Ausentes presentes: Art Music from the Chilean Exile in the Anacrusa Festivals at the Goethe-Institute Santiago (1985–89)

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 361-380
Author(s):  
DANIELA FUGELLIE
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Transfer Process ◽  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Free Expression ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
The 1960S

AbstractCreated in 1984, the Anacrusa Music Association organized concerts, workshops, and festivals of contemporary music in Chile during the last years of Pinochet's military dictatorship. Crucial for these events was the collaboration with the Goethe-Institute Santiago, which enabled a space for free expression within the repressive context of the dictatorship. This article explores the circulation and reception of musical works by Chilean composers living in exile performed in the 1985, 1987, and 1989 Anacrusa festivals. The trajectories of the pieces by three main figures of the politically engaged avant-garde of the 1960s – Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt, Sergio Ortega, and Fernando García – can be seen as a transfer process that involved the goals of West German cultural diplomacy in Chile, as well as the interaction between Anacrusa organizers, Latin American colleagues, and performers who returned from exile.

Pushing Boundaries

2015 ◽  
Vol 29 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-211 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Jakelski
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Diplomacy ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Cultural Contact ◽  
State Institutions ◽  
Cross Border ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
East West ◽  
International Festival

This article examines how the Warsaw Autumn International Festival of Contemporary Music facilitated mobility across socialist borders in the 1960s. The Warsaw Autumn was one of the most important zones of cross-border cultural contact during the Cold War, for its eclectic programming featured musical works and performers from both the Soviet and American zones of cultural, political, and economic influence. The article demonstrates that the festival enabled multiple connections to form across socialist borders. Some of these were top–down, international contacts among socialist state institutions, which resulted in carefully curated performances of cultural diplomacy that tended to reinforce prevailing notions of East–West opposition. Other connections involved informal, personal ties that facilitated the transnational circulation of musical modernism throughout the socialist bloc. The article proposes that the Warsaw Autumn’s advocacy of modernist music by unofficial Soviet composers exposed and encouraged the development of cultural affinities that challenged the socialist bloc’s presumptive hierarchies while also mitigating the Cold War’s broadly drawn divisions between East and West. The article further suggests that the significance of mobility at the Warsaw Autumn in the 1960s depended on the continued fixity of borders in other areas—between states, the Cold War’s geopolitical regions, and contrasting musical styles.

Grupo de Renovacion Musical (1942–1948)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marysol Quevedo
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Igor Stravinsky ◽  
Future Generations ◽  
Sonata Form ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
American Composers ◽  
Premature Deaths ◽  
The U.S

The Grupo de Renovacion Musical was a school of Cuban composers that emerged out of the Conservatorio Municipal de La Habana during the 1940s. The young composers were pupils of Spanish-born composer José Ardévol, who served as the leader and mentor of the group. After the premature deaths of Amadeo Roldán and Alejandro García Caturla (1939 and 1940 respectively), Ardévol took over some of their duties as music professor at the Conservatorio Municipal. Ardévol and his pupils saw a need for Cuban composers to focus on compositional techniques and strongly believed that all composers should master traditional compositional methods, such as traditional counterpoint, sonata form, and fugues (most commonly used by composers of the Baroque and Classical periods) in order to fully develop their music-writing abilities. They also rejected the obvious nationalism that Roldán and Caturla had popularised and that was also found in the works of many other Latin American composers from the previous generation. Instead, they preferred the neoclassical trends of Europe—mostly of France and Spain—with composers Igor Stravinsky and Manuel de Falla serving as their models. However, they never denied the importance of the legacy established by Roldán and Caturla for future generations of Cuban composers. The group acknowledged that Roldán and Caturla were visionaries in their own time, influential through their compositions, which brought Cuban music up to date with contemporary music developments in the U.S., Latin America, and Europe, and for introducing the use of traditional Cuban music elements to contemporary art music—particularly the use of rhythm and percussive instrumentation.

The Closing and Lasting Impact of CLAEM

2020 ◽  
pp. 162-176
Author(s):  
Eduardo Herrera
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Classical Music ◽  
Social Bonds ◽  
American Art ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Latin American Art ◽  
American Composers ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Impact

This chapter evaluates the conditions leading to the closing of CLAEM and the impact the center as a whole had on the Latin American art music scene. Touching upon the three main themes of the book, the chapter discusses the lessons learned and the weaknesses revealed from the most significant philanthropic incursion into avant-garde art music in Latin America, and the lasting legacy of a generation of fellowship holders, both in terms of their embrace or rejection of the avant-garde, and their adoption of an identification as Latin American composers based on strong and intimate social bonds. It argues that the impact that the relatively short-lived center had during the following fifty years on the classical music of the region was the result of calculated philanthropic efforts, the embodied and multi-faceted embrace of avant-garde ideas, and the conscious and strategic construction and identification of Latin American composers.

Miguel Ángel Estrella

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carol A. Hess
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
The United States ◽  
Dirty War ◽  
Political Activities ◽  
Latin American Music ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
The Status ◽  
Nadia Boulanger ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter examines the place of Argentine pianist Miguel Ángel Estrella in the politics of Latin American music, focusing on the Dirty War, the wave of repression and violence by military regimes during the 1960s and 1970s. It begins with Estrella’s recital in September 1987 as a tribute to Nadia Boulanger, who died in October 1979 and was one protagonist in Estrella’s story. It then considers Estrella’s political activities in Argentina and his being formally charged with subversion, sedition, and terrorist activities, as well as his promotion of the masterworks of the Western canon. It also contextualizes Estrella’s experience in light of a number of broader issues, relating Estrella and his traditionalist repertory to the ongoing debate among composers and critics over socially engaged music (música comprometida); the historical antecedents of this debate and how they inform present-day reactions to the status of either the avant-garde or the Western canon in música comprometida; and how scholars in the United States might understand Estrella’s story.

scholarly journals Popau, Pop, or an “American Way of Living”? An Introduction to Aracy Amaral's “From the Stamps to the Bubble”

ARTMargins ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-119
Author(s):  
Sofia Gotti
Keyword(s):  
Economic Development ◽  
Pop Art ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Artistic Production ◽  
Cultural Milieu ◽  
Brazilian Art ◽  
Cultural Exchanges ◽  
The 1960S ◽  
The Military

The introductory text foregrounds the article “From the Stamps to the Bubble” (1968) by Brazilian historian and curator Aracy A. Amaral. It seeks to locate the primary document within a broader historiography of Brazilian art in the second half of the 1960s, and examine the ways in which the military dictatorship, along with certain cultural exchanges facilitated by Brazil's economic development in this period affected artistic production. Placing particular attention on the multiple terminologies that were in use when the article was written, the introduction focuses on the contiguities of Pop Art in the Brazilian cultural milieu. It argues that Pop was present inasmuch as it inspired artists to initiate a process of radical experimentation, which empowered them to depart from an avant-garde tradition founded on geometric abstraction.

Afterword

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin Piekut
Keyword(s):  
World War Ii ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Experimental Music ◽  
John Cage ◽  
World War ◽  
Latin Americans ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Henry Cowell ◽  
The Social

This chapter discusses how a US-focused mainstream concept of American experimental music within the art music tradition was cemented in the 1950s through the work of John Cage at a moment when he established professional connections with the European avant-garde. The chapter recognizes that before this moment, composers such as Henry Cowell had thought of American experimentalism in a more hemispheric way and included the activities of composers like Carlos Chávez, Alejandro García Caturla, and Amadeo Roldán in their genealogies. Rather than arguing for a revisionist type of history to include Latin Americans in these narratives about American experimental music, the chapter’s goal is to show that taking into account historical and contemporary Latin@ and Latin American understandings of experimentalisms not only may help us in redefining the social and political meaning of what has been constructed as mainstream musical experimentalism but also may play a central role in critically rethinking post–World War II narratives about music.

European Professors at the Cursos Latinoamericanos de Música Contemporánea: Two experiences – Piriápolis, 1974; Buenos Aires, 1977

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 329-345
Author(s):  
OMAR CORRADO
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Music Composition ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Critical Evaluation ◽  
Art Music ◽  
Compositional Techniques ◽  
Musical Life ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
The One

AbstractBetween 1971 and 1989, fifteen editions of the Cursos Latinoamericanos de Música Contemporánea (Latin American Contemporary Music Courses) took place alternatively in five countries of the continent. These were intensive meetings concentrated in two weeks, consisting of classes, workshops, seminars, conferences, and concerts. One of the central concerns was contemporary art music composition, although an important space was also given to performance, technologies, innovative pedagogies, popular music, and musicology. Around 150 lecturers from different countries took part in the courses, among them, about forty-five were European. On the one hand, the courses aimed at providing updated information on contemporary international musical life. On the other hand, they encouraged its critical evaluation in relation to the history, culture, and concrete practices of Latin American musicians. This article analyses exchanges between Latin American and European musicians regarding compositional techniques, theoretical perspectives, repertoires, aesthetics, and ideological positions during the 1974 and 1977 editions of the Cursos.

scholarly journals A national perspective and international threads to postmodernism at the Fifth Hellenic Week of Contemporary Music

Muzikologija ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 107-113
Author(s):  
Valia Christopoulou
Keyword(s):  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Military Dictatorship ◽  
Political Event ◽  
The Press ◽  
Musical Works ◽  
National Perspective ◽  
The Military

The Fifth Hellenic Week of Contemporary Music (Athens, 1976) has been mainly considered in the context of a major political event: the fall of the military dictatorship in 1974. However, it may also be seen as a landmark for the transition to a postmodern era in Greece. The musical works presented during the Week, as well as their reception by the musical community are indicative of this transition. This paper aims at exploring those two perspectives and places the emphasis on the second, through an analytical comment on Le Tricot Rouge by Giorgos Kouroupos and the critiques in the press.

Prudencio, Cergio (1955--)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camila Juarez
Keyword(s):  
Latin American ◽  
Buenos Aires ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Music Festival ◽  
Avant Garde ◽  
Catholic University ◽  
Bolivian Altiplano ◽  
Guggenheim Foundation ◽  
Local Materials ◽  
Youth Orchestra

Cergio Prudencio was a composer, director, researcher, and teacher. He studied Latin American Contemporary Music Courses at the Bolivian Catholic University and participated in the Venezuelan National Youth Orchestra. Prudencio studied under Carlos Rosso, Alberto Villalpando, Rubén Vartañán, Coriún Aharonian, and José Antonio Abreu. He also served as a resident composer in Australia (1996), Germany (2001), and Italy (2007), was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship (2008/9), and has received assignments from the Perth Festival (Australia, 1996), the Pro Helvetia Foundation (Switzerland, 1997), the Donaueschingen Musiktage Festival (Germany, 1999), the TaG Ensemble (Switzerland, 2001), the Buenos Aires Contemporary Music Festival (2003), and the Klangspuren Festival (Austria, 2009). Prudencio’s music establishes a dialogue between Andean and European avant-garde traditions. In 1980, Prudencio cofounded and directed the Experimental Orchestra of Indigenous Instruments (OEIN): an ideological, musical, and pedagogical project that asserts the Aimara music tradition from the Bolivian Altiplano by means of a contemporary expression. OEIN’s program links local materials and forms to procedural techniques from avant-garde contemporary music. The OEIN has achieved wide international renown, performing in Uruguay, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and Colombia, as well as Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Australia, Italy, and Korea.

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