Abstract
The Hispanic world is here understood as comprising primarily Spain and Portugal and the Latin American and Caribbean nations, rather than the entire Spanish- and Portuguese-speaking world. As musical developments in the two areas during the period under consideration were quite independent, they are treated separately. In both, this was a period of experiment and national assertion, with great achievements in art music as well as popular music. In retrospect it was also a period of inward development, with Spain and Portugal relatively isolated from the other western European countries and with little relationship between the musical institutions and personalities in the Latin American and Caribbean countries.
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Notes
For a detailed explanation of this new era in Mexican culture, see F. Brandenburg, The Making of Modem Mexico (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1964)
and H. F. Cline, Mexico — Revolution to Evolution, 1940–1960 (London, 1962).
In Copland, Music and Imagination (Cambridge, Mass., 1952), 91.
See. R. García Morillo, Carlos Chávez: vida y obra (Mexico, 1960), 83.
For further explanation, see O. Mayer-Serra, ‘Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico’, MQ, xxvii (1941), 123.
O. Mayer-Serra, The Present State of Music in Mexico (Washington, DC, 1946).
E. Sánchez de Fuentes, El folklor en la música cubana (Havana, 1923)
and La música aborigen de América (Havana, 1938).
Recognition of this achievement is mentioned in H. Cowell, ‘Roldán and Caturla of Cuba’, Modern Music, 18/2 (1940), 98.
For a good historical account of the activities of the Association, see D. L. Root, ‘The Pan American Association of Composers (1928–1934)’, Yearbook for Inter-American Musical Research, viii (1972), 49.
For a general discussion of the subject, see G. Béhague, ‘Latin American Folk Music’, in B. Nettl, Folk and Traditional Music of the Western Continents (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 3/1990), 185.
See J. M. Arguedas, Formacion de una cultura nacional indoamericana (Lima, 1975), for an excellent discussion of national identity construction in Peru.
R. Holzmann, ‘Aporte para la emancipatión de la música peruana’, Revista de Estudios Musicales, i/1 (Aug 1949), 61.
The dean of Chilean composers, Domingo Santa Cruz, expressed this lack of affinity, in ‘Trayectoria musical de Chile’, Buenos Aires Musical 12/197 (Oct 1957), 6.
For a further assessment of this position, see S. Wright, Villa-Lobos (Oxford/New York, 1992)
and G. Béhague, Heitor Villa-Lobos: the Search for Brazil’s Musical Soul (forthcoming).
From Villa-Lobos’s own notes. Villa-Lobos, Sua Obra (Rio de Janeiro, 2/1972), 187.
Ricardo Rojas, La literatura argentina: ensayo filosófico sobre la evolución de la cultura en el Plata (Buenos Aires, 1917–22).
For detailed analysis of this work, see M. Kuss, ‘Huemac, by Pascual de Rogatis: Native Identity in the Argentine Lyric Theatre’, Yearbook for Inter-American Musical Research, x (1974), 68.
On this composer’s life and work see R. Lagarmilla, Eduardo Fabini, músical nacional uruguayo (Montevideo, 1953).
That he was considered a figure of paramount importance in the field of sound experiments is confirmed by Vischnegradsky in ‘A Letter from Vischnegradsky’, Nouvelles du Mexique, nos. 43–44 (1965–6), 4.
The analysis of J. Bal y Gay in ‘Rodolfo Halffter’, Nuestra Musica, no. 3 (1946), 145.
See J. Ardévol, Introducción a Cuba: la música (Havana, 1969).
Santa Cruz’s writings illustrate the development of Chilean musical life of the period, see especially his ‘Mis recuerdos sobre la Sociedad Bach’, Revista Musical Chilena, no. 40 (1950–51), 8,
and ‘Nuestra positión en el mundo contemporáneo de la música’, Revista Musical Chilena, no. 64 (1959), 46, no. 65 (1959), 31, and no. 67 (1959), 39.
For a good insight into Paz’s ideas see his Introducción a la música de nuestro tiempo (Buenos Aires, 1955).
Bibliographical Note
The period under consideration has been studied extensively by intellectual historians and philosophers. Some of the most informative and engaging sources in English include M. Stabb’s In Quest of Identity: Patterns in the Spanish American Essay of Ideas, 1890–1960 (Chapel Hill, NC, 1967),
E.J. Williams’s chapter on ‘Secularization, Integration, and Rationalization: Some Perspectives from Latin American Thought’, in Readings in Latin American History, ii: The Modern Experience, ed. J. J. Johnson, P.J. Bakewell and M. D. Dodge (Durham, NC, 1985).
Also thought-provoking and informative is J. Franco’s The Modern Culture of Latin America: Society and the Artist (New York, 1967).
E. Willems provides a useful overview of Latin American culture and its development in his book Latin American Culture: an Anthropological Synthesis (New York, 1975).
G. Béhague, Music in Latin America: an Introduction (Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1979), provides a detailed discussion of this period.
For the Mesoamerican area, R. Stevenson’s Music in Mexico: a Historical Survey (New York, 1952)
and vol. iv (covering the period 1910–58) by L. A. Estrada, L. Sandi, J. Estrada and A. de los Reyes, of La música en México, ed. J. Estrada (Mexico, 1984), should be consulted.
Biographical information on C. Chávez and analyses of his works are in R. García Morillo, Carlos Chávez: viday obra (Mexico, 1960)
and R. L. Parker, Carlos Chávez, Mexico’s Modern-Day Orpheus (Boston, 1983), the latter with a catalogue of works and discography.
Of historical interest is the section ‘Composer from Mexico’, in A. Copland, The New Music: 1900–1960 (New York, 1968).
Revueltas’s music is studied in O. Mayer-Serra, ‘Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico’, MQ, xxvii (1941), 123.
Chávez’s autobiographical notes and writings are in Silvestre Revueltas por él mismo (Mexico, 1989).
Cuban nationalism and the study of afrocubanismo are best treated in A. Carpentier, La música en Cuba (Mexico, 1946).
H. Cowell wrote sympathetically on Roldán in his ‘“Motivos de Son”: a Series of Eight Songs for Soprano, with a Small Orchestra’, MQ, xxvi (1950), 270,
and A. Salazar on García Caturla in his article, ‘La obra musical de Alejandro García Caturla’, Revista Cubana, xi/31 (1938),31.
More recent data are in E. Martin, Panorama histórico de la música en Cuba (Havana, 1971)
and R. Cordero’s works of the 1940s are reviewed in G. Chase, ‘Composed by Cordero’, Inter-American Music Bulletin, no. 7 (1958), 1,
and R. Sider, ‘Roque Cordero, the Composer and his Style seen in Three Representative Works’, Inter-American Music Bulletin, no.61 (1967), 1.
Cordero’s piano works are the subject of a special study by P. Filos Gooch, El piano en las obras de Roque Cordero (Tibás, Costa Rica, 1985).
Music in Venezuela, especially in Caracas up to the 1950s, is the subject of J. S. Calcaño, La ciudad y su música (Caracas, 1958).
Sojo’s main biographies are Oscar Mago, Sojo, un hombrey una misión histórica (Caracas, 1975),
E. Lira Espejo, Vicente Emilio Sojo (Los Teques, 1987),
J. V. Abreu, Sojo, medio siglo de música (Caracas, 1987)
and G. Acuña, Maestro Sojo (Caracas, 1986).
M. Castillo Didier has written extensively on Plaza, especially in Juan Bautista Plaza: una vida por la música y por Venezuela (Caracas, 1985).
Colombian music is treated comprehensively in J. I. P. Escobar, Historia de la música en Colombia (Bogotá, 3/1963),
and A. P. Tovar, La Cultura musical en Colombia (Bogotá, 1966).
Uribe-Holguín, Vida de un música colombiano (Bogotá, 1941) is an autobiography;
a study of Holguín’s piano pieces is E. Duque, Guillermo Uribe Holguín e sus ‘300 trozos en el sentimiento popular’ (Bogota, 1980).
Still useful is S. L. Moreno, ‘La música en el Ecuador’, in El Ecuador en cien años de independencia, ed. J. G. Orellana (Quito, 1930).
The music of Peru is treated in La música en el Perú (Lima, 1985), by several authors, with special attention to the indigenista movement in the section ‘La música en el siglo XX’ by E. Pinilla.
R. Holzmann provided an informative article on Valcárcel in ‘Ensayo analítico de la obra musical del compositor peruano Theodoro Valcárcel’, Eco Musical, ii/6 (1943), 22.
Bolivian music is surveyed in A. Auza León’s Dinámica musical en Bolivia (La Paz, 1967).
A good survey of Chilean music since 1900 is V. Salas Viu, La creación musical en Chile, 1900–1951 (Santiago, 1952),
considerably updated in S. Claro-Valdés and J. Urrutia Blondel, Historia de la música en Chile (Santiago, 1973).
Numerous articles on Chilean institutions, composers and compositions are published in the Revista musical chilena, whose indexes appear in no.98 (1966), nos. 129–130 (1975) and no. 163 (1985).
The bibliography on Villa-Lobos is considerable, but only a few items provide truly critical assessment of the composer’s works. The main biographers have been V. Mariz, Heitor Villa-Lobos, compositor brasileiro (Belo Horizonte, 11/1989)
and L. Peppercorn, Villa-Lobos (London, 1989).
Villa-Lobos’s unique qualities both as a nationalist and modern-internationalist composer are the main concerns of J. M. Wisnick, O Coro dos Contrários: a música em torno da semana de 22 (São Paulo, 1977)
and G. Behague, Heitor Villa-Lobos: the Search for Brazil’s Musical Soul (forthcoming).
A good in-depth introduction to his music is S. Wright, Villa-Lobos (Oxford and New York, 1992).
The Brazilian art-music scene of the 1920s to 40s is vividly described by L. Heitor (Corrêa de Azevedo), 150 anos de música no Brasil (1800–1950) (Rio de Janeiro, 1956),
especially the works of that period by Camargo Guarnieri and Francisco Mignone, and by V. Mariz in Figuras da música brasileira contemporânea (Brasília, 2/1970).
A good general coverage of Argentine activities after 1910 is M. García Acevedo, La música argentina contemporánea (Buenos Aires, 1963),
while opera in Buenos Aires is the subject of R. Caamaño, La historia del Teatro Colón (Buenos Aires, 1969).
The life and works of Alberto Ginastera are the subject of G. Chase, ‘Alberto Ginastera: Argentine Composer’, MQ, xliii (1957), 439,
and P. Suárez Urtubey, Alberto Ginastera (Buenos Aires, 1967)
and Alberto Ginastera en cinco movimientos (Buenos Aires, 1972).
Uruguayan music of the period is thoroughly treated by S. Salgado in her Breve historia de la música culta en el Uruguay (Montevideo, 1971).
Julián Carrillo’s theoretical concepts and their applications in his works are well explained and assessed in G. Benjamin, ‘Julián Carrillo and “Sonido Trece”’, Yearbook, Inter-American Institute for Musical Research, iii (1967), 33.
The major works of Rodolfo Halffter are the subject of J. A. Alcaraz, La música de Rodolfo Halffter (Mexico, 1977).
On the revolutionary Juan Carlos Paz, the most important sources are ‘J. Romano, Juan Carlos Paz, un revitalizador del lenguaje musical’, Revista Musical Chilena, no. 95 (1966), 22,
and by the same author, Juan Carlos Paz: tribulaciones de un músico (Buenos Aires, 1970).
An overview of the development of popular music and the available resources for its study is provided in G. Béhague, ‘Popular Music’, Handbook of Latin American Popular Culture, ed. H. E. Hinds jr, and C. M. Tatum (Westport and London, 1985).
The music of Spain has been studied especially by F. Sopeña, Historia de la música española contemporánea (Madrid, 1957),
M. Vails, La música española después de Manuel de Falla (Madrid, 1962)
and T. Marco, Siglo XX: Historia de la música española, vi, ed. P. López de Osaba (Madrid, 1983).
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Béhague, G. (1993). The Hispanic World, 1918–45. In: Morgan, R.P. (eds) Modern Times. Man & Music. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11291-3_11
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