Colorines

[1][2] Although Otto Mayer-Serra says it was composed in 1933, this cannot be correct,[3] because it was performed on 4 November 1932 at the New School for Social Research, PAAC Chamber Orchestra, Nicolas Slonimsky, conducting.

[4] Deane Root, however, gives the year of composition as 1930 (apparently quoting from the programme for that 1932 performance), and also cites a programme given on 30 April 1933 in Havana (Conciertos de la Filarmónica, La Habana, Dos Conciertos de Musica Nueva, Teatro Nacional.)

The arrangement of tempos is a natural consequence of the lyrical development of melodic thematic materials as they progressively unfold the narrative of the work.

By this time, Revueltas had developed a style in which, in a collage-like texture, disparate musical elements from Mexico’s cultural soundscape (the popular, the modern, the urban, the peasant, the Indian, the military, the street life, the market, or the dance) were often juxtaposed so that they often collided.

Although the music sometimes celebrates the plurality and vitality of Mexican society, there is audible violence of conflict of cultures, and between premodern and modern social structures.