Manuel Maria Ponce

Manuel PonceManuel María Ponce Cuéllar (8 December 1882 – 24 April 1948) was a distinguished Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and Mexican music enthusiast researcher, connected the concert scene with a usually forgotten tradition of popular song and Mexican folklore. Constant citation of harmonic and formal traits from traditional song within his works characterised some of his compositional periods.

Biography
Born in Fresnillo, Zacatecas, Ponce moved with his family to the city of Aguascalientes only a few weeks after his birth and lived there until he was 15 years old.

He was famous for being a "musical phenomenon"; according to his biographers, he was barely four years of age when, after having listened to the piano classes received by his sister, Josefina, he sat in front of the instrument and interpreted one of the pieces that he had heard. Immediately, his parents had him receive classes in piano and musical notation.

Travelling years
In 1901 Ponce entered the National Conservatory of Music, already with a certain prestige as a pianist and composer. There he remained until 1903, the year in which he returned to the city of Aguascalientes. This was only the beginning of his peregrination. In 1904 he travelled to Italy for a superior study of music in the School of Bologna.

He studied in Germany as a pupil of Martin Krause at the Stern Conservatory in Berlin between 1906 and 1908.

[edit] Years at the National Conservatory
After some years abroad, Ponce returned to Mexico to become a teacher for piano and history of music, back at the National Conservatory of Music, from 1909 to 1915, and 1917 to 1922. He interrumpted his work as he travelled from 1915 to 1917 to La Habana, Cuba.

In 1912 he composed his work "Estrellita" (little star), which is not a normal love song, as is usually thought, but "Nostalgia Viva" (live nostalgia).

That same year, Ponce gave in the "Arbeau Theater" the memorable concert of Mexican Popular music that, although he scandalized by the ardent defenders of the European, came to constitute a fundamental landmark in the history of the national song.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887-1959), who met Ponce in Paris in the 1920's, wrote: "I remember that I asked him at that time if the composers of his country were as yet taking an interest in native music, as I had been doing since 1912, and he answered that he himself had been working in that direction. It gave me great joy to learn that in that distant part of my continent there was another artist who was arming himself with the resources of the folklore of his people in the struggle for the future musical independence of his country." [1]

With valuable activity of promotion of the music of the country and with melodías like "Estrellita", "A la orilla de un palmar", "Alevántate", "La Pajarera", "Marchita el Alma" and "Una Multitud Más", Ponce gained the honorable title of "Creator of the Modern Mexican Song . He was also the first Mexican composer of popular music that projected its music to the foreigner: "Estrellita", for example, has been part of the repertoire of the main orchestras of the world and countless singers, although quite often the interpreter ignores the origin of the song as well as the name of the author.

He was married to Mrs. Clema Ponce, next to whom he died in Mexico City, Mexico. Before that he received the "National Arts and Science Prize".

His body was buried in the Roundhouse of the Illustrious Men in the Pantheon of Dolores in Mexico City. In his honor there is a board of recognition by the state of Aguascalientes in the base of the column of The Exedra, next to the fountain from a spring dedicated to this musical poet, in his childhood and young adult City of Aguascalientes, where he first was introduced to the music studies.

Music
Ponce wrote music for solo instruments, chamber ensembles, and orchestra. His piano and guitar works outnumber those dedicated to other solo instruments within the set of pieces we know.

Guitar music
Ponce's guitar music is a core part of the instrument's repertory, the best-known works being Variations and Fugue on 'La Folia' (1929) and Sonatina meridional (1939). He also wrote a guitar concerto Concierto del sur dedicated to his long time friend and guitar virtuoso Andrés Segovia. His last known work was written in 1948, a few months before his death. It was entitled Variations on a Theme of Cabezón. It is unclear whether the variations are indeed based upon a theme by Antonio de Cabezón, or if the theme was the work of Ponce's teacher, the organist Enrico Bossi.

Canciones populares mexicanas, La pajarera, Por ti mi Corazon, La valentina
Sonata mexicana (1925)
Thème varié et Finale (1926)
Sonata III (1927)
Sonata clásica (1928)
Sonata romántica (1929)
Variations and Fugue on 'La Folia' (1929)
Homenaje a Tárrega (1932)
Sonatina meridional (1939)
Variations on a Theme of Cabezón (1948)

Piano works
According to oral testimonies and contemporary press, the composer was himself an extremely developed piano performer.

Quatro Danzas Mexicanas
Intermezzo
Balada Mexicana
Mazurcas
Concierto romántico
Scherzino a Debussy
Scherzino mexicano
Estudios de concierto
Elegía de la ausencia
Tema mexicano variado
Suite cubana

Songs
Ponce interacted with many important artists from the Mexican vocal scene during

Estrellita (1912)
A la orilla de un palmar
Alevántate
Marchita el alma
La pajarera
Una multitud más
Tal vez
Necesito
Lejos de tí
Lejos de tí II
Cuiden su vida
Si ajguna vez
Que lejos ando
Si algún ser
Yo mismo no comprendo
Isaura de mi amor
Por tí mi corazón
Marchita el alma
Por tí mujer
Soñó mi mente loca
Tú
Aleluya
Cerca de tí
Serenata mexicana

Chamber music
Trio romántico, for violin, cello and piano.
Canción de otoño, for violin and piano.
Sonata, for cello and piano.
Sonata, for guitar and harpsichord.

Orchestral works
Chapultepec
Instantáneas mexicanas
Poema elegíaco

Concertos
Concierto Romántico for piano and orchestra (1910)
Concierto del sur for guitar and orchestra (1941)
Concierto para violín y orquesta (1943)