Art Music of Caribbean Latin America: Puerto Rican—

Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896):

(b Ponce, PR, 16 May 1857; d Ponce, 12 May 1896). Puerto Rican composer. He studied harmony, counterpoint, composition, and piano with Tavárez, and was regarded as the latter’s protégé. In 1877 he served as principal baritone player in Cazadores de Madrid, a battalion band in San Juan; after returning to Ponce he organized in 1882 a fireman’s band, which he continued to conduct until his death. He appeared throughout Puerto Rico as a conductor of dance music, was organist of a local church, and founded La Lira Ponceña, a small municipal orchestra. For visiting troupes he arranged operas and zarzuelas, and he himself toured South America as music director and conductor of the Compañia de Zarzuela Española Bernard y Arabella.

Although influenced in his compositions by Italian musicians who performed in Puerto Rico, Morel Campos achieved a significant national expression in his danzas, of which he wrote nearly 300. While most are for the piano, some are scored for ensembles. Some, such as La lila and Alma sublime, are stylized and highly Romantic, with full harmonies and virtuoso passages, while others are simpler and more popular in character, with incisive rhythms (No me toques and La bulliciosa). Concomitantly, Morel Campos contributed to the emergence of a recognizably Puerto Rican dance-music ensemble in which the clarinet and baritone horn are leading instruments. In addition to danzas, he wrote three zarzuelas (Un viaje por América, Amor es triunfo, and Un día de elecciones), 60 sacred works, and accomplished symphonic works including the overture La lira (1882) and Puerto Rico (1893), a full-scale symphony based on popular airs. His music is still widely performed in Latin America.