LA FIESTA MEXICANA- Movement III- Carnival
THIS IS THE 3RD AND FINAL MOVEMENT, 'CARNIVAL' IN H. OWEN REED'S MEXICAN FOLK SONG 'LA FIESTA MEXICANA', WRITTEN IN 1949. MVMT. 1 IS 'PRELUDE AND AZTEC DANCE' AND 2 IS 'MASS'. PERFORMED BY THE TMEA ALL STATE SYMPHONIC BAND, MY 1ST YEAR ALL STATE.
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Story behind the song
H. Owen Reed's best known and most widely performed work is the three-movement concert band composition La Fiesta Mexicana (1949), composed with the support of a Guggenheim Fellowship. The work is based on Aztec, Roman Catholic, mariachi, and other musics Reed heard while in Mexico City, Cuernavaca, and Chapala, Mexico for six months (1948-49). He returned to Mexico in 1960 for a month's further study. He has also studied folk music in the Caribbean in February 1976, and in Norway in the summer of 1977.
Following a year of studying Mexican folk music, Reed created this work which is subtitled "A Mexican Folk Song Symphony for Concert Band". Set in three contrasting movements, the entire work musically portrays a religious festival. The variety of textures is evident from the beginning of the first movement entitled "Prelude and Aztec Dance". The second movement "Mass" is more somber and reflective. "Carnival," the last movement, is joyous and invigorating.