El Martillo

for three pairs of bongos

This short piece is a kind of fanfare on an Afro-Cuban rhythm. Its title, el martillo [the hammer], is the name of the quintessential Afro-Cuban bongo rhythm, a repeated pattern which serves as one of the basic building blocks in dances like rumba, guaguancó, bolero, merengue and so on. The piece is dedicated to American pioneer composer Elliott Carter who died in November of 2012 at the age of 103. Though its music sounds quite unlike Carter’s in style, the piece does make use of a rhythmic technique with which he is associated, to “modulate” between the diverse tempos of the piece.