Dos Danzas Latinas
composer: Nancy Galbraith (2002)
genre: wind octet
length: 2 movements, 10:45 minutes
orchestration: 2ob, 2cl, 2bn, 2hn
movements: 1: Habanera   2: Samba
publisher: Subito Music Publishing (ASCAP)
60 Depot Street, Verona, NJ 07044
mail@subitomusic.com • 973-857-3440
audio/video:   

world premiere: 8 February 2002
Sinfonietta VentusJesus Medina, conductor
Centro National de las Artes; Mexico City, Mexico
program notes: Galbraith's Habanera and Samba combine to create "Dos Danzas Latinas," an elegantly seductive concert work that was premiered in February 2002 at the Centro National de las Artes in Mexico City.
  The woodwind octet in two movements, was commissioned by Mexico’s Sinfonietta Ventus as part of a series of grants awarded to eleven composers. The concept for these commissions fell loosely into the category of "a Sunday afternoon in the park" where symphonic bands or marimba bands might be found playing arrangements of a variety of classical and popular dance forms. The composers were encouraged to suggest the flavor and rhythms of these dances in a freer style, rather than adhere strictly to form.
press bytes: Witty and just a little melancholy, teasing the listener's expectations of these familiar forms. — Records International
  Finally the Two Latin Dances—a suitably insinuating and lascivious habanera (with faint echoes of Kurt Weill) and a humorously puttering and shaking samba—scored for a wind octet. This cunning, winsome, and smile-inducing pair is, along with the opening movement of the Atacama Sonata, the best crafted and most purely enjoyable music on the program. — American Record Guide
  "charmingly sophisticated" —Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
recordings: Nancy Galbraith ~ Atacama
Albany Records • 2003 • TROY556
Alberto Almarza, flute • Luz Manriquez, piano
source: nancygalbraith.com