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The Latin American Art Song: Sounds of the Imagined Nations
 9781498581639, 9781498581622

Table of contents :
Cover
The Latin AmericanArt Song
The Latin American Art Song: Sounds of the Imagined Nations
Copyright page
Contents
List of Illustrations
Foreword
Prelude
Introduction
Chapter 1
The Sounds of the Imagined Nations
Toward a Broader Definition of Nationalism
Latin America: Multiple Identities
Musical Nationalism in Latin America
Latin American National Anthems: Toward a National Identity?
Salon Music and the Influence of Italian Opera
The Construction of the National Sound Begins: 1880–1920
Creolism
Alberto Nepomuceno: Song in Portuguese
Developing the National Style
Alberto Williams and the Stylization of Folk Song
The Double Verbal-Musical Nature of Song: Latin American Composers Setting Latin American Poems to Music
Notes
Chapter 2
A Creative Storm
Notes
Chapter 3
New Facets of the Concept of Nationalism in the Twentieth Century
Notes
Chapter 4
Toward a Musical Transnationalism or the Dissolution of Borders
Transnationalism: Multiple Places or the Non-Place
Notes
Chapter 5
Performance Practice of Latin American Art Song
The Concept of Performance Practice
Performance: A Space of Communication between Performers and Audience
The Performance of Art Song: An Integrative Space
Art Song and Its Performance
Folk Song and Its Performance
Popular Song and Its Performance
Looking for Borders between Art Song and Folk Song: Following the Steps of Marcel Duchamp
Pierre Bourdieu and the Concepts of Field and Habitus Applied to the Study of Song
Meaning-Producing Agents in the World of Song
Meaning-Producing Agents in the Subfield of Art Song
Meaning-Producing Agents in the Subfield of Popular Song
The Dual Status of Folk and Art Song: Marcel Duchamp and the “Ready-Mades”
Song: An Elastic, Flexible, and Integrating Space
Proposals for a New Performance Practice of Latin American Art Song
Notes
Discography
Bibliography
Index
About the Author

Citation preview

The Latin American Art Song

The Latin American Art Song Sounds of the Imagined Nations

Patricia Caicedo

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com 6 Tinworth Street, London SE11 5AL, United Kingdom Copyright © 2019 by The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Caicedo, Patricia, author. Title: The Latin American art song : sounds of the imagined nations / Patricia Caicedo. Description: Lanham : Lexington Books, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references   and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2018049934 (print) | LCCN 2018051186 (ebook) |   ISBN 9781498581639 (electronic) | ISBN 9781498581622 (cloth : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Songs—Latin America—History and criticism. | Nationalism in music. Classification: LCC ML1609 (ebook) | LCC ML1609 .C35 2018 (print) |   DDC 782.42168098—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018049934 ∞ ™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America

With admiration and gratitude to all the composers and interpreters who have contributed to creating and promoting the Latin American art song repertoire.

Contents

List of Illustrations

xi

Foreword by Walter Aaron Clark

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Preludexv Introduction1 1 The Sounds of the Imagined Nations 9 Toward a Broader Definition of Nationalism 10 Latin America: Multiple Identities 14 Musical Nationalism in Latin America 15 Latin American National Anthems: Toward a National Identity? 19 Salon Music and the Influence of Italian Opera 22 The Construction of the National Sound Begins: 1880–1920 24 Creolism26 Alberto Nepomuceno: Song in Portuguese 30 Developing the National Style 32 Alberto Williams and the Stylization of Folk Song 33 The Double Verbal-Musical Nature of Song: Latin American Composers Setting Latin American Poems to Music 36 2 A Creative Storm Art Song as a Medium of Expression of Modernist Nationalism Argentina Brazil Cuba

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49 49 50 56 68

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Contents

Peru Venezuela

77 81

3 New Facets of the Concept of Nationalism in the Twentieth Century 95 Art Song Since 1940 95 Alberto Ginastera: From a National Style to a National Atmosphere97 Carlos Guastavino: The Voice of Tradition 99 Jaime León: A Pan-American Voice 100 The Nueva Canción Latinoamericana Movement and Its Relation to Art Song 102 4 Toward a Musical Transnationalism or the Dissolution of Borders 107 Transnationalism: Multiple Places or the Non-place 108 A Transnational Composer: Moisès Bertran 113 Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Multi-locality, Neo-nationalism?116 5 Performance Practice of Latin American Art Song The Concept of Performance Practice Performance: A Space of Communication between Performers and Audience The Performance of Art Song: An Integrative Space Art Song and Its Performance Folk Song and Its Performance Popular Song and Its Performance Looking for Borders between Art Song and Folk Song: Following the Steps of Marcel Duchamp Pierre Bourdieu and the Concepts of Field and Habitus Applied to the Study of Song Meaning-Producing Agents in the World of Song Meaning-Producing Agents in the Subfield of Art Song Performance Context of Art Song Meaning-Producing Agents in the Subfield of Folk Song Performance Context of Folk Song Meaning-Producing Agents in the Subfield of Popular Song Performance Context of Popular Song The Dual Status of Folk and Art Song: Marcel Duchamp and the “Ready-Mades”

119 120 121 122 123 125 128 130 131 132 134 135 135 137 137 138 138

Contents

Song: An Elastic, Flexible, and Integrating Space Proposals for a New Performance Practice of Latin American Art Song

ix

141 143

Discography149 Bibliography153 Index161 About the Author

167

List of Illustrations

Figure 0.1 Vicious circle that prevents the promotion of the Latin American art song 3 Figure 1.1 Music score of the national anthem of Uruguay 21 Figure 1.2 Fragment of the score of Roseas flores d´alvorada 26 Figure 1.3 Fragment of the score of Coração triste by Alberto Nepomuceno 32 Figure 2.1 Poster of the Semana de Arte Moderna 58 Figure 2.2 Distinctive rhythmic cell of the son 73 Figure 2.3 Fragment of the score of Ayé me dijeron negro by Amadeo Roldán 73 Figure 2.4 Fragment of the score of Mari-Sabel by Alejandro García Caturla 76 Figure 2.5 Fragment of the score of Suray-Surita by Theodoro Valcárcel 82 Figure 2.6 Fragment of the score of Cuando el caballo se para by Juan Bautista Plaza 86 Figure 3.1 Fragment of the score of La campesina by Jaime León 103 Figure 5.1 Graphic that shows the place of the song according to its performance practice context 133 Figure 5.2 Graphic that shows the participation of the agents who produce significance in the different types of song 136

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Foreword

As I write this foreword, just before Valentine’s Day 2018, I recall words that once changed my life: “The heart will decide.” I received this invaluable counsel from a wise old friend during a time of my life, decades ago, when the way ahead was not clear and career decisions were frustratingly hard to make. Despite (or because of) my strenuous intellectual gymnastics, in the end, the heart did decide. After that, everything fell into place and made sense. As scholars, we sometimes forget what we necessarily understood as performers: we learn everything we can about a piece of music, but in the end, we will be guided by spontaneous intuition, by emotional responses that well up from a dimension of our consciousness beyond our normal awareness and over which we have little control. Trusting that part of us is often as difficult as it is necessary. When I reflect on the career and accomplishments of Dra. Patricia Caicedo, I think of a mind and heart in remarkable musical equilibrium, working in harmony to research overlooked repertoire and then convey it to audiences and readers with a conviction born not only of painstaking investigations into biography, historical-cultural context, and theoretical analysis but also of a genuine love for the entrancing union of words and notes, as well as a fascination with the identities they symbolize, even construct. Dra. Caicedo is ably, perhaps uniquely, qualified to undertake this important work. She grew up and was trained in Bogotá, Colombia, excelling in the interpretation of both native folklore, such as the bambuco, and the Euroclassical repertoire. After living for several years in the United States, pursuing advanced musical studies there and in Europe, she became a resident of Barcelona and an ardent devotee of Catalan culture. She continues to reside in her adoptive city, where she organizes the annual Barcelona Festival of Song

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Foreword

(BFOS) and classes and concerts devoted to promoting the vast heritage of Ibero-American vocal music. I became familiar with her as a result of serving on the tribunal for her doctoral dissertation at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She wrote a brilliant tesis on Latin American art song and national identity, which remains a groundbreaking study and formed the basis for this book. The Latin American Art Song Sounds of the Imagined Nations covers an impressive breadth of material with a deep understanding of relevant cultural and historical issues, especially in terms of the important role that art songs have played in the formation of national identity. Thus, this talented soprano has also become a leading music scholar, one as prolific as she is innovative. I have enjoyed listening to her recordings and benefitted enormously from her research over several years now, and we have become fast friends in the process. I have given presentations at two of her annual BFOS events, and she has performed on my campus on two occasions, accompanied by the brilliant Greek pianist Nikos Stavlas. Knowing and respecting her and her work as much as I do, it is both a privilege and a pleasure for me to write this foreword. Whoever hears her music and reads her writings will be as impressed as I have been with her passion, intelligence, and charm. During her early years in Colombia, Patricia Caicedo found the time to become an MD, receiving her degree at the tender age of 23. She is thus a “doctor” two times over. But her heart decided against a career in medicine and guided her instead toward one in music. The result of that decision has been a brilliant profusion of concerts, recordings, editions, and now this book. For all of that, we convey to her our heartfelt gratitude. Walter Aaron Clark Distinguished Professor of Musicology, University of California, Riverside

Prelude

I haven’t always needed to understand my country, because it has been enough for me to love it.

Luís Cardoza y Aragón1 I was born in America. Specifically, I was born in Colombia, a country with a privileged geographic location in the northwestern corner of South America; a position from which it sees the North without obstructions. Like most people born in what today is called Latin America, I was born looking up and out. Since “the discovery,” those of us born in these lands have suffered from a kind of pathology that prevents us from examining ourselves. We were condemned to building ourselves in the image of the countries to the North and, in the process, we lost part of what makes us unique. However, this tendency of looking outside of ourselves has had positive consequences. In the context of the twenty-first century, as discourses blend and the world becomes a smaller place, we can more easily come together. We have also avoided the conundrum that many European nations have fallen into the belief that they are the center of the world, a world that ceased to have a center some time ago. If a center was to develop again there would likely be multiple centers in movement. My destiny was forged in an atypical way: discontinuously. I have become the person I am today by traveling to many distinct places and learning various languages and diverse ways of approaching reality. I began my life studying music, and I later became a physician before receiving my doctorate in musicology. I have also sung folk and lyrical music from an early age. I have lived in Colombia, Catalonia, and the United States, absorbing their customs and ways of being. Along the way, I have learned some of the most widely xv

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Prelude

spoken languages in the world: Spanish, English, and Portuguese. I have also studied Catalan, a language spoken by only ten million people, the result of the historical movements of a nation that is still struggling to build a state of their own in the second decade of the twenty-first century. The construction of my own personal identity has been a discontinuous and changing process, adapting itself every time I find a set of values that I identify with, giving meaning and direction to my life. Music has always been with me throughout this process. Like millions of others, a kind of soundtrack has accompanied my life and has changed as I matured and walked new paths. Somehow music has reflected my movements, while at the same time my movements have been reflected in it. My story, which at first glance might seem complicated and intermittent, reflects the search and process of constructing an individual’s identity. It is representative to some extent of the stories of thousands of people who today, thanks to the physical and virtual mobility that technology provides, construct their identity like a puzzle, adding a series of pieces. The construction of a personal identity, a complex and painful process, requires courage, self-criticism, and observation. These individual processes reflect the processes of identity formation in general society and, more specifically, in the nations in which the individuals live. For Latin America, the search for identity has been a complex process. The multiplicity of discourses and plurality of values render it impossible to identify it with a single set of values. Its diversity, which is its greatest asset, has at the same time destroyed its futile attempts to identify itself with a single identity; one which could position it as postmodern, even before the term existed. The ethnic and cultural heterogeneity of Latin America, its syncretism and its multiplicity of cultural languages, determine the possibility of coexistence of multiple identities. The very nature of Latin America and one of its most important social expressions, music, make it impossible to study the region without situating the topic of identity at the center: personal and collective identities that involve social structures and complex and heterogeneous ideological systems. When thinking about collective identities, we tacitly classify people and social groups. The identity of a group is generally associated with the fact that the members of that group share objective cultural elements: one language, one religion, and their customs. However, this essentialist approach neglects the subjective elements, which are what make it possible for people to join a collective identity, even though they may not necessarily share a common culture or psychology. What they share are only emblems, symbols that serve to mark their cultural differences, articulated in time on an axis that includes past, present, and future. Therefore, collective identity is not exclusively

Prelude

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based on objective common elements, but on the subjective belief in certain elements considered distinctive. In this scenario the concept of the modern homogenous nation that shares an idea of progress and cultural agency is broken down to make way for a nation that has many ways of living; one that has multiple societies, interpretations, narratives, and voices. The construction of the nation is converted then into a superimposed series of stories (narratives) that interact and expose the ambivalent or polyvalent nature of the nation. The construction is a temporal product of a transitional social reality. The constant negotiations of national identity are apparent without a doubt in language. Language appears as the space of representation par excellence where differences are enunciated; a space where one negotiates the rational with the irrational; a space where narratives are constructed, almost always by the elite that create the nation. Music, songs in particular due to their verbal and musical nature, has served as a mirror to faithfully reflect processes of national identity construction of what today are called the Latin American nations. Being simultaneously spaces of representation and cathartic tools, songs contain thought, language, and music (also considered a language) that have served certain interests and fulfilled specific functions in the construction of this identity. At the individual level, the process of identity construction is reflected in musical taste. Music unites us and serves as a social marker. We ask ­ourselves: Why do some songs make us cry, and why do some revive a patriotic feeling in us? Why do other songs transport us to the past and make us want to sing, while others we ignore? Why do the same songs change function and meaning over time, as if they were alive and write their own autobiography? This same curiosity led me to question why nations produce certain songs at certain moments and which processes led social groups to identify with these sounds at certain times, assigning different uses and meanings to the same pieces at different moments. “Tell me what you listen to, and I will tell you who you are,” would be the appropriate slogan here. The music we listen to identifies us and connects us to a set of values. It connects us to a social class, a place, a mood, a desire, or an aspiration. It also speaks of our history and becomes the foundation of our memory. Ultimately, songs from different historical periods are like photographs that portray an individual at a specific time and place; they reflect the values, aspirations, ideas, and needs that social groups consciously or unconsciously have at a specific historical moment. As such, songs provide a window into the past and into various groups of people; songs can help us understand them and ourselves. Songs are reaffirmed as mirrors that reflect society and its individuals. They are movable mirrors whose images, rather

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than representing who we are, represent whom we want to be, our wishes, our history, and the place we live. They are also places of negotiation between conflicts and values. In songs, identity construction is seen as a continuous process, constant and changing, in which diverse stories overlap. It is a process that changes when our ways of thinking, listening, and experiencing change. Viewing songs in this way, they become historical texts that reflect social interactions. In them the past, present, and future are constantly negotiated.2 Trying to understand the entirety of Latin America is an unattainable dream. Its sounds are varied, rich, and above all endless. I will use songs as mirrors that allow me to observe different historical moments and visualize the interconnections between song development and the development of the concepts of identity and nationalism in specific regions of Latin America. I cannot understand myself without understanding the places I have lived in and visited; without listening to the sounds of each place, of its language and water, its laughter and singing, its silences, its colors, and landscapes. To understand a region as diverse as Latin America, I have tried to know, understand, and reflect on its reality and its history: a history mediated by sounds. Throughout this book, I will reflect on the need to rethink the concept of nationalism in the light of postmodern thought and the sound effects resulting from the emergence of global and transnational spaces. The digital age in which we live presents countless opportunities yet imposes numerous challenges. Challenges that we experience in our personal lives, building distant relationships mediated by technology, in which time and space antagonize each other. As a result, we often find ourselves simultaneously isolated and connected to the world, with friends scattered across distant geographic regions. We find ourselves building virtual relationships in which we construct new parts of ourselves through technology. Personal identity and national identity return to the spotlight. Identities are no longer necessarily associated with geographic locations. They refer to hybridization, to the constant negotiation of “I am” and “We are as a nation” from an imagined geography. The nation-state sees its borders questioned and national identity demands a construction of consensus in the difference, distant from the cultural uniformity of yore. The nation constructs itself in a third space of ambiguities where the differences are found to construct a fiction that superimposes many layers and narrative voices. It is a necessarily multiple identity in which the territory is subjectively perceived, being a question of perception and perhaps even more importantly, a question related to the form in which a place and circumstances are imagined.3 Songs, and music in general, are not on the margins of these movements. The advent of the digital age has brought a revolution that has transformed

Prelude

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how the different agents that create meaning in the music world communicate. It offers new spaces for creators, encourages the development of new audiences, and opens new spaces of representation and negotiation for song. In this context, song is relocated to a central place from which identities are constructed and negotiated. The observation of music and song is fascinating because it allows us to approach the theme of national identity through a new lens. One could even say it is a more sensuous and personal lens because everyone to a greater or lesser extent can identify with songs, relating them to historical or social movements. From a personal point of view, writing this book has represented an incredible journey and is the result of my own experiences; it incorporates my feeling of the music, the observation of and adaptation to the places that I have inhabited. It is also the result of my experience interpreting the songs that have accompanied me since childhood. I hope these lines instill the reader with the passion I feel for Latin America and its music, and contribute to the recognition of a region, a repertoire, and a number of composers who deserve to finally be known, valued, and integrated into the curricula of educational institutions of the world. NOTES 1. Luís Cardoza y Aragón, Guatemala: las líneas de su mano, 4. Ed. (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2005), 21. 2. Stuart Hall, Negotiating Caribbean Identities en New Caribbean Thought: A Reader, eds. B. Meeks & F. Lindahl (Kingston: The University of West Indies Press, 2001), 30–37. 3. Gertjan Dijkink, National Identity and Geopolitical Visions. Maps of Pride and Pain (London: Routledge, 1996), 30.

Introduction

Art song, also known as chamber song or Lied, is a musical genre that appeared in Germanic countries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It is a composition for solo voice with piano or guitar accompaniment; its most notable characteristics include its brevity, its renunciation of virtuosic bel canto style of singing, its close relationship with the poetic text, its intimate performance context, and the strong influence of popular German song (Volkslied). The primary motivation in its composition was to highlight poetry. In this union of music and poetry, the melody shifts from being declamatory to cantabile, frequently joining the two moments in a single phrase to highlight the meaning of the text. In art song, accompaniment is an essential part of the genre since it is not limited to mirroring the vocal line. In the melody, the accompaniment and the singer are at the service of the words and the poem, emphasizing its meaning. Lied’s aesthetic model extended throughout the world, and formally trained composers from Europe and the Americas began to compose works setting the texts of local poets, which is what took place in Latin America halfway through the nineteenth century. My interest in Latin American art song began when I trained as a singer at the Conservatorio de Música del Tolima in Colombia in 1993. My approach to this repertoire was not facilitated by academic studies, but rather by a personal search for a new repertoire that would expand and diversify the habitual practice in the teaching of singing. The curriculum developed for classical singers in Colombian conservatories and universities is structured, in terms of repertoire, around three major areas: opera, oratorio, and Lied. Within each of these repertoires, the predominant works are Italian, German, and French, to a lesser extent Spanish and rarely, Latin American. This situation is reproduced, with some minor differences, in almost all Latin American 1

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Introduction

conservatories. I have had the opportunity of seeing that the situation is almost the same at conservatories and universities in the United States and Europe; the works of Latin American composers are not part of the academic curricula and only a few compositions are known, usually those of Argentine composers Alberto Ginastera and Carlos Guastavino, Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, or Mexican composer Manuel M. Ponce. The whole system is geared to teach what is considered the “central repertoire” of art music, which is mainly comprised of European repertoire from Italy, Germany, and France. This orientation is determined by a set of values and by what is essentially a Eurocentric historiography of music. Several factors contribute to the lack of knowledge of Latin American art song repertoire. Political and social factors have led to a lack of appreciation for the works by Latin American composers. As a result, these works are not published and are therefore neither performed nor promoted. If interpreters do not have access to music, it creates a vicious cycle that is difficult to break, and it is embodied in the following manner (see figure 0.1). It should also be noted that the production of Latin American classical music is not well known in Latin America and other parts of the world. Added to this is the fairly common belief that this kind of music, when composed in a Latin American country, does not reach the quality of European music. Likewise, anthropological and ethnomusicological studies have given greater emphasis to the analysis of popular and folk music of Latin America and its effect on mediums of diffusion and cultural industries. Meanwhile, musicology and historiography have remained further behind with respect to what is referred to as Latin American classical or art music. The poor development of the music publishing industry in Latin America also contributes to poor knowledge of the genre, a fact evident to this day. This affects not only song production, but the entire production of Latin American music. Nevertheless, there are notable exceptions in the music publishing industry, especially in the Southern Cone. Perhaps the most important of these is the publisher Ricordi Americana, a subsidiary of G. Ricordi & Co. from Milan, founded by Giovanni Ricordi in Italy in 1808. Ricordi, of Argentina, began his work in Buenos Aires in 1924 and developed an important catalog of popular, symphonic, opera, and chamber music. From its foundation until the 1950s, it published the most important works written by Latin American composers, especially those from the Southern Cone. These publications were important for the preservation and dissemination of the art song genre in the first half of the twentieth century. Ricordi Americana published vocal works of renowned Argentine composers of the time such as Pasqual Quarantino, Arturo Luzzatti, Carlos Lopez Buchardo, Manuel Gómez Carrillo, Floro Ugarte, Felipe Boero, Gilardo Gilardi, Jacobo Fisher, Abraham Jurafsky, Carlos Guastavino, Everett Helm,

Introduction

3

Figure 0.1  Vicious circle that perpetuates the lack of promotion and knowledge of the Latin American art song.

Ángel Lasala, and Alberto Ginastera, among others. It also published works of composers from other countries in the Southern Cone. In 1927, Ricordi publishing arrived in Brazil, establishing itself in the city of São Paulo. By 1929, the Brazilian catalog already included works by composers such as Barroso Neto, Agostinho Cantú, Lorenzo Fernández, and Henrique Oswald, among others. The publisher changed its name to Ricordi Brasileira in 1956 when it merged with one of the largest music catalogs in the country. However, although certain works were published, they did not receive international distribution in the modern sense of the word; furthermore, so few copies were printed that they had little social impact. Many of the songs published at this time would never be reprinted and remain tied to publishing contracts; even today these contracts bind them to just a few publishing houses who are not motivated to reprint these works because they do not believe that their investment will generate returns or profit. This is, without

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Introduction

a doubt, one of the dramas that classical Latin American music experienced during the twentieth century. The Latin American art song genre went through an even more precarious situation than other Latin American art music due to its small size and performance nature. We know that art song is generally not a genre that attracts large audiences, even when referring to the songs of Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, and other widely known composers in the genre. The situation with Latin American art song is even graver because there is no knowledge base of its composers and as mentioned above, the repertoire has not been included in the curricula of singers in conservatories and universities. At the same time, a vast number of works, most of them unpublished, lay in family libraries or in specialized archives in various countries in Latin America, the United States, and Europe. Time and time again, various economic, political, and social factors have postponed their publication. This situation of neglect and widespread unawareness of the genre no doubt fueled my interests, which led me to begin an almost detective-like investigation looking for songs throughout different countries in Latin America. In the process of searching for and cataloging these works, I stumbled across obstacles such as a lack of editions and reprints and the difficulty of locating and contacting the descendants of composers to access family archives. During the first years of my search, finding a song was a huge achievement; each song was a treasure, although in many instances it was just a photocopy of one of the older editions. After a while I began to find original works and manuscripts deposited in private archives and specialized libraries and above all I obtained the cooperation of the families and heirs of the composers themselves. I also initiated professional contact with a number of contemporary composers who so generously sent me their works. In approximately eighteen years, my collection has grown to almost 2,500 songs. Paradoxically, the process was reversed; that is to say, the initial difficulty of finding songs was replaced by the massive acquisition of sheet music from composers or their heirs. They became aware of my interest in disseminating and giving life to these works through interpretation in concerts and recordings, by teaching them and interpreting them with my students, and later by publishing them. The size of the collection forced me to organize songs by country, composer, poet, and date of composition. As a result of this effort, I published in 2005 an anthology of the Latin American art song that was followed by other four books devoted to Colombian, Bolivian, and Argentinean art song.1,2,3,4 The number of songs alone made me reflect on the importance and magnitude of the genre. Witnessing the size of the repertoire and contrasting it to the few studies that have been done on the topic so far make the situation of ignorance seem even more pitiful and worrisome.

Introduction

5

With respect to musicology, the topic has also not been sufficiently addressed; one only has to mention the recovery of the works of internationally renowned figures such as Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino,5,6,7 Manuel M. Ponce, and Heitor Villa-Lobos,8 and more recently, the elaboration of doctoral theses on Carlos Gomes,9 Alberto Nepomuceno,10 and Juan Bautista Plaza.11,12,13 Sadly the majority of academic research papers are not published and their impact is limited to the local academic environment. Until now, art song has been viewed within the general panorama of Latin American music, and it has only just begun to be studied as a unique genre and an expression deeply linked to the national identity of each country. Similarly, in my role as an interpreter of songs, other concerns and questions arose with respect to the genre and its definition. In my personal experience, having been a Latin American folk singer before beginning my training as a classical singer, I observed a phenomenon that often confused me: as my collection grew it became more difficult to identify and classify the songs. It became clear that the distinction between Latin American art and folk music is not as clear as one might think at first glance. The difficulty of situating the genre within a well-defined category drove me to investigate its origins and examine its history. Inevitably, it led me to study music and cultural nationalism in Latin America and consider a series of questions about the processes of national identity formation and how these are reflected in songs. As the work progressed, my focus changed from the study of songs and their composers to the study of the social contexts in which songs were developed, thereby broadening the objective of the work. By expanding the focus, the study of song became a window that permitted a glimpse into the broader issue of development and national identity formation in Latin American countries. Studying the historical, sociological, political, and anthropological aspects surrounding the birth of this genre is without a doubt interesting and useful, but it is not enough when analyzing the musical components. My experiences as a performer were important to this process. I continued to find songs that were difficult to “classify” and as a performer I began to go beyond the boundaries between the worlds of folk and “art” song. At this point, the subject of performance practice became a central theme, since music only exists in the moment of its performance. Studying the evolution of performance practice studies, especially preceding movements in the fine arts, made it possible to rethink the concept of Latin American art song and expand its rigid yet blurry borders. The study of Latin American art song’s performance practice combined with the analysis of its creation context allowed me to propose new ways of performing it. These ways split from the consciousness that reciprocity

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Introduction

exists between peoples and the places where they live, a reciprocity that is expressed through the body. This reciprocity should be witnessed in the moment of performance. It is evident that approaching the art song genre exclusively from its historiography presents a large number of limitations. A comprehensive study became necessary; that is, a study built from the three pillars that constitute it as a social, historical, and musical occurrence so that it can reach a threedimensional analysis, making the study more in-depth and comprehensive. This type of approach is analogous with the view that works of art are social products; that is, a view that considers works of art, even art produced in the most absolute isolation, as products of a set of social relationships. These are symbolic relationships in which the creator, the performer, and all of the agents that produce meaning and make the work visible are equally important and interdependent.14 The works and their creators are “cultural artifacts”15 in constant construction and movement; they are in continuous dialogue and symbolic exchange: “Musical works of art are codifications or elements that reflect the creative actions of human beings and therefore must be analyzed through the analysis of their cultural context.”16 For the above reasons, this book addresses Latin American song through its creation and performance practice. It is nearly impossible to create a descriptive study of each prominent composer that has contributed to the art song genre in each individual Latin American nation, so I have opted to produce a more general study. This broader vision is in the form of a collage that allows one to distinguish different moments, places, and times with the purpose of developing a deeper understanding of Latin American songs. In this way, one presents situations, images, sounds, and stories that intersect and overlap. This is comparable to the rhizomatic way that the Latin American world was constructed. Its history has not been linear and has been characterized by disruption, discontinuity, and variability, the overlapping of dialogues, images, and sounds. Its history is a palimpsestic one that constructs a new reality that is in constant motion and revision. The ultimate end of this work is to reproduce the sensation and reality of multiple layers, discourses, and sounds that overlap and in the end construct a whole. Throughout this book I will present various composers and works that represent important moments of transition or transformation. The reader will find links to listen to recordings on Spotify or YouTube in the final notes. There is also an appendix added with a wide selection of Latin American art song discography. I encourage the reader to listen to the works to approach them from a less intellectual point of view, and a more organic, sensual, and corporal standpoint. The study of the songs and their interpretation were essential in the development of this research. I could incorporate my life and emotional experience

Introduction

7

into their texts, melodies, and rhythms, as well as a good number of elements not written in the score, elements that only manage to come to light in the moment of performance. Approaching the works from diverse angles allows us to understand the songs’ symbolic value and what they represent in the Latin American context.17 Far from seeking to make an exhaustive analysis about this genre and its creators, an impossible task for one person alone, this book aims to fill a hole in the instruction of interpreters and the general public that are unfamiliar with genre and the context of its creation. Without a doubt, the topic of art song is exciting and important due to its unique role in the development of nationalist aesthetics and for its contribution to the formation of a national identity. Additionally, it is important for its beauty, musical richness, the possibilities of expression it offers, and the diversity of emotions and realities that are expressed in each work.

NOTES 1. Patricia Caicedo, The Latin American Art Song: A Critical Anthology and Interpretative Guide for Singers (Barcelona: Edicions Tritó, 2005). 2. Patricia Caicedo, The Colombian Art Song: Jaime León: Analysis and Compilation of his Works for Voice & Piano Vol.1&2 (New York: Mundo Arts Publications, 2009). 3. Patricia Caicedo, The Bolivian Art Song: Alquimia a Song Cycle for Voice and Piano by Agustin Fernandez (Barcelona: Mundoarts Publications, 2009). 4. Patricia Caicedo, The Argentinean Art Song: Complete Vocal Works by Irma Urteaga (Barcelona: Mundoarts Publications, 2016). 5. Deborah R. Wagner, “Carlos Guastavino: An Annotated Bibliography of his Solo Vocal Works” (DMA diss., University of Arizona, 1997). 6. Silvina Mansilla, La obra musical de Carlos Guastavino (Buenos Aires: Gourmet Musical, 2011). 7. Jonathan Kulp, “Carlos Guastavino: A Study of His Songs and Musical Aesthetics” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2001). 8. Stela Brandão, “The Brazilian Art Song: A Performance Guide Utilizing Selected Works by Heitor Villa-Lobos” (DMA diss., Columbia University Teachers College, 1999). 9. Niza de Castro Tank, Minhas pobres canções (São Paulo: Algol Editora Ltda., 2006). 10. Laura Hammack Chipe, “Alberto Beriot Nepomuceno: A Performer’s Guide to Selected Songs” (DMA diss., The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2000). 11. Marie E. Labonville, “Musical Nationalism in Venezuela: The Work of Juan Bautista Plaza (1898–1965)” (PhD diss., University of California, 1999). 12. Harry M. Switzer, “The Published Art Songs of Juan Bautista Plaza” (DMA diss., University of Miami, 1985).

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13. Marie E. Labonville, Juan Bautista Plaza and Musical Nationalism in Venezuela (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007). 14. Jeremy Tanner, ed., The Sociology of Art. A Reader (London: Routledge, 2004), 71. 15. Clifford Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (New York: Basic Books, Inc. Publishers, 1973), 14. 16. Gary Tomlinson, “The Web of Culture. A Context for Musicology,” 19th Century Music VII/3 University of California, (Abril, 1984): 351. 17. IBID., p. 355.

Chapter 1

The Sounds of the Imagined Nations

It is a magnificent idea to try to form a single nation from the entire New World with a single link uniting its parts within and with everything else . . . . But this union will not come through divine miracles, but through sensible and well-driven efforts. Simón Bolivar, Letter from Jamaica, 1815

Between the years 1810 and 1830 nearly all of the colonies in the American territory gained their independence. From this moment on, the search for a national identity began and appeared in all levels and expressions of culture and society. Musical nationalism emerged in this context as a way of naming and organizing all of the music outside of the established orders, which were the centers of power that generated modern thought. Music produced outside of the central-European axis, in the “periphery,” was classified and organized. It rose as an expression of modern thought in the nineteenth century; this concept, musical nationalism, has only recently begun to be questioned. Initially called romantic nationalism, in general nationalism presented itself as a way of creating a homogeneous unit: the state. This unit derived its political legitimacy as a result of the homogeneity and unity of the ruling group. Its unity was determined by shared characteristics such as language, race, religion, and customs of people born within a given culture. This form of nationalism, born as a reaction to the hegemony of royal dynasties in Europe, was inspired by Jean-Jacques Rousseau and Johann Gottfried von Herder. In 1784, Johann Gottfried von Herder argued that shared geographical space determines the customs and culture of the community that occupies it. As a result, romantic nationalism was based on the belief in one culture and 9

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a developed and shared historical heritage. This belief gave rise to concepts such as folklore, a concept designed to reorder the oral tradition and serve political ideological purposes. Language was then placed at the center of the nationalist project as a tool to build and represent reality, revealing the connections between political, cultural, and linguistic realities. At this time oral tradition, old legends, poetry, and all of the stories idealized as authentic products of the culture in question began to be valued as well. Music made up a powerful constructive force in the nationalist discourse since its beginning. In this context Lied was born, a type of song with piano or guitar accompaniment whose main objective was to give emphasis to the words, the poetic text. The accompaniment, another integral component of Lied, was not limited to duplicating the vocal line as it had been done in the past. Melody, accompaniment, and performer were at the service of the text to emphasize its meaning. In this type of song two powerful languages are joined together: music and poetry.

TOWARD A BROADER DEFINITION OF NATIONALISM In 1965, Hans Kohn defined nationalism as “a deep adherence to a place of origin, the local traditions and the established territorial authority.”1 Ernest Gellner, on the other hand, references political components saying that nationalism represents a shared culture sustained in political, economic, and educational bureaucracies.2 Some authors such as Thomas Turino reserve the word nationalism to refer to political discourse and political movements aimed at unifying certain groups. Modern nationalism, then, has this as its purpose: from the sociocultural perspective, the nation is defined as a unified entity that has the right to govern itself, thus creating a relationship between nation and state. To understand the state as the central government comprises the institutions that control and give legitimacy to the territory. The state is the one who enforces the rules governing rights and duties, who incorporates normatives, legal sanctions, passports, taxes. In this context the nation is a unit of identity whose members identify themselves as a nation in relation with their aspirations to have their own state.3

Cultural nationalism refers to the set of practices designed to create emblems that make up the nation and distinguish it from others, especially emblems that serve in the socialization of citizens to instill patriotic sentiments. Cultural nationalism is seen as an ongoing process, a permanent

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construction which supports the nationalist project. In this context the arts in general and the various expressions of culture form the pillars of the nationalist building. From this point of view, nationalism is a process of historical construction that belongs to a specific period and is woven in the social fabric. According to Hobsbawm4 the concept of a nation exceeds objective criteria such as language, territory, common history, and shared cultural traits. Nations are built or imagined from “above” as Anderson would say, from the perspective of the elites who “invent” them.5 The nation presents itself into a cultural system that represents social life and that emphasizes its unstable and ambivalent character. Progress and regression are joined in the nation, as are rationality and irrationality. In the end, the nation is defined both by its dominant narratives and by those that have been left aside. Just like reality, the nation is subject to varied interpretations. Musical nationalism is therefore an expression of cultural nationalism in which the music serves as a tool to build national identity and unify the nation around a state.6 A reference book such as the New Harvard Dictionary of Music7 defined musical nationalism as: Nationalism: in art music the use of materials that can be identified as national or regional in character. This includes folk music, melodies or rhythms that resemble folk music and other elements that may suggest an origin in folklore, myths or literature. The concept of musical nationalism has more frequently been used to describe music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, written by composers of countries considered peripheral. It is generally considered that the music from German-speaking countries and to a lesser extent Italy and France comprise the central tradition of Western music. Despite the fact that these ideas are also found in German musical romanticism of the early nineteenth century, and that French and Italian music of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries frequently have elements that are clearly identifiable as national, nationalism is a phenomenon attributed to the music of the “peripheral,” those nations that look to come out from under the domination of international styles, those of German origin in particular.

The definition continues with a list of countries and composers who are considered to belong to this musical “periphery” such as Spain, Norway, Czechoslovakia, Russia, Hungary, England, and the United States, among others. In this definition countries are divided into two groups: those from the center and those from the periphery. Nationalist production, then, is attributed to the countries of the periphery. This definition, which considers centralEuropean countries as the center of the musical universe, insinuates that

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the use of national elements in music served a more political than musical function. Additionally, it implies that the objective of the composers from the periphery in using folkloric material was a strategy for overcoming the cultural domination by the music of the countries of the center. The possibilities that the use of folkloric materials answered an aesthetic necessity or that it was a product of a specific sociocultural-historical context that granted composers a unique and distinct voice fitting their country of origin are not considered. Once again, this definition is inserted into the discourse of modernity and emerges from a unilateral narrative originating from the central countries. It does not allow for the possibility that the emergence of music with “national” elements responded to an intention of national identity construction consciously motivated by a desire to build a state. This commonly accepted definition of nationalism has been that promoted by the musicology of the dominant culture, which recognizes as central musical values those originating from German music and to a lesser extent from French and Italian music; clearly a Eurocentric definition. From a stylistic point of view, this definition assumes that music is nationalist when it includes melodic or rhythmic elements that come from folk music. Little attention has been paid to composers’ reasons for choosing or incorporating these elements, as Gerard Béhague affirms.8 Insufficient attention has been paid to the degree of awareness a composer has had to have in order to decide whether certain elements, whether musical or literary, concede to the musical work, a national sense, or the effects that their music can have on a particular social group. What is indisputable is that throughout history, music has had and does have a definite social and political power in the construction of national identity. The composer is the fruit of a sociocultural environment and belongs to a certain class that makes his or her music a vehicle of an ideology. Music, therefore, cannot be isolated from its context and does not exist as an absolute entity. This fact is especially noticeable when we enter the study of musical nationalism, not only as an aesthetic movement but as a socio-cultural movement. When nationalism is considered as an aesthetic-sociocultural movement, it is possible to differentiate music of national style from nationalistic music; national style being the direct use of folkloric motifs and nationalistic music the music that is inserted within a project of nation creation, that may or may not include folkloric motifs. According to Béhague, “The traditional view of a national style strictly defining nationalism is precisely what has prevented for so long a clear, all-inclusive conceptualization of musical nationalism.”9 This traditional view, which equated national style to musical nationalism, might have worked during the nineteenth century, however, it is not possible

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13

to validate it in the twentieth century; in this period of time composers from certain countries assigned a national character to music that might not have any identifiable sign of belonging to a national style. The national element becomes subjective and diluted. In the words of Dahlhaus: “If the composer thought a musical work was of national character and his listeners believed it, this fact is something that the historian should consider an aesthetic fact, even if the stylistic analysis shows no evidence.”10 What defines a musical work as nationalist, then, is a whole set of cultural values t​​ hat are perceived by the composer as well as the audience. The concept of identity is located at the core of this discussion. These subjective elements originate in one of the characteristics of the human species, which represents the origin of political expressions and human organization systems, the sense of belonging to a group and sharing common traits.11 However, the fact of sharing a culture does not necessarily imply shared national traits. Collective identity implies the classification of individuals and social groups. Group identity is based on their cultural identity, meaning that members of that group share objective cultural elements: one language, one religion, and their own customs. This essentialist focus exaggerates the objective foundations of collective identity and disregards the subjective foundations. The subjective elements of identity are what make it possible for people who assume a collective identity to not necessarily share a common culture or a common psychology. What they share are merely emblems, symbols used to mark cultural difference. Therefore, collective identity is not based on objective common elements, but on the subjective belief in certain elements considered distinctive. Collective identities then involve complex and heterogeneous social structures and ideological systems. Rachik discusses hard and soft identity: When the group with which we deal corresponds to a broad social category, identity is soft and is reduced to a stereotype that has effects on social interactions. The use of collective identities as a means of mobilizing, as a political instrument, requires that the group in question is organized. The more organized the group is and the more systematic their ideology, the more numerous the obligations of its members and the harder it is to carry a national identity.12

Integrating this concept, we will observe how nationalist music in Latin America has progressively become more subjective. That is to say, the transition is observed in music from a stage where it is defined as nationalist according to rigid, objective criteria, generally associated with the use of folkloric motifs, to the creation of national music that has no recognizable folk or national element integrated into its structure. We will appreciate this transition in the analysis that follows.

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LATIN AMERICA: MULTIPLE IDENTITIES When we think about identity, it brings to mind individual processes we go through to discover, or better yet, to construct what defines us before ourselves and others in a determined social context. This construction requires the constant negotiation of two perceptions in relation to one’s own self: the social and the personal.13 The integration of ways we act with ourselves with ways we interact with others results in personal identity. According to Eric Erickson, individuals experience a period of exploration and pursuit of identity that serve to identify these individuals with groups and values.14 Identity is defined when an individual finds a set of values with which they identify and that give meaning and a fulfilling orientation to their existence. Personal identity and social identity are interconnected: “when I look for the group I find myself, and when I look for myself I find the group.”15 Individual identity, in constant change, is molded by the social worlds in which the individual lives. In the individual, identity takes on different roles that change as those worlds mutate through time and space. In a similar way to the individual, a group reaches its higher level of development and maturity when it discovers a set of values that typify it. The group’s maturity consists of bringing this set of values to its greatest expression. For Latin America, the search for identity has been a dramatic and painful process. This is due to the multiplicity of discourses and viewpoints that make it impossible to identify itself with just one set of values. Latin America’s diversity and multidimensionality simultaneously make up its greatest richness and block its attempt to discover a unique identity. The image of the Latin American world is characterized by ethnic and cultural heterogeneity, syncretism, and the diffusion of cultural languages. It is structured on the possibility of the coexistence of multiple identities; a new paradigm, diffuse in essence, polysemic and contradictory.16 It is perhaps for this reason that Latin America has been considered by many as an “anomaly” in the history of nationalism. If this study were to follow the protocol of traditional European models, it would be difficult to analyze this region due to the lack of traditional linguistic and ethnic distinctions associated with the national identities of Europe and Asia. The conventional identifiers of nationalism are all present, but in complicated ways.17 Hybridization, the term coined by Néstor García Canclini,18 becomes highly useful when referring to Latin American identity. This term suggests a mix of different influences, planned and unplanned constructions; it suggests the foreign mixed with the local, the national with the global, the modern with the traditional, and the rural with the urban. At the same time, it contains the

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15

conflicts of inclusion-exclusion that result from power struggles that constantly take place. According to García Canclini,19 the idea of hybridization incorporates a network of concepts which include: contradiction, mestizaje, syncretism, fusion, transculturation, and creolization. Some of these terms are common vernacular in concrete disciplines, such as the case of syncretism in religion; hybridization in biology; mestizaje for describing anthropological developments; and fusion for music. All of these concepts refer to the Latin American reality.

MUSICAL NATIONALISM IN LATIN AMERICA I am from a country in which her first law commanded the assassination of all the flutes and erected a monument to the clarinet brought from Europe. Excerpt from the poem “Muñecas” by Anabel Torres20

The populations of the regions now considered Latin American countries were formed by three multiethnic groups that contributed their own distinct and unique characteristics: Indigenous peoples, descendants of Europeans, and descendants of Africans. During the nineteenth century in Latin America, the wars for independence were fought. In the period between 1810 and 1830 specifically, the majority of the countries that had been under the control of the Spanish Crown achieved independence. Following this, the Creoles, who were the descendants of the Spanish born in America, would remain as the ruling classes of the newborn nations. In the beginning of the nineteenth century, the members of the Creole elite had little interest in building an inclusive nation-state that integrated all members of society. In fact, the main objective of the wars for Latin American independence was to reestablish the privileges that the Creoles had lost as a result of reforms imposed by the Bourbons, who favored the peninsular Spaniards over the American Spaniards.21 From the beginning, energies were directed toward consolidating existing institutions, creating new institutions, and establishing new orders and ways of governing. The nations achieved political independence; however, they were still economically and culturally dependent on the European nations. Some of the administrative institutions and the church remained the same during the entirety of the nineteenth century, without any detectable change indicating the achieved independence.22 In that moment, it was logical to desire the establishment of an identity that was not only distinct from Spain but also from other countries in the region.

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There was a desire to distinguish oneself from the “others”; a natural reaction in “emerging” nations, according to the postulations of Chatterjee.23 Often, to create these distinct features, the hegemonic groups, in this case the Creoles, became the builders of the nation’s image. They accomplished this by simply looking for the cultural or even the geographic elements that made them “unique.” These unique features would later be promoted among the members of the nation and also to the entire world so as to transform them into “markers of identity.”24 However, in the case of Latin America, a paradox exists; Chatterjee classifies nations into two types: Eastern and Western. The difference between them is that the “Western” nations are generally considered to be on the same level as Western Europe and the United States. When Western nations compare and contrast their culture with the culture of others, they have developed certain parameters that allow them to perceive themselves as “culturally equipped.” They share common values, objectives, needs, and abilities or technologies. However, the “Eastern” nations, such as the majority of Latin American, African, and Asian countries, probably do not share the same values or needs and are not at a level of development that permits them to reach the level of the societies that impose these models of development. For this reason, the “Eastern” nations attempt to reach the level of the “Western” nations; in this attempt the “Eastern” nations lose what makes them unique. This generates a strong contradiction because they are imitating a model that is hostile to them. These “Eastern” societies unconsciously selfcolonize, on the surface believing that they are building an identity, when in fact they are reinforcing the identity and values of ​​ “Western” nations. In Latin America, white Creoles had Europe as their model. They looked especially to France, a country that dictated the aesthetic ideals of the time. This Creole elite, which represented a very small percentage of the population, found themselves creating an order imitating the countries on the forefront of modernity at the time, who were equipped with the ideas of the Enlightenment. By imitating European, and especially French, society and values, the elites of the new American nations completely turned their back on the Indigenous and Black populations, emphatically denying their presence and cultural contribution to the nations. This contradiction generated when attempting to build identity that basically denies what distinguishes us and what makes us unique can be observed far and wide throughout Latin America in all of the arts from the period immediately following independence until the beginning of the twentieth century. This behavior includes Latin American nations as “Eastern” societies in Chatterjee’s classification. We find an example in the following text written in 1939 by Cuban musician Emilio Grenet:

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17

Taking as a starting point the educated Cuban prosody, which is very close to that of the Spaniard, we can observe how as we penetrate into the popular classes; the Peninsular Spanish accent loses quality and is contaminated with the way that Blacks have to use language and express their thoughts. The same situation is observed in music. The musical trend, close to the white tradition, is inspired by the purest Spanish heritage and shows elegance, delicacy and aristocracy in its expression. In this white musical tradition, we find personalities such as Eduardo Sanchez de Fuentes, educated in a colonial environment and a student of Ignacio Cervantes, who lived in the same environment and used the same language. Sánchez de Fuentes, who does not deny the depth of African roots in our music, confesses that he does not feel that his production has African elements.25

At the same time, Europe found itself in the middle of a hegemonic battle between the new powers: the Anglo-Saxons and the French. The French decided to proclaim themselves the inheritors of the Roman Empire and called themselves “Latin.” As a result, the Creole elites began calling themselves Latin Americans, which made them feel like a part of the Europe that they so desired to be a part of.26 However, the white Creole Latin Americans considered themselves a second category of Europeans. Among them, the sentiment of racial and cultural inferiority prevailed, which formed the base of politics that strongly encouraged European migration and continued with the extermination of the Indigenous populations, which is what happened in Argentina. Creole consciousness was indeed a singular case of double consciousness: the consciousness of not being who they were supposed to be (Europeans). That being and not being are the mark of the coloniality of being. The Afro-Creoles and the Indigenous peoples did not have the same problem. Their critical consciousness emerged from not even being considered human, not from not being considered Europeans.27

Added to these sentiments of racial inferiority were the beliefs that the tropical climate obstructed the development of “civilization,”28 beliefs reinforced by the in-vogue evolutionist and biological theories. Independence was achieved from Spain and Portugal, but the colonized mentality continued to operate in all cultural and social expressions. Music was no exception and it continued utilizing a European canon, a situation that remains true even today in “art” or “academic” music. This situation is not exclusive to Latin America, it can also be noted in the music of AngloSaxon America. In the words of García Canclini, referring to the European situation at the time that nationalist movements were flourishing:

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The people begin to exist as a reference in the modern debate at the end of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by the formation in Europe of nation-states that tried to include all levels of the population. Nevertheless, the Enlightenment considers these people, whom it is necessary to resort in order to legitimize the secular and democratic government are also the bearers of what reason wishes to abolish: superstition, ignorance and unrest. For this develops a complex mechanism, in the words of Martin Barbero, “of abstract inclusion and concrete exclusion.”29 The people are of interest as legitimizers of the bourgeois hegemony, at the same time it is annoying since it represents the uneducated things and demonstrates everything that is missing.30

In the case of Latin America, the Creole elite began to use the term “nation” with the intention of legitimizing their affiliation with Spain. In using the term, they wanted to display at the same time their differences from Spain and to make note of their differences with other racial groups that inhabited their respective countries, emphasizing that they did not belong to Indigenous groups, Africans, or mestizos that in this case represent “the people.” For this group, a term closer to what we now understand as the nation-state was the term “homeland,” which meant belonging to a territory but not necessarily identifying with all its inhabitants (the people). Under this definition, several nations could exist within a homeland. This situation persisted well into the nineteenth century in Latin America, precisely because it avoided confronting the difficult issue of how to integrate the entire population within the nation.31 In Latin America there was no attempt, at least not at this stage, to include all of the groups that represented the people. At this time, cultural and musical nationalism were above all else a project; a desire to build an identity, then imagined, through sounds. All of the narratives are the synthesis of the negotiation between what is said and what is omitted, as Michel Rolph Trouillot affirms.32 The priorization of European elements in music in this era demonstrates a set of values and above all an aspiration. The musical scope of young American nations continued then to be dominated by European musicians. Toward the middle of the nineteenth century, many musicians came to the New World, especially from Italy and Spain. Most of them came as members of Italian opera companies, and then stayed in Latin America and founded numerous music and singing schools.33 These musicians made their best effort to update the privileged classes of the different countries with the musical fashions of Europe. As Bernardo Illari states: In a time when the nation was a mere label, desire and project; without state power that sustained it and without its own community life; national music could have been considered such in function, on the one hand, to represent the formal characteristics that they desired to instill in the nation’s future, and

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secondly, to develop a distinctive style, of native reference or not. Nationalism was so volatile as the same volatile and ethereal idea of nation, and in the best case, its development was the result of a proposal developed within the heart of a generational social group, to be picked up by future generations; but this makes it no less interesting to understand the processes that link music and territorial identity. This makes it no less national, in its own way neither.34

It is important to remember that Latin America is a large and diverse region; the generalizations referring to the nationalist movement should serve as a reference point, without losing sight of the unique situations of each country. This includes the fact that delimiting each period with dates is complicated, as composers who write in a variety of styles can exist within a single period. Throughout the book, I shall provide a general framework that I will illustrate with local situations that occurred in different countries so that the reader will have an overall view, a point of departure to begin from in a specific country or time or with a particular composer. LATIN AMERICAN NATIONAL ANTHEMS: TOWARD A NATIONAL IDENTITY? What a most heartbreaking joy, what most grievous and joyful tenderness. The girls and boys, the elderly and the children, the women requested the National Anthem set to the marimba. I had not heard it for many, many years. I was moved to sing it with my people on that unforgettable occasion. I am not trying to be either patriotic or sentimental: simply, it was revealed to me then, once again, how definitive are childhood and the domain of the homeland. —Excerpt from “Guatemala, las líneas de su mano” by Luís Cardoza y Aragón Fundación C ­ olmex and Colegio de México, A.C.35,36

In the time following independence, the Latin American nations worked to build their own image of nation by creating symbols that identified them as such. One of the most important symbols, associated with music, was the composition of the national anthem or national song as it was initially called. The composition of national anthems represents the most direct and evident association between music-nationalism-construction of national identity: music in itself is a powerful symbol of identity, in the same way as language . . . It is one of those aspects of culture that, when the necessity arises, better serves the purpose of affirming “ethnic identity.” Its effectiveness can be double: it not only acts as an effective medium for the identification of different ethnic and social groups, but it also possesses strong emotional connotations and can be used to affirm and negotiate identity in an especially powerful manner.37

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The need to have a national anthem developed in Europe around 1750. As early as 1812, many Latin American countries followed this model. Such is the case with Argentina and Chile in 1819 and Peru in 1821. As Turino said: In the creation of musical emblems for the state at this point in time, there was no impetus to mark local stylistic distinctions because the idea of nation as a distinct cultural unit was not yet operative as a basis for political legitimacy. Rather than indexing cultural uniqueness, the official anthems were adopted to exhibit iconicity with other legitimate states in cosmopolitan terms; that is, the assertion of legitimacy and sovereignty for emerging states was based on similarity with existing states not difference.38

A thorough observation of these anthems, their dates of composition, and their composers serves to illustrate how Latin American music and aesthetic models in that moment were in the hands of European musicians, strongly influenced by Italian opera. The national anthem of Argentina, as mentioned above, was composed in 1812 by Catalan composer Blas Parera (1776–1840); that of Colombia was composed in 1887 by Italian singer Oreste Sindici (1837–1904), who had arrived in Bogotá with an opera company some years before. Sindici, using the verses of Colombian ex-president Rafael Núñez, composed the anthem that was officially adopted in 1920. The national anthem of Ecuador was created by French composer Antonio Neuname (1818–1871) who received his musical training in conservatories in Milan and Vienna. The national anthem of Bolivia was written by Italian singer Benedetto Vincenti (1815–1914) in 1845. Chile’s national anthem, published in London in 1828, was written by Catalan composer Ramon Carnicer (1789–1955), who is considered to be one of the most important Spanish composers of his time. The national anthems of Uruguay, adopted in 1845, and of Paraguay, adopted in 1846, were composed by Hungarian composer and conductor José Francisco Debali (1791–1859), who received his musical training in Hungary and Italy. The Uruguayan anthem especially draws attention to its first bars; upon hearing them, one might think it is a work by Gaetano Donizetti or Gioachino Rossini. Some bars are practically identical to parts of Donizetti’s Lucrecia Borgia (see figure 1.1). The composition of Latin American national anthems illustrates how the nation was constructed by projecting a series of values belonging to the elites of European origin. The national anthem, also called national song, represents a place where one aspires to arrive and constitutes a place of identity negotiation for the new nations. An interesting case, precisely because it is an exception, is the national anthem of Brazil, composed by Brazilian composer Francisco Manoel da

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Figure 1.1  First Page of the Himno de la República Oriental de Uruguay (Anthem of the Eastern Republic of Uruguay) Composed by Hungarian Composer José Francisco Debali (1791−1859). The operatic style of his writing stands out, highly influenced by the music of Donizetti. The influence of Italian opera in the composition of national anthems highlights the basis of European models on the construction of national identity.

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Silva (1795–1865). One of the best-trained composers in Latin America, Da Silva was a student of Father José Mauricio.39 He composed numerous modinhas and lundus and an opera titled O prestigio da lei. He held a position as professor of music in Rio de Janeiro and was one of the founders of the Academy of Music and National Opera, an institution that would later become the National Institute of Music. SALON MUSIC AND THE INFLUENCE OF ITALIAN OPERA In the salon music of this period, in Latin America and Europe, Italian opera and piano music predominated. Its influence permeated all of Latin America and left an important imprint on the musical history of the region. Following the pattern of what had happened in Europe, theaters were built, whole opera companies were invited (especially from Italy), and the infrastructure to support this “trend” was created. The opera, a public and urban phenomenon, was from its beginnings a mirror that reflected society and the values of ​​ the moment. It was a mirror that represented what “the people were,” but above all it represented what “the people wanted to be.” Social and political event par excellence, opera was the space where the ruling classes projected the idealized image of a “civilized” and educated nation; this image was in tune and synchronized with the prevailing fashion of the Old World. The representations of opera were the public stage par excellence to show the power and social and cultural advances of the nation. Although there are references to operas written by Latin American composers or residents of Latin America during the eighteenth century, such as Parténope40,41 written by Mexican composer Manuel de Sumaya (1711);42 these constitute isolated cases during this century. The real operatic boom occurred in Latin America during the nineteenth century, coinciding with independence from Spain and Portugal. Little by little, opera integrated itself into the life of the newly emerging nations and acquired its status as a fine art. It became synonymous with good taste, civilization, prosperity, and refinement. To that extent, from its beginnings it made up an essential ingredient for the consolidation of the nation. Italian opera played the most important role: Rossini was the model to imitate, followed closely by Bellini and Donizetti. Small companies generally ran the performances from Italy, importing divas who became models of beauty and good taste among the ladies of society. The aesthetic submission to Italian models was such that even when local composers ventured into the genre, they wrote operas in the purest Italian style in terms of music and

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plot. There are many operas by Latin American composers with librettos that recount events from Greek or Roman mythology, the majority of them written in Italian. The works of Brazilian composer Carlos Gomes (1836–1896) and Mexican composer Melesio Morales (1838–1908) stand out. Gomes, son of a modest provincial musician, began his musical training with his family and continued in the Imperial Conservatory of Music in Rio de Janeiro, where he familiarized himself with the works of Rossini, Bellini, Donizetti, and Verdi leaning toward opera early on. He continued his studies in Milan where he wrote most of his works, achieving fame as a composer of operas. His best-known operas were Fosca, Lo Schiavo, Cóndor and the most well known, Il Guarany. All these operas were premiered first in Italy and then in Latin America. The overture to Il Guarany43 became so popular in Brazil that, even today, it is considered almost a second national anthem. Even though his operas follow the Italian model, Gomes incorporated Brazilian themes and used the modinha genre in some of his arias.44 On his part, Mexican composer Melesio Morales premiered his opera Ildegonda in the Pagliano theater in Florence in 1869, awakening a patriotic fervor in his home country and receiving state honors on his return to Mexico as a result. Morales had achieved, in the collective imagination, a new position for his home country. Mexico reached the “height” of European civilization in being capable of producing an opera in the Italian style, and moreover this opera was premiered in Florence of all places. Morales’ case clearly represents the situation that occurred in the diverse countries of Latin America. In opera, as in art song, the construction of identity was not a process that was resolved with the development of a personal and national style, but rather a place to which one aspired to get to develop a voice comparable to that of the “civilized” and “educated” nations.45 The operas of these composers were Italian in the same sense in which Mozart’s operas were Italian, as they followed some of the stylistic conventions and norms that placed them in this category.46 The predominance of opera aroused appreciation and taste for classical singing within the ruling classes who were responsible for the “public” event of opera. This “public” event later transformed into “private” occasions of tertulias (social gatherings), veladas (evening gatherings), and soirées in which isolated arias, reduced for voice and piano, were sung. These private spaces, scenarios of greater creative freedom and almost familiar warmth, were the places that opened the door to the birth of art or parlor song. These songs belong to a genre that was closely related to opera; however, due to its relative simplicity and “smallness,” it gave way to experimentations that would lead it to wear, long before the opera, the attire of nationalism.

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The places where music was performed multiplied, and pianos were the primary instruments in this process, arriving on the coasts of Latin America by the hundreds. This situation is illustrated in the case of Bogotá, then the capital of Nueva Granada, where in 1850 the piano became so popular that there were more than two thousand in the city, almost one for every fifteen inhabitants.47 A similar case took place in La Paz, Bolivia, where playing the piano was a sign of refinement among the ladies of society. This resulted in a great demand for pianos and teachers of this instrument.48 In Peru, the Italian Rebagliati brothers49 arrived in 1863 and played an important role in the teaching, compiling, and styling of traditional songs. One of the brothers, Claudio,50 was responsible for making one of the first collections of songs, composed primarily of stylizations of songs such as zamacueca.51 Important opera theaters were built; the Colón Theater in Buenos Aires, inaugurated in 1908, is a notable example that became one of the most famous opera theaters in the world. At this time, societies, schools, and philharmonic societies were gradually founded to promote music. This happened to a greater or lesser extent in all of the Latin American countries at the same time. Until the end of the nineteenth century musical activity centered on conforming musical institutions and societies to promote the music, which were the precursors of today’s conservatories.52,53 One must wait until the last decades of the nineteenth century to begin to hear attempts to include native elements in Latin American composed operas. These elements, whether musical or thematic, can be observed in operas such as Guatimotzin, by Mexican composer Aniceto Ortega, released in 1870. THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE NATIONAL SOUND BEGINS: 1880–1920 There were but two reed flutes, an improvised drum, two alfandoques and a tambourine; but the fine voices of the Black people sang the bambucos with such mastery; there was such a heartfelt combination of melancholy, happiness and light chords in their songs; the verses they sang were so tenderly simple, that even the most cultured dilettante would have listened in ecstasy to that semi-wild music. Excerpt from “María” by Jorge Isaacs (1867)54

Even though the musical production of the composers of this era remained influenced by European forms and styles, little by little works with elements of local folklore began to appear.

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The opera Atahualpa by Adolfo Ballivián (1831–1874) and the composition of Zapateo indio by Modesta Sanjinés (1832–1887), both Bolivian composers, represent rare examples of music with local elements. The two composers belonged to prominent families, the first being the son of Bolivian president Jose Ballivián (1841–1847) and the second belonging to a wealthy family in La Paz, having studied in Paris, where she lived for many years. Composers were trained in Europe, having more knowledge of European music and techniques than that of local music. In this period, trends overlapped and underwent a transition, while at the same time composers writing in the very much European style of the nineteenth century coexisted with others, who were already interested in indigenous music. This phenomenon was simultaneous in that it generated an intersection where two ways of making music and building “national” sound coexisted. Even within the same composer one can observe the two moments of this transition: some wrote songs in French, German, or Italian styles in an early stage and in a later stage wrote songs with a marked national style in vernacular languages. The Creole elites found themselves imitating a new order, taking France as their model, but doing so in two languages—Spanish and Portuguese. With the Spanish and Portuguese dethroned of their hegemony, the composers wrote their vocal pieces in the languages ​​of the countries they aspired “to imitate”: French, Italian, and German. This situation denotes a form of linguistic discrimination, that is, the use of language associated with a hierarchy and a power structure. It reveals how language has been at the center of the project of colonization-domination. However, there were notable exceptions in the genre of song, such as the Modinhas imperiais,55 written in Portuguese. Although these songs were written in Portuguese, musically and stylistically they responded to the model of the Italian opera aria56 (see figure 1.2). In Mexico, composers began to write songs incorporating national motifs. One composer who stands out is Miguel Ríos Toledano. In the words of Guadalupe Campos: The love for the historical past, for the “folk” customs of the homeland and a desire to evoke the great heroic moments in the lives of the indigenous ancestors, provokes the concern of composers like Miguel Ríos Toledano for the restitution and appreciation of the authentic Mexican values.57

One observes how the composers began to interest themselves in local music in a conscious manner, integrating its elements into their new compositions.

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Figure 1.2  Excerpt of One of the Modinhas Imperiais Collected by Mário de Andrade titled “Roseas flores d´alvorada…”. This work is one of the first written in Portuguese in Brazil, however it maintains a melody and accompaniment similar to the Italian operatic arias of the time. Patricia Caicedo and Jack Rain performing “Roseas flores d’alvorada”: https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=dix​bdF-k​XJo.

CREOLISM Archaeologists submerge themselves in prehistory or history, explore the depths of the earth to find a vessel, a bone, an ancient ruin, and see nothing in the world of markets, of people, of the sufferings endured by living Natives. Not only archaeologists, but also poets, painters, musicians, novelists, dazzle themselves with the “exoticism” of where they were born and blind themselves from all objective evaluation. There are Guatemalans who see us as foreigners and create an exportable, colorful image, equal to a glass case of Natives; so picturesque that it almost justifies the interventions. Luis Cardozo y Aragón (Guatemala, 1901–1992)58

From the last decades of the nineteenth century, composers began to write music that utilized elements of local folklore that one could label as music

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in a national style according to Béhague’s cited definition. These manifestations appeared from composers who were mostly trained in Europe where they were influenced by styles that were in vogue in Europe. These composers also incorporated the need for originality in their works, which could be interpreted as a search for exoticism. The initial inclination to musical nationalism responded then to an intellectual imposition and an attitude destined to create an aesthetic movement. This movement, in tune with international movements, contrasted with the nationalist movements in countries such as Czechoslovakia or Finland, which rose in response to specific sociocultural situations, in a more organic and less intellectually rationalized manner.59 Written in 1910, the words of Ricardo Rojas illustrate this trend well: The moment advises us with urgency to imprint in our education a nationalist character by way of History and the Humanities. The purpose of these should be to form in the individual the conscience of his or her nationality, the conditions of the environment in which one has to unfold, the factors that bind it to civilization. . . . The history of a country is in libraries, archives, monuments, traditional geographical names, the preaching of the press, the suggestions of literature and art.60

Art song composed at this time did not represent a nation in the modern sense of the concept—a nation as a homogeneous entity—but rather it reaffirmed the heterogeneity and difference of the group that gave it its origin and whose aesthetic ideal it represented.61 In fact, in urban areas and the salons of the upper-middle-class, art music was often performed while folk music was not well known. This social group had much more knowledge and familiarity with European music than with the folk music of their own surroundings. As a result, when the composers attempted to generate a nationalist music by “looking to folklore for inspiration,” they achieved an effect of exoticism. This effect reached not only an international level, but also within the elite audience of their own country, to whom this music was unknown. However, the arrival and impact of folk music originating from rural areas to these urban environments was very low, due in part to scarce social mobility and the geographical conditions of the countries. Thanks to the work of Guillermo Scarabino,62 one can verify how the majority of contemporary composers of the time shared certain common characteristics such as belonging to economically powerful families that occupied a prominent place in society and were linked to political power. Belonging to a high socioeconomic stratum was of great importance, because it allowed a music composer to dedicate himself or herself to the music without economic worries, also allowing them the opportunity to study in Europe and pay for private studies.

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European art music continued confined to the bourgeois stratus of society and the composers of nationalist orientation who, in their efforts to represent the music most characteristic of each country, turned to folk and popular music. The inclusion of elements of national style in art music showcased the social inequalities of power. In order to legitimize folk music, it had to be transformed and adapted to the language of “classical” music. According to Carolina Santamaría, this fact becomes evident when referring to the creation of the National Conservatory of Music in Colombia: The Academy was reopened in 1905, and five years later was placed in the hands of the composer Guillermo Uribe Holguín, a musician from an aristocratic family who had just finished his studies at the Schola Cantorum of Paris. The new director changed the name of the institution, which was renamed National Conservatory, restructured and fortified its operation, and imposed a curriculum of studies based on the French conservatory model; one of the consequences of the reform was the exclusion of the practice of any non-academic type of music within the school, including, of course, bambuco. . . . Despite the protests, the new director went ahead with his conservative style reform, and all those musicians who performed bambuco and other traditional genres were virtually excluded from school. The reform of Uribe Holguín, who led the institution for approximately twenty-five years, can be interpreted as a reaction of the upper classes against the social advancement of subordinate classes and their music . . . the French conservatory model established a clear aesthetic difference between art and craft, and bambuco, without the place for doubt, belonged to the latter category.63

The case of Argentina also illustrates how difficult it was for folk music to penetrate urban spaces. Here, the great vastness of the country and the dispersion of the population meant that there was little contact between diverse human groups. Only after the second half of the nineteenth century, when the country began to receive significant quantities of immigrants in Buenos Aires, did the city undergo a considerable transformation. Buenos Aires transformed into a major city, cosmopolitan and diverse, where thousands of immigrants from the most diverse origins and social strata could be found. They then began producing exchanges and influences of different musical expressions and welcoming music from rural areas. This music penetrated the bourgeois salons and manifested itself in the birth of new rhythms that at the time were considered national. This tendency to mix genres coming from Europe and reinterpreting them in the New World received was named “Creolism.” Examples of these mixes are styles such as the bambuco,64 the pasillo,65, 66 and the danza67 in Colombia; the waltz and joropo68 in Venezuela; the lundu,69 the modinha,70 the maxixe,71 the samba,72 and the choro73 in Brazil;

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the son and the habanera74 in Cuba; the zamacueca in Chile; the bailecito, the yaraví, and the cueca in Bolivia; the jarabe and the contradanza in Mexico; the zamba, the gato, the triste, the vidalita, the milonga, the cielitos, and the huellas in Argentina and Uruguay,75 and so on.76 These hybrid rhythms were “places of intersection between the cultured and the popular.”77 In the same way that the piano was the central instrument of the bourgeois salon, the central creole instruments were stringed instruments: guitars, mandolins, bandurrias, bandolas, charangos, tres, cuatros, tiples, and many other stringed instruments took center stage at the festivities and serenades associated with mestizo groups. The term creolization implies, in the same way as the processes of hybridization and transculturation, the loss and gain of cultural characteristics and denotes a process that repeats itself over and over. It takes on the evolution of a cohesive and identifiable culture that almost always has incorporated external influences and integrated them in such a way that they form a whole. Creole cultures appear as a result of the active participation of the people in creating their own synthesis . . . there is in the concept of creolization, the notion of a continuum, a synthesis that tries to equal the distance existing between the center and the periphery, at the same time the Creole viewpoint recognizes history. Creole cultures are not instant products of the present but rather they have had time to develop themselves with some degree of coherence.78

As composers internalized their need to contribute something “original” to music and to relate in a more direct way with their audiences, they began to search for sources of inspiration in their own culture and traditions. In this period composers were “expected” to contribute new and original sounds with local roots to their works. Composers such as Alberto Nepomuceno in Brazil; Manuel Ponce and José Rolón in Mexico; Alberto Williams and Julián Aguirre in Argentina; Eduardo Caba in Bolivia; Luís Antonio Calvo in Colombia; Juan Bautista Plaza in Venezuela; and Pedro Humberto Allende in Chile among others began to look in their own traditions to express themselves in nationalist language following and adapting to the models acquired in Europe. They turned to folk and popular sources, real or imagined, creating works with “national” elements. I emphasize the expression “real or imagined” as the composers of this time period were not knowledgeable of folk music and their approaches to this music were always superficial or simply imagined. According to musicologist Gerard Béhague,79 “The investigation of folk and ethnic music in Brazil was initiated by Edgardo Roquette Pinto (1884–1954) in 1880 and his first publications saw light in 1883. The composers of the time did not have knowledge of these works.” This situation can be extended to other countries of Latin America.80

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The lack of knowledge of folklore remained until well into the twentieth century. Upon observing the answers given by experts in folklore, Félix Outes and Salvador Debenedetti, in a survey81 undertaken in 1918 in Argentina and administered to many of the most well-known musicologists and experts in music of their time, Scarabino observed: “[W]hile composers, critics, musicographers, musical associations, etc. speculated about whether it was possible or not to create ‘a traditional art music’ based on folklore, the only authentic experts in folklore consulted doubted the existence itself, or at least, of a true knowledge of what could be considered ‘musical folklore.’”82 The art songs produced during this time, even using European techniques and language, began to reflect distinctive characteristics such as the use of local languages ​​and of poems by their own poets. The songs reflect the moment of search and dichotomy that existed in society itself. ALBERTO NEPOMUCENO: SONG IN PORTUGUESE In this period, Brazilian composer Alberto Nepomuceno (1864–1920) achieved the implementation of singing in Portuguese in Brazil83 as a result of the promotional campaign he began in 1895. Nepomuceno, who declared, “Não tem pátria o povo que não canta na sua própria língua,”84 found a strong opposition from music critics and some intellectual sectors who felt that bel canto singing should be limited to Italian, German, and French languages. Nepomuceno, of African descent born in Fortaleza in northern Brazil, studied at the conservatories of Santa Cecilia in Rome, the Akademische Meister Schule, the Stern’sches Konservatorium in Berlin, and the Paris Conservatory.85 During his stay in Vienna in 1891, he met Norwegian pianist Valborg Bang Hermansen Rendtler (1864–1946), a former student of Edvard Grieg (1843–1907), and they got married in 1893. Thanks to this affectionate and artistic union, Nepomuceno had the opportunity to visit Norway and meet Grieg. The young Nepomuceno stayed at Grieg’s home86 and attended the musical gatherings offered by the Norwegian composer. During these evening get-togethers, he heard Grieg’s songs, written in Norwegian, which had a strong impact on him. Listening to art songs that were not written in German, Italian, or French was a complete novelty for the Brazilian composer and above all represented a powerful ideological stance for him. Up until that point, Nepomuceno had considered languages ​​other than German, Italian, or French “unworthy” of being heard in concert halls. From this point on, Nepomuceno began writing art songs in his mother tongue, Portuguese.87

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His musical production was extensive and varied, and it conveyed the heartbreaking duality that composers experienced at this time: being transmitters of the elite cultural values of the young nations with Europe as their aesthetic model, and simultaneously seeing themselves confronted with nationalist trends pushing them toward their country’s folk expressions. Such expressions were unknown to the composers themselves and the members of their class in their country of origin. This manifested itself in an initial production that was totally Europeanized and a later production that included folkloric elements. It illustrated a situation that would continue for nearly a century: the search for balance between the local and the universal. In this search, the artists sought to represent their own culture, without reducing it to a folkloric motif but while using the language of the dominant culture. The creators confronted different degrees of reception depending on the geographical location of the audiences. The international public appeared, that is, those who were beyond the geographical and cultural borders that defined what was considered national. Additionally, the public located within that space appeared, the local audience. This situation displays the difference in the concept of cultural space and cultural place, a discussion amplified with the arrival of the twentieth century and remaining in the twenty-first century. Nepomuceno produced a significant number of songs, a total of seventyfour songs for voice and piano. The first were composed with Italian texts in 1888, when he was a student in Rome. In 1893 during his stay in Berlin he wrote songs in Swedish and German. In 1894, when he moved to Paris and after his encounter with Grieg, he wrote his first songs in Portuguese setting important Brazilian poets.88 In the same year, he composed various songs in German and French. From 1896 onward, Nepomuceno set all of his songs to poems in Portuguese and incorporated motifs from Brazilian folk and popular music (see figure 1.3). He held a historic concert at the National Institute of Music in Rio de Janeiro in 1895; his songs in Portuguese were heard for the first time, marking the beginning of his campaign for the nationalization of Brazilian classical music.89 Nepomuceno’s commitment to Brazilian culture led him to compose his collection titled Doze canções portuguesas, published in 1904 by Vieira Machado y Moreira de Sa. In this collection, Nepomuceno romantically sets the poetry of Juvenal Galeno (1836–1931), Alexandre Mello Moraes Filho (1843–1919), Machado de Assis (1939–1908), Raymundo Corrêa (1859–1911), Orlando Teixeira (1874–1902), Gonçalves Dias (1823–1964), Coelho Neto (1864–1934), Adelina Lopes Vieira (1850–?), and Hermes Fontes (1888–1930). Nepomuceno also composed Porangaba, a lyrical comedy which is considered the first truly Brazilian opera in regard to atmosphere, music, and use of the Portuguese language.90 From 1896 onward, Nepomuceno was appointed director of the Popular Concert Association, which

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Figure 1.3  Excerpt of the Song “Coração triste” by the Composer Alberto Nepomuceno on the Text of Brazilian Poet Joaquim María Machado de Assis (1839−1908), One of the Best-known Poets of his Time. It is a song of strong dramatism that begins by describing the landscape in order to later describe the desolation of the interior. The element which most stands out in this song is the use of the text in Portuguese. Coração triste by Alberto Nepomuceno. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Jack Rain. https​://ww​w.you​tube.​ com/w​atch?​v=CoB​560q_​cKU. Patricia Caicedo, La canción artística en América Latina: Antología crítica y guía interpretativa para cantantes. (Barcelona: Edicions Tritó, 2005), 25.

promoted Brazilian composers and insisted on the publication of the works of the young Heitor Villa-Lobos. DEVELOPING THE NATIONAL STYLE The last decade of the nineteenth century represented a turning point in world history, due to events happening in the “peripheral” countries: Spain, the

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Latin American nations, the United States, and Japan. In this decade, Spain lost the last of its colonies in the Philippines, Puerto Rico, and Cuba; the United States initiated its campaign of growth and domination with the war against Spain; and Japan began to strengthen itself as a dominating power to China. As the twentieth century began, the majority of the Latin American countries were approaching nearly 100 years of independence. It was a time determined by the search for a synthesis of Indigenous, European, and African elements. The elites, who then began to see the Indigenous groups, Blacks, and mestizos as necessary for the economic growth of their countries, promoted policies of including these groups within the nation. They sought to unify the nation through symbols while also trying to maintain their privileges and differences. This resulted in a dialectic between homogeneityheterogeneity; the nation that seeks to construct itself as a homogeneous entity must submit to their heterogeneity. During this period, the social device to which we previously referred is evident; the device described by Martín Barbero as “abstract inclusion and concrete exclusion” of the “people.” Art song represented a nation imagined by the elites, which progressively incorporated Indigenous and African musical elements. This search for a national sound was a conscious one within a political agenda. The desire to develop a national musical language, which would give the nation its own distinct marking, had the ultimate goal of helping the population identify with a set of common symbols. This intention was reflected in political positions, the creation of educational institutions, and the publication of documents that sought to stimulate the creation of cultural elements that gathered together the members of the nation around expressions that were considered “national.” As Scarabino notes,91 composers of this period used a process of seeking national sounds that would later contrast with what would be used by figures such as Astor Piazzolla or Heitor Villa-Lobos, who delivered a deep knowledge of the folklore of their country to produce a work with a unique stamp, which was simultaneously both personal and national. ALBERTO WILLIAMS AND THE STYLIZATION OF FOLK SONG Along with Eduardo García Mansilla (1866–1930) and Julián Aguirre (1868–1924), Alberto Williams (1862–1952) is considered to be one of the precursors to Argentine musical nationalism. He belonged to an upper-class family and his grandfather, Amancio Alcorta (1805–1862), was also a composer and statesman. Williams studied at the Paris Conservatory between

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1882 and 1889, a period of time when the nationalist schools were at their height in Europe. Upon his return to Buenos Aires Williams he founded the Conservatorio de Buenos Aires and embarked on a trip to the Pampas in order to familiarize himself with the landscape and rural life. There he listened to minstrels playing gatos, cielitos, tristes, and vidalitas and wrote his first work of nationalist orientation: El rancho abandonado (1890). His works were not arrangements of preexisting melodies, they were new compositions inspired by folklore. He composed eighty-three songs based on poems written in the Spanish language. Williams, considered the father of musical nationalism in Argentina, is representative of a continental phenomenon that expressed itself in the composition of numerous works with stylistic affinity for folk and popular repertoires in an attempt to develop a national style. Here we place those productions that, already in the hands of an amateur or professional composer, reproduce or transcribe some traditional folk event to paper; keeping its shape, the melodic characteristics and essential harmonies of the original expression, but placing them in an expressive and social medium distinctive from the original. In this case it transports the popular to the piano or the band. In this modality the harmony can be enriched, such as melodic or formal designs.92

The composers came out of the salons where European music was performed, to “capture” the ephemeral genres of folk and popular music; capturing them through written word, through musical notation. In an attempt to capture local melodies and inflections, they went about building the national sound by using the tools provided by European music, corseting and “domesticating” the sounds. They thus inaugurated avenues of two-way communication, processes of feedback between the academic world and the folk-popular world, between the salon and the urban and rural areas. Processes that continue to this day, creating porous, permeable surfaces, vessels communicating between the worlds of popular song, folklore, and the erudite. These processes have been inscribed within power struggles converting themselves into spaces of conflict negotiation and construction of memory. A large part of Latin American art song repertoire written during this time period followed the same dominating models, one of the reasons for the difficulty in distinguishing between a song of folk or popular origin and an art song. The transposition of erudite and ​​ folk-popular languages became evident. Knowing the sociohistorical circumstances in which these songs were written facilitates the process of placing them in one repertoire or another, a theme that will be developed later in the chapter dedicated to performance practice.

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In Argentina, a good number of composers created song cycles of nationalist inspiration. Notable works are the Cinco canciones al estilo popular by Carlos López Buchardo (1881–1948); Cuatro canciones al estilo popular argentino by Abraham Jurafsky (1906); Felipe Boero’s (1884–1958) songs; Alberto Williams’s songs; Ángel Lasala’s (1914–2000) Canciones argentinas y Poemas norteños; the Seis canciones del Paraná by Jacobo Ficher (1896–1978); and a significant portion of the songs by Carlos Guastavino (1912–2000), which includes the well-known cycle of the Cuatro canciones argentinas.93 In different spots throughout Latin America, composers wrote hundreds of songs stylizing folkloric music. Other notable composers and works include: in Bolivia, Eduardo Caba’s (1890–1953) songs, including “Kapurí”94 and “Flor de bronce”95; in Brazil, the Canções amazônicas by Waldemar Henrique96,97 (1905–1995), the songs of Jayme Ovalle (1894–1955), and a large part of the vocal works by Heitor Villa-Lobos (1887–1959); in Chile, the Tres canciones campesinas de Chile by Jorge Urrutia Blondel (1905–1981), the Tres tonadas by Pedro Humberto Allende (1885–1959), and Cantares chilenos arranged by Alberto Klos and Jorge Balmaceda; in Colombia, songs by Adolfo Mejía98 (1905–1973); in Cuba, a large part of the song output by Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes (1874–1944); in Ecuador, songs by Gerardo Guevara (1930); in Mexico, songs by Manuel M. Ponce (1882–1948) and Tres canciones by Blas Galindo (1910–1993); in Peru, the Seis cantos indios del Perú by Andrés Sas (1900–1967) and Treinta y un cantos del alma vernácula by Theodoro Valcárcel (1896–1942)99; in Puerto Rico, the Cuatro décimas by Narciso Figueroa (1906–1997) and the Puntos cubanos by Héctor Campos Parsi (1911–1994); in Uruguay, the Tres cantos uruguayos by Alfonso Broqua (1876–1946), the songs “Ay mi vida,” “La gueya,” “Triste,” and “Luz mala” by Félix Eduardo Fabini (1882–1950), and Cantos de la tarde by Eduardo Gilardoni (1935); and in Venezuela, the Siete canciones venezolanas by Juan Bautista Plaza100 (1898–1965), the Canciones populares venezolanas by Vicente Emilio Sojo (1887–1974), the songs of Juan Vicente Torrealba (1917), and Siete canciones venezolanas by Raimundo Pereira (1927–1996). A significant amount of Latin American art song production was composed in this period when composers began to write in local languages​​. Little by little, movements emerged in favor of and against romantic nationalism until the second and third decades of the twentieth century, when the predominant artistic and intellectual discussion in Latin America was that of modernist nationalism. This period is the one usually associated with the rise of the nationalist movement in Latin America. Although it is asynchronous in the different countries, its beginning is generally said to be between 1920 and 1930, a

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century after the majority of the national independences occurred. At that moment a creative storm began.

THE DOUBLE VERBAL-MUSICAL NATURE OF SONG: LATIN AMERICAN COMPOSERS SETTING LATIN AMERICAN POEMS TO MUSIC The verbal-musical dual nature of song makes it necessary to examine the poetry of the songs and their most frequent themes to most thoroughly understand the depth of this genre. The reception of nationalist ideologies in the musical milieu of the 1920s and 1930s in Latin America stimulated the creative process of a new generation of artists. This generation of composers and performers were linked to the cultivation of a popular musical repertoire and of a national theme. By setting the poems of their “own” poets, these artists were able to create their own sound and open the door to a whole series of new possibilities and experimentation. In this period, composers began to set the poems of native poets in vernacular language to music, incorporating archaisms, rural terms, and sometimes indigenous languages.101 The fact that the composers focused on the production of local poets meant that they identified with their message, the sound of the language, their way of expressing feelings and ideas, and that somehow they were aligned with the poets’ way of seeing and describing the world. It also reflected the processes of social inclusion that were being produced in society; that is, from the power structures, society was encouraging policies of inclusion of previously marginalized groups who were the ones who used vernacular and indigenous languages. Paradoxically, the inequalities of power that previously privileged the use of central-European languages also encouraged the incorporation of local languages. These movements and currents in opposite directions generated spaces of intersection between sound and language. Therefore, the selection of poetry was not a casual act, and much less a superficial one. When composers select a text, it is because they feel an affinity with it and believe that in partnership with the music it contributes to the enunciation of their message, at least on a conscious level. For example, when I asked Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre (1939) how he selects his song texts, he responded: This is a very hard question for me. For example, I’ve been commissioned to do a work based on a certain poet chosen by the institution that commissioned me: I could never compose this work for absolute lack of harmony with the poet. So, all my songs have always been created from a strong affinity with the

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poets and certain texts. That is how it has been with the poet Ascenção Ferreira (my Três Canções Negras), Manuel Bandeira (the third canção negra), Carlos Drummond de Andrade (O Canto Multiplicado for voice and strings) and Simón Bolivar for example (in my Cantata del Chimborazo, based on his “Delirio del Chimorazo”), and even the German Heinrich Heine, of which I wrote my Kleine Gedichte, the same title as the poem by Heine.102

When I asked the same question to Argentine composer Juan María Solare (1966), he replied: It’s like choosing a partner for life: it is the joining of elements of carnal attraction with those of rawer pragmatism. In the case of the texts: it is not enough for it to be good and that I liked it, I have to like it enough to put it to music. I would prefer not to fall into clichés, but it is true: when reciting a text with these characteristics, a concrete melody or rhythm pre-forms in my head. The texts that attract me usually tend to have short and concise phrases, they usually tell a story (if they are long) or have something of a crackling wit or of absurd surrealism (if they are aphoristic). I prefer texts with a high degree of content, with substance, not superficial texts (unlike many opera singers).103

When asked what motivates him to compose vocal works, Solare responded with the following: “Initially, an attractive text. However, not all texts draw me to set them to music, no matter how good they are.”104 In Chile, poetry had an active presence in the music through the work of Gabriela Mistral (1889–1957). Since 1918 her work promoted profound changes in the music, inviting composers to focus on texts in Spanish and inspire them to advocate for singing in their own language.105 As stated by Chilean composer Jorge Urrutia Blondel in an article that he wrote on the death of Mistral: Miraculous threads, indefinable affinities, unanalyzable subtleties, seduced the Chilean composers. In an insensitive way, they were increasingly approaching their tent to the source of inspiration, conjuring centimeters between one and the other, as if wishing to dream and work under the same lamp. All this, almost without the Poetess realizing it. It could be said that Gabriela Mistral was almost amazed that all those strange people, handlers of sounds, came to her orchard to harvest a good fruit, still warm, more for the blaze of creation than for the good summer. Then, you would see them going away singing . . . and drawing signs, for her cabalistic, united to the poetic fruit; almost stolen fruit, within day prey. . . . The verse already sung without a song, urging the sound, imposing chords, demanding the human throat, to say what was beating and potentially overflowing there . . . Likewise . . . in all musical production beyond borders, especially in Latin America, the animating flame of our poet is present.106

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The use of the poetry of Gabriela Mistral not only by Chilean composers but throughout Latin America indicated that composers identified with the search for a Latin American voice. Her poetry, with themes dedicated to childhood, alluding to the feminine universe, its references to the Indigenous peoples, and use of archaic words active in rural areas indicated a common interest in the search for national identity affiliated with the local. Mistral reflected the daily life of people in her poetry, describing a decidedly Latin American childhood, denouncing the situation of poverty and the abandonment of children in the streets such as in her poem “Piececitos,” which was set to music by Carlos Guastavino.107 She wrote about motherhood and her feminine vision managed to touch the sensibilities of Latin American composers, most of them men. These characteristics can be observed in the following excerpt: Piececitos de niño, azulosos de frío Cómo os ven y nos cubren ¡Dios mío! Piececitos heridos por los guijarros todos Ultrajados de nieves y lodos. Piececitos de niño dos joyitas sufrientes ¡Cómo pasan sin veros las gentes! Little feet of a child, blue of cold How can people see you and don´t cover you? Oh God! Feet injured by the pebbles, dirty with snow and mud. Little feet of a child, two suffering little jewels How people pass by without seeing you!

Mistral’s poetry also transmitted a deep Americanism in which the indigenous cosmogony was deeply and truthfully expressed.108 Her poetry, of female intimacy and also of pain, drew out of composers the eternal connection with the modernist love poem. Mistral’s poetry was set by Chilean composers Alfonso Letelier109 (1912– 1994), Alfonso Leng (1894–1974), Aníbal Aracena Infanta (1870–1951), Jorge Urrutia Blondel (1903–1981), Domingo Santa Cruz (1899–1987), Pedro Humberto Allende (1885–1959), René Amengual (1911–1954), Federico Heinlein (1912–1999), Juan Allende-Blin (1928), Andrés Alcalde (1952), and Luis Advis (1935–2004). Her poetry was also set by Argentine composers such as Lia Cimaglia de Espinosa (1906–1998) and Carlos

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Guastavino (1912–2000) to mention a few of the composers who took an interest in the Mistral-ian universe. In the same way, in countries like Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Cuba, Chile, Mexico, Peru, and Venezuela, composers began to set texts of native poets to music. The affinity of the composers for local poets signals a typical situation of a common problem in music, poetry and art of Latin American countries: the process of searching and consolidating a cultural identity.110 A clear example is found in the words of Hamlet Lima Quintana (1923– 2009), Argentine poet, singer, author, and also composer who played a major role in the development of folk song in the 1960s in Argentina. His poems were also set to music as art songs by the composer Carlos Guastavino (1912–2000): I do not create differences when I write poetry to be sung, with poetry to be read. They are two different forms of the same message, the same intuition and an identical endpoint: to engage in dialogue with others, the fellows. Also, one should not forget that music is the natural vehicle of poetry.111 Among the most set Argentine poets are Leopoldo Lugones (1874–1938) and León Benarós (1915–2012). With regard to Latin American poets one can add Pablo Neruda (1904–1973), Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986), and Fernán Silva Valdés (1887–1975). Additionally, Spanish poets were set, especially Rafael Alberti (1902–1999), Federico García Lorca (1898–1936), and Luis Cernuda (1902–1963). An observation of the most frequent topics found in the songs demonstrates that in Latin American art songs, the themes of love and descriptions of local landscapes take precedence. The majority of the songs describe emotional states and situations of love-heartbreak that are universal constants. The descriptions of landscapes, the distant soil, of the “pagos,”112 the “ayllu,”113 and the allusions to lands of idealized beauty are also frequent, especially because these landscapes and circumstances are associated with the rural world, which is the fountain of inspiration for many composers in their nationalist search and ultimately, the place from which folk music originates. In the songs of Bolivian composers belonging to this period, such as Eduardo Caba (1890–1953) and more recently Alberto Villalpando (1940), we observe the utilization of texts of native poets or texts of popular origin. In Colombia, composers preferred local poets such as José Eustacio Rivera (1889–1928), José Asunción Silva (1865–1896), Otto de Greiff (1903–1995), Jorge Isaacs (1837–1895), Eduardo Carranza (1913–1985), Dora Castellanos (1924), Julio Flores (1863–1923), and Porfirio Barba Jacob (1883–1942).

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The songs of Peruvian composer Theodoro Valcárcel deserve special mention, especially his song cycle entitled Treinta y un cantos del alma vernácula for being written in ​​Quechua and Aymara, two indigenous languages. This important work will be discussed later. The Spanish poet Federico García Lorca (1898–1936) also deserves special recognition, because his poems have been set to music by composers from all over Latin America, becoming without a doubt a favorite poet of not only Latin American composers but of Spanish as well. His poems generally describe local situations associated with andalucismo and his native Spain; they provided Latin American composers an ideal environment when they wanted to introduce melodic motifs associated with Spanish music. Although this has not been the only way to express his poetry, as we find songs on poems by Lorca in all styles, including songs that use avant-garde musical languages​​during the second half of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. As an example, we can cite the song cycle El niño mudo by Bolivian composer Agustín Fernández (1958).114 The affinity of composers for the poetry of Lorca, Alberti, and Cernuda reflects a Hispanic attachment that may be symptomatic of the search for a national identity based on Europe, which is associated with the elites. As Ketty Wong said in her study of the Ecuadorian pasillo: “[W]e must consider that the ruling classes identified with modernist poetry, as this is an indicator of high culture, intellectuality and artistic sensibility.”115 In Brazil, composers began setting poems in their own language, Portuguese, at an earlier time, when compared with the countries of Hispanic America. Surely the fact that they had King João VI in the court from 1808 in Rio de Janeiro created different conditions. Although works written in Italian also prevailed during much of the nineteenth century, modinhas and lundus written in Portuguese with poems by their own poets existed during this time as well. The poets preferred by Brazilians composers during the first half of the nineteenth century were Domingos Caldas Barbosa (1739–1800), Juvenal Galeno (1836–1931), Alexandre Mello Moraes Filho (1843–1919), Machado de Assis (1839–1908), Raymundo Corrêa (1859–1911), Orlando Teixeira (1874–1902), Gonçalves Dias (1823–1964), Coelho Netto (1864–1934), Adelina Lopes Vieira (1850–1923), and Hermes Fontes (1888–1930). At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Brazilian poets with the most works set to music were Manuel Bandeira (1886–1968), Ribeiro Couto (1898–1963), Dora Vasconcellos (1910–1973), Carlos Drummond de Andrade (1902–1987), Ronald de Carvalho (1893–1935), Cecília Meireles (1901–1964), and Vinicius de Moraes (1913–1980), among many others. It is important to note that the two types of song most important in the Brazilian repertoire, the lundu and the modinha, are simultaneously musical and literary forms.

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In general, composers preferred to write about romantic poems, and to sing about love and heartbreak, as well as far and idealized country or regions. The bucolic themes, associated with the folk tradition, also attracted nationalist composers. The interest in setting poetry of popular or indigenous origin, or of renowned poets in their own countries, to music reflected the coincidence of the arts in the search for national identity. NOTES 1. Hans Kohn, Nationalism: Its Meaning and History (New York: Van Nostrand Company, 1965), 58. 2. Ernest Gellner, Encounters with Nationalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), 60. 3. Thomas Turino, “Nationalism and Latin American Music: Selected Case Studies and Theoretical Considerations,” Latin American Music Review 24, no. 2 (Fall/Winter 2003): 169–209. 4. Eric J. Hobsbawm, Nations and Nationalism since 1780. Programme, Myth, Reality (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990). 5. Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Rise and Spread of Nationalism (London: Editorial Verso, 1983), 67. 6. IBID., p. 175. 7. Don Michael Randel, ed., The New Harvard Dictionary of Music (Cambridge and London: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 1986), 5. 8. Gerard Béhague, “Musical Nationalism in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina: Comparative Case Studies.” Unedited article from a conference presented in Vienna, April 2001. 9. IBID. 10. Dahlhaus Carl, Fundamentos de la historia de la música (Barcelona: Gedisa, 1997), 54. 11. Montserrat Guibemau, Nationalisms: The Nation-State and Nationalism in the Twentieth Century (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1996), 73. 12. Hassan Rachik, “Identidad dura e identidad blanda,” Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals nos. 73–74, Barcelona (2006): 9–20. 13. James Marcia, “The Empirical Study of Ego Identity,” en H. A. Bosma, T. L. G. Graafsma, H. D. Grotevant, & D. J. de Levita (Eds.), Sage Focus Editions, Vol. 172. Identity and Development: An Interdisciplinary Approach, 67–80. 14. Eric H. Erikson, Identity and the Life Cycle (New York: W.W. Norton and Co., 1959), 58. 15. W. R. Bion, Experiences in Group and Other Papers (New York: Routledge, 1961), 78. 16. Yuri Guirin, “En torno a la identidad cultural de América Latina.” [online]: Consulted June 6, 2011. 17. Nicola Miller, “The Historiography of Nationalism and National Identity in Latin America,” Nations and Nationalism 12, no. 2 (2006): 201–221.

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18. Néstor García Canclini, Culturas híbridas: Estrategias para entrar y salir de la modernidad (México: Grijalbo, 1989), 22. 19. IBID., p. 26. 20. Anabel Torres, Medias nonas (Medellín: Editorial Universidad de Antioquia, Colección Celeste, 1992), 8. 21. John Lynch, Latin America between Colony and Nation: Selected Essays (New York: Palgrave, 2001), 12. 22. Peñín José, Nacionalismo musical en Venezuela (Caracas: Fundación Vicente Emilio Sojo, Editorial Texto, 1999), 17. 23. Parta Chatterjee, Nationalist thought and the Colonial World: A Derivative Discourse (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1986), 57. 24. IBID. 25. Emilio Grenet, Popular Cuban Music. 80 Revised and Corrected Compositions (La Habana: Carasa y Cia, 1939), XI. 26. Walter D. Mignolo, The Idea of Latin America (Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 2005), 63. 27. IBID., 63. 28. Carlos Fuentes, The Buried Mirror: Reflections on Spain and the New World (USA: Mariner Books Edition, 1999), 4. 29. Jesús Martín Barbero, De los medios a las mediaciones (México: Gustavo Gili, 1987), 15–16. 30. Canclini, Culturas híbridas, 197. 31. Miller, “The Historiography of Nationalism and National Identity in Latin America,” 201–221. 32. Michel Rolph Trouillot, Silencing the Past: Power and the Production of History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1995). 33. Gerard Béhague, Music in Latin America: An Introduction (New Jersey: Englewood Cliffs, Prentice-Hall, 1979), 13. 34. Bernardo Illari, “Ética, estética y nación: las canciones de Juan Pedro Esnaola,” en Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana Volumen 10, ICCMU, Madrid (2005): 137–223. 35. Luís, Cardoza y Aragón, Guatemala: las líneas de su mano (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2005), 22. 36. Published by courtesy of Fundación Colmex and Colegio de México, A.C. 37. John Baily, “Music and the Afghan National Identity,” en Martin Stokes (Ed.), Ethnicity, Identity and Music. The Musical Construction of Place (Oxford: Berg, 1994). 38. Turino, “Nationalism and Latin American Music,” 179. 39. José Mauricio Nunes García (1767–1830) was a Brazilian composer and priest, considered to be one of the greatest composers of the Americas. He was the conductor of the Capela Real of the Casa Real de Portugal in Rio de Janeiro. 40. Craig H. Russell, Materials submitted in the Barcelona Festival of Song, 2011 and 2012. 41. Craig H. Russell, “Sumayas’s Rodrigo (1708) and Partenope (1711): Mexican Theatricality and European Inspiration,” presentado en la conferencia Musical Theater and Identity in Eighteenth-Century Spain and America, UCLA and the Clarke Center, Los Angeles, California, 27–28, octubre, 2006.

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42. Reference to Sumaya and his work Parténope are found in Sutro Library, September 2, 2005.Cal Call number Z1420.B47 6 vols. Beristáin de Souza, José Mariano. Biblioteca Hispano Americana Septentrional o Catálogo y noticias de los literarios que o nacidos o educados, o florecientes en la América septentrional española, han dado a luz algún escrito, o lo han dejado preparado para la prensa. 1521–1850. La escriba el Dr. D. José Mariano Beristáin de Souza de las Universidades de Valencia y Valladolid, Caballero de la Orden de Carlos III. Y Comendador de la Real Americana de Isabel la Católica, y Deán de la Metropolitana de México. 6 vols. 3ª ed., tomada de la segunda. Amecameca, México, 1883. Revisada conforme a la primera, México, D.F. 1816–1821. Ciudad de México: Ediciones Fuente Cultural, n.d.?ZUMAYA (D. Manuel) Mexican natural, priest, choirmaster at the metropolitan church of his homeland. He was highly esteemed for his music ability by the Viceroy Duke of Linares, for whose entertainment translated into Castilian Spanish and put into music various Italian operas. From this capital he went to Oaxaca in the company of Illmo. Montaño, dean of Mexico, elected bishop of that diocese, in whose cathedral he was a parish priest. There he dedicated himself exclusively to the study of the sacred sciences and the fulfillment of his pastoral ministry, died peacefully grieved by his parishioners. He wrote: Vida del P. Sertorio Caputo, jesuita, traducida del italiano. MS. It is different from the translation which runs, done by P. Mora, Jesuit/ [p. 202] Mexican — “El Rodrigo.” Drama that was performed in the Mexican Royal Palace to celebrate the birth of the prince Luis Fernando. Imp. en México by Ribera, 1708. 8º—La Partenope. Opera that was performed in the Mexican Royal Palace in celebration of the days of Sr. Felipe V.” Imp. in México by Ribera, 1711. 8º. 43. Overture to Il Guarany by Carlos Gomes. https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​ v=lxb​R0k8A​hBs. 44. José Maria Neves, Música Contemporânea Brasileira (São Paulo: Ricordi Brasileira, 1981), 16. 45. Argentinean composer Francisco A. Hargreaves (1849–1900) composed the opera La gatta bianca, considered the first Argentine opera. It premiered in Italy in 1875. 46. Kulp, “Carlos Guastavino,” 66. 47. William Gradante, in The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol 6 (Latin America, 1996), 376. 48. María Eugenia Soux, “La música en la ciudad de La Paz: 1845–1885” (Undergraduate diss., Universidad Mayor de San Andrés, La Paz, Bolivia, 1992). 49. Information about the Rebagliati brothers can be found in Carlos Raygada, “Panorama musical del Perú,” Boletín Latinoamericano de Música 2 (1936): 193–195. 50. Violinist, composer and director of orchestra. The most important figure of nineteenth century Peruvian music, together with José Bernardo Alcedo. Born in Savona, Italy and died in Lima in 1909. He was an incredible promoter of classical music in Peru. He arrived in Lima in 1863 at 20 years old, in company of his father Angel Rebagliati and his brothers who were also musicians. He was an excellent teacher and for more than 40 years he taught and trained several generations of Peruvian performers and composers. While he did not abandon the operatic genre of

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opera he introduced Lima to classical chamber music, as evidenced by his premieres of works by Haydn, Beethoven, Weber, Schubert, Mendelssonn, etc. 51. Musical genre and typical dance of Peru, believed to be of mestizo origin. 52. Béhague, Music in Latin America. 53. Ricardo Miranda, “Un siglo de ópera en México,” in Emilio Casares Rodicio and Álvaro Torrente (Eds.), La ópera en España e Iberoamérica, Vol II (Madrid: ICCMU, 1999), 161. 54. Jorge Isaacs, María (Madrid: Ediciones Cátedra, 2001), 13. 55. Mario de Andrade, Modinhas imperiais (São Paulo, 1964). 56. Representatives of this period are songs written by the following composers: Argentina: Juan Pedro Esnaola (1808–1878), Herman Bemberg (1859–1931), Arturo Berutti (1858–1938), Pablo Berutti (1866–1914), Oreste Bimboni (1846–1905) and Arturo Luzatti (1875–1959).Colombia: The works of Joaquín Guarín (1825–1854) and Atanasio Bello (1800–1876) represent exceptional cases of songs written in Spanish during this time. Brazil: Henrique Oswald, Leopoldo Miguez, Francisco Braga and Carlos Gomes. The collection of Modinhas Imperiais compiled by Mário de Andrade. Peru: Federico Gerdes (1873–1953). 57. Guadalupe Campos and Gabriel Saldivar, “La música mexicana para canto y piano en el siglo XIX y sus vinculaciones con la Europea.” Conference marked in the first course of the history of interpretation and the history of the art song of Latin America and Spain “Barcelona Festival of Song.” Barcelona, June 25, 2006. 58. Luís Cardoza y Aragón, Guatemala las líneas de tu mano, 4 ed. (México: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2005), 388. 59. Guillermo Scarabino, El Grupo Renovación (1929–1944) y la nueva música argentina del siglo XX (Buenos Aires: Instituto de Investigación Musicológica “Carlos Vega,” Ediciones de la Universidad Católica Argentina, 1999), 13–14. 60. Ricardo Rojas, La restauración nacionalista. Informe sobre la educación (Buenos Aires: Ministerio de Justicia, 1909), 48. 61. Peter Wade, Music, Race and Nation. Música Tropical in Colombia (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000), 34. 62. Guillermo Scarabino. Op. Cit, 21. 63. Carolina Santamaría Delgado, “El bambuco, los saberes mestizos y la academia: un análisis histórico de la persistencia de la colonialidad en los estudios musicales latinoamericanos,” Latin-American Music Review 28/1 (Spring/Summer 2007): 1–23. 64. The bambuco is a genre of typical Colombian folk music, being one of the most important genres in the Andean region. It is found as a vocal and instrumental composition as well as a dance. Rhythmically it is found in 6/8 or 3/4 meter. Tempo and meter are chosen freely, and sometimes alternate, as its characteristic is syncopated. 65. The pasillo is a style of music from the Andean region of Colombia, written in triple meter of 3/4. It is structured in three sections written in related keys. The pasillo in accordance with its speed can also call itself a pasillo lento or a pasillo festivo. According to Slonimsky, this is related to the European waltz and at one point was referred to as the waltz of the country.

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66. Nicolas Slonimsky, Music of Latin America (New York: Vail-Ballow Press, 1946), 167. 67. The danza is a style of music from the Andean region of Colombia that has its origins in English dance and previously in the Cuban habanera. Similar to the other rhythmic figures found in the Andean region, it can be instrumental or vocal. 68. Considered a national rhythm of Venezuela, the joropo is found also in the Eastern plains of Colombia. It is believed to come from the Spanish fandango, and that it took on native Venezuelan elements. It is found as a song, as an instrumental version and also as a dance. It is interpreted traditionally by groups of arpa llanera, a type of harp played in the plains of Colombia and Venezuela, cuatro, and maracas called capachos. There are many types of joropo based on its geographic location and its harmonic progressions. Commonly written in 3/4 or 6/8, it is rhythmically sophisticated and creates polyrhythms. 69. See definition in the chapter on Brazil. 70. See definition in the chapter on Brazil. 71. Known also as the Brazilian tango, the maxixe is a syncopated rhythm that incorporates African and European elements. It is related to the Brazilian tango that is considered a local adaptation to the Cuban habanera. Initially it was a dance. 72. Of African origin, the samba is a dance with syncopated rhythm in duple meter. It distinguishes itself form the other species by its accentuation on the first beat. 73. The choro, which literally means “sobbing,” is a type of Brazilian music commonly interpreted by groups of guitars, cavaquinhos, drums, and woodwind instruments. It is written in 2/4 meter and has a simple structure in rondo form (ABACA). It is a lively and virtuosic genre. 74. The habanera is a slow dance rhythm in duple meter. It can be purely instrumental, although commonly it is sung. It is a genre that is adapted and used in various musical combinations such as choral groups, bands, tunas and rondallas, etc. 75. See definitions in the section dedicated to Argentina. 76. Featured composers of this period include Emilio Murillo and Rozo Contreras in Colombia; Ernesto Elorduy and Felipe Villanueva in Mexico; Manuel Saumell and Ignacio Cervantes in Cuba; Francisco Manoel da Silva in Brazil; Federico Villena and Sebastián Díaz Pena in Venezuela; and Andrés Sas in Peru, to name a few. 77. Slonimsky, Music of Latin America, 167. 78. Ulf Hannerz, “Scenarios for Peripheral Cultures,” in Anthony D. King (Ed.), Culture, Globalization and the World-System (Binghamton, New York: State University of New York at Binghamton, 1991), 270. 79. Gerard Béhague, The Beginnings of Musical Nationalism in Brazil (Detroit: Information Coordinators Inc., 1971), 9. 80. Guillermo Scarabino, Op. Cit. pp. 13–14. 81. “La música y nuestro folclore.” Fourth survey of Nosotros; Año XII; nos. 108. 109, 110 (Buenos Aires: April, May, June, 1918) in Scarabino Guillermo, Op.cit p. 31. 82. IBID., p. 32. 83. Vasco Mariz, A canção brasileira: erudita, folclórica, popular, 4th ed. (Rio de Janeiro: Editora Cátedra, 1980), 20.

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84. Author’s translation. “The people who do not sing in their own language do not have a homeland.” 85. Béhague, Music in Latin America, 120. 86. Sergio Alvim Correa, Alberto Nepomuceno: Catalogo General (Brazil: FUNARTE, Instituto Nacional de Música, 1985), 9–10. 87. Chipe, “Alberto Beriot Nepomuceno,” 25. 88. These first songs in Portuguese are entitled: “Ora dize-me a verdade,” “Amote muito,” “Tu és o sol,” “Desterro,” “Medroso amor” and “Madrigal.” 89. Patricia Caicedo, La canción artística en América Latina: Antología crítica y guía interpretativa para cantantes (Barcelona: Edicions Tritó, 2005), 114. 90. Béhague, The Beginnings of Musical Nationalism in Brazil. 91. Guillermo Scarabino, Op. Cit. 92. Peñín, Nacionalismo musical en Venezuela, 55. 93. Cuatro canciones argentinas by Carlos Guastavino. Performed by Desirée Halac and Dalton Baldwin. https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​track​/75s6​OKMdA​kfraz​ojd4p​ apF?s​i=AxY​SdBOK​SFuLs​6PgWb​UHeg.​ 94. “Kapuri” by Eduardo Caba. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Eugenia Gassull. https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​track​/6bsH​PHyIJ​aXGPP​SOkme​E9n?s​i=MiZ​EPQo3​ RQCtP​EmJIs​3U_Q.​ 95. “Flor de Bronce” by Eduardo Caba. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Eugenia Gassull. https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​track​/4aE3​oH0aR​IxjuV​dvPig​4sN?s​i=rfZ​ NaMw8​Sa2Sq​_B_e7​zhpg.​ 96. “Minha Terra” by Waldemar Henrique. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Jack Rain. https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=k9v​XunT2​mZs. 97. “Rolinha” by Waldemar Henrique. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Irene Aisemberg. https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=dnC​sfCWd​vQQ. 98. “Cartagena” by Adolfo Mejía. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Irene Aisemberg. https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​track​/1LM2​BKeie​pmAQ3​R84Yq​Kng?s​i=N4S​ 5Xbba​ShKlo​2UF-5​iv8A.​ 99. “Cuatro canciones incaicas” by Theodoro Valcárcel. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Eugenia Gassull. https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​track​/7qiH​GUpgG​FJ5MD​ wkKeZ​lZU?s​i=rKw​_Bjov​RZiKJ​6IqG8​oBPg.​ 100. “Cuando el caballo se para” by Juan Bautista Plaza. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Eugenia Gassull. https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​track​/6WuT​v8618​njhAz​ VWVgd​8kX?s​i=lpy​9vnXH​Sz2wa​lhEiS​LMOg.​ 101. Caicedo, La canción artística en América Latina, 25. 102. Interview granted by Marlos Nobre to Patricia Caicedo March 18, 2011. 103. Interview granted by Juan María Solare to Patricia Caicedo March 15, 2011. 104. Interview granted by Juan María Solare to Patricia Caicedo March 15, 2011. 105. Rodrigo Torres Alvarado, “Gabriela Mistral y la creación musical de Chile,” Revista Musical Chilena XLIII/171 (Santiago de Chile, January/June 1989): 42–65. 106. Jorge Urrutia Blondel, “Gabriela Mistral y los músicos chilenos,” Revista Musical Chilena XI/52 (Santiago de Chile, April/May 1957): 22–25. 107. “Piececitos” by Carlos Guastavino. Performed by Jesús Suaste and Alberto Cruzprieto. https://open.spotify.com/ track​/1khM​srZBV​PZiQf​MypkB​0Rs?s​i=5wF​ YJNiC​S4-R6​B3Zig​8pwQ.​

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108. Torres Alvarado, “Gabriela Mistral y la creación musical de Chile,” 42–65. 109. Samuel Claro, “La música vocal de Alfonso Letelier,” Revista Musical Chilena 106 (Santiago de Chile, January/March 1969): 47–63. 110. Claro, “La música vocal de Alfonso Letelier,” 47–63. 111. Hamlet Lima Quintana, Los referentes (una historia de amistad) (Buenos Aires: Torres Agüero, 1994), 31. 112. A form of referring to a place of origin, land or district where applicable. This expression is used traditionally in the Southern Cone of Latin America predominantly in Argentina. 113. Traditional form of social and political organization of indigenous descendants of the Incas living in the Andes. 114. This series was published in the book: La canción artística latinoamericana: antología crítica y guía interpretativa para cantantes published in 2005 by Edicions Tritó of Barcelona and was edited by the author of this book. 115. Ketty Wong, “La “nacionalización” y “rocolización” del pasillo ecuatoriano,” in http:​//www​.dlh.​lahor​a.com​.ec/p​agina​s/deb​ate/p​agina​s/deb​ate13​29.ht​m. August 23, 2006.

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A Creative Storm

ART SONG AS A MEDIUM OF EXPRESSION OF MODERNIST NATIONALISM As Latin American countries approached the centenary of their national independences, Europe was going through a difficult time. The outbreak of the World War I in 1914 revitalized nationalist sentiments and deep internal upheavals drove old Europe to new paths. When the war ended in 1918, Europe appeared different since new nations had emerged. The Western world was submerged into a deep economic crisis that also impacted the Latin American economies. Latin America was strongly affected, not only in the economic sphere but also in the cultural sphere. Accustomed to “imitating” European trends, the nationalist movement was perceived as a natural step in the society of that era, and it began to feel just as necessary for internationalization. In the musical sphere, finding and developing one’s own unique sound would be a requirement in the construction of sound identity. But how would they create this sound? Simultaneously and in different parts of America an authentic creative storm was brewing. In Latin America, this was manifested by a markedly nationalist accent at the same time the nations began to have a continental conscience and perceive a Pan-American course. One can see the coincidence of the arts (music, literature, and painting, among others) in the search for a national language and a shared identity. The art of the people “without history”12 became popular among the elites and became a key piece in the construction of the “national” sound. In 1920, the “democratization” of music began. The composers in this period recognized that the combination of music and words offered them an ideal medium 49

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for the expression of nationalist ideals. Song, with its small proportions, was an accessible, intimate and direct route to communicate their message. It was, perhaps, for this reason that the largest quantity of art songs in well-defined, national styles was composed in this period. American philosopher Richard Rorty asserts that thought and language do not seek the truth and are not measured in the adaptation of reality, but rather they are at the service of interests and purposes imposed by human beings and according to their utility for these purposes.3 This situation can be observed in the development of art song in this period. Thought, language, and music (also considered a language) have been at the service of some interests and have fulfilled specific functions in the construction of national identity. Six countries have been selected that, in general terms, exemplify this creative storm: Argentina, Brazil, Cuba, Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela. The selection of these countries was determined by various factors, the most important being the repercussions of the works and composers in the continental context; the availability of the musical works; and the fact that each of these countries represents a type of approach to the national that emphasizes elements of different groups as well as representing larger regions. For example, Argentina’s art songs allude to the countries of the Southern Cone while at the same time exalting European elements. Cuba is taken as a model of what occurred in the Caribbean region and serves to observe the valuation of African contribution. Peru, Bolivia, and Venezuela represent the Andean region while they exhibit two very different forms of expressing nationalism. In Peru and Bolivia, the indigenous contribution is idealized and in Venezuela a mestizo sound develops in which figures illustrating the conscious creation of national discourse appear. Brazil, in addition to representing Lusophone America, exhibits unique characteristics by harmoniously integrating elements of Africans, Indigenous peoples, and Europeans. From each of these countries, some of the most representative composers in the field of art song during this period are chosen. Their representation is determined by their contribution to the genre of song, the impact that their vocal works had in their national and international environment, and the use they made of language and the national motifs of each country. Argentina The Renovación Movement Argentina is without a doubt, along with Brazil, the country that has produced the most considerable repertoire of art song. Many varied factors have reinforced this fact, perhaps the first of them being the significant European immigration of the late nineteenth century. The majority of these European

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immigrants to Argentina came to Buenos Aires and enormously contributed to shaping the city architecturally and artistically in imitation of European cities like Paris. They promoted international trade and communications multiplied. They built the port of Buenos Aires and erected important public buildings giving way to the development of a great city. During the first two decades of the twentieth century, signs of nationalism began to appear arising from a desire for internationalization rather than for knowledge of folklore. It was a “self-interested” nationalism that made some composers speak out, such as Alberto Williams, who proclaimed: Young composers must do the work of “folklore,” to track down the original melodies, collect them like gold-bearing nuggets and publish collections of indigenous songs. They should make use of these precious documents . . . to inspire themselves in them, to extract the perfume from them and communicate their ideas. Young composers should try to Argentinize their tendencies and not go off copying like simpletons, it is relevant to say, to all classes of decadent European creatures.4,5

At the dawn of the twentieth century, cultural life in Argentina, especially in Buenos Aires, was in full effervescence. By the first centenary of independence numerous gears were set in motion in order to position the nation in the universal context and to create a national culture. This creative effervescence crystallized into the creation of private and public institutions that contributed, from different fronts, to structure music education, develop audiences, educate the general population with European music, create spaces of performance, and stimulate the creation of a “national” music. In a conscious and directed manner they were enacting and deliberately “imposing” the creation of a national sound. This impulse materialized in the creation of institutions of great importance such as the Teatro Colón (1908), the Asociación Wagneriana (1912), the Sociedad Nacional de Música (1915), the Asociación del Profesorado Orquestal (1919), the Conservatorio Nacional de Música and Declamación (1924). Strengthening a virtuous circle that favored creation, the music publishing industry developed and annually they announced awards for composition that generated spaces for young composers.6 National Motifs and Their Appearance in Song During the early years of the twentieth century the figure of the gaucho became, thanks to intellectuals like Leopoldo Lugones (1874–1938), the essence of national culture, and in Buenos Aires folk music was performed in the so-called circos criollos. Folk singers, almost always accompanied by the guitar, were the central figures in these get-togethers. The peñas, centers

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for native musical performance of greater acceptance, opened in the 1920s supported by members of the governing political parties. The composers of this time made the effort to incorporate music from rural spaces, which was reflected in their vocal works. These folk elements were the result of the triple Indigenous, Spanish, and African influence that defined Argentine culture. Common national motifs were incorporated from rural music, some associated mostly with indigenous heritage like the yaraví,7 the huayno,8 the triste, and the vidala. The incorporation of rhythmic varieties and timbres was made by adapting folk sounds to the techniques and timbres of Western instruments; that is, the practices of sound transformation were made in one direction, the direction of the groups that possessed power. In this way the typical sounds of the guitar and the instruments originally used in folk music are imitated with the piano or instruments of the Western chamber group. Each one of these types of rhythms used by Argentinean nationalists is briefly characterized below: The yaraví: Generally, a slow and melancholic folk song that is sung traditionally accompanied by the quena (Native flute). The triste: A song of Peruvian origin that expresses the sadness of unrequited love and is slow and melancholic. It generally alternates a slow vocal part with a little bit faster instrumental section. The vidala normally takes its form of the text and often its form is like that of the copla. The vidalita: Considered to be the typical love song of the gaucho, it derives its name from its use in the song of the term vidalita, an affectionate way to call a beloved: my life (mi vida, vidita, vidalita). It is different from the vidala and its radical difference is that the vidalita refers only to songs that use six syllable verses and that insert the word “vidalita” after the first and third verse. Musically this type of song is characterized by slow tempo and 3/4 time. The huella: A dance deeply rooted in Argentine society,9 it derives its name from the imprint left by the wagons as they passed through the Pampas. Often their texts are associated with the land and reflect the emotions of the traveler who wanders slowly through the dusty roads. It is almost a lament, a nostalgic song, a mixture of happiness and sadness. Typically, the refrain “to the track, the track (a la huella, la huella)” is repeated. An example of huella is the art song “Pampamapa”10 by Argentine composer Carlos Guastavino (1912–2000). It incorporates the huella rhythm and its textual characteristics. It can be heard here: https://bit.ly/2KWh8Ca. The milonga: Unlike previous types, its appearance was the result of the confrontation of the countryside and the city. It appeared in the final years of the nineteenth century as one of the creole rhythms. The term milonga is associated with a vocal or instrumental work that accompanies a dance. Its tempo is moderate, in 2/4 or 4/8 time.11

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The malambo: Traditionally a masculine dance in which a man asserts his power, virility, and superiority over other men. Beautifully performed, with its trademark footwork, it serves to demonstrate the abilities of the gaucho.12 It is an energetic dance and is performed at a quick tempo in 6/8 time. The base of its rhythmic development is derived from its harmonic progression that consists of primary triads of the major scale that are generally played on the guitar. The gato: A particularly lively dance that appeared during the nineteenth century, a time when it was very popular. Its themes are typically loving and picaresque. Its most characteristic feature is its fast and energetic rhythm, which combines 6/8 and 3/4 times. The typical rhythmic cells of gato can clearly be heard in Gato13 (https://spoti.fi/2w6qMN9), one of the songs from the cycle entitled Cinco canciones populares argentinas written by the composer Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983). The zamba: Typically considered Argentine, the zamba is a dance rhythm that originally came from Peru, where it is known as zamacueca. It entered into Argentina in the beginning of the nineteenth century. The zamacueca is differentiated into two rhythms, the zamba and the cueca. The cueca developed in Bolivia and Chile and the zamba in Argentina. Unlike the cueca, which is fast and has picaresque texts, the zamba is slow and is performed in 6/8 time. Representative of this rhythm is the song entitled “Zamba”14 of Ginastera’s cycle Cinco canciones populares argentinas. The chacarera: This is a rhythm of great diffusion and popularity in Argentina since the mid-nineteenth century. It is a fast, happy, and picaresque dance in which couples dance with light footwork. Usually sung accompanied by guitar, its text is based on eight syllable couplets in which the word “chacarera” occasionally appears. An example of this rhythm incorporated in an art song is in the song “Chacarera”15 from Cinco canciones populares argentinas by Ginastera. Carlos López Buchardo and Songs in the Popular Style Carlos López Buchardo (1881–1948), composer and pedagogue, was a central figure early in the century. Musically trained in France, López Buchardo was the first director of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música and president of the Asociación Wagneriana. López Buchardo represented a moment of transition that is clearly noticed in his work; first a stage of production with marked French influence and a subsequent nationalist search. In his compositions one notes the contradiction that surrounds the creation of these composers at the beginning of the twentieth century; they are deeply Europeanized while also imbued with an internationalist desire that expressed itself in the search for a national sound.

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López Buchardo contributed to the Argentine art song repertoire in an important way. In 1924, he wrote his song cycle entitled Seis canciones al estilo popular, which won the Premio Municipal de Música in 1925 being premiered by his wife, singer Brígida Frías de López Buchardo. The cycle, comprised of the songs “Vidalita,” “Los puñalitos,” “Desdichas de mi passion,” “Vidala,” “Canción del carretero,” and “Jujeña” was written using poetry of Argentine poets Leopoldo Lugones (1874–1938) and Gustavo Caraballo.16 These songs made the composer known, especially the “Canción del carretero”17 in which López Buchardo recreated the emotional atmosphere of loss and departing in a very delicate manner, while also introducing elements that infuse local-regional-national color to the song. The songs can be heard in the following link: https://spoti.fi/2KKksQN. In its original version for voice and piano and in its orchestral version, it is a technically demanding song reminiscent at times of the famous Schubert Lied “Gretchen am Spinnrade” (Gretchen and the spinning wheel). There is a continuous element, almost monotonous, a wheel that turns in the case of Schubert’s song and in López Buchardo’s song that maintains emotional tension, like a carpet on which the melody is sustained, in which characters and local landscapes appear. In the case of López Buchardo’s composition, it is given a national touch. López Buchardo composed sixty-two songs in total,18 twenty-one of which have texts in French since they were composed in his first stage of composition between 1896 and 1924. From 1924 onward, he composed only in Spanish. Among his compositions of this period the aforementioned song cycle entitled Cinco canciones al estilo popular19 stands out, as do various isolated songs all written in the nationalist style.20 The nationalist movement of the first decade of the century was followed in the 1920s and 1930s by the appearance of an avant-garde movement that was expressed throughout Latin America in all the arts and in ideas. In 1930, the writer Victoria Ocampo founded Sur, a magazine dedicated to promoting culture and literature. Sur, whose name was proposed by Spanish philosopher José Ortega y Gasset, became a bridge between intellectuality in Argentina and the rest of the world. The first facsimile appeared in Buenos Aires on January 1, 1931, and the magazine continued to be published for four decades. Some of the most prestigious writers and intellectuals of the century contributed to it, such as Jorge Luís Borges, Bioy Casares (Victoria Ocampo’s brother-in-law), married to fellow writer Silvina Ocampo, Albert Camus, Aldous Huxley, Federico García Lorca, Manuel Mujica Láinez, and André Malroux, among many others. In the field of music this effervescence and need for change in posture manifested itself with the creation of the Grupo Renovación in 1929.

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This group, formed by musicians from very diverse aesthetic orientations, such as Juan José Castro (1895–1968), Juan Carlos Paz (1901–1972), José María Castro (1892–1964), Gilardo Gilardi (1889–1963), and Jacobo Ficher (1896–1978), was created with the intention of promoting the individual activity of its members. It found followers in the Asociación Amigos del Arte, a shelter for young artists in literature, visual art, and music. Linked to these entities emerged the figure of Eduardo Fornarini, who arrived in Buenos Aires toward the beginning of the twentieth century and was a fervent defender of purism in music. His teachings were decisive for the members of the Grupo Renovación, as they facilitated technical maturity that would allow for the development of new musical languages. Membership in this group represented, for the composers, “a factor of distinction”21 that allowed them a position in the field of music and culture, even though its members did not share a homogenous aesthetic discourse. The founders of the Grupo Renovación composed art songs, especially Juan José Castro, Gilardo Gilardi, and Jacobo Ficher. A few years after the formation of the group, Manuel de Falla, fleeing the Spanish Civil War, came to Argentina. His presence had a profound impact on the local composers, above all for the aesthetic model that he set and his particular nationalist language. At the same time and also escaping the war, Catalan singer Conxita Badía (1897–1975) arrived in Buenos Aires and became one of the leading performers of the new vocal works written by composers of the Grupo Renovación. Even though Falla had written his most important vocal works years ago and was already near the end of his life, his presence alone in the country had a symbolic effect of recognition and validation on composers. The presence of Badía was also of great importance. Some of the most important composers of the time, such as Guastavino, Ginastera, and Castro, dedicated their songs to her and she premiered them in Argentina and Spain. Badía encouraged and promoted the composition of art song in Argentina. During the decades between 1920 and 1940, hundreds of art songs were composed in Argentina thanks to the stimulus of local composition contests. The majority of these works made use of direct quotations from the folklore and stylizations and adaptations. The level of internalization of what constituted the essence of folk and popular music was still in a process of construction. Felipe Boero’s (1884–1958) El mate amargo22 illustrates this tendency. The text talks about gaucho values and traditions represented in the national drink, mate. Written for baritone voice, the song is of declamatory character. The singer is one who translates the general feeling to praise mate and its curative and conciliatory properties. The song can be heard here: https://spoti. fi/2OY3Loe.

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Brazil The Modern Art Week Since the late nineteenth century, Brazil began a gradual search for its own aesthetic. Like Argentina, Brazil received a very important wave of immigration that transformed the capital into a city that went from having 31,000 inhabitants in 1872 to 600,000 in 1922.23 Artists from different expressive media began to consider their nation’s unique place in the international panorama and rejected the cultural models “imported” from Europe. This gradual process reached its highest expression in 1922 when modernist ideology surged, aligned with nationalist sentiment. The modernist movement questioned tradition, renounced the past, and rejected the established norms. Simultaneously, they aimed for new productions that would faithfully reflect the “authentic Brazil”; a “Brazilinity” that embraced the multiple races and cultural elements that made up the Brazilian nation, which was a difficult challenge for the artists of the time. Marked by the exuberant and incisive personality of the great poet, folklorist, musicologist, historian, writer, and leader Mário de Andrade (1893– 1945), Brazilian artists joined together to organize the Modern Art Week that took place between February 13 and 18, 1922, at the Teatro Municipal in São Paulo. The objective of this week was to present the work of all those artists who had consciously been looking for an aesthetic solution to the “problem” or challenge of how to capture the authentically national in artwork. Andrade had devoted years of study to the folklore of the diverse regions of Brazil, documenting and transcribing melodies from different parts of the country. All of these initiatives had the intimate objective of providing the population, and especially the composers, the tools to enable them to know the richness and originality of Brazilian music. Equipped with this knowledge, they could later represent this richness and originality in their nationalist compositions. Andrade’s writings, without a doubt, inspired a nationalist consciousness in the artists of his time, especially in musicians. The Modern Art Week would then be the stage in which the new trends and the new orientation of the arts in Brazil were presented. This important event took place two decades after the beginning of the twentieth century, decades of transition in which the artists from romantic nationalism left to give way to a new generation of modernist nationalist composers. This prepared the great revolution that the Modern Art Week would come to signify. The organizers chose the year 1922 to coincide with the celebration of 100 years of independence—which was declared on September 7, 1822—in order to have the opportunity to rethink the meaning of being Brazilian and the place of Brazilian culture in the contemporary world. The week officially opened on February 13, 1922, in the Teatro Paulista with a speech by Graça

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Aranha, in which he urged the audience to break their aesthetic paradigms and let themselves be permeated by new artistic expressions that represented the authentically Brazilian.24 Aranha asked the audience to accept the references “to the unique color of our land.” He encouraged the public to listen to the compositions of Villa-Lobos, telling the audience that they would hear “the magic of the art of the sincerest expression of the spirit of our fabulous tropical world.”25 Painters such as Anita Malfatti (1889–1964), and writers such as the multifaceted Mário de Andrade (1893–1945), Oswald de Andrade (1890– 1954), Menotti del Picchia (1892–1988), and the poet Manuel Bandeira (1886–1968), made up the group that led this week in the traditional Teatro Municipal in São Paulo. The consequences of the week were fundamental to the future development of the arts in Brazil. Artists began to look inward, that is, to their own natural resources, to the beauty of the landscape and its people, seeking inspiration in all of it.26 There was an appropriation of the landscape as something unique and distinctive of the country and as a source of artistic inspiration and a key element in the construction of national identity.27 This week, far from culminating the development of modernist nationalism in music, can be credited as the beginning of it. The notable composers of this Modern Art Week were Heitor Villa-Lobos (1897–1986), Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (1907–1993), Francisco Mignone (1897–1986), and Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (1897–1948). Each of these composers, in their own personal way, tried to reflect the authentically Brazilian in their music. All of them were prolific songwriters. Song as a Medium of Expression of Modernist Nationalism Song was the medium par excellence in which the attempts of constructing a national identity materialized. This was developed until it synthesized into two main types of song that became the most important types of Brazilian art song: the modinha and the lundu. The modinha and the lundu were the result of complex movements of transformation that led to folk song becoming popular song and from there to infiltrate the salons of classical music. This process was strengthened by the population shifts from the rural areas to cities; these movements brought African religious groups and their consequent styling and sophistication to the cities with them. Although the population of African origin was economically and socially relegated, its influence on urban culture became increasingly evident. In this way forms like the lundu, the maxixe, the samba, and the Brazilian tango were incorporated into popular music.28 These forms influenced the music of

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Figure 2.1  Front Cover of the Catalogue of the Modern Art Week Celebrated in the Traditional Teatro Municipal of São Paulo in 1922.

composers of “erudite” music who began to compose modinhas and lundus. The most distinctive musical elements that this music contributed were the use of syncopation, modulation to the subdominant, ornamentation of the melody, and rhythmic repetitions.29 Modinhas and lundus became the main types of songs composed by classical Brazilian composers. The Modinha The modinha is a type of love song, sentimental and nostalgic like an aria of the salon. Its name comes from the Portuguese word for trend, “moda,” a generic term applied to define songs of which modinha is the diminutive name. The first musicological study on modinha belongs to Mário de Andrade who, in 1930, compiled and analyzed the collection called Modinhas Imperiais. Its origins are controversial, since a host of researchers have developed various theories. They still argue whether it originated in Portugal or in Brazil in the same way they argue whether it originated in bourgeois salons and went to “the streets” from there or vice versa.

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Béhague30 maintains that the modinha is the only form of popular Brazilian music that does not have a folk origin. In his work he points out that the modinha form has been of great importance in Brazil and Portugal for more than 150 years. In Brazil, the modinha introduced European elements to popular music. In Portugal, there were two types of modinhas, an elaborate version, similar to an operatic aria and a simple and sentimental version. The two types of modinhas invaded Brazil during the First Empire (1822–1831) in the form of salon music. During this first period the modinha presented no national trait, although in 1911 the anthology of Canções Populares do Brasil,31 edited by pianist Julia de Brito Mendes, includes modinhas composed by Carlos Gomes, José Amat, Alberto Nepomuceno, and José Mauricio Nunes. It is striking to find the following statement in the preface to this collection: I would ask why you do not appreciate the popular songs, the modinhas as they are commonly called? Aren’t modinhas, with their delicious melodies, what best represent Brazilian customs? Are they not, with their deep and incomparable tenderness, with their soft, languid melodies, the most perfect expression of the sweetness of the Brazilian soul? Could you offer me something, in the art world or outside it, that more faithfully reflects the customs of the country? Surely not. At any point on the globe where we find ourselves, and we listen to them, we distinguish between the suggestive impression of caress and affection they leave on anyone who will listen to their song. I affirm that the modinha is where the only typical sign of the Brazilian people currently resides.32,33

In general terms it is accepted that the modinha is a type of song evident of European influence, a musical form that came from salon or erudite song that somehow became popular when it came to Brazil. It adopted distinctive Brazilian elements, especially associated with the use of the language, as the literary aspects of the modinha have been of great importance. For this reason, they called them Brazilian modinhas.34 Mário de Andrade resolved the controversy by saying that “just as we do not know if the fado is of Portuguese or Brazilian origin, but we recognize that its ‘personality’ is definitely Portuguese, we can say that although the Portuguese or Brazilian origin of modinha is not clear, we can be sure that its ‘personality’ is Brazilian.”35 Although its structure and form are of European origin, the “sensuality and sweetness of Brazil, characteristics associated with the geography, climate and in general the characteristics of her culture” were added to it.36,37 In the previously mentioned anthology by De Brito Mendes the title attracts attention: “Selected collection of the most well-known and inspired Brazilian modinhas accompanied with their respective music. Most of them have been compiled from oral tradition by the distinguished pianist D. Júlia de Brito Mendes.”38,39 With this statement it is clear that the modinha is a literary form intended to be sung. That is, it does not exist as a musical form.

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A good example of a modinha is the song by Jayme Ovalle, Modinha. With text of the important poet Manuel Bandeira, this song has two emotional moments: the first is descriptive of the landscape; the second alludes to passionate love. The music exudes the sensual element of the text, with the agitation represented in the change of rhythm in the second section. It can be heard here: https://spoti.fi/2vDHa8p. The Lundu Originally a dance of African origin, lundu was introduced to Brazil by slaves of Bantu descent, particularly those from Angola. This dance was initially dismissed because it was considered indecent; its choreography included a movement called umbigada, a movement of invitation to dance that involves touching your navel to the navel of the person invited to dance. As a dance, the lundu rapidly declined to develop in urban areas as a song. Its urbanization became its primitive sensuality in refined voluptuousness. The elements that characterize the lundu are the systematic use of syncopation with a simple figure that is found in infinite variations.

Mário de Andrade and Brazilian Song The writings and thoughts of Mário Raúl de Morais Andrade (1893–1945), better known as Mário de Andrade, profoundly influenced the composers of his time. Throughout his life he tried to spread modernist nationalist ideas in all of the arts, starting a new aesthetic ideal. To disseminate his ideas, Andrade gave lectures, wrote letters, published articles and books, compiled songs, taught, and wrote novels and prose. He was a true “activist” of the nationalist cause. Many of his writings highlighted the influence of African music on Brazilian music and he invited composers to put themselves in contact with the music of “the people,” the form that he used to refer to folklore: Brazilian musical art, if we could someday call it a part of a school, will inevitably have to incorporate the rhythmic palpitations and listen to the melodic sighs of the people, in order to be national and as a result have the right to live independently in the universe.40

Andrade was a practical man, for him achieving beauty should not be the ultimate end objective of art. This should be achieved as a result of music fulfilling its social function. “Art is not, and never was in its large manifestations, a pure and simple representation of beauty. Beauty is the result of art.”41

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His special interest in the study of Portuguese, and his desire to liberate the Portuguese spoken in Brazil of the “corcé” that Portuguese grammar imposed, led him to explore, in literature and in music, new means of expression. He sought to find a middle ground between the Portuguese spoken on the streets of Brazil and “cultured” Portuguese language, with an end goal of achieving a “cultured” Brazilian language. The language was placed in the center of the nationalist project, being the common element and adhesive of the different cultures and social classes of such a large country. In 1930, Andrade compiled the famous collection of songs titled Modinhas Imperiais; in its preface he expressed his worry in noting that the “semicultured do not know how to sing in [their] language.”42 In this preface we see the first suggestions that the intellectual makes on how to interpret songs in Portuguese. He recommends for the singer to sing in the same way he talks, referring to diction, and criticizing the “Italianization” of sung Portuguese. He believed that a European timbre de-characterized Brazilian song. His main concern was to serve the nationalist cause. These concerns about the interpretation of sung Portuguese also influenced composers of art songs and crystallized in 1937 with the Primer Congresso da Lingua Nacional Cantada that took place between July 7 and 14 in the city of São Paulo. This event, whose purpose was to standardize the pronunciation of sung Brazilian Portuguese, was much more than a space of academic reflection; it was above all a political space reaffirming nationalist ideas. In seeking to establish standards for how to sing in the language of his country, Andrade was ultimately looking for a linguistic identity for Brazil, for a national timbre. A number of proposals for the proper pronunciation of the national language in classical song and theater came out of this space.43 At the center of discussion was the origin of nasalization in Brazilian Portuguese, attributing it to the Afro-indigenous element, which was interpreted as a manifestation of “Brazilinity.” The following was concluded in the manuscript that resulted from this meeting: The carioca pronunciation in the most evolved within the regional pronunciations of Brazil, is the fastest and most incisive of all, has its own important tonalities, is of greater musicality than oral pronunciation, gives less impression of talk singing and is the most elegant and urban of all the regional pronunciations, because it belongs to the capital of the country it is the synthesis of the collaboration of all Brazilians and being the pronunciation of the capital of the country, the place where the largest number of Brazilians arrived, and where the language has the largest possibility of being listened to and propagated, is the one with the most possibility to generalize itself.44,45

The rules resulting from this first conference were published in 1938.

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Heitor Villa-Lobos and National Song Born in Rio de Janeiro, Villa-Lobos is without a doubt the Brazilian composer who has enjoyed the greatest international fame and is one of the most well-known composers from Latin America. During his childhood and adolescence, he learned to play the clarinet, the cello, and the guitar, an instrument that would accompany him throughout his life. Between 1900 and 1915 Villa-Lobos participated in chorões46 and played in various orchestras for a living. Playing in chorões meant being in direct contact with popular music and participating in bohemian night life, absorbing the melodies, rhythms, and harmonies of the music of his country. He would later incorporate these elements into his compositions. Although some of his biographers dispute the veracity of his travels,47 Villa-Lobos says that in these excursions,48 he absorbed the essence of the music of his country like a sponge. His production for all musical formations was extensive, but of irregular quality. This is seen in the special manner of his production of vocal works. His work developed in this period of nationalist explosion that followed the Modern Art Week. Villa-Lobos, like his contemporaries, was not free from European influence. On the contrary, he was trained to imitate the French music of the time, especially the music of Debussy, who was brought to Brazil by Alberto Nepomuceno and considered avant-garde at the time. Through the Modern Art Week, Villa-Lobos was composing “Debussian” works, heavily influenced by the French music. His compositions O Naufragio de Kleônicos, the opera Izaht, the Danças características africanas, and A prole do bebê are works heavily influenced by French music and are considered modern in Brazil. They do not denote any national trait that can be used to define them as the Brazilian nationalist works. Darius Milhaud (1892–1974), French composer who lived in Brazil during the years of 1917 and 1918, wrote: It’s sad to see that all of the compositions from Brazilian composers, from chamber works to the symphony of Mr. Nepomuceno, the works of Mr. Oswald, the impressionist sonatas of Mr. Guerra and the orchestral works of Mr. Villa-Lobos (a youth of robust temperament full of audacity), are the reflection of the different phases that we have lived in Europe since Brahms to Debussy and that the national element is not expressed in a more alive manner. The influence of Brazilian folklore, that is rich in rhythms and with unique melodic lines, is only rarely heard in the works of the composers of Rio de Janeiro. When a popular dance is used in a musical work, this indigenous element is deformed as the author only sees through the lens of Wagner and Saint-Saëns, if this author is 60 years old; and through the lens of Debussy, if the composer is 30 years old. It would be desirable that Brazilian musicians understand the importance of

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the composers of tangos, maxixes, sambas and cateretês like Tupynambá or the talented Ernesto Nazareth. The rhythmic richness, fantasy, animation, the melodic invention and the prodigious imagination, all characteristics found in these would convert them into the jewel of Brazilian art.49

It was only until after his first trip to Paris in 1923 when Villa-Lobos took interest in the folk music of his country and incorporated it into his compositions. The distance was necessary for the composer to truly transform into a Brazilian composer. In Paris, having felt that his music was not avant-garde, as it was in his native country, Villa-Lobos changed his position. In the depths of his position, there was another way to seek acceptance of his music and his person. At this point it is inevitable to remember the classification of the two types of nationalism proposed by Chatterjee, those of the “Western” and “Eastern” nations.50 According to Chatterjee the “Eastern” nations try to reach the level of the “Western” nations and in that attempt fall into the trap and lose what distinguishes them as unique. This generates a strong contradiction because at the same time they are imitating a model that is hostile to them. In the case of Villa-Lobos, we do not note as much the use of imitation such as the “submission” to the expectations projected by the Western nations. This situation is clearly perceived when looking at what was happening in Paris in 1923. At that time the theme in “fashion” in Paris was exoticism, the search for something different. It explains the interest in African culture that opened the door for Picasso and the Euro-African movement and Milhaud’s interest in Brazilian folk music, among many other cultural expressions. Feeling the need to reaffirm Brazilian folklore, Villa-Lobos was also satisfying his need for the approval of the dominant culture at the time. With that position he responded to the expectations that the dominant society projected on a musician who represented Brazil. That is when the composer redirected his orientation and position on composition and began a period of synthesis of nationalist discourse. For characters like Mário de Andrade, Villa-Lobos’s position was excessively oriented to meet the expectations of exoticism from Europe that they projected in cultures outside of Europe. As Andrade directly remarked: An important element that coincides with the falsification of Brazilian identity: the European opinion. The dilettantism that makes one believe that music is ours is the applause of the foreigner. For more respectful that people are of European critics one has to keep in mind that success in Europe is of no importance for Brazilian music, aside from expansion and internationalization. The permanence of Carlos Gomes beyond the seas proves that his success is due to his genius and culture. But this is not the case of Villa-Lobos, for example, it is easy to glimpse the importance that exoticism had for the ultimate

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success of the artist: With this I don’t want anyone to think that I decrease the value of Villa-Lobos. On the contrary, I want to increase it. Even before he wrote this pseudo-indigenous music that he does now he was already a great composer. His greatness, except for a few, like Artur Rubinstein or Vera Janacopulos, passed unnoticed. But it was enough that he made one extravagant work to get applause.

He continues, “Brazilian music should be considered all that has or does not have ethnic character: the works of Father Mauricio i Salduni and the Schumaniana are Brazilian music. Any contrary view is quite cowardly, anti-national and anti-critical.”51,52

As a result, Villa-Lobos managed to synthesize this search by incorporating elements of folklore in his work in an elaborate form. In his work he did not limit himself to just borrowing rhythmic or melodic elements, but he developed them in a complex way integrating them to the language of Western music. In his music one can perceive that the composer did not stay on the surface of the folkloric motif; he internalized it to let it flow in an unconscious manner in his music. His life experience was reflected in all his music in the same way that knowledge and deep contact with culture unique marked the works of Dvořák, Falla, and Grieg. The common characteristics of these great exponents of nationalism are that they could transcend the use of national motives and were able to develop a true national style. The vocal production of Villa-Lobos was extensive, varied, and as mentioned before of irregular quality.53 He composed oratorios, operas, operettas, chamber music, and songs. His songs were composed for different voicings such as voice and piano; voice and guitar; voice and chamber orchestra; and voice and symphonic orchestra. Additionally, he wrote choral songs and made choral arrangements for many of his original pieces for voice and piano. The majority of his songs were written grouped in books or song cycles, although he also wrote isolated songs. His known production of songs for voice and piano reaches 135 songs. The song “Lundú de Marqueza de Santos” is notable for its use of syncopation, a characteristic that is always present in lundu. Villa-Lobos nevertheless transformed the traditional rhythmic motif of lundu into permitting the left hand of the piano to maintain the rhythm during the entire song at the same time it inserts the accents of the vocal line, which are turned toward the right hand of the piano. The accent is on the first and third beat maintaining the effect of 2/4 and preserving the dance character of the piece while encouraging the creation of long phrasing lines that bestow

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lyricism to the vocal line. Written in B flat major, “Lundú de Marqueza de Santos”54 is a nostalgic and sad declaration of love. In an initial part, the lover reveals the first musical idea: he tells his beloved Titilia how he experiences the sadness from her departure. He assumes the separation as a punishment that makes him slowly die . . . the pain is too much. Despite the sadness, the syncopated rhythm keeps the listener waiting and announces how the beloved, full of “saudade” (nostalgia and longing) can still sing through the pain of the separation. Here one can see a characteristic frequently found in Latin American songs, that they sing their sorrows “dancing,” full of rhythm and sometimes in major keys, in contrast to the stereotypes that associate minor key and slow rhythm with sadness and major keys and fast rhythm with joy. The song is subtitled “Evoking the season of 1822.” This is striking to be in the middle of the celebration of the Modern Art Week to celebrate the first 100 years of independence of Brazil. The year 1822 is the same year that Don Pedro I55 declared Brazilian independence. Hear the song here: https://bit.ly/2M8hICq. “Modinha”56 is a short song and part of the series entitled Serestas. With text of Manduca Plá, this loving song full of longing (“saudade”) is written in strophic form. It begins with a piano introduction that reflects the inner anguish that the protagonist suffers for an unrequited love. The entrance of the voice connects the listener with the sadness and the “saudade” of the protagonist that is expressed with a slow melody and linked to the sense of abandonment of the love that although sad is still slightly hopeful. This is a painful hope as he knows the conquest of love is a distant, almost impossible aspiration. The first strophe tells of the singer’s loneliness caused by the indifference and scorn of the beloved. Even still, the lover reaffirms his constant love and fidelity. It continues with a piano interlude, again anguished. The piano part in this modinha is one that reflects the true emotional state of desperation and anguish of the lonely singer. In the second strophe, the singer tells of ecstatic happiness that this love causes him and the anguish of the possible loss, the fear of pain of abandonment. Hear the song: https:// bit.ly/2M9omIK. Camargo Guarnieri: Song with Ideology Born in Tietê, São Paulo, Camargo Guarnieri (1907–1993) studied with Ernani Braga (1898–1948). In 1928, he had the opportunity to show his compositions Dança Brasileira and Canção Sertaneja to Mário de Andrade, who enthusiastically became his tutor and mentor for over seventeen years. After their meeting, Guarnieri became part of the circle of friends who visited Andrade’s house to discuss politics, literature, philosophy, and art. Andrade

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was responsible for Guarnieri’s intellectual formation and influenced him in the development of his “social” consciousness with respect to music. The composer made a conscious effort to know the folk music of his country, having made trips to study and research with this aim. One such trip he realized in 1937 to the area of Bahia where he researched and collected folk materials of Indigenous and African sources. In 1938, thanks to a scholarship, he moved to Paris where he studied with Charles Koechlin, Franz Rühlmann, and Nadia Boulanger. During this period in Paris he wrote some vocal pieces, such as his Três poemas para canto e orquestra (1939) and his “Cantiga triste” (1939). These pieces premiered in 1940 in the Escola Nacional de Música de Rio de Janeiro. From 1944 on, he began to have contact with the United States, having been invited by the Pan-American Union for a stay of six months in which he premiered several of his orchestral works and vocal pieces. In 1952 he premiered his one-act opera Pedro Malazarte, with text by Mário de Andrade, in Rio de Janeiro. His musical production is extensive and includes over 700 scores. Art song was one of his favorite expressive mediums. Guarnieri considered that this was the medium par excellence that would allow him to express his attempts of creating a national sound and a vehicle for the ideology. His vocal works demonstrate a profound knowledge of the voice, probably because after the piano, his second musical instrument for his composition studies was voice. Of his 190 songs for voice and piano, 26 were transcribed for other accompaniments. More than 150 of his songs have not been published.57 National style and the use of the Portuguese language predominate all of his productions.58 Among Guarnieri’s favorite poets was Mário de Andrade, whose texts were used in thirty songs. He also used thirteen texts by his brother Rossine Guarnieri; eighteen by Manuel Bandeira; nineteen by Susana de Campos; seven by Cleómenes Campos; and five by his sister Alice Guarnieri. With respect to song, Guarnieri discouraged the direct use of the popular melody, paying more attention to what he called the “essence” of the melody, which according to him defined the melodic heritage. He wrote most of his songs in the style of modinha and often used syncopation as an element reminiscent of Brazilian dance. Even though his vocal works were written mostly as isolated pieces, in his production of vocal works two song cycles stand out: Treze canções de amor (1936)59 and Poemas da negra composed of twelve poems by Mário de Andrade. Referring to his songs, Andrade states: Perhaps it is the Lieder, the more accessible, more amenable part of the creation of Camargo Guarnieri. In them persists, a certain basic asceticism of paulista

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musical thought that leads him not to make any concessions to the others, expressing even the bitterest, the most deserted logical deduction of his own thought and individuality: but always, the sung line of Camargo Guarnieri is reviewed of the utmost sensuality, it is pleasing to say it a different way, taking constantly as its base the melody of the modinhas.60

For Guarnieri, it was of additional importance that the piano part is not limited to harmonizing but that it was one of the constituent elements of the work. To achieve this balance, he used the contrapuntal techniques that permitted the integration of text, voice, and instrument. His objective was that the melodies emerged spontaneously, in the same way that it occurred in folk song. In many of his songs the right or left hand of the piano plays completely independent melodies. The accompaniment provides the Brazilian character to the songs. Often the accompaniment imitates the guitar in the modinhas or traditional tunes, a fact that is accentuated by the use of harmonic combinations that come from folk music. The open sound of the guitar is evident in songs like “Vai Azulão!.” Hear it here: https://bit. ly/2vCzG5T. The song “Vai azulão!”61 with text by Manuel Bandeira is a romantic, expressive, and nostalgic song, in which the lover asks the blue bird to go search for his beloved and tell her that he cannot live without her. Despite the desperation and nostalgia of the poem, Guarnieri chose a relatively quick tempo. He uses the phrase “vai, azulão, vai companheiro, vai” (Go, bluebird, go fellow, go!) in the manner of a refrain, as he repeats it several times in the manner of the popular tune. From the formal point of view his songs are frequently ternary (ABA) allowing for the repetition of the poetic text, which ensures communication of the message. Other composers of this generation who made important contributions to the repertoire of song were Oscar Lorenzo Fernández (1897–1948), Luciano Gallet (1893–1931), Jayme Ovalle (1894–1955), Frutuoso Viana (1896–1976), Hekel Tavares (1896–1969), Francisco Mignone (1897–1986), and Ernani Braga (1888–1948). These were followed by Waldemar Henrique (1905–1995), Arnaldo Rebelo (1905–1984), Oswaldo de Souza (1904–1995), Radamés Gnattali (1906–1998), José Siqueira (1907–1985), José Vieira Brandão (1911–2002), and Altino Pimenta (1921–2003). Among Guarnieri’s students the composer Osvaldo Lacerda (1927–2011) stands out for his marked interest in the genre of song and for maintaining his nationalist orientation until the beginning of the twenty-first century. In the present generation Edmundo Villani-Côrtes (1937–) also stands out for the large number of songs in his catalog.

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Cuba If in anything a character has appeared early on of integral Cuban nature it would be in popular music, just like in certain forms of danceable music . . . that came to act, in distinct periods of our history, as true factors of a tenacious resistance against the foreigner.62 Alejo Carpentier

The Afro-Cuban Movement General Gerardo Machado was elected president of Cuba in 1924. Initially his government improved the quality of life for Cubans, but due to the major economic depression after 1929, trade was almost entirely paralyzed. The stagnation of business and commerce brought the sugar industry to ruin, and consequentially increased unemployment and delays in state payments. The country disappeared in a state of misery and desperation that reached its height in the summer of 1933. In just three years, the global depression and American tariffs had completely ruined Cuba. As Guerra y Sánchez note in Historia elemental de Cuba: The economic crisis was accompanied by a no less serious political situation. At the time of the constitutional reform, some dignitaries protested it. The re-election of General Machado made it clear, that carrying out the mentioned reform had violated the Constitution of the Republic. By virtue of this belief, these personalities and citizens who shared the same opinion understood that the Constitution of 1929 was invalid and that the president’s reelection was not legitimate or legal.63

In this troubled social environment, a period in which concern for the nation was evident, the Afro-Cuban movement emerged. This movement was an aesthetic, ideological, and humanist trend that sought to value the “authentically” Cuban. It was led by a group of the most renowned intellectuals of their time, the majority of them belonging to the Grupo Minorista of 1924.64,65 This group brought together personalities such as Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980), José Zacarías Tallet (1893–1989), Juan Marinello (1898– 1977), Rubén Martínez Villena (1899–1934), and Emilio Roig (1889–1964), “all exponents of the political and artistic avant-garde and propellers of the new art in its diverse manifestations.”66 The Afro-Cuban movement was an avenue for the acknowledgment and appreciation of the contribution of African cultures to the formation of Cuban identity. This search did not stay on the surface of exoticism but rather it deeply explored the cultural, social, and historical contributions of African cultures as a way to understand Cuban society and build a national identity. The appearance of this movement valuing, tolerating, and accepting the

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cultural contribution of one racial group that until then had been underappreciated and located at the bottom of society had its origins in movements that were taking place in Europe and the United States. Again, the condition of following the models imposed from above and outside is seen in this tendency. In 1892, shortly after arriving in the United States, the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) declared: I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them.67

A decade later the painter Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) would enter art history for creating Cubism, a trend strongly influenced by African art. Modernism in art began with a strong presence of African art. The Cubist mask covered the ritual African mask, transforming something considered ugly and primitive at the beginning of the twentieth century in the collective imagination, into something sublime and complex. In a short period of time, the perception of the cultural production of Africa and of Black people quickly changed. This Euro-African movement had profound consequences in the Americas, beginning in 1916–1917 with the New Negro Movement, also called the Harlem Renaissance in the United States. The Harlem Renaissance proclaimed a series of statements that sought the appreciation of African American people and their cultural contributions. In Cuba its manifestation was the emergence of the Afro-Cuban movement. The musical expression of the Afro-Cuban Movement was reflected in the musical works of Amadeo Roldán (1900–1939) and Alejandro García Caturla (1906–1940), considered the first truly contemporary Cuban composers. The two were engaged in awakening interest in black Cuban culture and they reflected the phrase of the time in their music: “Down with lyricism, up with the bongo.” Both composers considered themselves American composers and related themselves with the Pan-American Association of Composers (PAAC) based in New York. Amadeo Roldán and the Song Cycle Motivos de son Born in Paris in 1900, son of a Spanish father and a Cuban mother, Roldán began his musical studies at the Conservatory of Madrid later moving to Havana in 1919.68

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His interest in Afro-Cuban themes began in 1923 when he began his friendship with Alejo Carpentier. They began to frequent santería69 and abakuá70 ceremonies, where he transcribed rhythmic fragments that he later used in his compositions. Without a doubt the experience of being born and raised outside of Cuba influenced Roldán’s position, who could perceive elements that composers born in Cuba had not appreciated or just had not seen. It illustrates the importance of the separation between cultural space and cultural geographic place, an element that allows one to perceive their own identity in a broader way. Roldán knew how to capture the essence of Afro-Cuban music, creating works that integrated elements observed in African music such as rhythmic structures, polyphonic textures, and structures of call and response. These complex rhythms acquire cohesion due to the presence of the clave, an instrument that introduces a constant, almost metronomic element to the music. In his intent to create a purely Cuban language he created original formulas, even though it was impossible not to have some affiliation with European music. He wrote works for a variety of genres including ballets, orchestra, chamber, and vocal music. One of his most representative works is the song cycle entitled Motivos de son (1931). The appearance of this cycle was closely linked to a set of poems with the same name published in 1930 by the poet Nicolás Guillén (1902– 1989). Once more, literature and music come together in order to express the authentic feeling of a people. Nicolás Guillén: Black Poetry Nicolás Guillén (1902–1989) was the greatest example of literature within the Afro-Cuban movement. His poems Motivos de son (1930), Songoro Consongo (1931), and El son entero (1947), which imitate the manner of speaking and feeling of the Afro-Cuban man, had a profound influence on his contemporary composers. The eight poetic monologues that comprise Motivos de son allowed Black people to talk for the first time from their own perspective, imitating the use of the language of Black people belonging to lower social classes or different from the elites; because of that these monologues represented a form of social vindication. Guillén, a poet of African descent, appeared in the intellectual landscape in 1929 when he published his essay entitled “El camino de Harlem,” a clear reference to the movement in the United States, which harshly criticized Cuba’s racial structures and signaled its intention to link poetry with its African roots. It was in 1930, after publishing the separate poems in the Diario de la Marina, when he decided to join together the eight Motivos de son in a

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book. This book was his true entrance to greater poetry. In it he incorporated the rhythm of son—a popular Cuban musical rhythm—in literature making use of what he called “Negroid prosody.” His poems caused a sensation, especially because they did not idealize the figure of the Black people, but rather it was presented with all the harsh realities of everyday life and poverty. Guillén’s artistic feat was to move a popular genre of musical composition such as the son to poetic category. In Guillén’s own words: I have tried to incorporate into Cuban literature—not just as a simple musical motif, but as an element of true poetry—what might be called poem-son, based on the technique of that type of dance so popular in our country . . . to present, in the way that perhaps would be more convincing, paintings of customs made of two strokes and types of people as they are stirred to our side. Just as they talk. Just as they think.71

Cintio Vitier said: All his poetry, in effect, revolves around this rhythmic axis. . . . The formal structure of Guillenean son seems to come from the refrain or the montuno of popular son, generally played by typical sextets, that was sung and danced in Cuba, along with the more stylized danzón, until the thirties.72

In the atmosphere of intense racial discrimination of the time, it was an almost offensive audacity to exalt Black people and their popular characteristics in the literary plane. His poetry was vindictive and political. By vindicating the presence of Black people, their traditions, aspirations, and poetry, it was reclaiming the integration of Black people in the nationality; almost simultaneously and in the same way the poet Federico García Lorca vindicated the presence of gypsy culture in Spain. The son, a genre in which Spanish and African influences are evident, became a national musical symbol and source of pride. Originally from rural areas, the son includes elements from Spain, such as the harmony and the use of stringed instruments, and elements from Africa, such as the use of percussive instruments and the use of syncopation and polyrhythm. Shortly after publishing the poems that made up Motivos de Son, Amadeo Roldán composed a song cycle with the same title, using Guillén’s poems. The cycle, written for soprano and chamber ensemble, reproduces and imitates the sounds of traditional son septets and incorporates a series of codes from popular and folk music into art music, creating a unique and distinct sound with its own identity. The songs have a simple musical structure associated with a complex rhythmic structure. The use of dissonance gives it characteristics of “modernity.” The songs of the cycle are titled: “Negro

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bembón,”73 “Mi chiquita,” “Mulata,” “Búcate plata,” “Aye me dijeron negro,” “Tú no sabe inglé,” “Si tú supiera,” and “Sigue.” Throughout the cycle original rhythmic cells, polyrhythms, and counterpoint appear showing a marked concern for instrumental color. In all of Roldán’s songs he uses the form of son, characterized by two parts, that is, a first opening section (largo or son) containing the verses of poetry, followed by a faster section with the chorus or montuno. Another characteristic of the songs is that it alternates between solo and “choral” sections, involved in the instrumentation, to imitate the structure of the call and response. Additionally, Roldán uses the rhythmic cell of the clave associated with the son. Rhythmic cells characteristic of Afro-Cuban music such as the triplet, quintuplet, and conga are observed throughout the cycle. The original accompaniment is written for two clarinets, a trumpet, a violin, a viola, a cello, a double bass, and a variety of Afro-Cuban percussion instruments. This percussion group varies in each song but generally it consists of bongos, maracas, güiro, claves, and cowbells. With the incorporation of Afro-Cuban percussion instruments to the European chamber group, Roldán achieved a fusion in which none of the elements lost its original identity while at the same time constructing something new, achieving a two-way communication in conditions of equality. In “Ayé me dijeron negro” one can see how the text of the song denounces the use of the word “black” as a derogatory word. The irony here is that the one calling the protagonist “black” is another Black person, revealing how there is an “internal racism” depending on the degree of “blackness” within Black society in Cuba. In this way the main character reminds the lighterskinned mulatto who just called him “black” as a form of insult that his grandmother is a Black woman who he has hidden to avoid revealing his true origins. An excerpt of the poem follows below: Ayé me dijeron negro pa que me fajara yo; pero el que me lo decía era un negro como yo. Tan blanco como te be y tu abuela sé quién e. Sácala de la cosina sácala de la cosina: Mamá Iné.

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Distinctive Rhythmic Cell of the Son.

Figure 2.3  “Ayé me dijeron negro” by Amadeo Roldán, Written Based on the Poetry of Nicolás Guillén, has the Striking Feature of using costumbrista Poetry in Which the Imitation of the Manner of Speaking of Black People Stands Out.

In this excerpt of an article written by Alejo Carpentier and published in the journal Carteles in Havana on July 21, 1929, he commented on the successful reception of Amadeo Roldán’s Danza negra in Paris: - Acario Cotapos, Chilean composer and one of the founders of the Composer’s Guild, expounded his point of views to Heitor Villa-Lobos:

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- There is in this score a scent of authenticity that does not deceive. From the first notes, America is there. This work also has a force of extraordinary evocation! And how curious is the quality of the timbres achieved by Roldán! ... Heitor Villa-Lobos affirmed: Roldán knows the right path. He could not be better oriented as an American musician. In a word: he sees things in the right way. Soon the time will come of creation in which it is said: I am folklore, and more authentic melodies than those existing will be created in pure imagination. His temperament is suitable to realize this labor of musical suprarealism.74 The words of Villa-Lobos resounded prophetic, signaling the path that Latin American composers continued on during the remainder of the twentieth century. Alejandro García Caturla: Two Afro-Cuban Poems Trained as a lawyer and as an “amateur” musician, Alejandro García Caturla75 (1906–1940) began his relationship with Afro-Cuban music from childhood, listening to lullabies and work songs. As an adult, he actively participated in bembé ceremonies.76 A close friend of Alejo Carpetier, he followed him to Paris in 1928 where he studied with Nadia Boulanger. Like Roldán, García Caturla also enthusiastically received Guillén’s poems Motivos de son. He immediately contacted the poet to communicate his interest in setting these poems to music. Guillén answered by sending him a special edition of Motivos de son. García Caturla first set “Tú no sabe inglé” to music, retitling it “Bito Manué” (1930). This song was published by Edicions Maurice Senart in Paris in 1931. Although García Caturla had the intention of setting all of the poems of Motivos de son to music, he gave up his idea when he found out that Roldán had already done it and was about to premiere the work. Despite this situation, in subsequent years he set “Mulata” (1933) and other poems by Guillén to music, such as “Yambambó” (1933) and “Sabás” (1937). He also wrote a series of songs entitled Canciones consisting of seven songs composed between 1929 and 1933, published in Havana by Ediciones del Departamento de Música de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí in 1960.77 In 1929 he wrote a cycle entitled Dos poemas afrocubanos on the poetry of Alejo Carpentier (1904–1980). These songs were published in Paris by Edicions Maurice Senart in 1930. In this cycle, like in Roldán’s cycle, one can hear rhythmic cells from the Cuban music of African origin. García Caturla used the techniques and tools of art music to recreate the atmosphere and the sounds of his Cuban environment. The texts reference Afro-Cuban folklore and in Juego Santo he even recreates Afro-Cuban words. The piano is used as a percussive instrument that imitates the drums,

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and the singing at times resembles the shouts of the town crier and folk singing. They are songs in which melodic interest is concentrated in the vocal line, with the piano providing harmony and rhythm. To commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the death of García Caturla, his friend Alejo Carpentier wrote an article in which he gives his opinions about one of his vocal compositions while at the same time making interesting comments about nationalism: Well aware of the requirements of his era, Alejandro García Caturla tried, however, to surpass them. A stranger to the textual folklore of many of his contemporaries—he lived in years characterized by a universal exploitation of folklore—he had sensed that folklore received in direct heritage could be a source of one’s own dynamic—of the elements of style—that went far beyond mere rhapsodic treatment. For Caturla the popular theme was a proliferate rhythmic cell whose rhythmic and melodic values should lead to a new terrain of possibilities: in this way in his “Berceuse campesina,” over an ostinato based in the rhythm of son, a guajiro melody rises with surprising authenticity of turns, that would be unsingable, for a popular trovero due to the extension of its register. However, there is the whole spirit of the peasant melody, with its own inflections, taken to a different level; to an expression free of the merely descriptive. Similarly, the accompaniment, in style that could seem absurd for that melody, if judged case from the viewpoint of the folklorist, acts as a binder of dispersed elements that were, originally, the generators of Cuban music: Spanish romance and the Negroid rhythm. Nourished by Creole essences, Caturla was ahead of his contemporaries in terms of aesthetic intuition.78

Numerous composers approached the art song genre in Cuba before and after the appearance of the Afro-Cuban movement. Some of them were openly opposed to the movement, such as Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes (1874–1944) who rejected every intent to recognize African contribution to Cuban culture. Sánchez de Fuentes published various articles in which he affirmed that African music was rudimentary and lacking structure. He reached the extreme of declaring that son was an African genre and had nothing to do with Cuba, and that it contributed to the degrading of their country’s culture.79 He wrote many songs, the best known being “Tú,” a song describing the beauty of the island. Ernesto Lecuona (1895–1963), composer and pianist of international fame, composed more than 400 songs for voice and piano, setting his own texts or poems from Ibero-American poets such as Uruguayan Juana de Ibarbourou (1892–1979), Cubans José Martí (1853–1895), Juan Clemente Zenea (1832–1871), José Ángel Busea (1910–1982), and on some occasions German Heinrich Heine (1797–1856). Among his songs, which mix Spanish and African elements, one can find the well-known songs “Malagueña,” “Siboney,” “Noche azul,” and “Siempre en mi corazón,” works that have received numerous recordings.

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Figure 2.4  Excerpt of the Song “Mari-Sabel” by Cuban Composer Alejandro García Caturla, Written on Texts by Alejo Carpentier. The most prominent feature in this piece is the use of having montuno rhythm that presents rhythmic and harmonic syncopation. The composer manages to convey the feeling of heaviness and slowness of a suffocating Caribbean afternoon. At the same time, the piano sets the pace the voice draws in a lazy, almost sleepy way.

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Peru Indigenous Nationalism In Peru, during the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth century, strong social divisions maintained the order and colonial structures established by the Spaniards. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the Creoles who believed themselves to be the representatives of all that was culturally Peruvian, created an economic and social elite made up of the landowners and business owners made wealthy by the export industry of the country. A neocolonial state was then established in which the exporting business owners served as intermediaries between the Peruvian economy, the government, and the foreign private businesses. The elites continued reaffirming their privileges while turning their backs on the majority of the Peruvian population at the same time. The overexploitation of the peasants that initiated the farmer fights (1918–1923) also originated a growing migration from country to city that transformed the aspects and social composition of cities. This paved the way for new social agents that changed social interaction and transformed the political life of the country, which was up until then a patrimony exclusive to oligarchies. The new emerging sectors attacked the rigidity of the cultural dichotomy that up until that moment had defined the country. Its objective was to facilitate the rise of a new concept of nationality that would adjust modernization, which had been the source of social change. Among strong social tensions the construction of Peruvian identity began, a process marked by contradiction. The contradiction is that of an “Eastern” nation that seeks to look “Western” (as defined by Chatterjee). It faces the challenge of building a national identity simultaneously identifying itself with both Spain and the Indigenous populations, while rejecting indigenous elements at the same time. This process of integration and rejection is one that is still alive today, a constant “tug of war” between the Indigenous, Creole, and African elements present in the culture of the country. In this context the Indigenous movement came to light as a mestizo project that sought to emphasize the role that the Indigenous peoples played in the development of the nation-state. As a movement of re-elaboration of national Peruvian representation, it reordered the national discourse on the dismantling of values that until then had sustained the concept of the nation strongly emerging in aesthetic, cultural, and social areas. Indigenous nationalism stimulated the idealization and glorification of Incan traditions and elements of rural life in the Andean region. It included itself in the continental Indoamericanism movement, an ideologic and aesthetic position that looked to support the continental sentiment of community surpassing the regional nationalisms.80

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In this process of conscious search for national identity, the creation of the first collection of musical folk material begins. One of the forerunners of this initiative was the composer Daniel Alomía Robles (1871–1942), author of the one-act zarzuela, El cóndor pasa, premiered in 1913 and performed 300 times in Lima within the first five years after its composition. Cuzco, the ancient capital of the Incan Empire, became a major center of action for Peruvian indigenous nationalism. In the 1920s, a great interest awoke among Indigenous peoples in Peru for the Incan past, while simultaneously disdaining everything to do with the rural life of contemporary Indigenous peoples. The elites appropriated the Indigenous past, proclaiming themselves heirs to the great Inca Empire while segregating the Indigenous peoples on the streets. Unfortunately, Indigenism and anti-indigenous attitudes were not mutually exclusive. The indigenous music of the cordillera of the Andes was predominately Quechua and Aymara and its characteristic pentatonic and rhythmic formulas were the main source of the construction of national musical identity, giving way to indigenous musical nationalism. The Incans were particularly evoked in terms of titles of works and in the use of the pentatonic scale, which led to the mistaken idea that indigenous Andean music employed only five notes. In Peru, the most common ensemble within indigenous circles was the estudiantina, a group formed by various stringed instruments like the guitar, mandolin, charango, and some wind instruments such as the flute. This kind of group became popular not only in Peru but also in Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina. Despite the importance of stringed instruments, it is interesting to note how art song continued to be written for voice and piano, in the formation associated with the traditional Lied. Surely, this was a symptom of class affiliation, which reserved the piano for the bourgeois strata and the guitar for rural mestizo spaces. The guitar thus represents an element that is concretely excluded but is included in an abstract manner; a situation that can be observed in the many songs for voice and piano where the accompaniment imitates the strumming of the guitar. The guitar is not included in the repertoire as an active instrument but rather is recreated and invoked through the combination of melodic, harmonic, rhythmic, and textural configurations. Its presence is more a representation that brings us closer to the rural world and provides an imaginary aesthetic code. This interest in Incan music also influenced Argentine composers in an important way. This fact is evident in the creation of the publisher La Quena, by Alberto Williams and by the composition of numerous, Inca-inspired songs not only by Williams but also by Pascual de Rogatis and later on Alberto Ginastera among others. This interest also led to the creation of the Misión Peruana de Arte Incaica.81 Anthropologist Zoila Mendoza82 argues

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that this initiative was motivated by the desire among Argentine artists to promote an indigenous-based Americanist nationalism that discerned the land needed for the construction of a Pan-Latin American identity. The Misión Peruana de Arte Incaica performed in Buenos Aires in 1923, led by indigenous intellectual Luís Valcárcel.83 The group performed twelve times at the Teatro Colón that year, presenting works such as El Himno al Sol by Daniel Alomía Robles, Qosqo Llaqta by Juan de Dios Aguirre, and Suray Surita by Roberto Ojeda.84 The search and interest in building a Pan-Latin American movement based on Indigenous heritage was of great importance, and their impact could be seen in the organization of significant events such as the Velada Indianista celebrated in La Paz, Bolivia, in 1932 and the Semana Indianista celebrated in the same city in 1936. The purpose of these events was to “value the enormous wealth of vernacular themes on which to build future national art.”85 Promoted as an exhibition of indigenous art, this week was the space for presenting paintings, sculpture, literature, music, and architecture inspired by Indigenous culture. The Semana Indianista, whose name suggested that indigenous music and musicians would be the main attraction of the event, presented exclusively nonindigenous musicians performing versions of indigenous music. The same happened in the other arts. On the closing night of the Semana Indianista presented at the Municipal Theatre, the most important theater in the city, works by various composers were performed, poems in Aymara were recited and a fashion show was presented in which the “distinguished”86 ladies of the middle class and the elite modeled outfits from different regions of the country. In the closing event, there were middle class Bolivians singing, reciting and modeling as Indigenous peoples and there was no Indigenous participation.87

It is striking to see the devise of abstract inclusion and concrete exclusion of the Indigenous population in the indigenous nationalistic movement; on one hand it exalted the cultural elements attributed to their culture, while on the other it segregated its members. Behind these positions, we can see that there is a political agenda and a desire for the internationalization and “modernization” of the country. What happened in the Semana Indianista in Bolivia can be extended to Peru, where they also idealized the Inca contribution while simultaneously excluding the Indigenous population. The following paragraph taken from El Diario de Bolivia illustrates this position: pure Incan music . . . is like a Bach melody. And this music is a reflection also of the culture and soul of the Inca Empire: of order; of deep respect, of honor,

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clean, sweet and peaceful life, without misery of any kind: even when individuality is annulled; the chimeric ideal of the socialists and communists of the day worldwide. Bolivia and Peru may have honor and satisfaction to evoke a past of great culture.88

In the same year that they published praises of indigenous culture, the government banned the Indigenous peoples from entering the city of La Paz during the holiday season: “The entry of Indigenous dancers is prohibited: An ordinance has been issued in this regard, unsightly spectacle not in harmony with the local culture.”89 In the field of Peruvian art song, the true stream of songs was born from four provincial musicians: Alfonso de Silva (1902–1937), Theodoro Valcárcel (1898–1942), Roberto Carpio90 (1900–1986), and Carlos Sánchez Málaga (1904–). The four composers sing in the tone of the sad song, of regret and maintain the intimate and hidden tenderness of the Andean people. They are the true “liederists” that establish a link with the European song, but maintain a defined accent of their own.91

Theodoro Valcárcel: Thirty-One Songs of the Vernacular Soul In the same way that the Inca Garcilaso92 and Guaman Poma93 made unique contributions to the literature, narrating their experiences from belonging to the culture that was marginalized, belonging to the people “without history”; years later, a musician would appear from the same place and give voice to those who had until that point been “voiceless”; a composer who would embody their vision of “bottom to top” and provide recognition to the concept of Indigenous contribution being equal to Creole contribution. This composer was Theodoro Valcárcel (1898–1942). Descendant of the Aymara and originally from Puno, he was one of the most prolific Peruvian composers of the first half of the twentieth century.94 In Peru he trained with Luis Dunker Lavalle and in Europe with teachers such as Felip Pedrell, and Ferrucio Busoni. He gave concerts as director of orchestra and pianist in various European countries and in Peru. He wrote all kinds of works: symphonies, for soloists with orchestra, chamber, art songs, and choral works. In 1935 he occupied the post of head of the Department of National Folklore in the Alcedo National Academy and, in 1939, was a member of the Music Cabinet of the Peruvian Art Institute. Valcárcel took indigenous melodies and texts in the Quechua and Aymara languages to compose his most important collection of songs entitled Treinta y un cantos del alma vernácula, written around 1930,95 making him one of the most important representatives of indigenous nationalism.

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Treinta y un cantos del alma vernácula is a collection of high quality art songs of nationalist cut, in which the composer reflected his knowledge of indigenous and mestizo motifs. A part of this collection of songs was published by Editions Maurice Sénart in Paris in 1930 with the title Cuatro canciones incaicas.96 I published the same four songs in 2005 in the book La canción artística latinoamericana: antología crítica y guía interpretativa para cantantes,97 including changes from a later version published in 1986 in Peru. The Peruvian version, revised and adapted by Edgar Valcárcel, Peruvian composer and nephew of Theodoro, includes some virtuosic cadences that the author wrote in his time for a coloratura soprano. All of these songs were written for soprano and make frequent use of the pentatonic scale, referring to the Indigenous roots of the melodies. The original texts were written in the Quechua and Aymara languages, which constitute an important milestone for the Peruvian nationalist movement. In its first edition in 1930, the Spanish translation appears.98 In these songs one finds two of the most typical characteristics of indigenous music of the Andes: the use of the pentatonic scale for the construction of the melodies and the use of repeated minor thirds. The importance of these songs in the production of Latin American art song lies in the fact that they are among the first to make use of indigenous melodies and the indigenous languages, Quechua and Aymara. Through these compositions, Valcárcel declared that the Indigenous formed part of the identity of his country. He was moving indigenous elements from their original environment to a medium traditionally associated with the elites, such as concert halls of art song. The songs are an attempt to overcome the inequalities of political and social power that ultimately manifest in practices of transforming sound that privilege Western sound, although they managed to illuminate the cultural elements of the region. The composers Carlos Sánchez Málaga (1904–1995) and Alfonso de Silva (1902–1937) are noteworthy for their contribution to the art song repertoire. Two European musicians who lived a great part of their lives in Peru and also wrote art songs in this period are: Andrés Sas (1900–1967)99 who composed the Seis cantos indios del Perú, in which the pentatonic modes predominate the songs; and Rodolfo Holzmann (1910–1992)100 who wrote his song cycle entitled Tres madrigales on texts by Pablo Neruda. Venezuela The Grupo Renovación The emergence of the nationalist movement in Venezuela, which peaked around 1920, was the result of a complex process of social and political changes that began in the country in the early twentieth century. In 1908,

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Figure 2.5  Excerpt from “Suray – Surita” Song by the Composer Theodoro Valcárcel Belonging to the Collection Treinta y uno cantos del alma vernácula. Its introduction in A-flat cadences to F minor to start the melody in the minor pentatonic mode. It is a painful love song, which somehow agrees with the comments of Edgar Valcárcel when he alluded to the intimate sadness of the Andean man. “Suray-Surita” by Theodoro Valcárcel. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Eugenia Gassull https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​ track​/7qiH​GUpgG​FJ5MD​wkKeZ​lZU.

the dictator Juan Vicente Gómez came to power, taking over the country at a time of economic and social crisis. Immediately upon taking office he initiated a strategy to attract foreign investment. His plan of government, called the “liberating revolution,” sought to restore economic stability and order to the nation. In 1910, the economy gradually transformed from agrarian to industrial due to the beginning of oil exploitation. The economic well-being brought about developments in infrastructure, the creation of newspapers and radio stations and educational reform.

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These important economic and social changes catapulted the reconfiguration of the social and economic structure of the country. Massive displacements took place from rural areas to the city and around 1909, a group of young visual artists began a movement called the Círculo de Bellas Artes,101 a movement that advocated for the modernization and reform of artistic education of the country. Approximately ten years later, around 1920, a group of Venezuelan musicians began a conscious effort to modernize their music and develop a “national music.” This group, called Grupo Renovación, was a project aimed at contributing to the construction of the nation through creation of a “national style” that was recognized by the population as its “own style”; the “authentically Venezuelan” would then be recognized as such by the people. In this way, composers consciously took melodic and rhythmic elements of folklore and embarked on the study of music from rural areas.102 The most representative musicians from this group, who largely contributed to the construction of this “national sound,” were Vicente Emilio Sojo (1887–1974), Juan Bautista Plaza (1898–1974), and José Antonio Calcaño (1900–1978). The three were not only responsible for researching, creating, and performing Venezuelan music, but they also contributed to the creation of infrastructure, educational plans, and national music education policies. In the field of song, Vicente Emilio Sojo and Juan Bautista Plaza made the most significant contributions. Juan Bautista Plaza: Siete canciones venezolanas Juan Bautista Plaza (1898–1965) was one of the greatest and most prolific Venezuelan composers. In 1920, he obtained a scholarship to study at the Pontifical College of Sacred Music in Rome, with a commitment to return to his country to implement the performance of liturgical music according to the rules decreed by Pope Pius X in his “Motu Proprio” of 1903. During his stay in Rome he composed vocal works of sacred nature, and also secular works. Some of these secular works include songs for voice and piano titled “L´infinito,” “Due Liriche,” and “Sinfonía en gris mayor.” Plaza remained in Rome until 1923, when he returned to the Venezuela to assume the position of choirmaster at the Cathedral of Caracas, where he served for twenty-five years. He began his pedagogical activities in 1924, a role that would accompany him for the rest of his life. Between 1933 and 1944 he assumed the task of classifying and restoring the manuscripts from the Venezuelan colonial music archive that was found in the school. Thanks to his important work of preservation, transcription, and study of these manuscripts, the influential Escuela de composición de Chacao came to light.103

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From 1938 on, Plaza expressed his concern for the quality of music education in his country compared to other Latin American nations. In the same year, he published an article titled “Urge salvar la música nacional” (Saving national music is urgent)104 calling for the preservation of the country’s folk expressions and inviting the creation of an archive to classify and organize the studies of different folk music. In his article, Plaza affirmed that American, referring to all of the Americas, composers have an obligation to know the vernacular music of their countries and therefore to contribute to satisfying the demands of the musical spirit of the time. As an example of compositions that made use of folk material, Suite brasilera by Heitor VillaLobos had just been performed in Venice in 1938. Plaza asked, “How else can an American composer awake the interest of an international audience as selective as that?” He continued to say how Venezuelan musicians have the challenge of familiarizing themselves with the varied and rich folklore of their country. In 1932 Plaza composed his Siete canciones venezolanas on texts by the poet Luís Barrios Cruz. These songs, with the Plaza’s subheading of Suite para voz y piano, pick up dance rhythms from different regions of Venezuela and embody the folklore of different regions in a descriptive and colorful manner. The influence of Manuel de Falla and his Siete canciones populares españolas are evident. In several works, Plaza’s admiration for the Andalusian composer can be observed.105 The poetry chosen by Plaza was taken from a book of poems entitled La respuesta de las piedras by Luís Barrios Cruz, a nationalistic poet identified as “The Prairie Poet.” In his emotional, custombrist, colorist, and descriptive poetry he tells of the daily life of prairie farmers, in a flat area shared by Venezuela and Colombia where life develops in contact with nature and where horses and cattle are part of everyday life. In all of the songs of the cycle, Plaza manipulated folk motifs with the intention of constructing a suite in the style of European Baroque dance suites, an element observed by alternating fast time songs with slow tempo songs. Similarly, he constructed all the songs in three-part form ABA. Songs 1, 3, 5, and 7 are fast dances in 3/4, the rest are slower and more lyrical using 4/4 meter in songs 2, 4, and 6. A unifying factor in this cycle is the presence of the joropo rhythm, a folkloric rhythm considered the national rhythm of Venezuela. In the song “Cuando el caballo se para,” the joropo rhythm is hidden in such a way that one cannot see it in the score as a rhythmic unit. However, it is heard when the pianist combines the rhythm of the right hand with the rhythm of the left hand. The result has the rhythmic effect that preserves the intact joropo rhythm. The text alludes to the life of the plains and describes the plain, the path, and the horse. In a metaphorical manner he compares the path with life in a reflection of deep significance.

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In the middle section of this song, Plaza uses elements of another native dance, the waltz, introducing its rhythmic structure. The Venezuelan waltz has a characteristic rhythm that accents the first and third beats. Again, Plaza manipulates the rhythm to obtain a greater enriched expression. What distinguishes the Venezuelan waltz from the waltz found in Europe and other parts of Latin America is the simultaneous interaction of rhythms in 3/4 and 6/8. The cycle premiered in 1933 at the Ateneo de Caracas by baritone Juan José Agarrebere and pianist Miguel Ángel Calcaño. It was not received enthusiastically by the critics, who did not consider the songs to be “Venezuelan” and criticized his lack of rhythm and their “Europeanism.” It is interesting to see how the national perception has changed; today these songs are considered to project Venezuelan values and aesthetic models. Plaza’s vocal work was extensive and included song in French, Italian, and Spanish. His labor extended to education and musicological fields. Along with Eduardo Arroyo Lameda, Emilio Calcaño, Enrique González, Octavio Calcaño, and Pascual Lameda, he formed the group called El Ateneo de los Siete, a group of intellectuals who gathered to discuss topics of common interest and offered conferences on certain topics. The Legacy of Vicente Emilio Sojo One of the indispensable figures in the musical scene of this time was Vicente Emilio Sojo (1887–1974). Born in the small town of Guatire, he took classes in theory, harmony, and performance with Regulo Rico (1878–1960). In 1911, he composed the Himno a Bolívar, his first work. In 1915, he was named choirmaster of the San Francisco de Caracas church, developing an interest in composing religious works. In 1930, he founded the Orfeón Lamas, a choir of great importance by exclusively dedicating itself to the performance of works ranging from Venezuelan composers from the colonial period to contemporary Venezuelan composers. In the same year, he participated in the foundation of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Venezuela, of which he was the director. In 1936, he was named director of the Escuela Superior de Música José Ángel Lamas. As conductor and director of the only symphonic orchestra of the country, he greatly influenced the musical panorama of his time. He developed an important work of research, collection, and harmonization of Venezuelan folk songs that were his way of expressing his nationalist vision and by protecting Venezuelan music from external influences. He arranged approximately 250 songs for voice and piano, and among them are various notable cycles titled Canciones populares venezolanas. He also harmonized Sephardic songs.

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Figure 2.6  The Song “Cuando el caballo se para” is a Joropo. Upon Hearing it, One is Transported to the Eastern Plains of Colombia or Venezuela Where Plainsmen, Farmers in the Region, Perform these Pieces with a Harp, a Cuatro and Capachos. “Cuando el caballo se para” by Juan Bautista Plaza. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Eugenia Gassull. https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​track​/6WuT​v8618​njhAz​VWVgd​8kX?s​i=amA​ Z9-lS​B-1Q2​9vvey​q-A. The joropo is a fast dance related to the Spanish fandango. It has a simple form and its melodic structure and rhythms are repetitive, and generally it has two sections that alternate ABAB.

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More importantly, his musical work was his impact on the new generations of musicians. Sojo was responsible for training Antonio Estévez (1916–1988), composer of the iconic Cantata criolla and numerous songs for voice and piano. He was also the teacher of Inocente Carreño (1919–2016), Antonio Lauro (1917–1986), José Clemente Laya (1913–1981), Evencio Castellanos (1915–1984), and Blanca Estrella (1913–1984), among many other notable Venezuelan composers.106 One of his students who previously made great contributions to the song genre was composer Modesta Bor (1926–1998). Bor wrote various song cycles, the majority of them for alto and mezzo-soprano, on the poetry of Venezuelan poets.107 NOTES 1. Anthropologist Eric Wolf speaks of “people without history” to refer to people from illiterate societies or that use languages different from those of the six empires of modern Europe. In this way, history is the privilege of European modernity. 2. Eric R Wolf, Europe and the People without History (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1982), 86. 3. Richard Rorty, Philosophy and the Mirror of Nature (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1979), 22. 4. Scarabino, El grupo renovación (1929–1944). 5. Alberto Williams composed a great number of songs in the nationalist style. His works are mostly stylizations of folk songs. The most outstanding among them are: The cycle Rumores del parque Opus 131, comprised of the songs: “1. Reclamo,” “2. Arpas Eólicas,” “3. Al llegar,” “4. Nocturno en las frondas,” “5. La siesta,” “6. La madrugada,” “7. Atardecer en el parque,” “8. Titular de estrellas,” “9. Vidalita del Payador,” “10. Milonga para ti.” The cycle Canciones femeniles Opus 94 comprised of the songs: “N.1 En el baile - Maldición,” “N.2 En el baile – Aspiración,” “N.3 Después del Baile- Bendición” and the cycle Tres canciones incaicas Opus 45, comprised of the songs: “I. Quena,” “II. Yaraví” and “III. Vidalita.” The most well-known of these songs, “Vidalita,” is written for 2 female voices with piano accompaniment. All were published by Editorial La Quena. 6. Ercilia Moreno Chá, “Alternativas del proceso de cambio de un repertorio tradicional argentino,” Latin American Music Review 8, no. 1 (Austin 1987): 104–106. 7. Isabel Aretz, El folclore musical argentino, 2nd ed. (Buenos Aires: Ricordi Americana, 1965), 68. 8. The huayno is one of the main dances in the region of the Andes. Although it was traditionally an indigenous rhythmic dance, it has been adopted by the mestizos who live in the highlands. It is performed with stringed instruments introduced by the Spanish, such as the harp, the guitar and the mandolin, or with the indigenous charango. Huaynos have a fast tempo, usually in duple meter with two different melodic phrases of equal length that are repeated in a constant form.

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9. An example of the huella dance is found at: http://youtu.be/ubvs8dEY1is. 10. “Pampamapa” by Carlos Guastavino. Performed by Teresa Berganza and Juan Antonio Álvarez Parejo. 11. Deborah Schwartsz-Kates, “The Gauchesco Tradition as a Source of National Identity in Argentine Art Music (ca. 1890–1955)” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 1997), 230. 12. Example of malambo at http://youtu.be/MnLI1G9Mbv8, http://youtu.be/ vVZU4dGz5t8, http://youtu.be/EoPsJh58toI. 13. “Gato” by Alberto Ginastera. Performed by Patricia Caicedo, soprano, Pau Casan, piano. 14. “Zamba” by Alberto Ginastera. Performed by Patricia Caicedo, soprano, Pau Casan, piano. 15. Musical example 14: “Chacarera” by Alberto Ginastera. Performed by Patricia Caicedo, soprano, Pau Casan, piano. 16. The songs of this cycle are dedicated to María Barrientos, Gastón Talomón, Luis V. Ochoa, Enrique Susini, Sarah Sagasta de Sagarna and in memory of Julián Aguirre. Julián Aguirre, the illustrious Argentine composer, had just died the year the cycle was composed. The cycle was published by Ricordi Americana and can be easily be found as it is still published, its edition number is E.A.M.18. 17. Musical example 15: “Canción del carretero” by Carlos López Buchardo. Peformed by Marcos Fink and Cármen Piazzini. 18. Allison Weiss, “A Guide to the Songs of Carlos López Buchardo (1881– 1948)” (MM diss., University of Portland, 2009). 19. This song cycle includes the poetry of Miguel A. Camino, and is made up of the following songs: “Prendiditos de la mano,” “Si lo hallas,” “Frescas sombras de sauces,” “Oye mi llanto” and “Malhaya la suerte mía!” It was published by Ricordi Americana, BA7207. 20. “Copla Criolla” (anonymous popular poetry), “Querendona” (motivos serranos by Tilde Perérez Pieroni), “Canta tu canto, ruiseñor y vuela” (Ignacio B. Anzoátegui), “Acuarela” (Rafaél Obligado), “Lamento – Mírala como ha venido” (anonymous popular poetry), “Porteñita – canción” (María Luz Regas Velasco), “Hormiguita – Canción infantil” (Enrique Amorín), “La canción desolada” (Margarita Abella Caprile), “Canción de Perico” (Fryda Schutz de Mantovani), “Canción del niño pequeñito” (Ida Reboli), “Canción de ausencia” (Gustavo Caraballo). 21. Omar Corrado, “Luis Gianneo-Juan Carlos Paz: encuentros y bifurcaciones en la música argentina del siglo XX,” in Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, Vol. 4 (Madrid: Fundación Autor, 1997). 22. “El mate amargo” by Felipe Boero. Performed by Victor Torres. https​://op​en.sp​ otify​.com/​track​/1fah​aC5GY​jDDpo​IsCRw​QHI? si=sjPrH7h5QGmom42T_cRYAw. 23. María Elisa Pereira, “Mario de Andrade e o dono da voz,” Per Musi 5/6 (Belo Horizonte 2002). 24. Sarah Malia Hamilton, “Uma canção interessada – M. Camargo Guarniero, Mario de Andrade and the politics of musical modernism in Brazil, 1900–1950” (PhD diss., University of Kansas, 2003), 87. 25. Hamilton, “Uma canção interessada – M. Camargo Guarniero,” 88.

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26. Alexandre Saggin Dossin, “Edino Krieger’s Solo Piano Works from the 1950s: A Dialectical Synthesis in Brazilian Musical Modernism” (DMA diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2001). 27. Maria Alice Volpe, “Indianismo and Landscape in the Brazilian Age of Progress: Art Music from Carlos Gomes to Villa-Lobos, 1870s–1930s” (PhD diss., University of Texas at Austin, 2001). 28. Gerard Béhague, “Popular Musical Currents in the Art Music of the Early Nationalistic Period in Brazil, Circa 1870–1920” (PhD diss., Tulane University, 1966), 26. 29. Béhague, “Popular Musical Currents in the Art Music,” 27. 30. Béhague, “Popular Musical Currents in the Art Music,” 57. 31. Julia De Brito Mendes, ed., Canções Populares do Brasil (Rio de Janeiro: J. Ribeiro Dos Santos, 1911). 32. De Brito Mendes, Canções Populares do Brasil, X–XI. 33. Original text: …más se assim é, porque tanto desetimas as cantigas populares, as modinhas, como vulgarmente lhe chaman? Pois não são as modinhas, com as suas deliciosas músicas, o que de mais característico se encontra nos costumes brasileiros? Não são ellas, como a sua nota profundamente terna, incomparavelmente terna; não são as suas músicas, de suave e lánguida melodía, a expressão mais perfeita da doçura da alma brazileira? Pódes apontar-me outra coisa, nos dominios da arte ou fóra d´elles, que mais particularmente recordé os costumes do paiz? Não, de certo. En qualquer ponto do globo onde nos encontramos, e ahí as ouçamos, logo as distinguiremos entra as demais pela forte e suggestiva impressão de caricia e affecto que nos deixan, a nós ou a quem quer que já um dia as tenha ouvido cantar. Estou em afirmar que, na modinha, comprehendida a respectiva música, é que reside, presentemente, o único signal typico do povo brasileiro. 34. Mário de Andrade, Modinhas Imperiais. Obras Completas 19 (Belo Horizonte: Editora Itatiaia, Fac-simile da edicao, 1930). 35. Mário de Andrade, “Origens do fado,” Revista da Música Popular (Rio de Janeiro, N.6 1955): 2–4. 36. de Andrade, Modinhas Imperiais. 37. Léa Freitag, “A dinámica social da modinha e do lundú,” Momento de música brasileira (São Paulo: Livraria Nobel, 1985): 73–77. 38. De Brito Mendes, Canções Populares do Brasil. 39. “Colleção escolhida das mais conhecidas e inspiradas modinhas brasileiras, acompanhadas das respectivas musicas, a maior parte das quaes trasladada da tradição oral pela distincta pianista D. JÚLIA DE BRITO MENDES.” 40. Mário de Andrade, Aspector da música brasileira, 3d ed. (Belo Horizonte and Rio de Janeiro: Villa Rica, 1991). 41. Text taken from: “Distanciamentos e aproximaçoes,” published in Música, doce música (São Paulo: Martins, 2nd ed., 1976), 363–367. The original sentence said: “...arte não é, nunca foi nos seus momentos grandes de manifestacão, a realizacão pura e simple da beleza. A beleza é...uma consequéncia da arte....” 42. de Andrade, Modinhas imperiais, 12. 43. The rules that resulted from the first conference were revised only up until 2005, when they celebrated the fourth meeting of Brazilian song.

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44. Mário de Andrade, “Exposição de motivos,” in Anais do Primeiro Congresso da Língua Nacional Cantada (São Paulo: Departamento de Cultura, 1938), 717–718. 45. Original text: “a pronúncia carioca é a mais evolucionada dentre as pronúncias regionais do Brasil, é a mais rápida e incisiva de todas, apresenta tonalidades próprias de bastante relevo, é de maior musicalidade na pronúncia oral, dá menos impressão de falar cantando, é a mais elegante e urbana de todas as pronúncias regionais, por ter se fixado na capital do país é a síntese das colaborações de todos os brasileiros e sendo a pronúncia padrão a da capital do país onde os brasileiros mais afluem é mais fácil de ser ouvida e propagada, tendo grandes possibilidades de se generalizara pronúncia.” 46. Popular bands of flutes, clarinets, trombones, mandolins, guitars and cavaquinhos (small guitars of Portuguese origin). 47. Lisa Peppercorn, “Villa-Lobos’s Brazilian Excursions,” en Musical Times 113, no. 1549 (March): 263–265. 48. It is said that in 1905 he left the north of Brazil for the states of Espirito Santo, Bahia and Pernambuco and stopped in cities like Salvador and Recife. Later in 1907 he traveled to Fortaleza, Belém, Amazonas and Barbados. 49. Darius Milhaud, “Brésil,” La Revue Musicale (Paris 1920): 60–61. 50. We recall that the nations called “Western” are generally equated with Western Europe and today with the United States, in the process of comparing and contrasting their culture with others, have developmental parameters that make them perceive themselves as “culturally equipped.” They share values, goals, needs and skills or technologies. Moreover “Eastern” nations probably do not share the same values, needs, and may not be at the level of development that allows them to reach the levels of societies that impose models. 51. Mário de Andrade, Ensaio sobre a música brasileira, 3d ed. (São Paulo, Brasilia: Vila Rica; INL, 1972), 1–2. 52. de Andrade, Ensaio sobre a música brasileira, 1–2. 53. The complete and updated list of his work can be found on the website of the Villa-Lobos Museum at the following address: http:​//www​.muse​uvill​alobo​s.org​.br/b​ ancod​ad/VL​SO_1.​0.pdf​. 54. “Lundú de Marqueza de Santos” by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Performed by Cynthia Ortiz and Max Lifchtiz. https​://ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=aRa​AnWcl​ggY&f​ eatur​e=you​tu.be​. 55. Don Pedro I was an interesting historical figure who insisted on the independence of Brazil and composed, as he was a musician, the Himno da Independência and the Hino da Carta Constitucional among other works. The text of this song, written by the poet Viriato Corrêa refers to the Marqueza de Santos, noble title Don Pedro I gave to his lover Doña Domitila de Castro Canto e Melo, whom the emperor called Titilia. 56. “Modinha” by Heitor Villa-Lobos. Performed by Maria Lucía Godoy. https​:// ww​w.you​tube.​com/w​atch?​v=R1O​yWfpR​Ccc&f​eatur​e=you​tu.be​. 57. Flavio Silva, Camargo Guarnieri: O tempo e a música (Río de Janeiro, Sao Paulo: FUNARTE, Imprensa Oficial del Estado, 2001). 58. José Vianey Dos Santos, “Treze Canções de Amor de Camargo Guarnieri,” Per Musi 13 (Belo Horizonte 2006): 72–84.

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59. Treze canções de amor: 1. “Canção do passado”–Poem: Corrêa Junior 2. “Se você compreendesse...” – Poem: Rossine Camargo Guarnieri 3. “Milagre” – Poem: Olegário Mariano 4. “Você...” – Poem: Francisco de Mattos 5. “Acalanto do amor feliz” – Poem: Rossine Camargo Guarnieri 6. “Em louvor do silêncio...” – Poem: Corrêa Junior 7. “Ninguém mais...” – Poem: Cassiano Ricardo 8. “Por que?” – Poem: Camargo Guarnieri 9. “Cantiga da tua lembrança” – Poem: Rossine Camargo Guarnieri 10. “Tal vez...” – Poem: Carlos Plastina 11. “Segue-me” – Poem: Quadra popular 12. “Canção tímida” – Poem: Cleómenes Campos 13. “Você nasceu...” – Poem: Rossine Camargo Guarnieri. 60. Quote taken from de Mário de Andrade, Música e jornalismo (São Paulo: Edusp, 1993), 332. “Talvez sejam os Lieder a parte mais acessível, mais amável de criação de Camargo Guarnieri. Persiste neles, é certo, aquele ascetismo básico do pensamento musical deste paulista, que o leva a não fazer nenhuma concessão a nós outros, indo à mais amarga, à mais desértica dedução lógica de seu próprio pensamento e individualidade: mas sempre a linha cantada de Camargo Guarnieri se reveste de maior sensualidade, é mais gostosa por assim dizer, tomando as suas bases mais constantemente na melódica das modinhas,” p. 311. 61. “Vai azulão!” by Camargo Guarnieri. Performed by Patricia Caicedo and Irene Aisemberg http:​//www​.yout​ube.c​om/wa​tch?v​=edK1​Chwn6​2U. 62. Alejo Carpentier, “La música popular cubana,” Revista Bohemia, n.40, 1.10.71:20-22. 63. Ramiro Guerra y Sánchez, Historia elemental de Cuba (La Habana: Edición Cultural S.A., 1940). 64. Emilio Casares Rodicio (dir), Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana, Vol. 5 (Madrid: ICCMU, 1999), 431–436. 65. The Grupo Minorista was a group of young people who did not belong to any political party or organization and that came from the petty bourgeoisie. They reached national and international prestige because, among other reasons, they prompted the split from cultural backwardness that existed in Cuba, even though they knew how to value its past and, at the same time, they knew how to incorporate the newest artistic trends. For this reason, the members of the Grupo Minorista were those who propelled the development of avant-garde in Cuba through the diverse genres and by different ways of realization, which led them to open themselves to the intellectual world and establish strong links with similar groups of the continent and Spain. 66. Casares Rodicio, Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana 432 67. William J. Bennett, The last best hope (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 2006), 471. 68. Upon his arrival to Havana, he served as a music teacher and as a musician in the Symphonic and Philharmonic Orchestras, becoming concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana and later, in 1932, its director. In 1931 he founded the Escuela Normal de Música where he taught harmony and composition. He died at age 39. 69. A belief system that unites the Yoruba religion, brought from Africa by slaves to the Caribbean region, with the beliefs of the Catholic religion. 70. A male fraternity or Afro-Cuban sect, that appeared in Havana in the nineteenth century. Its origins lie in the Calabar region of Nigeria and southeastern

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Cameroon. Members are called ñáñigos and its code of conduct is based on honor and good social behavior. 71. Matías Barchino Pérez and María Rubio Martín (Coord), Nicolás Guillén, hispanidad, vanguardia y compromiso social (Cuenca: Ediciones de la Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, 2004), 56. 72. Cintio Vitier, Lo cubano en la poesía, 2d ed. (La Habana: Instituto del Libro, col. Letras Cubanas, 1970), 420. 73. Alejo Carpentier, Obras Completas XI. Ese músico que llevo dentro (México: Editorial Siglo XXI, 1986), 9. 74. Carpentier, Obras Completas XI, 9. 75. The Cuban composer Alejandro García Caturla was the eldest son of a distinguished family of generals, governors and attorneys of the city of Remedios. At the age of 17 he was the center of a scandal by taking a family servant of African origin as a companion. 76. In the tradition of santería, the bembé ceremony or toque de santo is a celebration ceremony for favors received from the gods and in which the most rewarding experience of any assistant is to be chosen as the speaker of the gods. Usually a bembé is celebrated in domestic intimacy of the house where anyone can have their santería altar to Ochún, Yemayá, Obatalá o Babalú Ayé. It also can be convoked on a solar, which is the name given to the dense Havana neighborhood-houses, chaired by a central courtyard surrounded by balconies. In these ceremonies are an excited atmosphere of smoke, music and rhythm. Rhythm and melody are inextricably linked to bembé, which thus becomes a prayer dance. 77. José Lezcano, “Afro-Cuban Rhythmic and Metric Elements in the Published Choral and Solo Vocal Works of Alejandro Garcia Caturla and Amadeo Roldan” (PhD diss. Florida State University, 1991). 78. Carpentier, Obras Completas XI, 89. 79. Robin Moore, Nationalizing Blackness (Pittsburgh, PA: University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997), 96–97. 80. Cinthya Vich, Indigenismo de vanguardia en el Perú: un estudio sobre el Boletín Titikaka (Perú: Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú, Fondo Editorial, 2000), 65. 81. The creation of this group is due to the momentum of the Argentine ambassador to Perú, Robert Leviller. 82. Zoila S. Mendoza, Creating our own: Folklore, Performance, and Identity in Cuzco, Peru (Duke University Press, 2008), 15–18. 83. Considered the father of anthropology in Peru, Luís Eduardo Valcárcel Vizcarra (1891–1987) was a historian and researcher of Pre-hispanic Peru and one of the main figures in the Peruvian indigenous current. His work sought to revalue Incan civilization and Andean culture. 84. Fernando Emilio Ríos, “Music in Urban La Paz, Bolivian Nationalism, and the Early History of Cosmopolitan Andean Music: 1936–1970” (PhD diss., University of Illinois, 2005), 71. 85. Published in the newspaper: La Razón, January 8, 1936. Cited in Ríos, “Music in Urban La Paz,” 94.

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86. Published in El Diario, January 11, 1936. Cited in Ríos, “Music in Urban La Paz,” 98. 87. Ríos, “Music in Urban La Paz,” 72. 88. Taken from El Diario, June 7, 1936, 4. Cited in Rios, “Music in Urban La Paz,” 97. 89. Hans C. Buechler, The Masked Medya: Aymara Fiestas and Social Interaction in the Bolivian Highlands (The Hague, Paris, New York: Mouton Publishers, 1980), 45. 90. Roberto del Carpio wrote the songs: “Canción” (1926), text by Guillermo Mercado; “Ya dormir” (1926), “La cristalina corriente” (1928), text by Mariano Melgar, “Alba de sueños” (1931), “Dos canciones” (1938), “Cava panteonero” Lied, text by José María Eguren. 91. Notes from the presentation made by the Master Valcárcel in the meeting: “Songs Across Americas” celebrated in La Paz, Bolivia in August 2003. 92. Gómez Suárez de Figueróa (1539–1616), known as the Inca Garcilaso, was a Peruvian writer and historian considered the first biological and spiritual mestizo of America. His work Comentarios Reales de los Incas, published in 1609, exposed the history, culture and customs of the Incas and other peoples in ancient Peru. 93. Felipe Guamán Poma de Ayala (1534–1615), was an Indigenous chronicler in the Viceroyalty period of Peru. He wrote the book Primer nueva corónica y buen gobierno. In his work, he showed the Indigenous vision of the Andean world, and reconstructed in detail aspects of the Peruvian society after the conquest. 94. Colegio de Compositores Latinoamericanos. Contrapuntos, Ediciones Archipiélago, México D.F. 2000, p. 127. 95. Theodoro Valcárcel, Cuatro canciones incaicas (Paris: Edicions Senart, 1936). 96. The Cuatro canciones incaicas can be found recorded by Patricia Caicedo and Eugenia Gassull on the CD: Lied: Art Songs of Latin America Vol II (Mundo Arts Records, 2005). https​://op​en.sp​otify​.com/​album​/3lCI​6O2Bi​iQDv2​K3RiT​Csp. 97. Caicedo, La canción artística en América Latina. 98. In Caicedo’s anthology the songs are published in Quechua and Spanish and with a phonetic transcription of the Spanish version. 99. Andrés Sas was born to a Belgian father and a French mother in Paris. He studied music in Brussels at the Royal Conservatory. In 1924, the Peruvian government contracted him as a violin instructor at the Academia de Música Alcedo, where he remained until 1927. He established himself from that date forward in Peru. In 1929 he married Peruvian pianist Lily Rosay (Margarita María Lucila Rosay), with whom he founded the Academia Sas-Rosay. 1,285 students studied at the academy, including composers Cesar Bolaños and Édgar Valcárcel. It was active until 1965. In 1951, Sas was named director of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música. Throughout his life, he dedicated himself completely to research of Peruvian folk music, music that profoundly influenced his compositions. 100. Born in Wrocław in 1910 he studied composition in Berlin with Vladimir Vogel, piano with Winfried Wolf and orchestra direction with Robert Robitschek. In 1938 he moved to Peru, where he was professor of oboe, and subsequently professor

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of composition at the Academia Nacional de Música Alcedo (later named the Conservatorio Nacional de Música). At the end of this same year he founded the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional, which he joined as a violinist. In 1945 he became deputy director of the orchestra. 101. The members of the “Círculo de Bellas Artes” began to paint local landscapes, costumbrista descriptions of the local landscape, full of color that reflected light and a tropical lifestyle. Manuel Cabré (1890–1984), was recognized as one of its most important representatives. 102. Pedro Rafael Aponte, “The Invention of the National in Venezuelan Art Music, 1920–1960” (PhD diss., 2008), 13–14. 103. Founded in Caracas in 1781, thanks to the work of Juan Manuel Olivares as docent and Father Pedro Ramón Palacios y Sojo (known as Father Sojo), who was the main instigator, financier and organizer. This musical movement resulted in the training of over 30 composers and 150 instrumentalists in Venezuela during eighteenth century. The origins of the Chacao school date back to 1771, when Father Sojo returned from Europe and Bishop Mariano Martí was installed in the oratory of San Felipe de Neri. There, Father Sojo realized one of his life’s most important aspirations: serving God using art and culture, especially music. Appointed music director of said district, Juan Manuel Olivares, who worked alongside Father Sojo, awoke a generation of composers who ultimately formed the so-called Escuela de Chacao. The name of that music education center came from the place where students met periodically to study and play music: Father Sojo’s La Floresta estates; Father José Antonio García Mohedano and Bartolomé Blandin’s San Felipe estates, and one in Chacao. 104. Juan Bautista Plaza, “Urge salvar la música nacional,” Cultura Universitaria LXXXIX (Caracas: Universidad Central, Oct/Dec. 1965): 66–69. 105. http:​//www​.fund​acion​juanb​autis​tapla​za.co​m. 106. Felipe Izcaray, “The Legacy of Vicente Emilio Sojo: Nationalism in Twentieth-century Venezuelan Orchestral Music” (PhD diss., The University of WisconsinMadison, 1996), 56–113. 107. Among the vocal works of Modesta Bor are two cycles of romanzas and songs for alto, and a cycle titled Tríptico on Cuban poetry. The second cycle of romanzas are found in my Latin American art song anthology published in 2005.

Chapter 3

New Facets of the Concept of Nationalism in the Twentieth Century

ART SONG SINCE 1940 Around the 1940s and at the same time that songs were being composed in the nationalist style, composers began to write works in which the national element presented itself in an abstract and subjective manner. That is to say, they produced works that subjectively alluded to folklore and cited folkloric elements in such an elaborate way that these elements were hardly recognizable, integrating international avant-garde techniques and languages into their compositions. This inclination responded to the composers’ desire to follow the international trends and dream of achieving a universal voice. With respect to art song, we begin to find works that were written following the most modern trends in composition; these works often did not incorporate any folkloric elements. With this stance Latin American composers, aside from expressing their desire to adhere to international trends, on some level rebelled against the assigned roles given to them by the cultural centers of power that tacitly limited their compositional range in the creation of works in a national style. Works composed in this period had clear Latin American identities and could be considered as national as their “nationalist” ancestors when adopting Dalhaus’s definition of nationalism. Dalhaus argues that national music is music composed with the intention of reflecting a national context even though composers may not use folk motifs or music in which audiences recognize traces of national identity. Subjective and intangible, intention and recognition are as powerful as the explicit inclusion of folk motifs. Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre (Recife, 1939) illustrates this position, responding to my question, “Do you consider yourself a nationalist composer?” as follows: 95

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No, I do not consider myself a nationalist composer. Moreover, and more than that, I hate any kind of “nationalism” and deeply detest any connection of my work or my aesthetic with nationalism. For me the nationalist aesthetic has been a big mistake, even in Brazil. From very early on I realized that what was done was something false, absolutely empty of meaning, like putting folk themes or pseudo-folklore in a symphony, or concerto, making a species of pseudo-nationalist neo-classicism. The folk theme appears in many of these “nationalists” works as a poor element, treated with a classical petulance, which meant to me something like: “See, now you are much more valued, coming out of your poverty and enriched with the dress of the ‘great music.’” For me the national is something much deeper, more serious. The composer born in Brazil, and especially in a region rich in folklore on the streets such as Recife, is not the same composer born in São Paulo, a metropolis almost equal to a smaller New York, or any other of the type. In that way the influence of the popular music of a country on a creator from that country is either something deep, natural, or it is not. It is not possible to accept that someone wants to make themself a “national composer” just by using the “clichés” recognized by Europe always looking for the exotic in our cultures. Our profound music is never “exotic,” it is profound. One of the greatest evils of musical life today is exactly the fact that Europe want to impose “its” vision of Latin American exoticism, or Brazil, as the only way they think acceptable as “Latin American culture.” Not wanting to (or do they do it on purpose?), they look at the exotic of our countries as the only possible form of music, above all, that they would accept as valid. This vision, still colonialist, seems to me the greatest evil of nationalist “clichés” that still exist in the European mentality. Right now, as of recent, a Mexican piece, with all the possible Mexican clichés has been a great success and arrived at the Berlin Philharmonic and not by chance. I think this orchestra has never played anything by Villa-Lobos, Ginastera, or Chávez, but this little work (aside from being an arrangement of a Mexican song from a low-quality film from the 1960s) is the biggest success of Latin American music in Europe in our days. That is symptomatic: Europe has not changed and remains in its imposition of telling us, to us, what we must do to please them. It’s like they say: the music would be, the great music, well that is only for our creators. You Latin Americans go make your pseudo-folkloric arrangements. The Tico-tico was not a popular samba of Rio, it was arranged by some European orchestrator and sadly it was the only Brazilian work played by the Berlin Philharmonic ever, under the direction of Daniel Barenboim. A shame!1

Nobre’s words resonate, almost like an echo of Mário de Andrade in his “Ensaio sobre a música brasileira.”2 Some of the composers that represent the style of composition of this time, and who have most contributed to the enrichment of the genre of song are: Alberto Ginastera (1916–1984) in Argentina; Carlos Chávez (1898–1978)

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and Silvestre Revueltas (1899–1940) in Mexico; Jaime León (1921–2015) in Colombia; Antonio Estévez (1916–1988) and Modesta Bor (1926–1998) in Venezuela; Marlos Nobre (1939) and Osvaldo Lacerda (1927–2011) in Brazil; Edgar Valcárcel (1932–2010) in Peru; and Agustín Fernández (1958) in Bolivia, to name just a few. In this period, social, political, and population movements determined the simultaneous appearance of characters who might seem to be antagonists for using languages and aesthetic positions that are complete opposites. However, they precisely represent a historic moment of adjustments, transition, and negotiation. Composers with a variety of styles and trends were simultaneously working in different points of Latin America, painting a diverse and varied sonorous panorama. Postmodernity had arrived. In the same place and moment, opposing figures who appeared to belong to different contexts and historic moments were composing, such as Juan Carlos Paz (1901–1972) and Carlos Guastavino (1912–2000) in Argentina; Jacqueline Nova (1935–1975) and Jaime León (1921–2015) in Colombia; or Waldemar Henrique (1905–1995) and Osvaldo Lacerda (1927–2011) in Brazil. The contrasts were enormous in the radical aesthetic positions. For example, in Argentina, Juan Carlos Paz opposed the use of folkloric elements in music and tended to experiment with more modern sounds. Carlos Guastavino, on the other hand, was a composer who wrote a substantial vocal repertoire strongly influenced by folk music, whose romantic, nostalgic and melodic language related more to the styles used at the end of the nineteenth century. Moving forward, I will present some composers who wrote in this time period in which their diversity in their coexisting languages and aesthetic stances will be apparent. Alberto Ginastera: From a National Style to a National Atmosphere Born on April 11, 1916, in the city of Buenos Aires, Alberto Ginastera studied at the Conservatorio Alberto Williams and at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música y Artes Escénicas de Buenos Aires with teachers including José André and Athos Palma. While still a student, Juan José Castro premiered his Panambí suite at the Teatro Colón which was very positively received. Between the years 1934 and 1940, Ginastera wrote various pieces in a nationalist character, among them his Danzas argentinas; his Dos canciones, “Canción al árbol del olvido” and “Canción a la luna lunanca”; and his Cantos del Tucumán. In this first compositional period, strongly influenced by folk music, Ginastera frequently used the pentatonic scale as well as a pseudo-pentatonic scale

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that was associated with indigenous music. His Dos canciones, written in 1938 on the poetry of Fernán Silva Valdés, clearly illustrate his style in this period. Aside from incorporating folkloric rhythms, Ginastera used poetry that referred to local landscapes. Written closely in the folk song style vidalita, “Canción al árbol del olvido” consists of three sections AAA. As heard in the video (https://bit. ly/2Mq5apa) the first part of the song, in the key of F minor, begins with a rhythmic and slow piano part in the left hand, which is maintained throughout the entire piece. With a more imaginative and abstract text than the first song, “Canción a la luna lunanca” is written in the style of folkloric songs, with a metric characteristic of 3/4 in the vocal line and 6/8 in the accompaniment. Hear the song here: https://bit.ly/1HQNBEU. Ginastera’s song cycle Cantos del Tucumán, on poems by Rafael Jijena Sánchez, also belongs to this time period. The songs allude to indigenous and mestiza music, which is noticeable in the melodies, sonorities, in the instrumentation and use of native percussion instruments which suggests a conscious approach to nationalism. From 1941 and until 1945 Ginastera went through a prolific period of composition in which he wrote the dance suite for the ballet Estancia, the overture for the creole “Fausto” and his song cycle Cinco canciones populares argentinas. This song cycle for voice and piano, composed in 1943 and inspired by folkloric melodies and texts, was probably influenced by the model of Siete canciones populares españolas by Manuel de Falla. Made up of the songs “Chacarera,”3 “Triste,”4 “Zamba,”5 “Arrorró,”6 and “Gato,”7 the cycle transmits a nationalist sentiment in a clear and objective manner through its explicit use of national motifs. In the same year, he wrote the cycle Las horas de una estancia, on the poetry of Argentine poet Silvina Ocampo (1903–1993). This cycle was dedicated to Catalan soprano Conxita Badía who was living in Argentina during this time. The cycle premiered in Montevideo in 1945 and differed from his previous vocal works. It did not directly incorporate folkloric or national motifs, reflecting the composer’s search for other languages and a desire for internationalization. His composition was based more on mystic and symbolist nature of the poetry that recreated mysterious and nebulous spaces with a very impressionistic aesthetic. The evident contrast between the two cycles, which pertain to distinct forms in the expression of nationalism, clearly illustrates how in the same moment different forms of expressing the national being can coexist, even within the same composer. In Las horas de una estancia, Ginastera displayed an expansion in his harmonic language and began his path toward a more subjective nationalism, an atmospheric nationalism. This cycle foretold the development in his style

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that would come in the subsequent years, representing the direction that Latin American composers would take in the years to come. In his own words: I think that I have reached what I was looking for back in 1944. My ballet Estancia and some small pieces for piano, violin and cello, and equally my song cycles are an expression of an objective Argentine sentiment. In my own development, I learned to approach this situation from another point of view. No longer am I interested in finding an intrinsically Argentine language because I understood, that, if I come to reach a personal language, this inevitably will by expressing my environment. Therefore, I am not seeking a national style, I seek a personal style. I think that I am on the path to achieve it in my recent works Concierto para piano and Cantata para América Mágica.8

Ginastera greatly influenced his contemporaries thanks to the pedagogical labor that developed from the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales del Torcuato di Tella (CLAEM), a center for education and musical creation of international relevance founded in 1962 and active until 1970. In spite of its short existence, it was an important pedagogical center and platform for technological and creative innovation. Young promising composition students of Latin America passed through its halls, including Coriún Arahonian (1940–2017) from Uruguay; Rafael Aponte Ledée (1938) from Puerto Rico; Alcidez Lanza (1929), Luis Arias (1940), Graciela Paraskavaídis (?), and Luís Jorge González (1936) from Argentina; Jorge Antúnes (1942) from Brazil; Alberto Villalpando (1940) and Florencio Pozadas (1939–1968) from Bolivia; Blas Emilio Atehortúa (1943) and Jacqueline Nova (1935–1975) from Colombia; César Bolaños (1931–2012), Edgar Valcárcel (1932–2010), and Alejandro Núñez Allauca (1943) from Peru; Mesías Maiguashca (1938) from Ecuador; and Chilean composers Gabriel Brncic (1942), Miguel Letelier (1939), and Iris Sangüesa (1933), among many others. CLAEM’s laboratory of electroacoustic music, created in 1964, was a pioneer not only on a Latin American level, but on a global level for its research and creative activity. Carlos Guastavino: The Voice of Tradition Guastavino’s contribution to Latin American art song repertoire is one of the most important and appreciated by international interpreters and audiences. Born in Santa Fe, Argentina, in 1912, Guastavino intermittently studied music from an early age. His first vocal works, written in 1939, already displayed his use of national motifs through the application of rhythms or folk melodies. His life’s path and education led him to develop an interest in folklore early on, and he collaborated with important advocates of his country’s folklore, such as Eduardo Falú and Atahualpa Yupanqui, during the development of

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the folkloric movement. His songs address different styles, but they all share one thing: beautiful melodies that directly and efficiently communicate the emotions and sensations described in the poems. In his time, he was branded as anachronistic, marginalized for considering himself a composer anchored in a romantic language and for directly referencing folkloric motifs. Without a doubt, the use of folkloric elements in his work expressed his symptom of a language, an aesthetic and sensitivity coherent with the composer’s intimate personality and sensitivity. At the same time, it reflected his life history and experiences within the world of folk and popular music. His output of approximately 250 works includes school songs and love songs written in different styles that correspond to different creative periods throughout his life. His numerous song cycles, all with texts in Spanish, include works influenced by folklore. This influence can be observed through the poetry and music, and especially in the cycles titled Doce caniones populares, Cuatro canciones argentinas, and Canciones populares argentinas. Guastavino appears to consciously seek to contribute to a national sound in these works. An important component of his vocal works is the Hispanic influence in Guastavino’s selection of poetry and use of melodic and harmonic motifs. His cycles reflecting this tendency include Cuatro sonetos de Quevedo on the sonnets of Spanish poet Francisco de Quevedo y Villegas, his Tres canciones sobre poesías de José Iglesias de la Casa, the Siete canciones sobre poesías de Rafael Alberti and Las nubes on the poetry of Luís Cernuda. Guastavino exhibited an extraordinary ability to set poetry while always respecting the natural rhythm of the words. His melodies enhanced the meaning of the text and demonstrated his understanding of the voice. Music and performer serve the poetic text in all of his works. Guastavino represents the composer who kept his personal style independent from the fashionable trends and styles of the era. In all of the Latin American art song repertoire, Guastavino’s songs are among the most performed and recorded. This is due, in part, to the fact that the majority of his songs were published. Ricordi Americana, Editorial Lagos, and Editorial La Quena were the primary publishing houses that printed his works. Access to scores in addition to accessible music, clear melodies, and the wise selection of poetry made Guastavino a favorite composer among singers. Additionally, his works have received numerous recordings, analysis, and musicological studies that are included in the bibliography.9,10,11,12,13,14 Jaime León: A Pan-American Voice Born in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia, in 1921, Jaime León had contact with music from a young age thanks to the influence of his parents, who were

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both professional musicians. In 1924, the family moved to the United States where he began taking private piano lessons in 1929. In 1935, León returned to Colombia and enrolled in the Conservatorio de la Universidad Nacional in 1937 to begin his career as a pianist. In 1941 he returned to New York to study at Juilliard School of Music, graduating in 1945. There he would continue to study orchestral conducting and composition under the tutelage of Edgard Schenkmann, Vittorio Giannini, and Bernard Wagenaar. During his studies in New York, León maintained constant contact with Colombia, where he frequently traveled offering piano recitals. Finally, in 1947, he was named director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Colombia and professor of the Conservatorio Nacional. A few years later he returned to New York to conduct various orchestras in operas and musical theater productions. In 1955, León was named assistant director to the orchestra of the American Ballet Theatre. León definitively returned to Colombia in 1972 as the director of the Orquesta Filarmónica de Bogotá. León’s formative years were the period of time in which composers such as Irving Berlin, George Gershwin, Cole Porter, Richard Rodgers, and Harold Arlen, among others, composed the songs that would later become part of the famous American Songbook. Later, during León’s professional career in front of various orchestras, he would experience the splendor of American musical theater in its epicenter, New York. There, musicals were being premiered, such as West Side Story and Wonderful Town by Leonard Bernstein, who also directed the New York Philharmonic. Having been immersed in this environment, in addition to his continuous travel between the United States and Colombia, greatly influenced Jaime León’s personality and compositions. His work as a song composer began in 1951 when he composed his first song for voice and piano: “Aves y ensueños,” the first of a hearty production of vocal works inspired by the works of Colombian poets. Even though his first works display a marked influence of French impressionism and American musical theater, his later compositions integrated national Colombian motifs in an elaborated manner, achieving complex and subtle abstractions of folk rhythms. From his first songs, León displayed a great facility for melodic line, in respect to the intrinsic rhythm of the poetry. This is also due to his profound understanding of the vocal instrument; León wrote simple vocal lines and reasonable breath markings, taking into consideration the needs of the singer, and understood the ideal vowels for high notes and syllabic accents that coincided with the rhythmic motifs. He was interested in infantile themes; of his thirty-eight songs, eighteen address childish themes: lullabies, Christmas songs, and songs in which the narrator is a child describing their observations

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and life experiences. León also dedicated an important part of his work to the topic of love, his preferred poet being Colombian Eduardo Carranza, setting his poetry in ten of his songs.15,16 In his music, one can observe European, American, and Colombian influences, turning the composer into a true exponent of musical Pan-Americanism. Jaime León was a transnational composer whose music reflects complex identity interactions that freed the composer from the limits of the nationstate. It allowed him to interact, decipher, and represent values and aesthetics that pertained to his various places of residence. The Nueva Canción Latinoamericana Movement and Its Relation to Art Song When speaking about Latin American popular song during the twentieth century, it is essential to focus on the repertoire of the Nueva Canción Latinoamericana, or New Latin American song movement. This repertoire developed in the second half of the 1960s, particularly in Cuba with the Nueva trova cubana, in Chile with the Nueva canción, and in Brazil with the Tropicália movement. The nueva canción was the sonorous materialization of profound cultural and political movements that took place in Latin America and around the world. This was the era of the Cuban Revolution, the Vietnam War, Paris of 1968, Alcoa of 1970, and the Tlatelolco massacre, among other movements. Strongly influenced by popular folklore, nueva canción extended to different artistic and political areas. It contributed to the development and strengthening of a social and political consciousness associated with leftist ideologies while, at the same time, contributing to the creation of a national sound. Its appearance and acceptance benefited from the demographic movements that drove millions of people from the countryside to the city, with all the conflicts, changes, losses, and gains that a shift of this magnitude could generate. For those who migrated from the countryside to the city, nueva canción represented both a reunion with their history and past life, and a tool that allowed for the construction of a future. This past-modernity dialectic soundly materialized in song as a point of intersection between traditional sonic textures and elements of electronic music, jazz, and symphonic music. Nueva canción was elevated in favor of the country, while simultaneously hoisting the banner of continental identity and a shared Latin American destiny. As in art song, nueva canción played the lead role in the symbiosis of music-text; in this way, the texts of nueva canción described the fields, the plazas and urban spaces, the struggles between the countryside and the city, loneliness, the love of couples, country life, social injustice, communication

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Figure 3.1  Excerpt of “La campesina” Written by Jaime León with text by poet Isabel Lleras Restrepo. The composer uses the bambuco rhythm in its ancient modality characterized by being in 3/4 while incorporating extensions traditionally used in jazz. The text is especially interesting since it narrates the harsh conditions of life in the country for a woman, describing the interior landscape of the country-woman and the exterior landscape surrounding her. The composer achieves a synthesis of folkloric and regional elements represented by the rhythm and the text, with international elements ­represented by the harmony and elements of jazz. Hear it at: https://spoti.fi/2EIP07M.

problems, and pain in a manner similar to the minstrel tradition. However, its texts explicitly and critically incorporated political and social themes that until that time had not been widely expressed. For this reason, they managed to gain recognition in the lower classes of society who identified with their messages.

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The nueva canción texts represented the aspirations of a people living in the everyday dramas of inequality and sought to contribute to repairing the social fabric through the use of music and poetry. In their search for authentic human values, nueva canción also emerged as a combative response to the “imperialist” influence of the United States. It is important to note as well that the American Folk Revival movement flourished around the same time in the United States, sharing numerous characteristics with nueva canción. The songwriters of this period became symbols of struggle and thus managed to transcend the limits of time and geography, becoming icons that are recognized even today: Violeta Parra, Margot Loyola, Victor Jara, Patricio Manns, Inti-llimani, Pablo Milanés, Silvio Rodríguez, Mercedes Sosa, Caetano Veloso, Gilberto Gil, Gal Costa, Nara Leão and Rogério Duprat, among others. With text occupying such a prominent place in this genre, it is no surprise that poets have also played leading roles in the movement. The great poets of the Spanish and Portuguese languages were set to music, resulting in the democratization of poetry by drawing it closer to the people. This approach was complicated as far as diffusion mechanisms were concerned, since it came to light in the margins of the music industry, often attacking the orders of power. For this reason, nueva canción was seen as necessary to the development of new ways of relating to the public and new spaces of diffusion to reach their target audiences. The spaces par excellence were universities and clubs frequented by young students and workers where the guitar was a central instrument in the creative process and dissemination of repertoire. Singersongwriters were often accompanied by guitar, using simple harmonies that could be easily learned and reproduced by audiences and sung in clubs and informally at get-togethers. The spread of this genre in the popular sectors was often facilitated by political entities with access to sports clubs, cultural centers, youth groups, and neighborhood and civic participation spaces. The close direct contact between singers and audiences is a hallmark of this genre which provided, as never before, a space for the public to be heard and to actively participate in building a genre presented as a tool for constructing the future. The Nueva canción latinoamericana stands from its beginning at a point of intersection between folk and popular song, constituting a unique case in Latin America in which one clearly observes the sound effects of social and political movements. From the point of view of promotion and commercialization, it is interesting to note that the movement that began as a paradigm of the authentic, distant from commercial interests, ultimately made its way into commercial popular music networks; similarly, this shift also occurred in

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the American Folk Revival movement. Nueva canción is a genre that is very closely related to art song by giving prominence to the poetic message and performing it, at least initially, in intimate spaces similar to those that gave birth to Lied. NOTES 1. Interview granted to the author on March 18, 2011. 2. Andrade, Ensaio sobre a música brasileira. 3. “Chacarera” is a fast folk dance that combines 3/4 and 6/8 meters. The melody in C major is maintained throughout the tonality, but it is enriched by dissonant chords. The text is picaresque and has double meaning. 4. “Triste” is a slow and melancholic song. It has a slow piano introduction of mysterious and delicate character in which the composer makes reiterated use of the G tonality embellished with pentatonic scales. Between the sung phrases, the accompaniment arpeggios simulate guitar chords. 5. “Zamba,” another dance in 6/8 with syncopated accompaniment, is a slow, sad, and slightly ethereal song. The melody is in F major and the accompaniment goes between F and D minor reflecting a typical form of Argentine folk music of indigenous origin. The arpeggios that go beneath the melodic line bestow a mysterious air to the song through its use of polytonality. 6. “Arrorró” is a slow, mysterious lullaby. The text is well known throughout most of Latin America and is recreated here in the key of G major. Ginastera adds an ostinato in G to create a sensation of mystery and slowness that induces slumber. 7. “Gato” is a song inspired by the folk dance of the same name that combines both 3/4 and 6/8 meters. Rhythmically it is similar to malambo. The melody is written in 6/8 while the accompaniment is divided: the right hand in 6/8, and the left hand in 3/4. The melody is written in C major. The accompaniment maintains the tonality but adds in dissonance. It is a fast song with picaresque text and is demanding for interpreters. 8. Alberto Ginastera, “Alberto Ginastera Speakes,” Musical America 82/10 (October 1962): 10. 9. Silvina Luz Mansilla, “Carlos Guastavino,” El mundo de la guitarra 5 (Sept– Oct 1988): 2–4. 10. Silvina Luz Mansilla, Bernardo Illari, and Melanie Plesch, “Guastavino, Carlos Vicente,” in Emilio Casares Rodicio (Ed.), Diccionario de la Música española e hispanoamericana (Madrid: Sociedad General de Autores y Editores, 1999). 11. Wagner, “Carlos Guastavino.” 12. Silvina Luz Mansilla, ed., Cinco estudios sobre Carlos Guastavino. Homenaje en su centenario (Buenos Aires: UNL, 2015). 13. Silvina Luz Mansilla, ed., La obra musical de Carlos Guastavino. Circulación, recepción, mediaciones (Buenos Aires: Gourmet Musical, 2011). 14. Jonathan Kulp, “A Study of his Songs and Musical Aesthetics” (PhD diss., The University of Texas at Austin, 2011).

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15. The vocal works of Jaime León were edited in two volumes by Patricia Caicedo. The books include the composer’s scores, biography, and chronology, in addition to poet biographies, phonetic transcriptions, and English translations of the poetry, and a Spanish diction guide. 16. Caicedo, The Colombian Art Song.

Chapter 4

Toward a Musical Transnationalism or the Dissolution of Borders

Living far away, close to a quarter of a century without interruption, allowed me to examine many of our things with fresh eyes, supported by memory, in instinct and in the Guatemalan land that I wear on the soles of my feet. The intensity of returning, under my conditions, I do not believe anyone has ever had. My people woke up, broke their chains and with their fervor created a climate of anthem wherever they were. My compatriots, without the lens of that experience, perhaps inaccurately or exaggeratedly judged some of my impressions. The environment, for them uninterrupted and customary, does not show them the same dark or vibrant reliefs and nuances. They are, in a way, invalidated when warning about details and when grasping them with the virgin precision that without intending to, even by violent social agitations, forcibly, has brought reality to me in the past ten years. Excerpt from Guatemala, las líneas de su mano1 by Luis Cardoza y Aragón, 1901–1992

The second half of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first presented a new scenario for nationalism. Far from disappearing, nationalism renewed itself being simultaneously old and new, and reaffirming itself in a global world where boundaries dissolve. The ideologic ambiguity of the nation and the mobile boundaries of space made it obligatory to rethink what is considered national. Persistence and reactivation of nationalism bring to light the necessity of individuals to form part of a group and give meaning to their existence. This situation contrasts with the crisis of the concept of national identity that revolves around the traditional state. This crisis has been precipitated by events such as globalization, growing mass migration, and the advent of

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information technologies. Many people’s identities at present are constantly negotiated between social universes that extend beyond one single “nationstate.” Due to its hybrid character, national identities of the Western nations experience a growing fragmentation.2 We enter into a period that highlights the dissolution of the subject-object dichotomy, affirming that neither of the two entities is able to exist independently from the other. In musical terms this dissolution demonstrates that the composer and their surroundings are inseparable. Regardless of their musical language, composers will always reference their national environment, or in contemporary terms, a global-transnational environment. Again, confusion is generated between the concepts of transnationalism and identity because many people’s networks of transnational exchange are based on their perception of a shared or common identity. TRANSNATIONALISM: MULTIPLE PLACES OR THE NON-PLACE Born in the so-called high modernity, transnationalism refers to several types of global connections between groups that are found in different nation-states and that belong to different ethnic groups that share an “identity,” or a subjective and/or objective form of seeing themselves and imagining themselves and their relationships with others.3 Many social networks are based on the perception of certain groups who believe they share some characteristics that make up what they call their “identity.” This identity is frequently related to a language, a geographical place of origin, a religion and generally shared cultural characteristics. At present we are witnesses to the global migration of multitudes of people who leave their country of origin, or the place that they consider home, for political and economic reasons with the resulting life and identity readjustments that occur when reestablishing oneself in another space. These accelerated migratory movements displace distinct communities to unfamiliar territories. In these new spaces, the migrants and their descendants encounter new social conditions, developing new ways of life promoted especially by capitalist politics and globalization. Migrations and advancements in communication technology have had much to do with the changing global panorama. The constant flow of people, goods, information, and symbols had a profound impact on the “creators” and the “audiences” at the international level. Historically speaking, Latin America has been one of the regions of the world that has most intensely experienced migratory movements. In the

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twentieth century alone millions of people from all over Latin America were pushed by the need to seek new horizons in different countries, living their lives as foreigners while never ceasing to be Colombians, Cubans, Argentines, Mexicans, Guatemalans, Venezuelans, and so on. The national identities then took on a new role as a meeting point of imagined communities that share place of origin and cultural attributes. Group and subgroup, national and ethnic identities are maintained and constructed in exile, and continental identities are constructed, such as that to which we refer when we speak of the “great nation.” An identity of Latin American is built and added to the national identity. I myself have experienced this situation; after several years of living in Catalonia, I feel Catalan, and through my years in the United States, I feel affiliated with some of its values. This situation is not uncommon in today’s society where millions of people build an identity in pieces. The personal feeling described above represents a clear example of what Mitchell Cohen called rooted cosmopolitanism, a cosmopolitanism that accepts a multiplicity of roots and branches and rests in legitimizing plural loyalties that are divided into diverse circles but share common ground.4 Nationalist sentiment in this case manifests itself as one of the plural loyalties, which does not enter into conflict with cosmopolitanism. In the 1930s, Guatemalan poet Luis Cardoza y Aragón said: “I discovered my land in Europe. I traveled thousands of miles to finally intuit who I was.”5 At the dawn of the twenty-first century, transnational subjects discover our land from afar, at the same time that we discover new lands that we adopt as our own. To the extent that we traveled and discover new worlds and cultures we develop new parcels of our beings. Like a puzzle we build ourselves, developing new national transnational, local, and regional identities, new loyalties that add to each other. This situation is also experienced by countless composers. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Latin American composers frequently traveled to study in Europe. During the twentieth century the United States was included in their itinerary, amplifying their vision of the world and of the self, of the “I am,” due to a distant perspective. As García Canclini says: “If Cubism and Futurism nurtured the styles of painting in Latin America, and not just the images of the same countries, it was because Diego Rivera, Antonio Berni and Torres García acquired a vaster vision from Europe.”6 Globalization has served as a catalyst for these processes of exchange and transformation. This phenomenon, which many consider new, is actually very old, according to definitions such as that of Held7 who affirms that globalization is the “emergence of interregional networks and systems of interaction and exchange.” These networks of exchange can be mercantile, military, cultural, or religious. Seen this way, globalization dates back to

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the most remote antiquity, as far back as Mesopotamia of 200 BC or the development of the Silk Road. This definition contrasts with that of Anthony Giddens8 who links contemporary globalization with recent technological developments. In the Latin America of high modernity, the ability to travel, which until recently was the privilege of a few artists, intellectuals, and people with purchasing power, is now within the reach of many diverse groups. The ability to travel is driven by other motivations, the primary being the search for job opportunities and the hope of finding a better life from an economic standpoint. This population change has generated changes in cultural consumption and is giving way to new markets of transnational identities, one of these markets being that of the Latinos. To cite García Canclini: Music has themed this multi-localization of the places from which it comes. It is a long process, beginning at least since the onset of radio and film that promoted Carlos Gardel in Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela, Agustín Lara in Argentina. In Chile and ten other countries, the Veracruz soneros and Puerto Rican salsa in all nations of the Caribbean and even beyond. “Where are the singers from?” the Cuban song keeps asking.9

This trans-local dissemination of culture, and the consequent blurring of territories, sharpens now, not only because of travel, exiles, and economic migration. It is enhanced by the way in which lifestyles are restructured and shared imaginaries are disintegrated through the reorganization of music, film, and television markets.10 We find ourselves then before a different transnational subject: immigrant groups have entered into the social and economic fabric of economically industrialized countries like the United States and Western Europe and at the same time maintain their ties to their country of origin. Although this situation is far from new, the novelty appears when information technology appears accessible to all, facilitating the maintenance of social relationships despite the distance. In addition to the massive use of the internet, phones, video cameras, and so on are new laws of the global market and the ease of mobility. Aside from the groups motivated by poverty and need, there are new groups of transnational migrants that exist. These migrants belong to a new upper middle class and are professionals who immerse themselves into international work networks, constructing a new transnational elite that perceives itself as cosmopolitan. These new transnational subjects possess intellectual and economic capital that allows them greater mobility. When I asked a group of contemporary Latin American composers whether they considered themselves nationalist composers, they responded:

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Gilberto Mendes, Brazil, 1922–2016: “No, because I have a very cosmopolitan nature. I want to make it clear that I have a very cosmopolitan and eclectic musical nature, and I am equally interested in Brazilian popular and erudite music.” Manuel de Elías, Mexico, 1939: “Not nationalist, but decidedly national because I belong to my context, to my daily reality.” Max Lifchtiz, Mexico-USA, 1948: “No, I consider myself more cosmopolitan than nationalist . . . or trans-nationalist. Juan María Solare, Argentina, 1966: “Not at all. Because I think that the category ‘nationalist’ or ‘national’ creates an artificial limit. However, I think my music perfectly reflects my home country and the many countries where I have been. But in a natural way, without disguising myself already more than I am. Inevitably. They say Leo Tolstoy said something like ‘describe your village and you will be universal.’ I think the topic or the (musical) language can be local, everyday, national, but the ‘message’ transcends the local, the circumstantial, the anecdotal. And there is no contradiction between the two dimensions.” Luís Pérez Valero, Venezuela, 1980: “I do not consider myself nationalist. My music is very different from what surrounds me in the socio-cultural environment of my country and my region.” Fabián Roa, Colombia, 1984: “No, I consider myself a Colombian composer that feeds on all kinds of music and art no matter where it is.”

Although relatively new on a social level, transnational mobility has been a common practice in the world of the arts and music especially since the nineteenth century. Since then the most prominent or promising creators, mostly belonging to the elite, have traveled to major cultural centers to study and expand their arsenal of creative tools. The radical difference is that this type of mobility is now within reach of a larger group and is mediated by electronic communications that impact how people relate to their place of origin and place of reception. One can “travel” in various ways, whether with their body, imagination, or virtually. These transnational subjects develop tools that allow them to contextualize others and their culture, and “decipher” or interpret the different signals coming from other cultures. These experiences and attitudes necessarily alter the perception of self and one’s own identity. One of the most outstanding aspects among transnationals is their sense of self-transformation. They feel that their experience gives them tools to better manage different environments, people, and cultures, and helps them to be tolerant by giving them the opportunity to experience different perspectives and ways of seeing the world.11 In high modernity, one’s identity becomes an organized construction process, a reflexive project of self that is continually revisited to build new

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narratives. We continuously write our autobiography in contact with a world that puts us in touch with multiple courses of action and lifestyles. Identity is continuously constructed and reconstructed. When I asked composer Juan María Solare if the act of living or having lived in a different country had an influence on his compositional style, he responded: One is subjected to one hundred influences but assimilates just a few: those that resonate on the inside, those that find correspondence with ourselves. And it is very possible that these inner energies had awakened elsewhere, where it has always been met with a corresponding trigger. An additional factor of some force is that who lives abroad has no sovereignty. Permanently hanging over your head the sword of Damocles of “not really belonging” and “having to please” to avoid an even greater social and institutional rejection. And this can dangerously influence the aesthetics, making it more conservative, more accessible, more condescending.

In high modernity, we are faced with the reality of separation of time and space12; this situation contrasts with that of premodern cultures whose activities were always tied to a specific time and space, leading to the development of an “empty” time dimension. Modern organizations assume the precise coordination of actions of different people who are physically absent or disconnected from one another. Individuals can develop activities that have impact in remote places. This situation has also affected music, since the connection that existed between the folk motif and a specific region has disappeared. We can be linked to a culture without being physically in the territory that gave it origin; in fact the same territory disappears, becomes universal and diluted. In a conversation with Brazilian composer Gilberto Mendes (1922–2016), he remarked: I have traveled a lot, twenty times to Europe, but I have only lived in the United States, twice, where I was a visiting professor at the University of Texas and at the University of Wisconsin. It didn’t have any influence [on my compositional style] at the time, because I had already had a great influence of North American popular music, especially American song, those sung by Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra and also the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, all this I heard during my childhood. This popular music of the United States has influenced me a lot, much more than popular Brazilian music.13

Music and songs, then, are places of intersection, of crossing influences; territories in passing, as the port cities where smells, tastes, textures, ways

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of being and to enunciate are mixed and remixed together. This is seen in the letter that Brazilian composer Osvaldo Lacerda (1927–2011) sent me on January 4, 2006: I am sending my last song, that I dedicate to you. I hope you like! It’s called “Oraçao de Tagore,” in it I use some melodic constants of Afro-Brazilian religious music. Nationalism is also a technique! Could it be that a song can have such a degree of universality? Look at this: poetry—Indian, music—Brazilian, melodic influence—African, singer to whom it is dedicated—Spanish.14

A Transnational Composer: Moisès Bertran Moisès Bertran illustrates a situation common to many contemporary composers. Born in Mataró, Catalunya, in 1967, he studied at the Conservatorio del Liceu in Barcelona in the areas of piano and music theory. Later he completed a doctorate in musical arts at the Hartt School in Hardford, Connecticut, in the United States. Since 2001 he has lived in Colombia, a country where he has developed an important part of his career and where he obtained citizenship in 2011. Bertran represents an interesting case having made a path, if one could say, in reverse. Moving from Europe to Latin America his music reflects a “contemporary” form of nationalism. When I asked him if he considered himself a nationalist composer, this is the response he gave: No, because, although there are national influences in my music, these are from so many nations that in the end, my music is a pan-national or transnational composition. You can find in my music influences both Catalan and Spanish in the broad sense of the word, Colombian, Latin American and also from the United States and other parts of the world.15

With his words, Bertran presents himself as a transnational individual. If we use Dahlhaus’s definition of nationalism, we can see how the composer does not identify with the “national style,” but when we analyze his music we find references to his culture of origin, that is, his music projects a set of cultural values of a nation with a shared, subjective cultural identity. These elements are perceived by the composer, the performer, and the audience. In the Third Forum of Composers of Latin America and the Caribbean, the musicologist Béhague said: More than the composers of the nationalist generation, the avant-garde have known how to mediate sounds of their works through their own humanity, rethought and rebuilt in accordance with the socio-cultural concerns of an existential moment. And it is in this sense that the Caribbean composer has not

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ceased to be “national” although he has refused, from the beginning, the previous nationalism. The significance of the obvious, in the immediately nationalizing area, has not ceased, therefore, to contribute to the dynamic but multiple concept of nationality, be it Cuban, Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, but always of a symbolic manner.16

A while ago I asked composer Marlos Nobre if he intended to project values belonging to the places in the world where he has lived, and he responded: I have never had that kind of intention: the composer who wants to deliberately express such and such value belonging to the country is in truth, reducing their work and their art. It would be a very loose goal, very small for a true creator. The work of art of every true musical creator, that is if we do it truthfully, is ALWAYS an intense projection of the environment of each composer.17

The posture and the work of Bertrán agree with what was previously expressed. In the first song of his cycle Tres poemas de amor, entitled Escrito es en mi alma (https://spoti.fi/2MkxQ37), he uses a poem by the Spaniard Garcilaso de la Vega (1501–1536). The song has a declamatory, almost spoken character, but its accompaniment uses motifs from the cante jondo that place the work in the Spanish context. The work incorporates impressionistic harmonies and dissonances that expand the national environment, reflecting the composer’s life journeys. The second song of the cycle, Deja que el viento pase (https://spoti.fi/2vJwF3L), uses the poetry of the Chilean Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) and the third, Abrázame fuerte (https://spoti.fi/2MiNMDT), poetry by the Colombian Juan Pablo Serna Aguilar (1982). In the words of Bertran, his music projects his stay in Catalonia, Colombia, and the United States and has received influences from great universal composers. His music expresses his internal and external movements and projects the environments and values of ​​ the cultures he has inhabited and traveled, transforming him into a transnational composer. PC: Do you feel like a Colombian composer? If so, what things can be identified in your music as Colombian? MB: I feel like a Colombian composer, but above all, I feel like a composer. I feel like a Colombian composer because I have lived and worked in Colombia for seventeen years. The influences of Colombia are in my music, and for sure the musicologists will find it. These influences are especially evident in my work for twenty-two pianos Suite Homenajes or in the collection of songs with poetry by the Colombian poet Rafael Pombo entitled Sobre fábulas y verdades. PC: Do you consider yourself a Catalan composer? Why?

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MB: I am above all a composer. For having been born in Catalonia and for feeling that land and its ways in a profound way, there is much influence of Catalunya in my music: rhythmic, phraseological, expressive . . . PC: What influences does your music have? MB: I have already mentioned most of them, I don’t want to miss mentioning great composers like Ravel, Poulenc, Français, Stravinsky, Bartok, Messiaen.

We should assume then that being transnational allows for the coexistence of various identities, but at the same time reaffirms the identity of the nation of origin. We are faced with the paradox of the subject who identifies with elements of the cultures they visit; this subject is integrated into the culture and takes on habits and positions of the adopted culture, while simultaneously being an individual who is constantly reminded of their place of origin. At the beginning of the chapter we mentioned that the transnational reality created spaces and opportunities for previously marginalized minorities to close the gap between the center and the periphery. During the nineteenth century the Latin American composers who traveled to Europe for training adopted techniques and mannerisms with the end of learning to sound the same way as their European contemporaries. At that time, they experienced national mobility in a different way because the Latin American nations were incipient, without a formed identity, and so they sought to shape an identity by imitating the developed countries. In contrast, the contemporary composer relates to their environment as an equal; although they still carry to some degree the burden of belonging to a developing country, they relate as an equal since they adopt and integrate the different cultural elements of the places they visit into the language they know better, the language of their country of origin. It must also be said that the Latin American composer is by definition inserted into the discourse of Western musical thought. To what extent the composer incorporates and internalizes the elements of the cultures that they go through will be what defines them as a cosmopolitan composer. If remaining with Thomas Turino’s definition of cosmopolitanism, this is a “situation in which local people internalize foreign ideas and practices as their own. This means that foreign dispositions become the local habitus.”18 Since the final years of the twentieth century, modernist-capitalist cosmopolitanism has been the predominant cultural force at the international level. Defining cosmopolitanism is a complex challenge because it is a concept that is used in many ways and with multiple levels of depth; it ranges from the common use of the word describing someone or something sophisticated to the use that places it in the context of specific social and political positions.

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The word itself evokes a basic human desire, an ideal, perhaps an unachievable dream. From Diogenes’ use of the word to define a citizen of the world, the word connects us to a sense of place and concrete circumstance. It is a term full of contradictions closely linked to ideas like global concepts, the nation, hybridity, diaspora, and multiculturalism.19,20 At this point, it is necessary to reconsider the concept of rooted cosmopolitanism explained by Cohen who states that act of being cosmopolitan does not conflict with being a national subject. This refers again to the multiple loyalties that multi-locality offers subjects, something smoothly observed since the late twentieth century until the present. Although at first glance one might think that the cosmopolitanism quarrels with nationalism, however, upon closer look cosmopolitanism and nationalism share many characteristics. These shared traits are due to the cosmopolitan subject relating to multiple places, translating national sentiment to the multiple places inhabited. It is, in some way, a form of nationalism that expands in concentric circles and integrates the multiple loyalties. In asking composer Juan María Solare if he considered himself a nationalist composer, and whether he believed his works represented the values of ​​ his country of origin, he responded: No, not at all. Because I think that the category “nationalist” or “national” creates an artificial limit. However, I think that my music perfectly reflects my home country and the many countries where I have been. But in a natural way, without disguising myself of who I already am. Inevitably. They say Leo Tolstoy said something like “describe your village and you will be universal.” I think the topic or the [musical] language can be local, daily, national, but the “message” transcends the local, the circumstantial, the anecdotal. And there is no contradiction between both dimensions.

Transnationalism, Cosmopolitanism, Multi-locality, Neo-nationalism? We find ourselves at a time when mobility, multi-locality, and access to technology are ​​available to composers early on in their training. They are in contact with a virtually infinite diversity of sound, rhythm, melody, and text. Contemporary composers are connected with music from around the world in some of the most diverse styles. In conversation with the Brazilian composers Gilberto Mendes (1922– 2016) and Edmundo Villani-Côrtes (1927), I noted that already in the early decades of the 1930s and 1940s of the twentieth century, these composers had much more contact with and were influenced by international music heard through the then popular radio. Remember Mendes’ statement:

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The American songs sung by Bing Crosby, Dorothy Lamour, Fred Astaire, Frank Sinatra, the orchestras of Tommy Dorsey, Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, I heard all of it since my childhood, popular North American music influenced my music much, much more than the music in my Brazilian environment.

Similarly, composer Edmundo Villani-Côrtes remarked how the music that most influenced him was that which he heard on the radio, especially songs from the musicals of the United States, popular French music and very “popular” classical pieces. The master openly acknowledges his ignorance of Brazilian folk music. This phenomenon is somehow “normal” considering that the young composers took hold of the music that they had at their reach, I wonder about the processes that contemporary composers are experiencing, in a society where technology has made music from around the world available to all. For the composer it presents the challenge of connecting with their real-local environment as opposed to their virtual-global environment, which is much easier to access. I cannot help but think that the phenomenon occurred during a good part of the nineteenth and early twentieth century when composers had more contact with and knowledge of European music than contact and knowledge of the music of their national environment and of folk music in general. Is history repeating itself, but this time on a global scale? Should this worry us? If we think of the composer as a “translator” of their culture, an antenna that receives and interprets signals, we should be concerned to think that the composer is a “representative” sample of what happens in their national environment, an environment continuously bombarded by sounds and global events from the virtual world. At this point the words of Venezuelan composer Luís Pérez Valero (Barquisimeto, 1980) become interesting: PC: Do you feel that you belong to a specific musical trend? Luís Pérez Valero (LPV): So far, I feel like I belong to a generation addicted to MTV.21 PC: What have been the main musical influences in the works that you compose? LPV: The main influences have been Christinne Mennesson, Béla Bartók, Igor Stravinsky, Miles Davis, and Led Zeppelin.

The contemporary composer would then codify the global sounds, translating them into their culture in an unconscious way. In this way, they would always be referring to their local-national environment. Seen this way, the composer is always making nationalist music; what varies in the style is that the nationalistic music today can be made in any international style, using any technique, any instrumental combination, any kind of scale or rhythm. In this day and age, nationalist music may be, in the end, anything.

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NOTES 1. Luis Cardoza y Aragón, Guatemala: las líneas de su mano, 4th en (Mexico: Fondo de Cultura Económica, 2005), 68. 2. K. Bhabha Homi, “Introduction: Narrating the Nation,” in Nation and Narration (New York: Routledge, 1990), 25. 3. Steven Vertovec, “Transnationalism and Identity,” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies 27/4, no. 10 (Oct 2001): 573. 4. Mitchell Cohen, “Rooted Cosmopolitanism: Thoughts on the Left, Nationalism, and Multiculturalism,” Dissent 39/4 (1992): 483. 5. Luís Cardoza y Aragón in Néstor García Canclini, Latinoamericanos en busca de su lugar en este mundo (Buenos Aires: Editorial Paidós, 2002), 23. 6. García Canclini, Latinoamericanos en busca de su lugar en este mundo, 24. 7. D. Held, A. McGrew, D. Goldblatt, and J. Perraton, Global Transfromations (Cambridge: Cambridge Polity, 1999). 8. Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity (London: Polity Press, 1995), 71. 9. Canclini, Culturas híbridas, 89. 10. Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 28. 11. Deniz Tukay Erkmen, “Deciphering Professionals: Transnationalism and Cosmopolitanism in Comparison” (PhD diss., University of Michigan, 2009), 41. 12. Anthony Giddens, Modernity and Self-Identity (Cambridge, UK: Polity Press, 1999), 16. 13. Interview realized with Gilberto Mendes by the author. 14. Osvaldo Lacerda, Letter written to Patricia Caicedo on January 4, 2006. Original text: Estou lhe enviando mina última cançao, que dedico a voce. Espero que goste! Chama-se “Oraçao de Tagore,” e nela uso algunas constancias melódicas da música afro-brasileira religiosa. O nacionalismo é tambem uma técnica! Será que essa cançao tem a tal de ….universalidade? Veja: poesía – India; música – Brasil; influencia melódica-Africa; cantora dedicanda-Espanha.” 15. Interview realized with Moisès Bertran by the author on April 30, 2018. 16. Gerard Béhague, “La problemática de la identidad cultural en la música culta hispano-caribeña,” Latin American Music Review 27/1 (Spring/Summer 2006): 38–46. 17. Interview realized with Marlos Nobre by the author on March, 15, 2011. 18. Thomas Turino, Nationalists, Cosmopolitans, and Popular music in Zimbabwe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000). 19. James Clifford, “Diasporas,” Cultural Anthropology 9, no. 3, Further Inflections: Toward Ethnographies of the Future (August 1994): 302–338. 20. Mark A. Cheetham, “A Renewed Cosmopolitanism: Specifying Artists, Curators, and Art-writers,” The London Consortium Static (December 2008): 4. 21. The composer refers to Music Television (MTV) http://www.mtv.com/.

Chapter 5

Performance Practice of Latin American Art Song

Song was born together with man and his need to express a subjective interior and to make it universal, by means of communication and participation. It is for this reason that the song does nothing but show what man is, and from its origins it has had a close relationship with the problems of existence and the environment in which that existence develops. Victor Jara1

Latin American art song, a genre that has played an important role in the development of national aesthetics, is paradoxically unknown by the general public and by singers, who perform using techniques acquired in Eurocentric music institutions. It becomes necessary, then, to explore the concept of performance practice to provide elements that contribute to “recognizing” or defining what is and what is not a Latin American art song. This need arises from the fact that it is a genre of boundaries that are blurred and difficult to discern; a fact that, added to the almost complete ignorance of its existence, contributes to making its interpretation and dissemination even more difficult. Classical singers that consider the performance of a work written by a Latin American composer have difficulty recognizing what type of work to include in their programs and are wary of approaching the music without knowing if they are in the territory of art song or folk song. Fewer still know about the style of performance.2 This confusion may be because classical singers train in very structured environments; rigid and immovable norms are set in regards to the style of performance and interpretation, sound emission, and a strict adherence to the score. These are patterns that condition singers from the beginning of their training and that in some way limit their capacity for improvisation, their creativity, and their ability to learn by ear core skills 119

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in performing folk and popular repertoires. These rules, coming mainly from the central-European musical tradition, are accepted and incorporated into the performance of Latin American and/or Iberian repertoires, without questioning their validity. This stance determines the aforementioned disorientation, having in general negative results when taking on the repertoire, either in its performance or in the teaching of it. As a result, classical singers would perform a work by a Latin American or Iberian composer in the same way that they would perform an operatic aria or a German Lied as their training in central-European repertoire dictates. However, this approach to performance distorts the style and decontextualizes the piece. Performers, listeners, and music agents alike run into the difficulty of “defining/placing” the Latin American art song repertoire in part because the educational institutions do not include these repertoires in their curricula. Therefore, performers are not familiar with it because these same institutions prioritize and validate the teaching of central-European repertoire over Latin American. For this reason, it is necessary to situate and define Latin American art song using the study of its performance practice as a tool. THE CONCEPT OF PERFORMANCE PRACTICE The etymology of the word “performance” refers to an action by which something is revealed or gives shape to something (coming from the Latin formare, which means “to give shape”); “performance” can be applied to any area of life ​​ such as sports and art. In the field of art and music, this “shaping” is manifested in the moment of executing a musical, theatrical, or artistic piece. The concept itself is very complex because it can give shape to a text or piece on many different levels: psychological, physical, sensory, and emotional. To shape a musical work, multiple media are used simultaneously, overlapping one another. In the case of song, the body, voice, word, scenery, movement, and color, among others, are used. The general context of execution creates the complex network of the performance. This situation requires an interdisciplinary approach to the performative fact of the song, which includes other disciplines such as anthropology, history, theater, psychology, music, and literature. We face a particularly complex situation.3 The first element that appears in the structure of performance is the performer: the singer. It is through the singer’s body-mind and their vocal, facial, and corporeal expression that the artist gives shape to a text and communicates to an audience; in addition to the aforementioned elements, items such as costume, makeup, jewelry, and ornaments can also contribute to the

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performance experience. The score becomes a roadmap, a written code that needs to be deciphered and complemented by the performer in each execution in a changeable manner. The performance is then a dynamic space that allows each performance of the work to come to life differently. Musicology has defined performance practice as “the way the music has been performed (especially in regard to the relationship between the written notes and the sound obtained).”4 This definition is centered on the structure and reconstruction of sound, leaving out socio-historic, sensory, emotional, and spatial considerations that have influenced the performance. For this reason, I want to extend the concept of performance practice to one that methodologically integrates the study of the sound and its context.5 The musical phenomenon cannot be separated from its sociohistorical-cultural environment, and even less so in performance, the only way music can live. Music only exists in its performance.6 PERFORMANCE: A SPACE OF COMMUNICATION BETWEEN PERFORMERS AND AUDIENCE In performance, the performer possesses specific skills which give life to a work in a special and unique way. The performer is a bio-psychosocial being who projects their own context, emotions, and way of conceptualizing music into the work, and therefore onto the audience. The audience also projects their own emotions and values in the moment of performance, ​​creating a space of intersection between the performer and the receiver, which is unique and individual for each of the participants. This point of intersection between performer and audience exists as many times as there are people in the audience: a unique and individual space between performer and each member of the audience; a space between performer and audience as a group; a space of intersection among the performers themselves and between the performers, as a group, and the audience collectively. The audience, in turn, is made up of bio-psychosocial beings that project their own needs, desires, expectations, emotions, and ways of seeing and interacting with the world. One way or another this audience will respond to the extent that the music performed resonates within their own world of values and ​​ helps them to project part of their identity in the performance. As long as an audience member identifies with some aspect of the performance, a point of communication will be achieved. This reception is conditioned and limited by infinite factors ranging from the ability to perceive the soundsimages-smells, the cultural references, the level of education, and the status of mood and vital moment, to mention a few.

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However, the role of the audience has suffered a transformation with the arrival of postmodern thought. One of the most important contributions of postmodernism has been precisely the defense of consumer aesthetics (listener-audience) in contrast with the romantic and modern period where the dominant aesthetic was the producer (composer). In the context of postmodern thought, when consumer aesthetics (listeneraudience) are favored, the observation of the performance becomes important both from the point of view of the performer and from the audience. From this premise, I will try to place the genre of song, define its different types, and analyze the genre of Latin American art song through the study of its performance. THE PERFORMANCE OF ART SONG: AN INTEGRATIVE SPACE The performance of song is by definition demanding and complex. Analyzing a song from a purely musical point of view would be as limiting as analyzing it based on text alone. In the execution of song, a multitude of communication levels are brought into play to connect with an audience. The ability of the song to convey feelings-situations-contexts, coupled with its extraordinary versatility, has made ​​it possible that diverse repertoires have adjusted over time to different aesthetic patterns. At the same time, songs have adapted to the emergence of new technologies, adding on new social functions as transmitters of culture, giving rise to an industry that generates millions in economic benefits. As a result of the dynamic interaction of its constituent elements (text, melody, instrumental accompaniment, performance, etc.), song is an expressive form that produces diverse levels of meanings. Even when songs are printed in scores, in performance there are elements that cannot be captured on paper: vocal inflections, pronunciation, particular intonations, character, and pauses. All these subjective elements are derived from the knowledge that the performer has of the work and its context; these elements form the complex fabric of elements involved in the performance of song. It is for this reason that we approach the study of song and its performance; it is essential to also carefully analyze vocal use in song’s interpretation. To achieve the transformation of an audience, the singer needs preparation, a kind of initiation. This “initiation” usually begins in childhood, when the singer comes into contact with musical and poetic language, being exposed to a nourishing environment of symbolic content, sounds, ways of doing and being, and words and means of expression. A singer must have a deep connection with their surroundings, because consciously and unconsciously they

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absorb elements that result in melodic inflections, uses of the body, production of sound, use of language, and other “stylistic” elements. Style is nothing more than a reflection of culture and environment projected onto a specific individual.7 From the moment in which Lied went from being a repertoire performed in bourgeois salons to being taught at conservatories and universities, Lied singers are trained in such institutions where they learn Western classical vocal technique; a technique whose objective is to achieve a particular sonority, a potent sound with the least amount of force to avoid damage to the physical structures of sound production. To acquire the characteristic sound of their voice and the ability to perform the repertoire, the classical singer undergoes a discipline of technical study that is embedded into the tradition of the scientific method. That is to say, they undergo a process that follows a “set of fixed steps beforehand with the goal of reaching valid understandings through reliable instruments.”8 In the process, the singer is accompanied by the teacher, who guides and helps to interpret the road “signs.” Ideally, the teacher serves as a mirror to help “shape” the student’s sound and adapt it to the style requirements which, at the same time, respect the unique features of the singer’s instrument. In learning classical singing technique, the singer manages to become conscious of a set of mechanisms (respiration, relaxation, posture, projection) that must be coordinated at the time of singing in order to achieve the ultimate goal of emitting a clean, powerful, constant, and uniform sound. While the text is being sung, they must coordinate all these elements which are involved in the production of the sound. The classical singer must also immerse themselves into the style of each type of repertoire that they take on. This is achieved by studying the score and listening to other singers who have previously performed the repertoire, whether that be making use of recordings or attending concerts. In the training of the classical singer, learning to read notated music (scores) is necessary, while improvisation and learning by ear are not encouraged. To advance in the proposal for the performance practice of the Latin American art song is useful to first understand the different types of song and their contexts of execution. ART SONG AND ITS PERFORMANCE A composition for solo voice with piano or guitar accompaniment came to be known as Lied in Germanic countries during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Its most notable features were its brevity of form, a close relationship with poetry, and the intimacy of its performance context. The main

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motivation in the composition of Lieder was to emphasize the poetic text. Melody, accompaniment, and performer are all at the service of the word and the poem to emphasize its significance. Traditionally, Lied has been studied from the point of view of the composer, in relation to the music, text, and audience. Little attention has been paid to the relationship of performers (singers) with their materials and the effect this has on the moment of performance. This is due largely to the fact that in this genre, it is particularly difficult to separate the singer from the character he or she plays. The singers do not use costumes, characterization is not required, there is no scenery, and there are no elements that help to distance singers from their character. For this reason, these two beings, singer and character, are easily confused. If we add the fact that the singer generally internalizes poetic ideas distant from the context in which the performance is realized (salon or concert hall), the act of singing becomes a complex act of emotional exhibitionism and a form of self-performance. That “nudity” in performance and the lack of external means to help the performer to give life to their characters give Lied both its characteristic simplicity and great interpretive complexity. Performing Lied will always be a challenge for singers because it requires a great imagination, a wide palette of colors, clear diction, the ability to control dynamics, and a technique that allows one to speak openly and honestly. Leon Gray’s definition provides interesting clues: The art song is consciously composed as such, self-limited and musicalized poetry or prose for solo voice, developing a central idea or developing a mood in a particular musical form that combines the strength of text, of melody and of accompaniment. The end result is adequate for the performance in the context of a formal recital of “legitimate” vocal music.9

According to this definition of art song, the main purpose of the art song composer is to provide an artistic solution to the musical-aesthetic challenge imposed by the text. In exposing themselves in the environments where “classical” music is performed, singers are also subconsciously learning a whole set of social codes that are part of the performance ritual: ways of dressing, ways of moving on the stage, gestures and communicating with the accompaniment, among others. Habitually in classical singing, one searches for an economy of ways of corporeal expression, since all of the responsibility in communicating the message lies in the voice and in its inflections and intonations. This expressive economy is probably related to the philosophic dualism10 that favors the use of the mind over the use of the body; this validates intellectual production while it discredits the use of the body. In the words of Descartes, “the body is

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irrational and corrupt, physical sustenance that only serves to exercise itself in the material world.”11 In the move from the bourgeois salons to the concert halls, Lied lost a major part of what gave it its essence and what defined it. The almost familiar intimacy of the space, the sensation of freedom in knowing that only in this context certain intimate feelings could be made public, the containment, the unnecessary production of a large sound, all of these features mutate when Lied leaves its original context and becomes the “sacred” genre that makes up one of the three pillars of Western classical singing. Already in larger spaces—concert hallsthe singer is seen to be obligated to use a technique that allows them to grow in the intensity of sound, often sacrificing the constitutive central element of Lied: the poetry. FOLK SONG AND ITS PERFORMANCE Learning folk repertoire also has its “method.” This is not found recorded in books, but rather it is transmitted orally from one to another. In this world, the singer empirically imitates the performances of songs, and thanks to rehearsals and repetition, one begins to acquire the tone and use of the characteristic voice whose emission is learned in an intuitive manner. In this process, the learner is accompanied by other singers and instrumentalists, who are generally of an older generation, to guide them through the process. I refer to the words of the great flamenco singer cantaor Enrique Morente, which illustrate this process very clearly: The singing begins to be born inside upon hearing others sing in our village, upon hearing people sing in our land. Groups of people that you hear that meet in a tavern and start singing and you hear them and you start to sing too: you hear at family parties everybody sings and everybody drinks, everyone dances and. . . . Other than that, it turns out that, of course, you need a technique, you need a school, you need to learn. For that, what you are missing . . . the main help is your community; and after, the sense to know who you have to learn from and from what sources, where the good is. Then you leave.12

The scenarios in which the folk repertoire learning process develops include community events, gatherings of friends that perform the repertoire, parties and competitions that progress in level of professionalism, starting with school, intercollegiate, and provincial, until arriving at national-level competitions. This learning process develops in large part in private places with people who share similar interests and likes, such as family parties or gatherings of groups of friends; it is very similar in its essence to the original environment in which Lied initially developed.

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In Latin America, it is customary even today to meet with friends and sing songs accompanied by guitars and other easy-to-transport instruments. Parties frequently take place where people share music and perform from a common “songbook.” At these meetings, the differences between singer and audience are diluted because everyone participates to a greater or lesser extent in the performative event. In this way the folk singer shapes their voice and an empirical technique that may increase in its complexity, almost always acquired unconsciously. The folk singer is usually not able to dissect and explain his or her technique as a coherent and structured process as the opera singer would. This situation is also due to the fact that folk music has not been part of the teachings of the conservatories and music schools that have structured practice in a consistent and gradual manner. This does not mean that this situation could be achieved in those aforementioned repertoires, but one has to keep in mind that the very nature of orality of the repertoire has constituted an obstacle to the systematization of a methodology. Added to this is the Euro-centrism of the conservatories that have resisted institutionalization of these practices including them within their curricula. The folk singer has been shaped by their environment and their culture; it is difficult to separate them from their neighborhood, customs, and socialcultural-historical-geographical milieu, and so on. In this sense, it is a genuine product of a land, comparable to a product with “denomination of origin.” On the other hand, one can train classical singers in Russia just as in Japan, Germany, or Venezuela, with the same method and the same repertoire. Folk was initially used to order the “customs, manners, superstitions, ballads, fables, proverbs, etc. of ancient times,”13 later to group the cultural heritage of groups or regions outside of the hegemonic centers, and then to describe ways of learning and doing found in specific groups, through oral transmission.14 Tradition, irrationality, and rurality were the attributes that dominated the concept of folklore for many years.15 Additionally, there was the concept of anonymity; those old songs, legends, and poems that pass down from generation to generation, almost always have an unknown and dark origin. This implicitly granted anonymity to folk production is its seal of authenticity. These expressions possess a “local” quality that links them to a specific community, giving them unique characteristics while at the same time revealing their universality. As they represent the experiences and emotions of man and society, they embody the experiences and emotions of larger communities. Locality and universalism are reunited in the concept of folklore. Implicit also was the fact that these terms belong to the community, a social group that was responsible for perpetuating them and recreating them in each interpretation. This dynamic quality that folk expression acquires has

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given it the power to reflect society and its values every time the work is reinterpreted. The folkloric work projects the values ​​of the community because the community only repeats and preserves what they consider valuable, what represents them in some way, what shows its set of values. Motivated by nostalgia, the enlightened elites assumed the mission of rescuing these expressions with the objective of describing them, classifying them and preserving them before their supposed imminent disappearance. In an implicit manner, the aesthetic refinement of art considered coming from the elites opposed the tradition that was associated with the local, the vernacular, and the folkloric; art coming from the sectors of farmers and lower class, the owners of an archaic or devalued culture. This was a situation that brought to light the vertical intellectual/people relationship that was perpetuated previously from musical education institutions. However, in an apparently contradictory form, the folkloric events have historically constituted powerful symbols that have contributed to the unification of heterogeneous and unequal collectives and have helped to build symbols and signs that absorb ethnic, social, and political differences preconditioned for the formation of the nation. Folk song was associated with rural environments in premodern societies, being performed by members of the community who had no professional musical training. In high modernity, the globalizing tendencies and dynamics of society, the reorganization of the concepts of time and space, and the reflexivity of individuals have led to traditional practices being transformed and dynamized. Globalization comprises the intersection of presence, absence and the integration of social events occurring at great distance within everyday life, where the global penetrates the local and vice versa. As a result, globalization has given rise to new types of social relationships that generate new ways performing folk music. With the advent of mass media, folklore expands into other areas of society and manifests itself in nontraditional scenarios, circulating through channels distinct from those of orality, such as radio, television, and the internet. A process of hybridization begins which incorporates new musical instruments, rhythms, amplification, and in general generates spaces of fusion that expand the boundaries of the folkloric. Folkloric expression relocates then to urban spaces, which forces the reformulation of the precept that folk events were relics of the past from bygone social and cultural conditions. The tradition is no longer regarded as the most distinctive diacritical mark of the folkloric; but rather as the efforts made by social agents to situate the folk events in time and space, so that its social and cultural effects remain current; especially in terms of its symbolic role in the affirmation and negotiation of group identities.16

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In this context, folk song maintains itself as a space of representation of meanings and values of the community and a place in which conflicts and tensions are constantly negotiated. It is without a doubt a space of negotiation and communication in which language plays a principal role. Its place is defined by a series of conventions and positions of the meaning-producing agents who re-present their community, their interactions, and values. It is precisely the symbolic action represented by its performers and the identifying effect they have on the community, which allows for the delineation of folk and non-folk manifestations. POPULAR SONG AND ITS PERFORMANCE The popular singer belongs to a different world than those previously described. This world, oriented toward the commercialization of mass consumer products, is primarily governed by the laws of trade and marketing. The goal is to create or build a singer-brand, a product that the general public likes, that sells millions of records and fills huge stadiums for concerts. In the current era dominated by image, worshipping beauty and youth, the popular singer is just one of the many icons representing this set of values. Therefore, neither having a good voice, nor possessing great musicality or technique is what matters in this genre. What counts most of all are physical appearance, charisma, and the “look” that respond to the market they want to reach, generally comprised of youth. The songs are often composed in greatest hits “laboratories” which dissect past successes to achieve the reproduction of melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic turns that produce a bestseller and enter the hit parade. The popular singer is then a performer whose main ability is to combine appearance, dance, costume, and pose in order to generate sales. In this process, the figure of the singer determines aesthetic ideals among their audience and plays an important function as a model to follow among its markets. The concept of showman or showwoman appears in this context. The selling point of these figures is a combination of image, dance, and dress, and their show employs a complex lighting system, scenery, sound, dancers, and a series of elements destined to create an environment which engages the listener and makes them part of the show. All these elements seek to excite the viewer, inviting them to dance, scream, and above all, to feel an active part of a community with shared ideals that they can identify with. A good song is only half the story. It takes a good brand to sell it: the singer. Just as a company makes a logo, a pop song needs an identity, that of the singer, that also gives it media attention. You can spend a million euros on a song, but if the radio doesn’t play it, it is not going anywhere.17

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Technological advances, such as Desktop Music, virtual instruments, and software like Melodyne18, have brought the process of music creation into the popular domain to extremes, a feat unimaginable until recently. You can create vocals and instrumentation, fine-tune singers in and out of the studio, and even in live performances if they are off-pitch. The training of a popular singer becomes a series of attempts in which anything goes, making itself known in the process: reality shows; scandals to attract media attention; fleeting appearances on television, radio, and in newspapers; appearances in charity events, and so on. The end purpose of these strategies is to create a brand around a singer, and gain promotion and visibility in the media. In this process of training, popular song has intermediaries in mass media communication such as radio, television, and the internet. Its performance occurs in massive settings, in clubs, discos, stadiums, the internet; it tends to reflect transient fashions and aligns itself within consumer chains, thus becoming a mass consumer product. It is accepted that the main motivation for producing popular music is economic, being determined more by consumption and consumer profiles than the intrinsic quality of the musical production. When evaluating the success of a popular musical product, one looks at record sales, concert attendance, and popularity indicators. All these indicators have to be translated into monetary value. If it seems perverse to apply such an industrial approach to a creative process, it helps to remember that pop is the only artistic genre that is not governed by its content, but rather by the number of people destined to consume it.19 Tom C Avendaño, July 22, 2011

A clear example of this situation is heard in an interview with singersongwriter Joan Manuel Serrat. He was asked about the elements that he considered important in the composition of a song, to which he replied: ...the songs have to have simple lyrics, which can be understood by everybody. In a similar way, they must have a simple melody that can be sung; if the song cannot be sung by everyone it is of doubtful usefulness.

Juan Carlos Calderón was interviewed in the same program. Calderón was the arranger of “Mediterráneo,” one of Serrat’s most famous songs. Calderón explained the recipe used to make this song a success: “the song should have a catchy rhythm, it should awaken emotion, it should be a little melancholic and mix the guitar (the instrument associated with the singer), with modern arrangements.” In today’s society, popular music mixes elements from different traditions and styles, producing fusions and places of experimentation. Popular

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songs thus present an infinite number of styles and backgrounds. They can be categorized thematically, like so many other songs, into love, patriotic, party, dance, protest, and social songs. They are usually identified by metro rhythmic combinations: merengue, salsa, bolero, reggaeton, bossa-nova and by rhythmic mixes, popularly called fusion. It is interesting to note the way that popular song has often taken experimental initiatives which have contributed to the creation of new styles and have had a great impact on society for its ability to define trends. I think of the inclusion of a classical string quartet recorded in the song “Yesterday” by the Beatles on their album Help! released in 1965, or the use of recording technology to produce new sounds that the same group used for their recordings. Popular music has played then an “offender” role which has brought down barriers and given flexibility to the genre of song. LOOKING FOR BORDERS BETWEEN ART SONG AND FOLK SONG: FOLLOWING THE STEPS OF MARCEL DUCHAMP One of the reasons that led me to observe and try to define the different types of song and their performance contexts was the difficulty I experienced in categorizing the repertoires; this being partly due to my personal experience as a performer, initially of popular and folk song and later, art song. The definitions seemed rigid to me and many songs were left in limbo, unable to be placed. It also seemed to me that some of the songs that I had performed, belonging to the repertoires known as Cuban nueva trova, bolero, nueva canción, or Brazilian songs of the Tropicália movement, might as well be considered art songs. The question that arose was: how do I build a model which is flexible enough to allow the inclusion of these repertoires and in general, to provide me with more mobility? The explanation of these traditionally accepted concepts of art song, folk song, and popular song actually helped me to question these categories, especially that of art song. Marcel Duchamp questioned categories in this same way in the field of painting. Just as Duchamp’s work addressed the viewer of his time, questioning the traditional categories and the definition of art existent at that time, I intend to find new definitions and to loosen, or even destroy, the boundaries separating the traditional categories. The difficulty is that the traditional definition (pre-built object in Bourdieu’s sense), according to most academic institutions, seems to work by itself and does not need any type of contribution or change.20 Duchamp’s contributions interest me because from his work I realized that the viewer completes the creative process not as passive consumers but as an active interpreter.21,22

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PIERRE BOURDIEU AND THE CONCEPTS OF FIELD AND HABITUS APPLIED TO THE STUDY OF SONG Bourdieu’s23 concepts of habitus and field were helpful in the study of art song, and I will use them as tools to develop a model to contribute a new definition of the genre. One of the central concerns of Bourdieu’s work was to unravel the role of culture in the reproduction of social structures. He wanted to understand the way in which unequal power relations are not recognized as such and therefore are accepted as legitimate and are encrusted in the classification systems that we use to describe and define everyday life and cultural practices in such a way that these become habitual, natural and logical ways to understand society and its practices. According to Bourdieu “taste classifies the practices and it classifies the classifier.” In this way, the social subjects, classified by their classifications, distinguish themselves according to the choices they make between the beautiful and the ugly, the vulgar and the distinguished, etc. The position that subjects take in respect to something objective classifies them, reaffirming or betraying them. Despite the differences in consumption and taste for different types of musical and cultural expressions in our case, they are not the cause of divisions of class or social inequalities. Art according to Bourdieu “is deliberately predisposed or not, to complete a social function that legitimizes social differences” and therefore contributes to the processes of social reproduction. In his studies, he constructs an analytical model of societies based on the concepts of habitus and field. Bourdieu described habitus as the System of transportable dispositions, durable, structured structures, this means principles which generate and organize practices and representations that can be objectively adapted to their results without being consciously motivated. The habitus is not always calculated and does not respond to a conscious desire to obey the rules. On the contrary, it is a group of dispositions that generate practices and perceptions. The habitus is the result of a long process of education that begins in early childhood and turns into an automatic or “natural” response.24

For Bourdieu, this system of attitudes or predispositions is a past made present, with a tendency to perpetuate itself in the future. The concept of field is supported by Bourdieu in the fact that any social agent acts from a particular social situation and is governed by a set of social relations. Each social group is structured in hierarchically organized fields. Each field is defined by its own laws and is composed of subfields. It is relatively autonomous but structurally homologous to the other fields. Its structure at all times is determined by the relationship between the positions that the social

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agents occupy in the field, and this makes the field a dynamic and constantly changing concept. In each field, certain interests are constantly negotiated.25 If we extrapolate the model for societies built by Bourdieu to our work with song, we can see that art song and its producers do not exist independently of institutional and social contexts that legitimize them. Considering the concepts of habitus and of field, we come to see the musical works considered artistic as the product of a complex interaction between different social agents that produce them and institute them as artistic. The work of art can only be understood if it is seen as the result of the coordinated activities of all individuals who contribute to giving life to the work: those who conceived the idea (composers, lyricists); the people performing the work (musicians); the people that provide the equipment necessary to perform the work (builders of instruments, amplification systems, sound engineers); the performance spaces (theaters, concert series, programmers); the members of the audience (critics, fans); the promoters of the work (radio, media, agents); the educational institutions (conservatories, music schools), and in general all the agents that contribute to give life to the work. In the end, it is in our interest to take into account not only the musical work, but also the context in which it develops. The explanation of the artistic work is therefore not found in the simple work, but rather in the history and structure of the field that generated and developed it. MEANING-PRODUCING AGENTS IN THE WORLD OF SONG In the case of music, the social agents that produce and constitute artistic work are the composer, the performer, the audience, the record label, the producers, the music publishers, the critics, the concert programmers, the producers, and the means of communication. The music is considered artistic due to a complex fabric of interactions between these agents which recognize it as such. If we consider the song as a field consisting of subfields, that is, the subfields of art song, popular song, and folk song, we come to see how the defining factors of each of these subfields are constantly in motion, in accordance with the positions taken by each meaning-producing agent. The meaning of the musical work automatically changes with any change of position of the meaning-producing agents. Understanding this mobility is of crucial importance since it is the key that provides flexibility in the genre of song. When I think about this concept, I imagine the field of song as an immense pool, a liquid space that distinguishes between the subfields of popular song, folk song, and art song in constant movement, a fluid space in which meaning-producing agents constantly change their “concentration.”

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With this analysis we conclude, as Bourdieu did, that the construction of the artistic work is a collective act. This artistic work only exists as a symbolic object if it is known and recognized by a group of spectators capable of knowing and recognizing it as such, placing the audience (audience, record label, radio station, critics, musicologists, etc.) as a definitive agent in the production of meaning and in their ability to define the musical as work of art. This understanding makes it indispensable to analyze the concept of art song in relation to other types of song and in relation to the structures that govern the field in which the meaning-producing agents are revealed.26 Meaning-producing agents and the positions they take within the field of song place each type of song in a specific social context, converting them into social markers.27 With this type of analysis, we can assign equal value to the different types of song, a contrasting stance with the view erroneously propagated by academia that gives more value to what is commonly considered academic or art music. It is important to emphasize this fact because, in general, more value is attributed to “academic” music and musicians than to those of folk and popular genres. “Culture” acquired within legitimate academic institutions is valued much more than the culture or skills acquired through other means. This stance emerges from a culture dominated by the written word and the “high culture” of the elites.28 The effect this position has on the world of the song is critical since in general it assumes that art song is for “cultivated” people, who have been educated prior to the enjoyment of the music. This belief distances audiences by instilling in them the idea that art song is complicated music and that it requires study prior to the aesthetic enjoyment. Paradoxically, as a result of their training process, academically trained performers often lose intuitive skills needed to learn melodies by ear, their ability to imitate vocal inflections, and, in general, they lose the spontaneity

Figure 5.1  In this Graphic We Observe the Situation of Each Type of Songs in Respect to its Performance Context. We observe the field of the song as a large pool in which the different types of song are placed according to their context of execution.

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and skills folk musicians have to learn by ear and imitation. In addition to this, academic musicians are governed by written music, which limits them to producing only sounds that are written on paper, losing sight of the fact that musical notation was from the beginning an attempt to capture the music made by ear and that the notation itself cannot contain all the twists, accents, intentions, and emotionality of the sound experience. Next, I will enunciate the meaning-producing agents in the world of song, without forgetting that in reality, thanks to technological advancements, these roles are continuously changing, making it possible to find artists who are self-producers and self-promoters. MEANING-PRODUCING AGENTS IN THE SUBFIELD OF ART SONG Composer: These composers are trained in the tradition of Western academic music. They have received training in a conservatory or equivalent institution. When composing art song, the composer deliberately makes it for the context of the concert hall. Performers: Art song requires the performers—singers and pianists—to have technical training to enable them to emit types of sounds characteristic of a certain tessitura, enabling them to reach an ample register, with a certain color and vocal timbre. For these characteristics, it is necessary to receive prior formal training acquired within the academic structures of Western European music. The singer should be aware of the text at all times, of its meaning as a whole, but also of the meaning of each word, because each word has a sound weight and specific emotion which, upon being sung, should be transmitted, in order to communicate the meaning of the poetry. The performer strives to have clear diction to make the text understandable by the audience. Of the accompanist, academic training is also demanded within the same tradition of Western music which allows one to read a score. A good accompanist is an individual endowed with great sensitivity, with the ability to work in teams with the singer, and also without the aspiration of being the protagonist (unlike the piano soloist). In other words, they should know that the singer and the pianist are working together to highlight the poetic text. Audience: The audience for art song commonly belongs to the elite, uppermiddle-class or highly educated groups. This audience is generally knowledgeable of the genre, and therefore is a reduced audience. We often find in this group music students, musicians, and lovers of classical music. They are often adults and seniors, although among the group of music students we find people of a much younger age.

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Music publishers: These include publishers that publish works of the classic repertoire. Record labels: Labels specialized in the recording of classic music are generally niche labels. At the present time, these may also be independent labels. Magazines and critics: These are often magazines of small circulation and distribution which reach a specialized audience. Currently this category integrates specialized blogs and digital magazines that have a global reach. Media—radio and TV stations: Usually the media that broadcast art song are specialized in classical music and designated for audiences that know the genre. The stations dedicated to this music are sparse compared to the number of stations dedicated to popular and/or folk music. In today’s world, art song also enjoys broadcast over the internet and performers can benefit from almost the same channels that broadcast popular and folk music. The difference lies in the size of its target audience and the relationship it has with new technologies. Although opportunities have increased for the promotion of art song performers, this is still a disadvantage when promoting oneself by way of mass media communication. Performance Context of Art Song Location: Art song is performed in chamber music halls accompanied by concert piano or guitar. Since this type of music is not amplified, the rooms in which they are presented are of a certain dimension, with a maximum capacity of 800–1,000 people and with conditions of good acoustics. Instruments: Acoustic instruments are used. The most widely used instruments are the piano and the guitar. Audience: The audience usually hears the recital seated, in formal attire (although this has changed in recent years, and is not observed in university environments), and in an attitude of silence and stillness. The audience does not participate in an active manner during the performance and is limited to applauding between songs or at the end of each cycle of songs. There are codes which determine the spatial location of the members of the audience and their type of contact. In an art song recital, the public has no bodily contact and maintains a distance which does not allow casual contact with other members of the audience or the performers. Meaning-Producing Agents in the Subfield of Folk Song Composer: Although traditionally folk song composers are not known, there are many folk songs with a known creator. Most of the time the composer is self-taught and composes “by ear,” without use of musical notation. Today it is increasingly common for folk music composers to receive some

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degree of musical training either in schools or institutions of secondary or higher education. Performers: The performers possess the skills and abilities that have been acquired in a self-taught manner and have been transmitted in the community, mainly by oral tradition. From a technical standpoint, this training can be very sophisticated; however, usually it is not conservatory training. The singers traditionally sing in medium and low registers. Audience: The audience for folk song is made up of large groups belonging to the middle or lower class. Folk songs are generally associated with rural environments although they can also be heard in urban spaces. Music publishers: These songs are rarely published. Critics: In the folk song field, the figure of the critic is not as common as it is in the world of academic music. When folk song is performed in context of a contest or festival, figures such as the jury emit value judgments on the performance. Media—magazine and radio stations: The stations that transmit folk music have traditionally been of local or regional environments, although this situation has changed with the popularization of the internet and the ease of creating online radio and YouTube channels. In most cases folk song is

Figure 5.2  In this Graphic by the Author, We Can Observe How the Three Types of Song are Subject to the Changes of Position and Predominance of the Meaningproducing Agents. A small change in the situation of the agents of meaning can displace the song to another sub-field.

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aired on popular music radio stations alternating popular songs with folk songs. There is much folk music that is unknown by the large audiences and is confined to very specific local groups, giving it a quality of marginality that may be similar to that of the art song. Currently, folk music is frequently labeled as World Music. Performance Context of Folk Song Location: Folk song is performed in multiuse theaters, at festivals, in competitions, and at popular parties. The most frequent performance spaces are family reunions, local community festivities, neighborhood associations, youth groups, and festivals. Today with the popularization of folk music given by the rise of World Music, the performance spaces of this music have been transformed, just as audiences have, approaching that of popular music. Audience: The audience usually listens while at the same time participating by singing along with the performers. In this type of performance, the audience is free to move around, to sing, and to participate actively with body movements. The spatial distribution of the places in which folk song is performed determines that there is as much physical contact as verbal exchange between members of the audience. There is generally more flexibility and variety of the forms of relationship and participation by the audience. MEANING-PRODUCING AGENTS IN THE SUBFIELD OF POPULAR SONG Composer: Popular song usually has a known composer. There are all types of composers in this genre, from those who have received formal conservatory training to the self-trained who do not know musical notation. Sometimes the songs are made ​​collectively by groups of people. Performers: The performers possess skills and abilities that have been acquired in a self-taught manner or through formal training in academies or conservatories. The emission of voice in this genre is in the midrange-bass voice. Producer: In the music industry, a record producer plays several roles; controlling the recording sessions, instructing and guiding performers, gathering project ideas, directing creativity and supervising the recording, mixing, and the mastering and mixing process. These have been some of the main functions of producers since the creation of sound recording, but in the second half of the twentieth century, producers have taken a more entrepreneurial

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role. Today we find two types of producers: executive and musical; they have distinct roles. While the executive producer is responsible for financing the project, the music producer is responsible for the music. Audience: The audience is massive and international. Individuals belonging to all social classes participate in popular song. It is a group that is strongly linked to mass media and follows “fashion.” Music publishers: Popular songs are rarely published, partly due to the fact that they respond to passing fads. When this happens, it is because the songs have become resonant bestsellers and have remained over time. Critics: In popular song, the figure of the critic does not exist. A comparable figure is the public relations agent and marketing director who produces press releases, publishes interviews in journals of high circulation, and arranges TV interviews, all with the end purpose of selling more. Media—radio stations, magazines, and television: Popular song is very closely tied to the media because its success depends on being circulated through these marketing channels. Popular song is thus heard via numerous radio stations, television programs, the internet, and mobile phones. Performance Context of Popular Song Location: Popular song is performed in multiuse theaters, stadiums, at festivals, in competitions, and at parties. When the song is performed live, it is usually on large stages in front of thousands of people. Audience: The audience of popular song participates by dancing and singing and is an active part of the show. The dress is casual and physical contact between the members of the audience does occur at these types of events. At concerts held at festivals and large stadiums, the living space is reduced, causing friction and contact between members of the audience, who are often cramped and “dragged” by the movements of the crowd. THE DUAL STATUS OF FOLK AND ART SONG: MARCEL DUCHAMP AND THE “READY-MADES” Observing the characteristics attributed to art song, one might think that this is a rigid category or one of limited mobility. To confirm or negate this, I will try to answer some of my own questions and others that have been inspired by those proposed by Steven Feld29 in his article Sound Structure as Social Structure. Who defines what we consider art song: the composer, the performer, the audience, or the context? To what extent do the performer and the context contribute to and define the genre?

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In responding to these questions, it was useful to look at the work of artist Marcel Duchamp. One of his most iconic pieces is the bicycle wheel. Duchamp’s interest in the dual status of the bicycle wheel, the ordinary object and the work of art, suggests that it is the paradox of the double meaning of the object rather than the object itself that puzzled him, constituting the starting point for his future explorations. As I mentioned at the beginning of the book, I was first a folk song performer and later an art song performer. In studying these types of song, I was always drawn to the idea of them as objects that could belong to two worlds. This understanding led me to question the traditional definition of art song and seek the possible limits between art song, folk song, and popular song. Duchamp developed his famous concept of “ready-mades,” objects that were already made on a massive scale. The ability of these “ready-mades” to be converted into objects of art is inhibited by their history and production process, making their acceptance into the art world inadmissible. These objects, viewed by Duchamp, were turned into objects of art, while at the same time retaining their status as ordinary objects. The ready-mades redefined the notion of artistic creativity, for in them there is no manual intervention by the artist. They require intellectual intervention. Duchamp’s intervention was to redefine the status of the object, as objects and as representations. Famous examples of “ready-mades” were the snow shovel, the bicycle wheel, the wine rack, and the toilet, among others. There are also “assisted” ready-mades that have been retouched or altered in some way by the artist, but basically conserve their quality as objects made on a massive scale. I began to relate Duchamp’s work with Latin American art song because in my experience as a performer, I have started to include songs of the popular and folk repertoires in concerts and recordings of art song. The choice of these songs has been determined by what I consider the “lyricism” of the works and the quality of the arrangement with respect to the accompaniment. The decision to include one work or another has been completely idiosyncratic, meaning subjective. It is for this reason that I felt it necessary to explore the role of the performer and the context in defining the genre of Latin American concert song. Observing musical and stylistic elements, I decided when a popular or folksong became an art song. Once I had chosen the song I would place it in the context of the art song recital. This case illustrates how the performer plays a decisive role in defining the genre; in the same way that Duchamp defined mass-produced objects as art objects, the performer can turn folk and/ or popular song (“mass-produced object”) into a work of “art.”30 We have already seen now how the definition of what we consider art song in the Latin American repertoire can be more complex than it seems. We could say that the intention of the composer and their academic training

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are critical and define the vast majority of the works of the genre. This is the simple part in which the composers themselves, through their academic training and their explicit intention, place the songs as art songs. Although, as we shall see, it does not relieve the work of being displaced from the subfield of art song to other subfields if we consider that the composer is not the only producing agent of the work or its meaning. In order to illustrate this, we will analyze two works that exemplify song’s mobility and its ability to be displaced from one subfield to another according to the movement of the meaning-producing agents. Se Equivocó la Paloma Music: Carlos Guastavino (Argentina, 1912–2000); Poetry: Rafael Alberti (Spain, 1901–1999). Originally written as an art song, “Se equivocó la paloma” was premiered as such by soprano Conxita Badía. The song rose to international fame thanks to Joan Manuel Serrat, a popular performer. From that point on, it has been known as a popular song and is only recognized as art song in circles of specialized listeners. At present, there are numerous recordings of this song, most of them as a popular song and even as a folk song. In this work, when one of the meaning-producing agents—in this case the performer—changes position, the meaning of the work changes and moves it from the subfield of art song to that of popular song. We observe how the movement of one of the meaning-producing agents has an impact on the position of the other agents, changing the subfield of the work from art song to the subfield of popular song. This suggests that the fields and subfields are subject to constant movement and dynamic that grant the musical work a character closer to that of an everchanging living being than that of a museum piece, as it has been seen until now. The change of instrumentation in popular versions, added to the different use of the voice and instrumental arrangements determines the location of the work and its diffusion. The type of audience to which it was originally directed—a small audience of a specific sociocultural group—changes completely with the change of subfield; the audience is much larger and consists of diverse social classes. The change of subfield also determines changes in the scenery, passing from chamber music halls to stadiums or concert stages, the plaza or the popular fair. Navidad Negra Music and lyrics by José Barros Palomino (Colombia, 1915–2007). Composed by Colombian José Barros Palomino (1915–2007), in cumbia (folkloric rhythm of Caribbean region of Colombia), “Navidad negra”

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originally belonged to the subfield of folk song. Due to its mass diffusion, it was relocated to the subfield of popular song and upon being sung by a lyrical singer in a recital context, it moved to the subfield of art song. This shift is due to changes in its performance context, the type of performer, and their training and the accompaniment. The fact that a folk song moved from its original subfield to the subfield of popular song and the subfield of art song allows one to infer the acceptance reached among different social groups. It also reflects that the song has become an accepted sign of identity, accepted by broad and diverse sectors of society. “Navidad negra” was made ​​famous in the voice of Leonor González Mina, singer of African descent known as “The Great Black woman from Colombia.” “Leonor González Mina is a national symbol. Her outstanding artistic talent and her commitment to the social reality of the country make her an integral artist in the service of a national project,” affirmed Colombian Minister of Culture Marcela Moreno Zapata, upon granting Leonor González Mina the Artistic Merit Order in 2009, after fifty-three years of her musical career.31 This song became popular in the dance scene and, as noted by the former minister of culture of Colombia, became part of the project of the nation, a symbol of Colombianess known to all. From that moment on, the song was performed even by opera singers, thereby moving the song from its original performance environment. By bringing the song to the lyrical environment and converting it into an art song, we can consider the song to be a “ready-made.” The critical elements in this transformation are the technique of the vocal performer, the instrumentation and the scenery where it is performed, plus the type of audience it is directed toward. SONG: AN ELASTIC, FLEXIBLE, AND INTEGRATING SPACE The genre of song (the field and subfields) reveals itself as a genre of great adaptability and elasticity when interpreted by different performers over time. In fact, the traditional boundaries between art song, popular song, and folk song are mobile and liquid, and they fall apart due to any shifts of the previously described meaning-producing agents. This includes the consideration of the market commonly linked to the world of popular music, which applies to the worlds of folk and classical music as well; the necessity of inserting oneself into the mechanisms of production and promotion generated from the capitalist society is seen to have the end of reaching larger audiences.

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In the case of art song, the performer has great flexibility and the possibility to displace songs from popular or folk repertoires into the territory of art song. These movements should be sustained within deep knowledge of the folk and popular repertoires that allows the performer to decide when a popular or folk song may be interpreted as an art song, reaching this decision through the use of both objective and subjective values. This change generated by only one of the meaning-producing agents affects all of the other agents. This elasticity puts an end to the hegemony of the composer as the determining meaning-producing agent. Without a doubt, song’s flexibility is determined by the performer’s flexibility, and by the performer’s relation and access to works. We can identify two possible types of relationships between the performer and their materials: one is an “instrumental” relationship, related to the physical access to readily available materials; the other is a more subjective relationship, which is developed through the performer’s knowledge and familiarity with the work. Regarding the instrumental relationship, we accept that Latin American art song is a little-known genre due to a lack of publications and recordings, not being included in singers’ university curricula, and its lack of performances in concert halls. Therefore, the community that performs this repertoire is reduced; when this repertoire is performed it is limited, in large part, to repeating the songs that up until now have made up the “central body” of Latin American repertoire. The songs that make up the “central body” of the repertoire are the few that have been published or recorded. This situation has as a result a lack of interest among classical singers, due essentially to the lack of access to the repertoire. To worsen the situation, there are few resources that orient singers in their selection of Latin American song repertoire, which explains why the same works by the same composers keep being performed. Sadly, singers do not have access for the most part to these works and believe that no additional repertoire exists. In these circumstances, they do not have the opportunity to question themselves about their limits or their definition, in the form that we are doing in this book. We can affirm that classical singers have little exposure to classical Latin American repertoire and much less exposure to Latin American folk and popular music. The second type of relationship is given after the first. Once one has a work and has studied it, the singer develops a type of relationship that is determined in large part by the type of subfield that the song belongs to. The relationship that the classically trained singer develops with a song is different from the relationship developed by a folk or popular singer. A classical singer traditionally respects even the smallest notation or marking in the score, which limits the possibilities of playing with the melody, tempo, or tonality, for example. This relationship, when compared with the relationship established

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in the subfields of folk and popular song, is rigidly determined by the Western Euro-centric model in music instruction; under this model, the written score is inalterable, reaffirming the “hegemony of the written word over the oral tradition, and the separation of the body and mind in the development of cognitive processes.”32 PROPOSALS FOR A NEW PERFORMANCE PRACTICE OF LATIN AMERICAN ART SONG In the twenty-first century, art song continues to be performed as it was in the nineteenth century. Most of the time it is performed in concert halls where spectators remain passive and the performers are almost “naked,” that is, without support lighting, décor, or amplification. This form of relating now appears obsolete in an interactive world, connected by the internet and constantly exchanging information, in which new generations grow up surrounded by mobile devices, computers, internet, amplified music, and a constant audio-visual stimulation that leaves no time to detain one’s self in the details. In the training of classical singers, the singers continue to be encouraged to interpret art song in a very physically contained way, avoiding large movements and concentrating their vocal and facial expressiveness. This use of the body is probably influenced by the philosophical dualism in vogue at the time when Lied flourished. A philosophy that considered the body as being something corrupt and inferior. Descartes’ famous saying, “I think therefore I am,” accurately represents the idea that through the intellect one can achieve knowledge without needing the body. In this frame of thought, the experience of the body is not intellectual and is limited to the senses: touch, taste, smell, vision, and hearing.33 The educational systems validated this philosophy, which translated into a purely cognitive approach in the sciences and also in the arts. In Greek thought, as in Cartesian thought, music appears as a structure of ideas that must be known (intellectualized), rather than felt or experienced.34 From Euro-centric thinking, the experience of the body, primitive and unrefined, is not valued in the same way as the intellectual one. The body and its passions, its movements, rhythms, contractions, were thus expelled and demonized from the Euro-centric Christian morality. These belonged to wild, uncontrollable, sinful places. Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula belonged to these peripheries where the savages, mestizos, indigenous and black populations, and all the resulting mixtures, expressed the decadent passions of the body, a world entirely alien to the traditional Lied. What happens then when

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Lied is produced and interpreted in contexts where the body has permission to express itself without censorship, as in Latin America? John Dewey (1859–1952) and later Maurice Merleau Ponty (1908–1961) have approached the subject of the body and dualism from optics that integrates body and mind,35 making them interdependent. According to Dewey, human events, to be considered experiences, require the participation of body and mind. For him, no intellectual activity constitutes an integral event (an experience), unless it is completed by a practical task.36 On the other hand, Merleau-Ponty argues that our perceptions of the world are subject to the perception of the body.37 He developed the idea of ​the intentional motor, implying that we learn from the body, not from intellect: we experience from the body, we internalize and become conscious, all coming from the body. These ideas have been reinforced from the psychology and neuroscience that suggest that corporealization—embodiment—is a necessary step for learning.38 Ideas, thoughts, must pass through the body to be experienced, learned, and communicated.39 Today we know that the interaction of physical or sensorimotor events with mental or cognitive ones has a decisive role in the formation of ideas and learning.40 In musical interpretation, the performer experiences music with all of their body-mind, corporealizing the music, its context, and its codes. Being a physical phenomenon, music is experienced with the whole body. The performer consciously and unconsciously incorporates cultural codes, conventions of style, and expectations of the social environment for their gender, social class, age, and so on. As Peter Garland says, “all systems, musical or political, materialize in the individual. Our bodies are the field of expression of private and collective movements. It is absurd to believe that there is a ‘reality’ outside our own mental and physical processes.”41 Paradoxically, when classical singers perform Latin American or Iberian art songs, their use of the body does not vary with respect to the use of the body of the German Lied, the canon within the genre of art song. The educational institutions that train lyrical singers have not considered that the use of the body associated with the central-European repertoire is associated with its context of creation, its norms, values, and social codes and that it cannot be extrapolated to other repertoires. The implicit message in this lack of questioning is that it is assumed that the canon provides the ideal model, the one that should be imitated, the desirable one. An expression of cultural colonialism that, by ignoring its own culture, devalues ​​it. A proposed interpretation of Latin American art song must then start from the awareness that there is reciprocity between people and the places they inhabit, a reciprocity that is expressed through the body. We must start from the deep observation of our own culture, its uses and customs, the role that the body plays in social interactions.

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An interpretation that starts from this observation will undoubtedly be coherent with the music itself, since the musical work, mirroring the culture in each historical moment, already reflects its creation context. It is only necessary that the performer also honors, knows, and value the context of the work. This approach will open many possibilities for performers who, by using their body more freely and uninhibitedly, will also be closer to contemporary audiences who are accustomed to the movement to color, to the dynamic, changing, and rapid audiovisual media, especially the internet. For the Latin American Lied to reach larger audiences, creativity, flexibility, courage, and ability to challenge established norms are required. Contemporary audiences and performers demand shows that stimulate all of their senses.42 We must consider integrating sets, projections, subtitles, movement, and lighting and perhaps even characterizations in Latin American and Iberian art song concerts. These requirements that are aimed exclusively at performers may well extend to the world of composition. We can expect that composers will begin to integrate the use of color, video, movement, gestures, interactivity, and new technology into their works. Personally, in my performances, I incorporate the use of video, scenography, and visual materials alluding to the meaning of the songs. I also make a much more uninhibited use of the body that includes movements on the stage, theatricality, and gestures more common in the world of folk and popular music, which in my view represent Iberian and Latin American sensitivity and expressivity better. This approach is part of a personal experience that is only one of the ways in which performers can approach the interpretation of this repertoire. Performers will need to keep in mind that all of the gestures they incorporate into their performances should aim to enhance the meaning of the musical work and the poem. These explorations will contribute to revive a genre, art song, that urgently needs to be brought back to life. On the contrary, it runs the risk of extinction by not being able to “compete” with artistic expressions in high modernity. On the other hand, in order to be flexible in the field of song, academically trained performers should also know about folk and popular repertoires, understanding not only musical aspects but especially their performance contexts. This knowledge will allow them to integrate the use of the body, vocal inflections, and other elements that contextualize the work that are not found in the musical score. This demand calls for changes in the curricula of educational institutions that must integrate the teaching of the repertoires mentioned above. The internet could become an additional ally by allowing students to access videos of interpretations of traditional musicians from around the world.

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I hope that in the years to come performers of Latin American art song will generate flexible spaces, communication vessels between the diverse types of song. I hope that they sing with their entire body, transmitting with their performances all of the richness, diversity, complexity, and beauty of the Latin American world; a world that still is, luckily, in a phase of construction and discovery.

NOTES 1. Roberto Contreras, ed., Habla y canta Víctor Jara (La Habana: Casa de las Américas, Colección Nuestros países, 1978), 20. 2. Luís Fernando Moreno, e-mail message to autor, January 25, 2011. 3. Richard Schechner, Performance Studies. An Introduction, second edition (New York: Routledge, 2006), X. 4. Howard Mayer Brown, art. “Performance Practice,” The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (London: Macmillan Publishers Limited, 1980, vol. 14), 370. 5. Gerard Béhague, “A Performance and Listener-centered Approach to Musical Analysis,” unedited article, 2001. 6. Gerard Béhague, Performance Practice. Ethnomusicological Perspectives (Connecticut: Greenwood Press, 1984), 8. 7. I refer to the story of the famous flamenco cantaor Camarón de la Isla: From a young age he sang in small shops around San Fernando and at private parties. He became a professional at 16 years old with the flamenco companies of Miguel de los Reyes and Dolores Vargas. There are an unlimited number of stores like that of Camarón in the world of interpretation, of performers who have been in contact with musical works and environments in specific areas since childhood. 8. Gregorio Klimovsky, Las desventuras del conocimiento científico. Una introducción a la epistemología (Buenos Aires: A-Z editora, 1997), 33. 9. Leon W. Gray, “The American Art Song: An Inquiry into its Development from the Colonial Period to the Present” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 1966), 11. 10. Raymond Gibbs, Embodiment and Cognitive Science (New York: Cambridge, 2006), 3. 11. Gibbs, Embodiment and Cognitive Science, 4 12. Taken from the web page of the singer: http:​ //www​ .enri​ quemo​ rente​ .com/​ moren​te.ht​m#. Sección biografía. 13. Simon Bronner, Explaining Traditions. Folk Behavior in Modern Culture (Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 2011), 23. 14. The word “folklore” is derived from “folk,” a root which makes reference to the town or nation and “-lore” a body of traditions and preserved knowledge of a particular group, typically by oral transmission. 15. Dan Ben-Amos, “The Idea of Folklore: An Essay,” en Issachar BenAmi and Joseph Dan (Eds.), Studies in Aggadah and Jewish Folklore. Folklore Research Center Studies VII. (Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, 1983), 11–17.

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16. Martha Blache and Ana María Dupey, “Itinerarios de los estudios folclóricos en la Argentina,” Relaciones de la Sociedad Argentina de Antropología XXXII, Buenos Aires, 308. 17. Tom C Avendaño, “Un éxito tiene precio (y factura).” Publicado en El País. Sección de música p. 4. EP3, Friday, July 22, 2011. 18. On the web page of the software Melodyne the description of the tools this software offers is found, the most striking feature is the ability to fine-tune the singer inside and outside of the studio. https://www.celemony.com. 19. Tom C Avendaño, “Un éxito tiene precio (y factura).” Publicado en El País. Sección de música p. 4. EP3, Friday, July 22, 2011. 20. Pierre Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production. Essays on Art and Literature (New York: Columbia University Press, 1993), 46. 21. Dalia Judovitz, Unpacking Duchamp: Art in Transit (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 1. 22. Calvin Tompkins, Duchamp (Barcelona: Editorial Anagrama, Colección Compactos, 2006), 80. 23. Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 23. 24. Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 4. 25. Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 6. 26. Bourdieu, The Field of Cultural Production, 17. 27. Ketty Wong, ““La “nacionalización y “rocolización” del pasillo ecuatoriano.” In https​://ww​w.dlh​.laho​ra.co​m.ec/​pagin​as/de​bate/​pagin​as/ debate1329.htm. August 23, 2006. 28. David Swartz and Vera Zolberg, ed., After Bourdieu: Influence, Critique, Elaboration (New York, Boston, Dordrecht, London, Moscow: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2005). 29. Steven Feld, “Sound Structure as Social Structure,” in Ethnomusicology (September 1984): 383–409. 30. Judovitz, Unpacking Duchamp, 72. 31. Ministry of Culture of Colombia, “Mincultura rindió homenaje a la “negra grande”” [online]. In http:​//www​.minc​ultur​a.gov​.co/?​idcat​egori​a=230​45 (Consulted, January 18, 2012). 32. Delgado Santamaría, “El bambuco, los saberes mestizos y la academia,” 1. 33. Jay Seitz, “The Bodily Basis of Thought,” New Ideas in Psychology: An International Journal of Innovative Theory 18 (2000): 23. 34. Marja-Leena Juntunen y Heidi Westerlund, “Digging Dalcroze, or, Dissolving the Mind-Body Dualism: Philosophy and Practical Remarks on the Musical Body in Action,” Music Education Research 3 (September 2001): 203–214. 35. John Dewey, Art as Experience (New York: Minton, Balch & Company, 1934), 56. 36. Dewey, Art as Experience, 8. 37. Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception (London: Routledge, 1962), 203. 38. H. J. Chiel y R. D. Beer, “The Brain as a Body: Adaptive Behavior Emerges from Interactions of Nervous System, Body, and Environment,” Trends in Neurosciences 20 (December 1997): 555.

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39. Howard Gardner, Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences (New York: BasicBooks, 1993), 69. 40. Bonnie Bainbridge Cohen, Sensing, Feeling, Action (Massachusetts: Contact Editions, 1993), 403. 41. Peter Garland, Americas: Essays on American Music and Culture 1973–80 (Santa Fe: Soundings Press, 1982), 3–4. 42. Jay G. White, “Cirque de la voix: Vocal Performances for the XXI Century Audiences” (DMA Dissertation, University of Maryland, 2005), 36.

Discography

Alfredo Krauss. Con el corazón. [CD]. Kubaney Label, 1999. Alicia Nafe. Alicia Nafe singt Lieder. [LP]. Germany: Bellaphon, 1982. [With Carmen Piazzinni, piano]. Annette Celine. Cantigas. [CD]. Lóndres: Brana Records, 2002. [With Christopher Gould]. Bernarda Fink, Marcos Fink. Canciones Argentinas. [CD]. Harmonia Mundi, 2006. [With Cármen Piazzini]. Bertha Casares. Lieder. [LP]. Saarbrucken, West Germany: TGF Records, 1985. [With Wolfgang Lendle, guitar]. Carmen Balthrop. Con amores: Spanish and Portuguese Songs. [CD]. England: Elan, 1988. [With Robert McCoy, piano]. Conxita Badía. Conxita Badía. Homenaje. [CD]. Buenos Aires: Producciones Piscitelli, 1997. Denise de Freitas. Lembrança de amor. [CD]. São Paulo: ABM Digital 2005. [With Eudoxia De Barros]. Elly Ameling, Think of Me. [LP] New York: CBS Masterworks, 1981. M36682. [With Dalton Baldwin, piano]. Encarnación Vázquez. Manuel M. Ponce II. [CD]. México: Conalcuta, 1998. [With Josef Olechowski]. Encarnación Vázquez. Manuel M. Ponce. Canciones clásicas de amor. [CD]. México: México Antiguo, 1998. Encarnación Vázquez. Canciones de Manuel Ponce. [CD]. México: Tharsis Records, 1998. Eudoxia de Barros, Claudio Micheletti, Denise de Freitas, Sávio Sperandio, Mario Balzi. Ouvindo Osvaldo Lacerda. [CD]. São Paulo: Som Puro Records, 2002. Gastón Paz. Gastón Paz a excelsos poetas bolivianos. [CD]. Madrid: Gran sol discos, 1991. Isabel Barrios. Por la calleja de pinos. [CD]. Montevideo: Perro Andaluz Records, 2005. [With Eduardo Gilardoni]. 149

150

Discography

José Carreras. Canciones españolas. Digital Classics. [CD]. Holland: Phillips, 1985. [With Martin Katz, piano]. José Cura. Anhelo: Argentinian Songs. [CD]. Paris: Erato, 1998. [With Eduardo Delgado, piano; Ernesto Bitetti, guitarra]. José Hue. Canções de amor e preludios. [CD]. São Paulo, 2003. [With Heitor Alimonda]. Laurindo Almeida. Brazilian reflections. [CD]. California: Mel Bay Publications, 1996. Lenine Santos. Canção. [CD]. São Paulo: Algol editora, 2007. [With Achille Picchi]. Lourdes Ambriz. Canciones arcaicas. [CD]. México: Quindecim recordings, 1999. [With Alberto Cruzprieto]. Lupita Campos. 30 canciones de Manuel Ponce. [CD]. México: Gritos y susurros producciones, 1999. [With Gabriel Saldivar]. Margot Pares-Reyna. Guastavino: Melodie, Songs, Lieder. [CD]. Opus 111, 1990. [With Georges Rabol]. Margot Pares-Reyna. Carlos Guastavino: Songs. Classics of the Americans, vol. 2. [CD]. Paris: Opus111, 1990. [With Georges Rabol, piano]. Maria Aragón. CAPELLI, Norberto. Carlos Guastavino. [CD]. Barcelona: Columna Música, 2006. [With Norberto Capelli]. María Teresa Uribe. Canciones de las Américas. [CD]. Hungría: Hugaroton Classic, 2002. [With Balázs Szokolay]. Marina Tafur. Songs from Latin America. [CD]. London: Lorelt, 2002. [With Nigel Foster]. Nora Usterman. La canción. [CD]. Cuenca: ACMA, 1996. [With Alberto Ureta]. Osvaldo lacerda. Música de cámara. [CD]. Manaos: Sonopress Rimo da Amazónia, 1999. Patricia Caicedo. Art Songs of Latin America. [CD]. Barcelona: Edicions Albert Moraleda, 2001. [With Pau Casan]. Patricia Caicedo. A mi ciudad nativa − Art Songs of Latin America Vol II. [CD]. Barcelona: Mundo Arts Records, 2005. [With Eugenia Gassull]. Patricia Caicedo. Aves y Ensueños. [CD]. Barcelona: Mundo Arts Records, 2012. [With Irene Aisemberg]. Patricia Caicedo. De mi corazón latino. [CD]. Barcelona: Mundo Arts Records, 2010. [With Orquesta Iberoamericana, Dir. Javier Martínez]. Patricia Caicedo. Estrela é Lua Nova…. [CD]. Barcelona: Mundo Arts Records, 2011. [With Irene Aisemberg]. Patricia Caicedo. Miraba la noche el alma: Latin American Arts Songs by Women Composers. [CD]. Barcelona: Mundo Arts Recors, 2016. [With Nikos Stavlas]. Raúl Giménez. Argentinean Songs. [CD]. London: Nimbus Records, 1988. [With Nina Walker, piano]. Rosa Vento. Perlas cubanas. [CD]. New York: Romeo Records, 2001. Teresa Berganza. Villa-Lobos, Braga, Guastavino. [CD]. Madrid: Claves Digital, 1984. [With Juan Antonio Parejo].

Discography

151

Víctor Torres. Canciones argentinas. [CD]. Buenos Aires: Irco, 2005. Víctor Torres. Carlos Guastavino. [CD]. Buenos Aires: Irco, 2011. Ulises Espaillat. Las puertas de la mañana. Canciones argentinas de Carlos Guastavino. [CD]. San Francisco: New Albion, 1993. [With Pablo Zinger, piano]. Zulyamir Lopezrios. Sueño. Canciones de Mabarak. [CD]. México: Quindecim recordings, 2002. [With Alberto Cruzprieto].

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Index

Advis, Luís, 38 Agarrebere, Juán José, 85 Alberti, Rafael, 39, 140 Alcalde, Andrés, 38 Alcorta, Amancio, 33 Alomía Robles, Daniel, 78, 79 Allende-Blin, Juán, 38 Allende, Pedro Humberto, 29, 35 Amat, José, 59 Amengual, René, 38 Anderson, Benedict, 11 André, José, 97 Antúnes, Jorge, 99 Aguirre, Juán de Dios, 79 Aguirre, Julián, 29, 33 Aponte Ledée, Rafael, 99 Aracena, Infanta, Aníbal, 38 Arahonian, Coriún, 99 Aranha, Graça, 56 Arias, Luís, 99 Arlen, Harold, 101 Arroyo Lameda, Eduardo, 84 Astaire, Fred, 112 Atehortúa, Blas Emilio, 99 Badía, Conxita, 55, 98, 140 Balmaceda, Jorge, 35 Ballivián, Adolfo, 25 Ballivián, José, 25

Bandeira, Manuel, 37, 40, 57, 60, 66, 67 Barba-Jacob, Porfirio, 39 Barrios Cruz, Luís, 84 Barros Palomino, José, 140 Bartok, Béla, 115, 117 Beatles, 130 Behague, Gerard, 12, 27, 29, 59, 113 Bellini, Vincenzo, 22 Benarós, León, 39 Berlin, Irving, 101 Berni, Antonio, 109 Bernstein, Leonard, 101 Bertran, Moisès, 113, 114 Boero, Felipe, 2, 35, 55 Bor, Modesta, 87, 97 Boulanger, Nadia, 66, 74 Bolaños, César, 99 Bolivar, Simon, 9, 37 Borges, Jorge Luís, 39, 54 Bourdieu, Pierre, 130, 131, 132, 133 Braga, Ernani, 65, 67 Brncic, Gabriel, 99 Broqua, Alfonso, 35 Busea, José Ángel, 75 Busoni, Ferrucio, 80 Caba, Eduardo, 29, 35, 39 Caicedo, Patricia, 32, 82 Calcaño, Emilio, 84 161

162

Index

Calcaño, Octavio, 84 Calcaño, José Antonio, 82 Calcaño, Miguel Ángel, 85 Caldas Barbosa, Domingo, 40 Calderón, Joan Manuel, 129 Calvo, Luís Antonio, 29 Camargo Guarnieir, Mozart, 57, 64, 65 Campos, Cleómenes, 66 Campos Parsi, Héctor, 35 Camus, Albert, 54 Cantú, Agostinho, 3 Caraballo, Gustavo, 54 Cardoza y Aragón, Luís, 19, 107, 109 Carnicer, Ramón, 20 Carpentier, Alejo, 68, 70, 73, 74, 75, 76 Carpio, Roberto, 80 Carranza, Eduardo, 39, 102 Carreño, Inocente, 87 Carvalho, Ronald de Casares, Bioy, 54 Castellanos, Evencio, 87 Castro, Juan José, 55, 97 Castro, José María, 55 Chatterjee, 16, 63, 77 Chavez, Carlos, 96 Cernuda, Luís, 39, 100 Cervantes, Ignacio, 17 Cimaglia de Espinosa, Lía, 38 Cohen, Mitchell, 109, 116 Corrêa, Raymundo, 31, 40 Cotapos, Acario, 73 Crosby, Bing, 112, 117 Dahlhaus, Carl, 13, 113 Davis, Miles, 117 Da Silva, Francisco Manoel, 20 Debali, José Francisco, 20, 21 De Andrade, Mario, 56, 57, 59, 60, 63, 66, 96 De Andrade, Oswald, 57, 58, 65 De Brito Mendez, Julia, 59 De Campos, Susana, 66 De Elias, Manuel, 111 De Falla, Manuel, 55, 64, 84, 98 De Greiff, Otto, 29

De Ibarbourou, Juana, 75 De Quevedo y Villegas, Francisco, 100 De la Vega, Garcilaso, 114 Del Picchia, Menotti, 57 De Rogatis, Pascual, 78 De Silva, Alfonso, 80, 81 De Souza, Oswaldo, 67 Debenedetti, Salvador, 30 Debussy, Claude, 62 Descartes, Rene, 124, 143 Dewey, John, 144 Dias, Gonçalves, 31, 40 Donizetti, Gaetano, 20, 21, 22 Dorsey, Tommy, 112, 117 Dvořák, Anton, 64, 69 Drummond de Andrade, Carlos, 37 Duchamp, Marcel, 130, 138, 139 Duprat, Rogério, 104 Ellington, Duke, 112, 117 Estévez, Antonio, 87 Estrella, Blanca, 87 Fabini, Félix Eduardo, 35 Falú, Eduardo, 99 Fernández, Agustín, 40, 97 Fernandez, Oscar Lorenzo, 3, 57, 67 Ferreira, Ascenção, 37 Ficher, Jacobo, 2, 35, 55 Figueroa, Narciso, 35 Flores, Julio, 39 Frías de López Buchardo, Brígida, 54 Fontes, Hermes, 31, 40 Fornarini, Eduardo, 55 Galeno, Juvenal. 31, 40 Gallet, Luciano, 67 Galindo, Blas, 35 García Caturla, Alejandro, 69, 74, 75, 76 García Lorca, Federico, 39, 40, 54, 71 García Canclini, Nestor, 14, 17, 109, 110 García, Torres, 109 Gardel, Carlos, 110

Index

Garland, Peter, 144 Gasull, Eugenia, 82 Geller, Ernest, 10 Gershwin, George, 101 Giannini, Vittorio, 101 Gil, Gilberto, 104 Gilardi, Gilardo, 2, 55 Gilardoni, Eduardo, 35 Ginastera, Alberto, 2, 3, 5, 52, 55, 78, 96, 97, 98 Gnattali, Radamés, 67 Grieg, Edvard, 30, 64 Goodman, Benny, 112, 117 Gomes, Carlos, 5, 23, 59, 63 Gómez, Juan Vicente, 82 Gómez Carrillo, Manuel González, Enrique, 84 González, Luís Jorge, 99 González Mina, Leonor, 141 Gray, Leon, 124 Guarnieri, Alice, 66 Guarnieri, Rossine, 66 Guastavino, Carlos, 2, 5, 35, 38, 39, 52, 55, 97, 99, 140 Guevara, Gerardo, 35 Guerra y Sánchez, Ramiro, 68 Guidens, Anthony, 110 Guillén, Nicolás, 70–71, 73, 74 Heinlein, Federico, 38 Heine, Heinrich, 37, 75 Helm, Everett, 2 Henrique, Waldemar, 35, 67, 97 Hermansen Rendtler, Valborg Bang, 30 Hobsbawm, Eric, 11 Holzmann, Rodolfo, 81 Huxley, Adolph, 54 Illari, Bernardo, 18 Inca Garcilaso, 80 Inti-llimani, 104 Isaacs, Jorge, 39 Janacopulus, Vera, 64 Jara, Víctor, 104, 119

163

João VI, 40 Jurafsky, Abraham, 2, 35 Klos, Alberto, 35 Kpechlin, Charles, 66 Kohn, Hans, 10 Lanza, Alcidez, 99 Lacerda, Osvaldo, 67, 97, 113 Lameda, Pascual, 84 Lamour, Dorothy, 112, 117 Lara, Agustín, 110 Lasala, Ángel, 3, 35 Lauro, Antonio, 87 Laya, José Clemente, 87 Leão, Nara, 104 Lecuona, Ernesto, 75 Letelier, Alfonso, 38 Letelier, Miguel, 99 Leng, Alfonso, 38 León, Jaime, 97, 100, 101 Lifchtiz, Max, 111 Lima Quintana, Hamlet, 39 Lleras Restrepo, Isabel, 103 Lopes Vieira, Adelina, 31 Lopez Buchardo, Carlos, 2, 35, 53, 54 Loyola, Margot, 104 Lugones, Leopoldo, 39, 51, 54 Luzzatti, Arturo, 2 Machado de Assis, Joaquim María, 31, 40 Machado Morales, Gerardo, 68 Maiguashca, Mesías, 99 Malfatti, Anita, 57 Malroux, André, 54 Manns, Patricia, 104 Mansilla, Alberto, 33 Marinello, Juan, 68 Martí, José, 75 Martín-Barbero, Jesús, 18, 33 Martínez Villena, Rubén, 68 Meireles, Cecilia, 40 Mello Moraes Filho, Alexandre, 31, 40 Mendes, Gilberto, 111, 112, 116

164

Index

Mendoza, Zoila, 78 Mennesson, Christinne, 117 Mejía, Adolfo, 35 Merleau Ponty, Maurice, 144 Messiaen, Oliver, 115 Mignone, Francisco, 57 Mistral, Gabriela, 37, 38 Milanés, Pablo, 104 Milhaud, Darius, 62 Morais, Vinicius, 40 Morales, Melesio, 23 Moreno Zapata, Marcela, 141 Morente, Enrique, 125 Mujica Láinez, Manuel, 54

Piazzolla, Astor, 33 Picasso, Pablo, 63, 69 Pimenta, Altino, 67 Plá, Manduca, 65 Plaza, Juan Bautista, 5, 29, 35, 82, 84 Poma, Guaman, 80 Pombo, Rafael, 114 Ponce, Manuel M., 2, 5, 29, 35 Pope Pio X, 82 Porter, Cole, 101 Poulenc, Francis, 115 Pozadas, Florencio, 99

Nazareth, Ernesto, 63 Nepomuceno, Alberto, 5, 29, 30, 31, 59, 62 Neruda, Pablo, 39, 81, 114 Neto, Coelho, 31 Neto, Barroso, 3 Neuname, Antonio, 20 Nobre, Marlos, 36, 95, 96, 97, 114 Nova, Jacqueline, 97, 99 Nunes García, José Mauricio, 22, 59 Nuñez Allauca, Alejandro, 99 Nuñez, Rafael, 20

Rachik, Hassan, 13 Rain, Jack, 32 Ravel, Maurice, 115 Rebagliati, Claudio, 24 Rebelo, Arnaldo, 67 Revueltas, Silvestre, 97 Rico, Règulo, 85 Ricordi americana, 2 Ríos Toledano, Miguel, 25 Rivera, Diego, 109 Rivera, José Eustacio, 39 Róa, Fabián, 111 Rodgers, Richard Rodríguez, Silvio, 104 Roig, Emilio, 68 Roldán, Amadeo, 69, 70, 71–72, 73, 74 Rolón, José, 29 Roquette Pinto, Edgardo, 29 Rojas, Ricardo, 27 Rossini, Gioachino, 20, 22 Rousseau, Jean-Jacques Rubinstein, Artur, 64 Rühlmann, Franz, 66

Ocampo, Silvina, 54, 98 Ocampo, Victoria, 54 Ojeda, Roberto, 79 Ortega, Aniceto, 24 Oswald, Henrique, 3, 62 Outes, Félix, 29 Ortega y Gasset, José, 54 Ovalle, Jayme, 35, 60, 67 Palma, Athos, 97 Paraskavaídis, Graciela, 99 Parera, Blas, 20 Parra, Violeta, 104 Paz, Juan Carlos, 97 Pedrell, Felip, 80 Pereira, Raimundo, 35 Perez Valero, Luís, 111, 117

Quarantino, Pasqual, 2

Sangüesa, Iris, 99 Sánchez de Fuentes, Eduardo, 17, 35, 75 Sánchez Málaga, Carlos, 81 Sanjinés, Modesta, 25 Santamaría, Carolina, 28 Sas, Andrés, 35

Index

Scarabinno, 29, 33 Schumann, Robert, 4 Schenkmann, Edgard, 101 Schubert, Franz, 4, 54 Stravinsky, Igor, 115, 117 Serna Aguilar, Juan Pablo, 114 Serrat, Joan Manuel, 129, 140 Siqueira, José, 67 Silva, José Asunción, 29 Silva Valdés, Fernán, 39, 98 Sinatra, Frank, 112, 117 Sindici, Oreste, 20 Sojo, Vicente Emilio, 35, 82, 84 Solare, Juán María, 37, 111, 112, 115 Song rhythms: Bailecito, 29; Bambuco, 28, 103; Cateretês, 63; Chacarera, 53; Choro, 28; Cielitos, 29; Contradanza, 29; Cueca, 53; Cumbia, 140; Danza, 28; Gato, 53; Habanera, 28; Huayno, 52; Huella, 52; Joropo, 28, 84; Lundu, 28, 57, 58; Malambo, 53; Maxixe, 28, 57, 62; Milonga, 29, 52; Modinha, 57, 58; Pasillo, 28; Samba, 28, 57, 62; Son, 29, 71, 73; Tango, 57, 63; Triste, 29, 52; Vidala, 52; Vidalita, 29, 52, 98;

165

Yaraví, 29, 52; Zamacueca, 24, 28, 53; Zamba, 29, 53 Sosa, Mercedes, 104 Sumaya, Manuel de, 22 Teixeira, Orlando, 31, 40 Tolstoy, Leo, 111 Torrealba, Juan Vicente, 35 Torres, Anabel, 15 Trouillot, Michel Rolph, 18 Turino, Thomas, 10, 20, 115 Ugarte, Floro, 2 Uribe Holguín, Guillermo, 28 Urrutia Blondel, Jorge, 35, 37, 28 Vasconcellos, Dora, 40 Valcárcel, Edgar, 81, 82, 97, 99 Valcárcel, Luís, 79 Valcárcel, Theodoro, 35, 40, 80, 82 Veloso, Caetano, 104 Vieira Brandão, José, 67 Villa-lobos, Heitor, 2, 5, 33, 35, 56, 62, 63, 73, 74, 84, 96 Villalpando, Alberto, 39, 99 Villani-Côrtes, Edmundo, 67, 116, 117 Vincenti, Benedetto, 20 Vitier, Cintio, 71 Von Herder, Johann Gottfried, 9 Wagenaar, Bernard, 101 Williams, Alberto, 33, 35, 78 Wolf, Hugo, 4 Wong, Ketty, 40 Yupanqui, Atahualpa, 99 Zacarías Tallet, José, 68 Zenea, Juan Clemente, 75 Zeppelin, Led, 117

About the Author

One of the most active performers and researchers of the Iberian and Latin American vocal repertoire, the Colombian-Spanish soprano Patricia Caicedo has performed in Europe, North America, and Latin America. She has published six books and eight CDs considered as a reference in the field. Patricia is the founder and director of the Barcelona Festival of Song, a summer course and a series of concerts dedicated to the study of the history and interpretation of the Iberian and Latin American vocal repertoire that reaches its fifteenth edition in 2019. She holds a PhD in musicology from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid and a medical doctor’s degree from the Escuela Colombiana de Medicina. Her website is www.patriciacaicedo.com.

167