Primera Crónica Del Descubrimiento

Premiered by Ben Verdery and Rie Schmidt at the 2nd American Guitar Congress. These two pieces are the first of series of chronicles (crónica in Spanish) composed on the subject of the meeting between the aboriginal Indian culture of the Caribbean islands and the Spanish Conquistadores. The image of surprise and bewilderment from both sides (there was less information available in the 1490’s that what we have at hand today) is particularly fascinating thought for the composer. What did the Indians think about the conquistadores, and vice versa? In these two pieces Leyenda Taína (Taíno Leyenda—being the name of the tribe that inhabited the Island of Puerto Rico) and Danza, the composer put in musical thought his own interpretation of some of the things that might have occurred 500 years ago.