He returned to his land of Matanzas, as grateful seed.

On Sunday, January 20th, 1980, at 1:00 a.m., he died at the Neurological Hospital of Havana. A stroke blinded his 52 years of life.

Perhaps I should have written these lines before, long before, when Maestro Rafael Somavilla Morejón was still alive and I greeted him, from time to time, at his family’s house in Calzada de Tirry, during visits to his beloved aunts Teresa and María Antonia.

One does not measure the exact moment when life will end, not even one’s own. That is why in cases like this one one has to resort to memories and notes that treasure yellowed sheets of paper kept year after year.

Not even that morning of December 26th, 1979, when he went to Girón for the last time, did I sense the near and irreparable loss. He agreed with his usual courtesy to the interview -perhaps the last-, which as he laughingly said «had not been warned».

I met Rafael Somavilla Morejón in the first month of 1979. It had been decided to dedicate two pages of the weekly Yumurí to the work of his father, the musician Rafael Somavilla Pedroso and he helped with great enthusiasm to string together those lines.

Born on August 19th, 1927 in the city of Matanzas, he was attracted to music from an early age. At the age of eight he began studying piano with his father and by the age of eleven he had already taken his exams. He attended high school in Matanzas and completed his doctorate in Philosophy and Letters at the University of Havana. He also studied harmony and composition.

His relatives used to say that Bebo -as he was affectionately called- was very close to his father and always consulted him for his opinion. That is why when his father passed away on October 27th, 1973, there was no one better to bid farewell to the mourning than his own son.

He was a fast talker. He gave the impression that he spoke this way so that words would not escape him, to say everything he thought.

Founder of the National Revolutionary Militia Band, ranks in which he reached the rank of lieutenant. He represented Cuba on numerous international stages. He had the honor of being the first Cuban to conduct an orchestra at the Sopot Festival in Poland, where he also served as a jury member, and his musical arrangements were awarded prizes at the Golden Orpheus Festival in Bulgaria and the Dresden Festival in Germany.

There are coincidences in the lives of men that never cease to attract attention. The first time Maestro Somavilla appeared in public with an orchestra -on that occasion at the piano- was in his father’s orchestra, here, in his beloved Matanzas. And the last one was also here, 23 days before his death, this time with the conductor’s baton. There is no doubt then that he left his city the best works: the first and the last.

That night of December 28th, 1979, he conducted the orchestra of the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television (ICRT) in the premiere of the fourth movement of his work Danzón. The René Fraga Park was the stage for the National Festival for the centenary of the Cuban national dance.

Somavilla composed Danzón by order of the also Matanzas Maestro Mario Argenter Sierra, friend of his father, who had coincided both in the direction of the Chamber Orchestra of Matanzas.

In the interview granted two days before the premiere, he explained that the work was a symphonic poem based on Las alturas de Simpson, by Miguel Failde, with the characteristic that each movement corresponded to a part of Las alturas….

The first movement is based,» he said, «on the paseo or introduction of the danzón; the second is a flute trio; and the third, a violin trio. So far it is faithful to Failde’s original. I added a fourth movement that recreates an account of the danzón up to the present day, going through Almendra, Tres lindas cubanas, Fefita, El bombín de Barreto up to Yuya Martínez, from the Van Van, and Ponte los lentes, Caridad, from Aragón.

«It ends with the introduction. I hope to make a version of the last two movements for the Matanzas orchestra and premiere it maybe next year».

But this purpose was cut short because on Sunday, January 20th, 1980, at 1:00 a.m., he died at the Neurological Hospital of Havana. A stroke thus blinded 52 years of life.

Until his death, he was a member of the Technical Advisory Councils of the Ministry of Culture and the ICRT.

He had a close communication and a strong love for his family, for his beloved Teresa and Maria Antonia, his paternal aunts; for his children: Armando, Jose Rafael, Aurelia and Martha; for his sister Lourdes; and for his wife, Elba Soler.

His body was exposed on Sunday 20th and early Monday morning 21st at the Rivero Funeral Home, in the capital of the country, where the Maestro resided. From there he was transferred to his beloved Matanzas in the morning of that Monday, to be buried in the San Carlos Borromeo cemetery.

The departure of the funeral procession was led some 200 meters by the Matanzas Concert Band, which interpreted Rossini’s Funeral March, as it had been done with his father. The funeral was attended by dozens of people from Matanzas and art personalities of the country, such as Armando Hart, then Minister of Culture, and his friend Rafael Lay, director of the Aragón, also deceased today.

In his farewell speech, Julio García Espinosa, Vice Minister of Culture at the time, remarked: «… He was always more interested in the musical development of our country than in his personal triumphs. He always thought more of others than of himself. And these traits are the ones that define the stature of the Maestro and comrade Somavilla as a man of national culture….

«He was nourished by this land of Matanzas, so rich in cultural traditions. To it he returns now as a grateful seed.»

And although I should have written these pages before, much earlier, when the Maestro with his own words would have told what my pen has not been able to, let these lines serve as a remembrance of one of the musical glories, not only of Matanzas, but also of Cuba.

Written by Maritza Tejera.