The interviews for Spotlight are conducted by Ken Gallo, who writes/edits Meet The Composer's newsletter, MTC NOTES.

Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez

Listen: La Petenera (RealAudio)

Mr. Sanchez-Gutierrez, a recent Guggenheim Fellow, is one of the latest recipients of MTC's Commissioning Music/USA -- to assist in funding his yet to be named composition for the San Francisco based a capella choir Chanticleer.

Born in Mexico City in 1964, Mr. Sanchez-Gutierrez grew up in Guadalajara and now lives in San Francisco where he teaches at SFSU. His studies began at the Universidad de Guadalajara, later he obtained master's degrees from the Peabody Conservatory and Yale University, as well as a PhD from Princeton. In addition to the Guggenheim Fellowship and MTC Commission, Mr. Sanchez-Gutierrez has received, among others, grants and commissions from Carnegie Hall, the Barlow Endowment for Musical Composition, the Tanglewood Music Center, the Fulbright Commission, the Rockefeller, Fromm, and Camargo Foundations, a Charles Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, and the National Fund for the Arts and Culture of Mexico.

Mr. Sanchez-Gutierrez spoke with us about teaching, inspiration, his MTC Commission, and his native Mexico.

MTC: You studied music on the east coast at Princeton and Yale, yet now you live in San Francisco. Why did you move there?
CSG: I moved because I received a job offer (teaching composition at SFSU). San Francisco has always been a city that I have admired as one of the last bastions of civility and tolerance in this world.
MTC: Do you enjoy teaching?
CSG: I certainly enjoy teaching. Not only that, but it is necessary for me. It's a way of keeping in touch with the repertory, with the real world and with the sanity…and the mental health that brings with it.
MTC: As a teacher, can you tell which students are talented?
CSG: I think so. I do have a few students who I am sure will become fabulous composers. One or two that are already good composers measured by any standards.
MTC: Do you consider your compositions thematic?
CSG: It depends on what one considers thematic to be. I don't use themes in the romantic or classical way. But I use their limited materials. I try to generate music out of these limited resources. They could sometimes be musical events that one could call themes, in the sense that they are easily distinguishable musical entities: rhythmic, melodic, perhaps that are used in developmental fashion. I'm not sure that I myself would say my music is thematic because it's never associated with any of the traditional forms in a direct manner.
MTC: Your piece "Luciernagas," commissioned by eighth blackbird and which premiered at Carnegie Hall last spring, was inspired by some text you read about an actual event involving the killing of innocent Salvadorians of El Mozote. The current MTC commission for Chanticleer was inspired by 1800s California: The Gold Rush and The Barbary Coast. How do historical events like these provide inspiration for you as a composer?
CSG: Theres a lot to be said about that. In the case of the eighth blackbird piece, "Luciernagas," the piece is not really inspired by what happened in El Salvador, but rather the way things worked were as follows: I had just finished writing a ballet that was indeed inspired by the massacre of El Mozote during the Civil War in El Salvador. It depicted some of the things that went on that night. Since I had just finished doing that very exhausting work, it was an hour and a half of music, following a very painful series of events for me (being emotionally attached to the work)...having been born in Latin America. I was in a state of mind that seemed to suggest a lot of the gestures that then found themselves on the surface of "Luciernagas." So, the piece does not really tell a story or have a program related to the events in El Salvador but rather reflects the state of mind in which I was shortly after finishing a very long piece of music that was inspired indeed by this event.
MTC: That was a ballet?
CSG: Yes an evening long dance piece called "El Mozote" which is the name of the town where some elite military forces from El Salvador killed 1, 000 innocent El Salvadorian peasants. In the case of the Gold Rush piece for Chanticleer, it is indeed thematic in the sense that it is supposed to be about the Gold Rush and The Barbary Coast. But my approach is a little unusual, or abstract I should say, because what I am doing is taking entries from journals that several anonymous gold diggers wrote when they were here in 1849, or around that year, and will be used in a very free manner. They will not be telling a story but they will reflect the state of mind these people were in when they wrote these journals. In addition to that I will be using some very abstract poetry that I have commissioned an American poet, Lia Purpura, to write. The work is basically inspired by the Gold Rush, but its not going to be programmatic. It is not going to tell a story. But rather, its going to depict a state of mind that I perceived was prevailing, or present, in 1849 when these people came to California looking for gold and everything that gold meant and still means to people.
MTC:You've written another piece for Chanticleer, "La Petenera" -- what was that piece about?
CSG: That's actually an arrangement of a folk song. "La Petenera" is actually a Spanish song that has found its way into many Latin American genres. My arrangement of "La Petenera" is a hybrid. Its probably closest to the original Spanish version than it is to the "La Petenera" version that we know in Mexican folklore. The song is about a prostitute, as a matter of fact. Originally, in the Spanish version, the petenera was supposed to be a Moorish prostitute, or perhaps Sephardic, that was used by men to lure enemies into the region where they lived. In this case they were probably Moors that lived in the south of Spain, and used this very beautiful woman to lure men into their neighborhoods and then kill them. The men that usually came were Spanish men. "La Petenera" was associated with the myth of the sirens that take seamen to their deaths by singing to them. It's basically a song about the siren -- this fatal destiny that is exemplified by the song of the siren. The song of the mermaid. Again, this was just an arrangement of a folk song. Of course, it was a very free arrangement. It doesn't sound a lot like the original, which is probably a good thing.
MTC: How do you approach writing for a cappella choir as opposed to an instrumental ensemble?
CSG: It's not terribly different, I have to say. I have been lucky to work with a group like Chanticleer, which is basically a collection of twelve virtuosos that can do just about anything. So, since most of my writing is instrumental my vocal writing ends up being also somewhat instrumental and very virtuosic, but it's only because I know that the singers that I am writing for are capable of singing very angular material that I give them which could be closer to the instrumental experience. I suppose that's my approach. It's not terribly different. Of course there are technical aspects that every composer must take care of. It's not the same: writing for the voice and writing for instruments. In general terms I would say that I don't make too many concessions.
MTC: Do you know before you start composing, apart from a commission, what instruments you will write for?
CSG: I would have a general idea. I normally try to accept commissions for works that I already have an interest in writing. I'll give you an example: if I didn't feel capable or willing to write a piece for solo tuba and a tubist approached me asking me for a piece, then I probably would not do it. I would only write a piece of music I already think has ideas that I relate to. That's the only way I do it. I'm lucky enough to write only on commission. It's been several years that I have been writing only commissioned works. I have also been particularly lucky that the commissions have been works for instrumental ensembles whose repertory I can contribute to.
MTC: Is the rhythmic element in your music derived from the Mexican musical styles you heard while growing up?
CSG: I think that my music reflects everything I've heard up to now, including Mexican folklore, not only musical folklore but in general: the experience of being Mexican. It also reflects the experience of having grown up in a Mexican large city. A city of five million people, which in many ways does not show any difference with respect to American cities. My upbringing was as Mexican as it was international. I grew up in a family that was of direct European descent. I grew up listening to European music and playing European musical instruments, and yet, I grew up in Guadalajara which is the birthplace of the mariachi and tequila and those kind of things. It all contributes to my musical interest: being close to both the European culture and the native culture of Latin America. I feel as close to the Beatles as I do to Mexican folklore.
MTC: What are your feelings of the recent change in leadership in Mexico?
CSG: I'm excited like everybody else. I'm also a little scared. Everybody in Mexico saw what happened last Sunday (July 2, 2000: Vicente Fox of the National Action Party (PAN) defeated Francisco Labastida of the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI), changing the political landscape of Mexico) with great joy and with great euphoria. We celebrated it. Yet, we're all a little concerned because this is new. But I think it was necessary. It was about time. I feel very strongly about this. I entirely support what went on. I hope even though I live in the United States I will continue to contribute to the enrichment of a democratic culture in Mexico and in America for that matter. I'm lucky enough to make a contribution in both countries.

For more on Mr. Sanchez-Gutierrez go to his Site by clicking here