Margarita Luna García (1921-2016), Dominican composer and pedagogue, was one of the most notable figures of avant-garde music in the Dominican Republic in the twentieth century. Numerous modernist trends converge in her works including serialism, indeterminacy, and graphic notation. Influenced by Paul Hindemith, Béla Bartók, Krzysztof Penderecki, and Dominican composer Manuel Simó, her works synthesize vernacular musical material and modernist techniques. Luna García’s orchestral works make use of folk rhythms, native instruments, and are driven by explorations of timbre and time. The lack of availability of reliable and published materials (orchestral parts and scores) restricts the performance of these works. My research a) provides a historical context and framework to the composer and her works, b) describes her compositional style and aesthetic through in-depth musical analysis, and c) produced newly engraved performance materials of Luna García’s last orchestral work Dicotomía (1989).

To learn more about Margarita, her life, and works, please visit margaritalunagarcia.org.