Calentano Music Digital Archive Project
From my first tentative steps into Don Juan Reynoso’s home in 1998, a truly wonderful relationship developed. When I arrived for my first one-on-one lesson with Juan, I spoke no Spanish and he spoke no English. With our common language of music, however, and his infinite patience, I slowly began to record, transcribe, and learn his vast repertoire. I would visit for a month or two at a time and study with Juan three hours a day, seven days a week. On most days I would then visit one of over a dozen other violinists, studying with them as well.
I made roughly twenty trips to Tierra Caliente del Balsas, where Guerrero and Michoacán meet, until Juan’s death in 2007. By the end of my Mexican studies I had recorded roughly 3,000 hours of lessons, half on DAT audio tape and half on digital DV video tape. Over 1000 pieces from the repertoires of these violinists have been transcribed. Juan Reynoso had a passion for harmonizing the pieces he played for three violins, so together we arranged over 300 pieces for violin trio. I have further arranged two dozen for string quartet and string orchestra. Other visiting string players from the U.S. greatly assisted with the project as well.
I recorded all of every lesson. Now I have over 1500 hours of DAT audio and another 1500 hours of digital video. Whenever possible, I made transcriptions of the tunes while the violinists played. In other cases, when there wasn’t time to transcribe the tunes as they were being played, I transcribed them later from the recordings. In the early years I hand wrote the transcriptions. More recent transcriptions have been made using the Finale computer music-writing program (soon to be Sibelius). All the transcriptions are now in this format.
It was never my intention to collect these recordings and transcriptions for my own personal use. Rather, my over-riding goal is now and has always been to share this music with the world. The more people who hear these remarkable pieces, the better. To that end, I’m constantly posting the best performances of the music to YouTube. Visit our three YouTube channels—Juan Reynoso, Juan Reynoso Live, and Paul Anastasio, with close to 350 tunes posted.
Copying and indexing the entire archive has become a daily habit.
Here is the reason I pair recordings with transcriptions and present them on this site as a set. While I endeavor to provide the most accurate transcriptions possible, great players like Juan Reynoso play with many subtleties and variations. The best way to learn this music is to first hear how Juan intended the tunes to sound prior to attacking the transcription.
Enjoy.
Paul Anastasio
The most gratifying thing of all about this mammoth, life-altering project has been the sea change in Juan’s comments when asked about the future of his music. In the early 2000s he would always say, “I’m just playing an old music that’s gone out of style, and I wonder and worry about what will happen to it after I’m gone.” Toward the end of his life when asked the same question, he replied, “I have discípulos (students or disciples). They are learning my music and I now know that it will live on after I’m gone.” Now, nearly two decades after his passing, I’m proud to say that this is in fact the case.
Sincerest thanks to:
The late violinists Juan Reynoso Portillo, Rafael Ramirez, Marciano (Chano) Calderón, Ángel Tavira Maldonado, Zacarías Salmerón Daza, Natividad Leándro (El Palillo), Francisco (Pancho) Alverado, Evaristo Galarza, Teofilo Galarza, Silvano Benitez, J. Luz Hernández, Hector Cervántes, Plutarco Ignacio, Agustin Borja Cárdenas, Pédro Antunez Cervántes, Filiberto Salmerón and Juan Gervacio.
Juan’s sons: Irineo (Neyo), Hugo, Juan and Javier; and his widow Esperanza Aguirre.
The late historian Marco Antonio Bernál.
Lindajoy Fenley, Ana Zarina Palafox Méndez, Peter McCracken,
Centrum Foundation and Sage Foundation.
