The Catán Collective

The singable melodies and lush, romantic orchestral textures of Daniel Catán’s operatic writing drew from what he called the “melting pot” of Caribbean culture and musical styles from Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia. He spent much of his life living and composing outside his birth country of Mexico and used the sights and sounds of his travels to inform his music. Throughout his 40-year career as a composer, Catán incorporated his Puccini-like tonal style into a variety of musical genres including chamber and orchestra works, pieces for voice and chorus, film scores, musical theater, ballet, and, most famously, opera.

In this activity, students will explore several selections from Catán’s output to create collaborative visual aids representing the composer’s colorful compositional style. While listening to Catán’s music across six different genres, they will contribute to a shared collection of words and images as varied and vital as the composer’s work, enabling them to track the operatic soundscapes found in Florencia en el Amazonas.

STEP 1. WARM UP

Begin the activity with a meditative listening exercise. The purpose of this warm-up activity is to have students center their minds and prepare to listen closely to several of Catán’s works spanning various compositional styles.

Begin by making sure that all personal devices (e.g., cell phones, tablets, laptops) are put away and silenced. Instruct students that if interruptions occur during this exercise (e.g., announcements, bells, students coming in and out), they should gently redirect their minds to their breathing and listening.

Have students find a comfortable place to be in the classroom; they can lie on the floor or find somewhere to sit. They should find a posture which allows them to access total body relaxation. If possible, dim the lights and ask students to refrain from talking or laughing. While listening to the selection, students should focus on breathing slowly and deeply and find at least one thing that they enjoy about the composition to share with the class.

Once everyone has found a comfortable place to settle and the room is quiet, play one of Catán’s early compositions, Encantamiento for Flute and Harp (1989), which is greatly influenced by Catán’s time of study in Tokyo, Japan. The piece and all others for this exercise are found via the “Music from the Archives” pages at danielcatan.com under the “Media” tab. The precise volume for each selection is listed in the handout.

After the piece has ended, encourage students to discuss their listening experience by considering the following questions:

• What did you notice about your body during the exercise?
• Where were you holding tension? Did the tension lessen as you relaxed and listened?
• Did the musical selection augment your relaxation or take away from it? Why?
• What did you notice about your breathing during the exercise?
• Was it difficult to turn off your mind and focus only on listening and breathing? Why or why not?
• What kind of mood do you think Catán was trying to create with this composition?

STEP 2. REVIEW

Once students are relaxed and focused, they are ready to learn more about Catán’s life and work. Distribute the composer timeline included in this guide. Make sure students examine each point on the timeline and make note of Catán’s personal and professional experiences. Students will refer back to this timeline shortly.

Next, move on to the included handout focusing on six compositions by Catán that students will explore in greater depth, emphasizing distinct musical genres. Invite students to examine the timeline and handout alongside each other, noting how Catán’s development as a composer correlates with individual selections. Ask:

• Are there any major events from Catán’s life that correspond to specific musical selections?
• What connections can you make between Catán’s studies and travels and his musical output?

STEP 3. COLLABORATE

Now students will listen to six different musical works by Catán and create visual aids to represent what they hear and feel. Begin by dividing the class into three groups: writing, sketching, and coloring. (Students will switch to a new group with each selection, so each will get a chance to write, sketch, and color.)

Ask students to sit in a large circle, alternating members of each team (i.e., a writing person next to a sketching person next to a coloring person, etc.). Each student will need six blank sheets of paper and a writing implement depending on their assigned group: pens for writers, pencils for sketchers, and colored pencils or markers for colorers.

As you play each selection for the class, students will have 30 seconds to create a visual representation of what they hear. Writing group members will jot down words or phrases the music brings to mind, sketching group members will draw a picture of what they see in their mind as they listen, and coloring group members will use colors to create a vibrant and varied image. At the 30-second mark of each track, students should pass their papers counterclockwise around the circle. Then, play the next 30 seconds of each piece. Since additional students will add to the work completed before them on each sheet, they should make sure to leave room for their peers’ contributions.

When students receive the paper that has been passed to them, they should work to augment their peers’ creation by adding another element to it. For example, if a sketcher gets passed a sheet from a writer, they should let the words or phrases inspire their drawing. After 30 seconds, everyone in the circle will again pass their paper counterclockwise. Continue this process until the music selection is complete. Share each finished product with the group, taking note of commonalities and differences between each collective visual aid. Consider the following questions:

• What words or phrases were used to describe the selection? Did any of the language contradict itself as the piece developed?
• Were there any color themes present in the images? Why?
• Was it difficult to add on to work someone else had already begun? Why or why not?

Before moving on to the next selection, have everyone in the circle pass their implements clockwise. Now, each student will be part of a different group (writing, sketching, or coloring). Repeat the entire exercise for each of the six Catán pieces on the handout; students should begin each piece with a new blank sheet of paper.

STEP 4. REFLECT

By the time all six selections have been heard, the circle (and classroom!) will be filled with creative and colorful visual aids to represent each piece. Display them in the room and discuss commonalities and differences among them. At the end of class, students can each select a visual aid (or two) to bring home. Ask:

• What was your favorite part of this collective creative process?
• What did you learn about the selections by allowing others’ interpretations to inform your work?
• Do you think this activity would work with other media like paint or clay?

By the conclusion of this activity, students should have deeper appreciation for important moments in Catán’s life and work. For an additional take-home or in-class assignment, you can ask students to select one of the composer’s quotations below and write a short response describing how it further helps them understand his compositional style, based either on one of the pieces explored in the activity or another composition of their choosing.

“I have inherited a very rich operatic tradition. In my work, I am proud to say, one can detect the enormous debt I owe to composers from Monteverdi to Berg. But perhaps the greatest of my debts is having learnt that the originality of an opera need not involve the rejection of our tradition—which would be like blindly embracing the condition of an orphan—but rather the profound assimilation of it, so as to achieve the closest union between a text and its music.”

“For me, comedy is a very serious matter. It has to joke about things that are otherwise difficult to discuss, and it must also reflect contemporary issues. A comedy in this century cannot be the same as it was in the 17th or 18th century. You have to draw a smile from the listener, and at the same time deliver a very serious message. That is what makes it so very challenging.”

“Writing music is for me a process of self-discovery and self-understanding. I am concerned, especially, with the nature of love. I believe that the experience of love is fleeting, fragile and interminable. I believe it is the only point where life and death intertwine. I identify the essence of music with these concerns, and it is through music that I try to capture them and understand them.”

“I was born in Mexico, but my earliest recollections are always accompanied by the sound of Cuban music. During the late 1940s and early 50s many Cuban musicians moved to New York and Mexico. Caribbean music became immensely popular. New dance halls opened every season and they regularly had a Caribbean band playing to dance-crazed couples. Not everybody could go to the clubs, of course, so radio stations and gramophone records solved the problem by taking the music into people’s homes and workplaces. It was impossible not to be influenced by this music and its contagious beauty. I have been a devotee of this music the whole of my life. Its rhythms and instrumentation have always fascinated me. But after studying it in detail, as I now have, I’ve become a huge admirer of it: the complexity and at the same time the precision with which it is composed are quite extraordinary. Writing this piece has been quite a challenge, but a very enjoyable one indeed. For a start, it has put me back in touch with music I love. And then, as if it wasn’t enough, it has taken me to clubs and dance halls on a regular basis in order to get those rhythms flowing naturally through my body as well as through my ears. What a treat! Who would have guessed that doing research could be so enjoyable! I sincerely hope you enjoy listening to this piece as much as I enjoyed writing it. And if you find your hands or feet beginning to twitch rhythmically without your permission, please do not stop them. I’ll be more than happy if that happens.”