| The thirty-six art songs of Colombian composer Jaime Leon (b. 1921) represent an important addition to the art song repertory. Chapter 1 introduces the topic and the literature on Jaime Leon and Latin American art song. Jaime Leon's biography forms Chapter 2, including his training as a pianist and conductor at The Juilliard School, his affiliations with Broadway musicals, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Orquesta Filarmonica de Bogota, and his evolution as a song composer. To date this chapter represents the most comprehensive biography of Jaime Leon to appear in either Spanish or English. Biographical sketches of each of the poets that Leon set to music forms Chapter 3. Every Leon song is analyzed in Chapter 4 from a textual, melodic, harmonic, rhythmic and formal standpoint. Original translations of each poem into English accompanies the analyses. Edited portions of the author's interviews with Jaime Leon appear in the appendix. |
