Born in the town of Álamos in Mexico’s Sonoran Desert, Arturo Márquez (b. 1950) was the first of nine children and the son and grandson of musicians. He spent his adolescence in Los Angeles, where he picked up several instruments and began composing, with a wide range of music, from mariachi to The Beatles, in his ear. He returned to Sonora at 17, where he worked briefly as a the director of the Municipal Band of Navojoa. He went on to composition and piano studies at the Mexican Music Conservatory, government sponsored study in Paris, and a Fulbright Scholarship for graduate work at the California Institute of the Arts. He began to achieve worldwide renown after writing his Danzones in the 1990s, and he is now one of Mexico’s most prominent composers. Read more at Wikipedia, the Indianapolis Symphony, Dallas Symphony Kids, the Skagit Symphony, and the Wind Repertory Project.

Danzon no. 2 was part of this series, and it came into being after a revelatory encounter with ballroom dance music. According to Márquez:

The idea of writing the Danzón No. 2 originated in 1993 during a trip to Malinalco with the painter Andrés Fonseca and the dancer Irene Martínez, both of whom are experts in salon dances with a special passion for the danzón, which they were able to transmit to me from the beginning, and also during later trips to Veracruz and visits to the Colonia Salon in Mexico City.

From these experiences onward, I started to learn the danzón’s rhythms, its form, its melodic outline, and to listen to the old recordings by Acerina and his Danzonera Orchestra. I was fascinated and I started to understand that the apparent lightness of the danzón is only like a visiting card for a type of music full of sensuality and qualitative seriousness, a genre which old Mexican people continue to dance with a touch of nostalgia and a jubilant escape towards their own emotional world; we can fortunately still see this in the embrace between music and dance that occurs in the State of Veracruz and in the dance parlors of Mexico City.

The Danzón No. 2 is a tribute to the environment that nourishes the genre. It endeavors to get as close as possible to the dance, to its nostalgic melodies, to its wild rhythms, and although it violates its intimacy, its form and its harmonic language. It is a very personal way of paying my respects and expressing my emotions towards truly popular music. Danzón No. 2 was written on a commission by the Department of Musical Activities at Mexico’s National Autonomous University and is dedicated to my daughter Lily.

The form of the danzón can in fact be traced back from Mexico City and Vercruz to its origins in Cuba, where it remains a part of the national identity. It evolved in the late 19th century from a mix of European and indigenous sources, including the earlier habanera (Havana dance) and Haitian kontradans. For more on Marquez’s piece, visit Wikipedia, the LA Phil, and the Wind Repertory Project.

Michael Haithcock leads the University of Michigan Symphony Band in a rousing rendition of Oliver Nickel’s 2009 transcription for band of Danzón no. 2:

The original version for orchestra was made famous largely due to this ensemble: the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra led by Gustavo Dudamel, which took the piece on its world tour in 2007. Here they are at the BBC Proms.

For a little flavor, here is a playlist from Acerina y su Danzonera:

Here is a 5 minute documentary about the origin of the danzón in Cuba that includes some dancing:

Here is what happens when some non-Mexican folks go to Mexico and try to learn the danzón:

Finally, Marquez DOES have a Danzon no. 1. It is much more abstracted from the dance than no. 2. In fact, there are (to date) 8 Danzones. 1 through 7 are on this playlist:

…and no. 8 is here: