Costa Rican Composer Luis Diego Herra and His Symphony I An Annotated Edition

• Main Author: Gamboa, Norman Armando
• Other Authors: Cortazar, Alejandro
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2015
• Subjects: Music
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-11032015-124246/

Luis Diego Herra (b. 1952) is regarded as one of the most important and versatile Costa Rican musicians of the present generation. A pioneer in the orchestral conducting arena, he was one of the first Central American conductors to pursue formal studies abroad. He served as professor of orchestral conducting and composition at the University of Costa Rica School of Music. Herra is a prolific composer, arranger, editor, and pedagogue, with an extensive output of more than 50 works. This research will focus on one of his most relevant compositions, the Symphony I of 1990, which marked a new chapter in the history of orchestral music in Costa Rica and became a stamp and a model to follow by composers of younger generations. The monograph includes a brief synopsis of the history of composition in Costa Rica as well as the creation and institutionalization of the national orchestra, a biographical information about Herra, drawn from the most authoritative available sources, as well as a comprehensive analysis of the formal and thematic structures of the Symphony with annotated corrections on the 1990 handwritten published edition. A revised and fully edited version of the score is also presented with permission and in consultation with the composer.