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Robert Rojer Jan Gerard Palm: 19th Century Music from Curaçao S.E.L. Maduro Music Foundation Johan Willem Friso Royal Military Band Jan Gerard Palm (1831-1906): A Souvenir from 19th Century Curaçao Palm Music Foundation As a composer, Curaçao native Jan Gerard Palm (1831-1905) ranks with Hubert de Blanck (1856-1932), the "Cuban Dutchman"; Ignacio Cervantes (1847-1905), Manuel Saumell (1818-1870) and José White Lafitte (1836-1918), all from Cuba; Puerto Rico's Juan Morel Campos (1857-1896); Joseph Boulogne, le Chevalier de Saint-George (1739-1799), the "Black Mozart" of Guadeloupe; and Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) of New Orleans. Recognized as leaders in establishing nationally unique salon-classical music traditions, these composers all were influenced by African-Caribbean musical forms, were cognizant of the work of their contemporaries, and in some cases were personally acquainted. The Palm Music Foundation works to recuperate Palm's music by way of research, live concert performances, recordings, and publications of music as well as biographical work. Two new recordings commemorate Palm's music, drawing upon the artist's original manuscripts and presenting an representative mix of danzas, marches, mazurkas, polkas, waltzes and African Caribbean tumbas. One of Palm's great grandsons, pianist Robert Rojer (1939-) studied music with Jacobo Palm (1887-1982), his maternal grandfather. A professor of medicine in the Netherlands, Rojer also maintains an active composing, recording and performance regime. Here Rojer essays 30 sprightly dances of under three minutes in length, selected from J.G. Palm's solo piano oeuvre, and performed in a style that evidences broad awareness of 19th Century Caribbean musical traditions. Based in The Hague and led by conductor Arnold Span, the 81-member Johan Willem Friso Royal Military Band performs for Dutch royal functions. The CD presents Palm's stirring marches, mazurkas and waltzes, composed for the citizen's guard orchestra while under his direction, and arranged for the Friso Royal Military Band by Jos Pijnappel and Hans van der Heide. For obscurantists and fans of la revolución bolivariana of Hugo Chávez, the second part of the opening waltz, "Mita," was conscripted to the Venezuelan joropo folk tradition, and from there incorporated into the Venezuelan national anthem. Altogether, these two recordings reveal Palm's familiarity with European classical, opera and martial traditions. - Michael Stone Note: "Jan Gerard Palm, Leven en werk van een muzikale patriarch op Curaçao" (Jan Gerard Palm, Life and Work of a Musical Patriarch in Curaçao) was written by Johannes I.M. Halman and Robert A. Rojer. Published by KITLV (Leiden, 2008), the book comes with the CD. See: www.kitlv.nl. "Music Scores of Jan Gerard Palm Containing Waltzes, Mazurkas, Tumbas, Polkas, Marches, etc. for Piano Solo, Violin-Piano, Voice-Piano and Organ" is published by Broekmans & Van Poppel: www.broekmans.com . More information from Palm Music Foundation Looking for More Information? © 2011 RootsWorld. No reproduction of any part of this page or its associated files is permitted without express written permission.

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