Venezuelan composer Inocente Carreno's music explores both the lush colors of musical Impressionism and the rich melodies and driving rhythms of his native popular music. Much of Carreno's music attempts to capture the spirit and feeling of folk music using compositional techniques from Europe, rather than incorporating folk material directly. "Margaritena," a work for orchestra dating from 1954, is an exception; it uses both famous popular tunes and spirited Venezuelan rhythms. It takes its title from the prinicpal song it uses, "Margarita es una lagrima" ("Margarita is a tear"). However, since the music of the island of Margarita, on which Carreno was born, made a particular impression on Carreno, the title "Margaritena" has nationalist implications as well. "Margaritena" is, in fact, a kind of Venezuelan rhapsody; besides "Margarita es una lagrima," it incorporates popular pieces like "Canto de Pulon," "Canto de Velorio," "Tiguitiguitos," among others, all luxuriantly orchestrated and given all the color and life Carreno can muster. But "Margaritena" is not simply a bunch of popular melodies strung together; Carreno cunningly unifies the work by repeating the "Margarita" theme in several guises and in unexpected places, from the soft, tentative beginning of the song played on solo horn at the work's opening to the rousing full-orchestra climax on the song at its end. Carreno also uses a little, explosive theme that immediately follows the first full statement of the "Margarita" theme throughout the work; at the beginning, it sounds savage and somewhat out of place, but by the work's end it is in full accord with the music around it. This repetition and metamorphosis keeps the music argument going, and connects the gorgeous melodies Carreno sets for the orchestra in a logical way, making "Margaritena" into a smooth, spirited musical celebration.

© Andrew Lindemann Malone, Rovi