Homenaje a Gerardo Guevara

Abstract

This article presents the research-creation process behind the work Homenaje a Gerardo Guevara, a piano piece that pays tribute to the Ecuadorian composer Gerardo Guevara (1930-2024). The text combines the author’s creative experience with a formal, melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic analysis grounded in Ecuadorian genres and avant-garde exploration. By adopting a methodology that integrates compositional practice with systematic reflection, the article describes how the employed resources—pentatonic scale, quartal harmony, and metric patterns from Ecuadorian genres such as danzante, yaraví, albazo, and yumbo—merge into a coherent musical discourse. This study contributes to the understanding of Ecuadorian academic music and illustrates the relevance of research-creation as a means to understand, preserve, and update a cultural legacy.