Leo Brouwer- Cuban Landscape with Bells (1986)

One of several soundscapes composed in Brouwer’s impressionistic period, Cuban Landscape with
Bells presents the meeting of the composer’s influences in a colourful, episodic structure. Fascinated
by Afro- Cuban culture, Brouwer’s music often retells African folk tales with pentatonic motifs and
driving rhythms. The violent dissonances of the piece pay homage to the African slaves brought to
South America, while the mechanical and rhythmic sections depict an urban chaos. This is finally
contrasted by pastoral elements, presenting the beauty of the landscape and its timelessness with
the final harmonics fading away into nothing.