Nubia Jaime-Donjuan (b. 1984) is a composer and cellist from Sonora, Mexico. She studied composition at the University of Sonora, where Arturo Márquez was among her teachers. In 2021, she was the first woman to win the Arturo Márquez Composition Contest for Chamber Orchestra. Her music has been performed by ensembles in Mexico and the United States, and it features prominently in the Mexican Repertoire Initiative at Dartmouth College. She also founded the Sonora Philharmonic Orchestra, where she continues to serve as co-principal cellist. She has a page on the Wind Repertory Project, as well as her own Facebook and SoundCloud pages.

Jaime-Donjuan wrote her Little Mexican Suite in 2022 at the behest of Dr. Brian Messier, the director of the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble who also spearheaded the Mexican Repertoire Initiative. She gave an interview about it, and she relates the process in her program notes (to which I have added some links):

Ever since I was a child, I have been very interested in traditional Mexican music. It has always captured my attention. I used to really get excited to hear a danzón or a son jarocho, and, fortunately, that interest has become a fundamental part of my artistic work. Most of my works contain a national, and often regional, root. As is well known, Mexican music has many branches, ranging from danzón to mariachi.

When Dr. Messier approached me, I was immediately overcome by the urge to compose a suite for symphonic band inspired by popular Mexican genres. Almost naturally, the themes for each movement began to appear, and in a short time I had developed them all. It was clear to me that each should be different. I did not want to repeat any genre. Music chooses the composer and takes its own course, and as expected, these movements were connecting with each other, one appearing in another as reminiscences of the past, as light brushstrokes, on occasions hidden and at times very exposed.

Little Mexican Suite for Winds is based on traditional Mexican musical genres that are very popular in my country, and is inspired by species of Mexican trees that have each touched my life in some way and are embedded in my memory.

Ahuehuete: The giant. Inspired by the most emblematic tree in Santa María del Tule, in Oaxaca. Full of colors, textures and vitality, it denotes fascination with the famous Árbol del Tule.

Mezquite: From a hot and dry climate, and needing help from no one, it silently awaits the rain. One lives in the courtyard of my house, and makes my days cooler and my nights more pleasant. It provides me with bird song and comforts me after a long day. So simple and noble that it gave me a “polka sonorense.”

Ayacahuite: The Mexican pine. Large and powerfully green, full of brown cones. It came to dance a soft waltz and to sing a son jaliciense.

Sahuaro: The cactus. Very tall and full of water, with thorns and of unparalleled green. A forest of sahuaros lies midway between my city and the nearby bay and, since I was little, they have captured my attention. Without any doubt, this movement had to be a “danzón,” my favorite genre of all time.

Cacalosúchil: With elongated, large, shiny green leaves. Its flowers can be white, yellow or pink, and its fruit is a large pod that sounds like a maraca. My parents planted one when I was little, and I grew up collecting flowers and percussion instruments thanks to this generous provider of shade and color. With a tenor saxophone soloist and percussion that reminded me of this tree’s pod, I developed an ode to the huapango.

Ceiba: From a tropical climate, with a wide and rough trunk and peculiar, well-defined leaves. It totally inspired me to create a delicious cha-cha-chá, which, with time, inevitably led me to the traditional mambo.

Here is the entire piece in its premiere performance:

Since this performance, Jaime-Donjuan has trimmed the suite to four of the original movements, now published by Randall Standridge Music. Each link below includes a recording and score for each movement:

I. Ahuehuete
II. Ayacahuite
III. Sahuaro
IV. Ceiba

As Jaime-Donjuan says in her notes, each movement is inspired by a type of tree – see the program notes above for information on those. There is also some regional music behind each movement. She does not mention anything specific for the first movement. The original second movement, “Mezquite,” came to her as a “polka sonorense,” represented here as a “Polka del Norte“:

“Ayacahuite” derives its style from the son jalisciense, a precursor genre to mariachi.

“Sahuaro” takes the danzón as its inspiration:

“Cacalosuchil” derives itself from the huapango:

“Ceiba” owes its material to both the cha-cha-cha and the mambo. Here is a musical fusion of the two:

…and something more dance-y for the big finish: