexico's two CD collection of symphonic and chamber works, released a few years ago, is an exception—only reproduces the type of misinformed reception that his music has always experienced, preventing a much needed reevaluation and discussion of his ideas within the music culture of his time. Jimena [End Page 103] Giménez Cacho's remarkable recording of Carrillo's complete works for solo cello is a noteworthy contribution toward that end, as it unearths what clearly is a major set of works for the cello repertoire as well as the history of microtonality in the West. Giménez Cacho's intelligent and hard work during the last 15 years has made her a leading figure in the contemporary Mexican music scene. A consummate cellist, Giménez Cacho's first four CDs, which range from baroque music to Spanish 20th century repertoire, show her technical ability and musicality at a more standard and accessible repertoire. However, recording Carrillo's Casi-sonatas in quarters of a tone for solo cello proved to be a very challenging project both musically and technically. As a master violinist himself, Carrillo was well aware of how to idiomatically push the technical possibilities of string instruments; that in itself makes his music quite hard to play. But his music is technically demanding not only in the traditional sense, since it also forces the performers to relearn how to play their instrument by requiring them to literally do what their traditional training teaches them to avoid, playing "out of tune." Giménez Cacho's commitment to Carrillo's music is reflected in careful attention to technical detail at the service of a lyrical musical rendition even through the most difficult passages. Many of Carrillo's detractors argue that the repeating sequences and ascending and descending scalar passages in his pieces often make them sound like technical exercises. Although the Casi-sonatas show many instances of these organizing principles (such as the second movement of Sonata I, or the third movements of Sonata II and IV), Giménez Cacho's musical treatment helps us listen to these passages with new ears and renovated interest. Besides the microtonal elements, these Seis casi-sonatas also feature Carrillo's particular take on the notion of atonality. Carrillo's atonal ideal consisted of the elimination of voice leading and functional harmony by adopting new scales and modes to replace the major-minor scalar system. This principle is better appreciated in Carrillo's two atonal symphonies as well as the atonal string quartets in homage to Debussy and Beethoven, nonmicrotonal works entirely based on new, diatonic nontonal scales. However, the use of these types of scales is also at the core of many microtonal works, including Preludio a Colón, misa en cuartos de tono, and is also quite evident in many of the Casi-sonatas in this recording, Carrillo's Casi-sonatas are also fascinating pieces that show a composer attempting to reconcile two drastically different musical paradigms, a traditional approach to musical language and organization with a new and radical understanding of sound. Carrillo's

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