Composed in 2007.
Commissioned and premiered by the Syracuse University Symphony Orchestra, James Welsch, conductor.
The two main musical ideas of Tumbaos are derived from a a series of short impromptu works that I composed during the summer of 2006 in California and Colombia. The first idea, a fanfare, opens and closes the piece with a prominent participation of the percussion and the brass. The second idea is based on a number of rhythmic patters from Afro-Cuban music (Bembé) and Colombian music (merengue Colombiano). These patterns or ‘tumbaos’ are presented in different intrumental combinations while they are also constantly transformed and developed in a sequence of multi-layered textures. Tumbaos was commissioned by James Welsch and is dedicated to my partner David.