The only widely played danzón for symphony orchestra before this one by Mexican composer Arturo Márquez (b. 1950) is the Danzón Cubano by Aaron Copland. As the title of that work indicates, the danzón is Cuban in origin. It is considered a refined salon dance and counts as its antecedents the habanera and the contra-dance. It thus has a familial relationship to the tango, which also developed from the habanera rhythm.

Typically, danzones are in rondo form, with a recurring refrain separated by verses, and feature instrumental solos. Copland, in describing his work, especially noted the tendency of this dance to begin with very formal and restrained motion, with elegant, calm melodies. But there is an underlying sensuality to the music and the dance, which comes to the fore later as the rhythm asserts itself.

The basic rhythms are Afro-Cuban, with much use of the dichotomy between triplet and duple rhythm, and even with quintuplet rhythms. Since this dance form developed, the African influences have become stronger.

The danzón became popular in Mexico almost as soon as it developed in Cuba. The hometown of the Mexican danzón is the port city of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico, the country's traditional gateway to Cuba. The famous dance salons of Mexico City picked it up, and danzón bands became popular. It is not too much an exaggeration to find the danzón the northern Latin American analogy to the southern countries' tango, as both are distinctive urban dances with a nostalgic, even sad, melodies and a smoldering sensuality.

Arturo Márquez has written his series of classical music danzones as a tribute to popular music and to express his feelings about the dance and its important role in Mexican urban music. The first of the series, Danzón No. 1 (1992), is for pre-recorded tape with optional saxophone. After he composed it, Márquez happened to take a trip with Irene Martinez, who was a dancer, and the painter Andrés Fonseca, who is also passionate about the danzón. Knowing its history and its various forms, Fonseca and Martinez interested Márquez in writing a second danzón, this time for full orchestra. (The composer has gone on to write additional danzones, always for different ensembles and in so doing seems to be following the example of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, who adapted the street music known as the choros into a concert form.)

Márquez also traveled to Veracruz and to some of the old, traditional Mexico City dance salons, and listened to old records by Acerina and his Danzonera Orchestra. He wrote the work on commission from a Mexico City University. It was premiered to rapturous applause in Mexico's Netzahaucoyotl Hall on March 5, 1994, Francisco Savín conducting.

The composition is built on a beautiful, elegant main theme, stated at the outset on clarinet. It preserves both the traditional rondo form and the tendency to begin in a state of restraint and erupt into passionate rhythms later.

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