Proms at Home
Arturo Márquez’s Danzón No. 2
Welcome to Proms at Home!
Open your ears, unlock your imagination and enjoy the musical ride!
This week for Proms at Home we’re travelling to Mexico to explore the exciting Danzón No. 2 by Arturo Márquez – music guaranteed to get your toes tapping and your hands clapping.
About the piece
Have you seen couples on Strictly Come Dancing performing dances from Latin America such as the rumba, the salsa and the cha-cha-cha?
Are you ready to discover another Latin American dance? It’s called the danzón and it comes from Mexico, the northernmost country in Latin America, just south of the USA. It’s a passionate, elegant dance performed in pairs.
In Mexico people dance the danzón in town squares, in dance halls and at festivals. The composer Arturo Márquez (who was born in Mexico in 1950) decided to write his own danzón to celebrate the dance that his country loves so much.
But Márquez didn’t just write one danzón – so far he’s written eight! We’re going to hear No. 2. (In music the word ‘number’ or ‘numero’ is often shortened to ‘No.’)
Danzón No. 2 starts off slowly, with a delicate melody played by the clarinet and the oboe. Perhaps these two instruments are like two dancers beginning to discover how to move to the music?
They’re dancing to a rhythm played on the claves (two wooden sticks). It’s a rhythm that you’ll hear throughout the whole danzón, like an engine, driving the music and the dance forwards.
Here is the opening of Danzón No. 2 played at the 2007 Proms by the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela (now known as the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, as they've all grown up since then!):
Can you hear the clarinet, oboe and claves? Also look out for conductor Gustavo Dudamel’s face to give you an idea of how much fun the orchestra are having playing this music. (Venezuela is another country in Latin America, so you could say that these players have this music in their blood.)
Márquez’s danzón might get off to a gentle start but, just like the dance performed in Mexico, it soon gets very fiery as the dancing gets more passionate and energetic.
Watch Dudamel and the orchestra as they perform the final part of Danzón No. 2. You’ll see how the earlier slow dance soon becomes a wild celebration.
(Images: Isaiah McClean; Adrian Dascal)
Listen Out ...
- In the first clip of Danzón No. 2 you’ll hear and see the tubas play. They interrupt a gentle, elegant section played on the strings and the piano.
How do those tubas make you feel? Why do you think Márquez wanted the tubas to play at this point in the piece?
- Towards the end of the second clip a solo is played on an instrument that looks like a small flute, called the piccolo.
Then the danzón fizzes into life again, like a firework. The music is almost running out of control and bursting with joy!
Where Next?
- Lots of composers have been fascinated and inspired by dance. Florence B. Price uses the rhythms and sounds of the juba dance, from West Africa, in the third movement (or section) of her fantastic Symphony No. 1. You can discover Price’s amazing story and hear her music in this Ten Pieces film:
- Astor Piazzolla – another dance fan – composed music based on the tango, which is very popular in his home country of Argentina (another Latin American country).
In this video you can watch Strictly Come Dancing’s Giovanni Pernice and Joanne Clifton dancing to Piazzolla’s Libertango, accompanied by the brilliant 麻豆官网首页入口 Concert Orchestra in 2016's Strictly Prom.
Your Turn
- Did you notice that, near the end of Danzón No. 2, some of the players (for example, the people playing the flutes and French horns) seemed to lower their instruments or lean down while they were playing?
They are creating an effect called a ‘crescendo’. They started to play quietly before building back up to a loud, exciting finish.
What happens if you take a song you know well (you could play it or sing it) and add in a crescendo?
Start the song quietly – you could even try curling up or making yourself very small – and finish loud, proud and making the biggest shape you can.
Does this change the way you feel about the song?
Proms at Home notes by Andrew McCaldon
For more activities throughout the summer, visit the Proms at Home website.
