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From NewEar Inaugural Concert January 23, 1994 3pm @ St. Mary's Episcopal Church 13th & Holmes in Kansas City, MO

First Syncretism could very appropriately be titled First Attempt since it marks the beginning of what I expect to be a long-term engagement in the process of assimilating the sounds and forms of different cultures in my work. Syncretism is defined as an attempted union of diverse beliefs, practices or systems. The term has been used primarily to describe the unique religious practices occurring in the Caribbean and South America which blend elements of Catholicism, traditional African religions and philosophies of indigenous peoples of those regions. First Syncretism attempts to address the subject in musical terms. In this case the sounds and forms of Cuba meet the extended harmonic language of western musics. The piece is divided stylistically into three distinct segments which as a whole narrate the development of Cuban music from it's African roots to current mainstream popular music.

The composition opens with Batá drums, three hour-glass shaped drums used to this day in sacred rituals of the Lucumi cult in Cuba, Puerto Rico and the United States. The Batá come from the Yoruba of Western Nigeria and are used to praise a pantheon of deities called orishas. The opening invocational music was composed in the style of Batá drumming. Following a short flute cadenza, is a harmonized arrangement of a song to Ellegua, keeper of the crossroads and liaison between humans and the other orishas. Note the increase in tempo and change of rhythm before the section closes.

The next section is a composed version of a traditional AfroCuban music called Guaguanco that developed from the marriage of African rhythms with Spanish song forms on the seaport docks of Matanzas and Havana in Cuba. Again notice the increase in tempo. this part of the form is known as the montuno and is marked by unbroken chains of call and response.

The closing segment is composed in a popular contemporary style called mambo. This style is particularly American in that it was developed in New York City during the '60's and '70's by Puerto Ricans commonly known as Neuyoricans. This music is also called salsa and is a Puerto Rican "thing", but is nonetheless acknowledged as a contemporary develpment of the AfroCuban Son or Son Montuno.

credits

from Patrick Alonzo Conway - live archival recordings of compositions for newEar 1994​-​2008, released March 17, 2020
Dr. Thomas Aber - contra-alto clarinet, bari sax
James Ball - bass
Greg Briggs - tenor sax, oboe
Patrick Conway - batá, percussion
Jan Faidley - alto sax
Bird Fleming - batá, percussion
Dwight Frizzell - contra-alto clarinet
Doug Goodhart - batá, percussion
Leah Hokanson - piano
Mark Lowry - percussion
Susan Schelhammer-Murphy - flute
Miles Smith - soprano sax

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Patrick Alonzo Conway/Syncretica Kansas City, Missouri

Patrick Alonzo Conway is a percussionist, wind player and composer. He has studied with noted master drummers from around the world and has traveled to Cuba and Bali to study. Pat holds a Masters in Music Composition from the UMKC Conservatory, was a founding member of newEar and works with Chris Hazelton's Boogaloo 7, Matt Hopper's Agora Peoples Liberation Big Band of Greater KC, and BCR. ... more

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