Cuban composer Leo Brouwer's Guitar Sonata was written in 1990 for guitarist Julian Bream, who gave its first performance the following year. The first movement, entitled Fandangos y Boleros, begins with a Preambulo followed by a Danza section in which, according to Graham Anthony Devine (Naxos Records), "Brouwer merges the rhythms of the Spanish baroque Fandango with those of the Bolero, a Cuban love-song. Brouwer describes the first movement as a sort of puzzle in which the colours are recomposed and redistributed much the same way as in Paul Klee’s Magic Squares. There is a quotation from Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony towards the end of the movement and Brouwer has likened the fragmented form of Fandangos y Boleros to the fragmented sonata form found in the first movement of Beethoven’s famous Pastoral Symphony." Watch a performance of the Fandangos y Boleros section of Leo Brouwer's Guitar Sonata (1990) by Anna Likhachevao . . . one of this week's FEATURED NEW MUSIC VIDEOS.

Andersen Viana received his PhD in Music Composition from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil. He started his activities as a composer at age of thirteen and as a music professor at the age of nineteen. At present he works as a composer-conductor, cultural producer as well as a professor at Clóvis Salgado Foundation – Palácio das Artes and at Escola Livre de Cinema, both in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. He also lectures and presents workshops at various institutions both in Brazil and abroad. He has received twenty awards in Brazil, Europe and the USA, including the first prize in the International Contest of Composition Lys Music Orchestra 2001 in Belgium, First Prize and the Audience Prize in the Lambersart 2006 International Contest of Composition. To date, Viana has composed almost three hundred works for voices, acoustic and electronic instruments. He has also composed numerous film scores, including music for Rubens R. Camara's short film Vivalma (Living Soul) (2003). Watch Vivalma, with music by Andersen Viana . . . it's our PYTHEAS SIGHTING for the week.

The immediate impressions made by Joan Tower's music - bold contrasts, surprising subtleties, honesty of expression, imagination, sensitivity - derive from those same qualities in the composer. Many of her earliest works were composed for the New York new music ensemble, Da Capo Chamber Players, for which she served as pianist from 1969 to 1984. As a composer, Tower prefers to let her music speak for itself. Articulate about music in general, and used to exploring compositions with her students at Bard College, she nevertheless resists explaining her own music; writing program notes "is torture for me," she says. What, after all, can words say that music can't express much better itself? Clarity of expression has characterized Tower's compositions from the beginning. Whether written for orchestral forces, chamber ensembles, or solo instruments, her music speaks energetically and directly to the listener [Sandra Hyslop/New World Records]. Listen to Joan Tower's chamber work Fantasy ... those harbour lights (1983) performed by clarinetist Crystal Medina and pianist Manon Hutton-DeWys . . . it's one of our PYTHEAS EARFULS.

Lee Actor's Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra (2005) was commissioned by the Palo Alto Philharmonic, and dedicated to timpani soloist Stuart Chafetz. The concerto consists of a single movement divided into three distinct parts, with the two fast outer sections framing a slower middle section. The overall character of the piece is described by its initial tempo marking, "Playful and jazzy". Though much of this work is in a light and humorous vein, Actor's main aesthetic goals of clarity of expression and bold, dramatic style are still paramount. The harmonic scheme is tonally derived, though much of the main melodic and accompanying material (including a recurring walking bass line) is based on various octatonic scales. The resulting clashes between melodic material and the underlying triadic harmonies are exploited to produce what are effectively heard in context as "blue" notes, another allusion to jazz within the work's symphonic style. Listen to a performance of Lee Actor's Concerto for Timpani and Orchestra with timpani soloist Stuart Chafetz and the Slovak Rado Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Kirk Trevor . . . it's this week's FROM THE PYTHEAS ARCHIVES.