Composer, orchestra director, violinist and pedagogue, Prof. Guido Santórsola is considered “The Bach of the 20th Century" in the field of musical composition.
His pieces of music are played by the greatest interpreters, directors and orchestras world wide. Furthermore, the value of his work keeps growing bigger and bigger and it already holds a permanent place in universal music.
His vast musical production embraces almost all musical genres. He wrote more than 150 pieces for all instruments, as well as for symphony orchestras.
His life and accomplishments.
Prof. Guido Santórsola was born on November 18,1904 in Canosa, Italy. When he was five years old his family moved to San Pablo, Brazil. It was there that he began his theory and sol-fa studies with his father. Also he studied the violin with Prof. Z. Autuori and later at the Drama and Music Conservatory. He was given a scholarship by the Brazilian government to study in his home country. In Europe he gave several successful concerts as a violinist.
Back in Brazil, in l925, he continued his work as a soloist and became first violin at the San Pablo and Rio de Janeiro symphony orchestras.
In 1931 he settled down in Uruguay. He was first hired viola soloist at the SODRE Symphony Orchestra and later became its conductor.
In 1941 he married Sarah Bourdillon, a great pianist and teacher.
Starting from 1942 he was invited to conduct orchestras in Argentina and Brazil. Also he toured Rome, Madrid, London and Paris, this way contributing to spread out the musical compositions of Uruguayan musicians.
Together with his activities as an interpreter and composer, he also taught the violin, viola, harmony, counterpoint, fugue, musical syntax, composition and interpretation at Escuela Normal de Música in Montevideo, founded by pianists Aurora and Sarah Bourdillon.
Well Known Uruguayan musicians studied there, as well as people from abroad who traveled to Uruguay just to attend upper music courses with him.
He also taught different courses in Brazil, Germany, Austria, Italy , Spain and the United States until a few years before his deathe, which occurred in Montevideo on September 25, 1994.
Three stages are noticed in Prof. Santórsola´s creation process. The first one, developed between 1926 and 1944, was characterized by the influence of Brazilian rythms. Among the compositions of this perios we can mention: "Romanza for Violin and Piano" (1926), "Burlesque Empire" for violin and piano, "Concert for viola, with choir and orchestra" (1933) , Five Piano Preludes" (1936) and "Agony" (1937) for contralto and orchestra, "Concertino for guitar and orchestra" (1943) .
The second stage (1945-1961) was characterized by his approach to Uruguayan national music. In this period he wrote sonatas, suites and choirs, symphony studies , quartets and others, including the outstanding piece "Cantata to Artigas" (1965) for female choir and orchestra, which together with the anthems to the departments of Artigas, Lavalleja, Canelones and Treinta y Tres, clearly show the national tone of his work in that period.
The third stage was marked by a clear predominance of counterpoint. Prof. Santórsola discovered a special way to combine the sounds of the chromatic scale, which he used in many of his compositions.
Some of his works in this period are: "Concert for two guitars and orchestra","Concert for two bandoneones and orchestra.", "Two loud images", "Fantasy for guitar and piano", "Symphonies for orchestra " in four movements and his last piece Prelude, Aria and Finale".
Some of his reflexions
"Those who create are never satisfied with the result. This means that the internal image is more perfect, but it loses some of its beauty when it takes a physical shape and it comes out to the outside"...
"Life is vibration and renovation. Music is life itself because it vibrates and renews infinitely.Only when man transforms his mental life in delightful music there will be peace in the world".
