Ernesto Lecuona was born in Havana, Cuba, on August 7, 1896. As a boy of
eleven he published his first piece of music—an American two step still
popular with some Cuban bands. While attending the National Conservatory
in Cuba, from which he was graduated in 1911 with a gold medal in piano
playing, he earned his living as a pianist in cafés and movie theaters.
In 1917 he paid the first of several visits to the United States, at
that time making some records and giving a piano recital. He then made
concert tours throughout America and Europe playing the piano and
conducting semi-classical and popular orchestras. His performances were
largely responsible for popularizing in America both the conga and the
rumba in the 1920’s. He also made some successful appearances at the
Capitol Theater, in New York, where he introduced his own music,
including such outstanding successes as _Malagueña_, _Andalucía_, and
_Siboney_ (the last originally entitled _Canto Siboney_, which became an
American popular-song hit in 1929). These and similar pieces made
Lecuona one of the most successful exponents of Latin-American melodies
and dance rhythms in the United States. Lecuona has written over five
hundred songs, forty operettas, and numerous compositions both for
orchestra and for piano solo.
From a piano suite entitled _Andalucía_ come two of Lecuona’s best known
instrumental compositions. The first is also called _Andalucía_, a
haunting South American melody set against a compulsive rhythm. It was
made into an American popular song in 1955.
Another movement from _Andalucía_ is even more familiar: the
_Malagueña_. Since its publication as a piano solo in 1929, _Malagueña_
has sold annually over a hundred thousand copies of sheet music each
year; it has become a favorite of concert pianists; it is also often
performed by salon and pop orchestras everywhere in orchestral
transcriptions; and it has been adapted into a popular song, “At the
Crossroads.” It is in three sections, the first being in the malagueña
rhythm dynamically projected in slowing expanding sonorities; a contrast
comes in the middle part with a poignant Latin-American melody.
_Andalucía_, the single movement and not the suite as a whole, has been
given a brilliant orchestral dress by Morton Gould who has also
orchestrated two outstandingly popular Lecuona songs. One is “La
Comparasa,” a picture of a traditional parade during the Carnival season
in which Negroes and muleteers play their native instruments and sing
their sensual songs. The other is “Gitanerias,” haunting gypsy music.