Tamanho da fonte: 

Roberto Sierra is one of the foremost composers of Puerto Rico and a very im-portant Latino voice in American music. Yet, a comprehensive study of his life and impressive catalogue is still lacking in musicological literature. The present discussion is an extension of a topic covered in an original paper I started in 2014, highlighting the impact of visual media in Sierra’s life and music. In this essay, which I intend to include in my upcoming biography of the composer, I also seek to further a vast body of existing scholarly material on Vasily Kandinsky (1866–1944) and his own fascination with music. Here, however, I refer mostly to Roberto Sierra’s piano quartet, Kandinsky, formally commissioned by the U.S. Library of Congress on 16 July 2002, and premiered as part of its 2003–04 Season of Concerts. At the crossing of these two mediums, visual and musical, both Sierra and Kandinsky were (not unjustifiably) captivated by the transformational power of manifesting elements of an akin artform into another. Set several decades apart, both artists embraced distinct artforms for very different reasons and outcomes. While Kandinsky aimed at constructing visual bridges to the spiritual realm, Sierra’s pluralistic perspective tended towards a more individual, inner satisfaction through aesthetic play. In my discussion, I hope to provide greater insight into the way Sierra articulates his place in the constellation of artistic figures and phenomena that preceded him.