Uploaded December 2010 | Updated September 2026, 4 days ago
"Just as I am allowing Barbara Pentland to represent the large number of Canadian twelve-tone composers, I will allow Roque Cordero to represent the comparable number of twelve-tone composers from Central and South Amerca. Cordero's early works were basically tonal and with a nationalist, Panamanian orientation. He began to compose twelve-tone music while studying with Krenek, and his twelve-tone music retained a Panamanian flavor." Joseph Straus, "Twelve Tone Music in America
"I had to integrated technical elements from Europe which I learned from Ernst Krenek, and before I studied Beethoven and Brahms and the others on my own but that technique has to be true for myself to express something that has to be completely personal. I am not necessarily quoting from Panamanian folk song because I have very seldom quoted directly from Panamanian folk song, but I do use rhythmic elements and some melodic design that can be found there without being any one in particular... But you can find that still in my latest compositions there is some element of Panamanian quotation that is based rhythmically on some Panamanian dances. The specific melody doesn't have anything to do with Panamanian folk song. And the point is: I will insist always to be recognized as a Panamanian composer." Roque Cordero
(A list of significant twelve-tone composers from Central and South America would include: Juan Carlos Paz (Argentina), (Jose Ardevol (Cuba), and Alberto Ginastera. Which sets this site on a major mission to research Paz and Ardevol. [We obviously know Ginastera well already, and have some fine works of his coming up. Stay tuned.]
"Just as I am allowing Barbara Pentland to represent the large number of Canadian twelve-tone composers, I will allow Roque Cordero to represent the comparable number of twelve-tone composers from Central and South Amerca. Cordero's early works were basically tonal and with a nationalist, Panamanian orientation. He began to compose twelve-tone music while studying with Krenek, and his twelve-tone music retained a Panamanian flavor." Joseph Straus, "Twelve Tone Music in America
"I had to integrated technical elements from Europe which I learned from Ernst Krenek, and before I studied Beethoven and Brahms and the others on my own but that technique has to be true for myself to express something that has to be completely personal. I am not necessarily quoting from Panamanian folk song because I have very seldom quoted directly from Panamanian folk song, but I do use rhythmic elements and some melodic design that can be found there without being any one in particular... But you can find that still in my latest compositions there is some element of Panamanian quotation that is based rhythmically on some Panamanian dances. The specific melody doesn't have anything to do with Panamanian folk song. And the point is: I will insist always to be recognized as a Panamanian composer." Roque Cordero
(A list of significant twelve-tone composers from Central and South America would include: Juan Carlos Paz (Argentina), (Jose Ardevol (Cuba), and Alberto Ginastera. Which sets this site on a major mission to research Paz and Ardevol. [We obviously know Ginastera well already, and have some fine works of his coming up. Stay tuned.]
