Research, new recordings bring works of 20th century Ecuadorian composer to light
Ecuadorian composer Luis Humberto Salgado was so far ahead of his time that neither he nor the public in Quito, where he lived, heard most of his orchestral and chamber music works performed during his life (1903-1977).
“He wrote music for a large symphony orchestra that didn't exist yet in Ecuador,” said Ketty Wong, University of Kansas associate professor of ethnomusicology.
The compositions he wrote were inspired by Arnold Schoenberg’s 12-tone technique and existed only in Salgado’s mind and in handwritten paper form. For years after his death, the manuscripts languished in an heir’s closet.
But now a new project organized by Wong is bringing Salgado’s work to a worldwide audience. Not only has KU published and distributed 13 Salgado compositions for chamber music — set down in formal musical notation and with the instruments’ individual parts — for the first time, but School of Music faculty members have recorded four of the compositions for a new album issued on the Naxos label. A recording of six more compositions is scheduled for release in 2024.