Leonardo Balada

Leonardo Balada ( born September 22, 1933, as Sant Just Desvern in Barcelona) is an American composer of Spanish descent.

Life

Balada graduated from the Conservatorio del Liceu in Barcelona and continued after his emigration to the USA in 1956 continued his education at the Juilliard School in New York. He studied composition with Vincent Persichetti, Aaron Copland and Igor Markevitch. Since 1970 he teaches at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In 1981, he received the U.S. citizenship.

Works

In his music he processed North American and Spanish folk tunes, as in his operas Zapata! and Cristobal Colón ( Christopher Columbus ) is heard. Most of his works, including those of pure instrumental ensemble, based on human speech or singing. Shortly after admission to the Carnegie Mellon University Balada was fascinated by a different type of music, namely the sound of American industrial culture.

Although his Steel Symphony has no programmatic character, the ideas come from visits to the steel mills of Pittsburgh. Here he has collected material, which he later reworked into an orchestral version of his symphony. The piece has no clear beginning and no real end, it starts and ends with the unison A of the usual hot playing in an orchestra and can - although it has never been listed as - to be played endlessly or set directly without pause before another piece. It is open to musicians of the orchestra and the conductor to repeat the polyrhythmic figures in an ostinato. The premiere took place on 12 January 1973 with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Donald Johanos.