Preludio a Colón

Preludio a Colón (Prelude to Christopher Columbus), for soprano in fifths of a tone, flute, guitar, and violin in quarter tones, octavina in eighth-tones, and harp in sixteenth-tones (Benjamin 1967, 65), is a musical composition by the Mexican composer Julián Carrillo, written in 1922. The title is indicative of Carrillo's "Sonido 13" [thirteenth sound] revolution.

The Preludio is Carrillo's best-known composition. It was composed in 1922 and first published (under the slightly altered title Preludio a Cristobal Colón) in Henry Cowell's New Music Quarterly in 1944 (Taruskin 2006, 292). The first performance took place in Mexico City on 15 February 1924, as part of a concert of microtonal music, responding directly to a request from José Gómez Ugarte, the editor of El Universal. Four other works by Carrillo were also on the program (Prelude for obligato cello in quarter tones accompanied by instruments in quarter-, eighth-, and sixteenth-tones; Tepepán for soprano and chorus in quarter-tones with harp in sixteenth-tones; Hoja de Album for instruments in quarter=, eighth=, and sixteenth=tones; and Testimonio de una vida), along with several works by his students, Rafael Adame (), Elvira Larios, and Soledad Padilla (Gibson 2008, 88).

It was first recorded for Columbia Records in 1928 by the Havana “Grupo 13”, conducted by Ángel Reyes (Gibson 2008, 118). Other sources, however, give later dates for when this recording was made: two takes on 7 February 1930 in New York (Anon. n.d.), or even not until some time in the 1940s (Taruskin 2006, 292).

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