HOME | RESOURCES | Composers and Repertoire | The Sphinx Catalog for Latin-American Cello Works | Mario Ruiz Armengol

Works for Cello

Romanza (1979), for cello and piano.

Sources:

• Furman Schleifer, M., and Galván, G (2016). Latin American Classical Composers, A Biographical Dictionary. London: Rowman & Littlefield.

• Miranda Pérez, R. (2001). Ruiz Armengol, Mario. In Grove Music Online. Grove Music. https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.46061

• Sistema de información cultural. (2009, October 14). Mario Ruiz Armengol. Gobierno De México. https://sic.cultura.gob.mx/ficha.php?estado_id=30&table=artista&table_id=1791

Mario Ruiz Armengol

Mexican composer, born March 17, 1911, died December 22, 2002.

Mario Ruiz Armengol was born in Veracruz, Mexico, on March 17, 1914. At the age of 15, he made his debut as a conductor with the Leopoldo Beristaín Company. Later that year, he became a founding member of the XEW, a radio station in Mexico City, Mexico.

His music was sung by the biggest stars of his time: Andy Rusell, Chucho Martínez Gil, Fernando Fernández, María Luisa Landin, Amparo Montes, José Antonio Méndez, Lola Beltrán, Marco Antonio Muñíz and more recently, José José, Gualberto and Arturo Castro, Guadalupe Pineda, Roberto Pérez Vázquez, Rodolfo ‘Popo’ Sánchez, José Luis Caballero, Enrique Méndez, Paty Carrión, Mariana Álvarez and Verónica Ituarte, among others.

Ruiz Armengol studied harmony and counterpoint with Maestro José Rolón in 1936. In 1948, the same year he met Manuel M Ponce, Ruiz Armengol started his work in Mexican cinematography. Throughout his career, he composed music for Santa, Resurrección, San Francisco de Asís, El baisano Jalil, El Ángel negro, Mujeres y toros, Ay amor que malo eres, among others. Later, in 1948, he met Rodolfo Halffter, his inspiration for Seven Exercises of Composition and Harmony, which proved to be the cornerstone of his long collaboration with Halffter. In 1954, Ruiz Armengol was dubbed “Mr. Harmony” by some of the giants of American contemporary music–Duke Ellington, Billy May, and Claire Fisher. At this time he composed his first classical work: Prelude for Piano and Harp.

His chamber music compositions for piano, cello, harp, and flute have been played by the likes of Gustavo Rivero Weber, Enrique Nery, Alejandro Duprat, Gildardo Mojíca, and Alejandro Corona, as well as a whole new generation of Veracruz-born musicians: Edgar Dorantes, Eleonora Bárrales Cortes and Luis Enrique León.