Music! Its Role and Importance in Our Lives

Chapter 19: Twentieth-Century Classical Music

From the Top

Name: Alyssa Santoyo
Age: 16
Instrument: Guitar
Hometown: Meridian, ID

Alyssa Santoyo on performing Villa-Lobos's Prelude No. 1 on the From the Top radio show:

Q: What are your thoughts and feelings about this piece?

A: Like I said in the interview with From the Top, I think of the first section of Prelude 1 as a scene where a mysterious stranger that nobody knows is walking through a small town, where everyone is looking suspiciously at him. Then, in the completely different middle section, it changes to a huge party, where people are dancing, singing, laughing, and just having fun. Afterwards, the mysterious stranger reappears, with the tension building as people get more and more curious. In the end, the stranger escapes from the town in a dramatic disappearance.

Q: What is unique or special about this piece of music?

A: I love the way Villa-Lobos writes music for guitar; the fingerings and chords lie well on the instrument. So many guitar pieces are transcribed from music originally written for other instruments, such as piano or violin, and that makes me appreciate how nicely this Prelude works on the guitar.

Q: What was it like preparing for and performing on From the Top?

A: I was very excited to perform, but also very nervous! I'd never played in front of more than a hundred or so people before; at the radio taping, there were several hundred in the audience! I worked on preparing my music for several months in advance, fine-tuning the difficult passages. Meeting all the other musicians on the same program was a lot of fun. We tried to help each other from getting too nervous, and concentrated on just having a good time. I loved performing Prelude 1 and being interviewed by Christopher O'Riley; he has a great sense of humor! I still keep in touch with one of the musicians I played with on the show. The highlight of my stay in Arizona, though, was the after-concert swimming party at 11:00 P.M. in the middle of winter; we had a great time until the security guard good-naturedly kicked us out for making too much noise! It was a wonderful, thoroughly enjoyable experience, and I recommend that any aspiring young musician audition to play on From the Top!