Silvestre Revueltas

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Silvestre Revueltas
Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas (December 31, 1899 - October 5, 1940) was a Mexican composer of classical music, violinist and conductor.

He was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas and the Chicago College of Music. He gave violin recitals and in 1929 was invited by Carlos Chávez to become assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (Mexico), a post he held until 1935. He and Chávez did much to promote contemporary Mexican music. It was around this time that Revueltas began to compose in earnest.

He was part of a family of artists, a number of whom were also famous and recognized in Mexico; his brother Fermín (1901–1935) and sister Consuelo (b. before 1908, d. before 1999) were painters, sister Rosaura (ca. 1909–1996) was an actress and dancer, younger brother José Revueltas (1914–1976), was a noted writer. His daughter from his second marriage, Eugenia (born November 15, 1934), is an essayist. His nephew Román Revueltas Retes, son of José, is a violinist, journalist, and painter. His daughter from his first marriage to Jules Klarecy (orig: Hlavacek), Romano Carmen (later Montoya and Peers), enjoyed a successful career as a dancer, taught ballet and flamenco in New York, and died on November 13, 1995, at age 73, in Athens, Greece. She is survived by three sons, and two kindred creative female heirs in Oceanside, CA.

He went to Spain and worked for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, but upon Francisco Franco's victory, returned to Mexico to teach. He earned little, and fell into poverty and alcoholism. He died in Mexico City on the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador, written four years earlier, was premièred.

He wrote film music, chamber music, songs and a number of other works. Among his orchestral music are a number of symphonic poems with Sensemayá: Chant for the Killing of a Snake (1938), based on a poem by Nicolás Guillén, the most famous. His musical language is often tonal but more often post-tonal,reflecting a modernist approach influenced by Bartók, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others.[citation needed] His music is often vigorous, rhythmically vital, and frequently has a distinctly Mexican flavour.

He appeared briefly as a bar piano player in the movie ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (Mexico, 1935), for which he composed the music, placing a sign over the piano saying Se suplica no tirarle al pianista (We beg you not to shoot at the pianist).

Revueltas died of pneumonia (complicated by alcoholism) in Mexico City on October 5, 1940, at the age of 40. His remains are kept at the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City.


Contents

[edit] Music

[edit] Chamber Works

  • El afilador, 1924
  • Batik, 1926
  • Four Little Pieces for String Trio, 1929
  • Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, 1936
  • Ocho x radio, 1933
  • Planos, 1934
  • String Quartet No. 1, 1930
  • String Quartet No. 2, 1931
  • String Quartet No. 3, 1931
  • String Quartet No. 4, Música de feria, 1932
  • Tres piezas, for violin and piano, 1932

[edit] Orchestral Works

  • Alcancías, 1932
  • Caminos, 1934
  • Colorines, 1932
  • La coronela (orch. by Moncayo and arr. by Limantour)
  • Cuauhnáhuac, for string orchestra, 1930; revised for full orchestra, 1932
  • Danza geométrica (orchestral version of Planos), 1934
  • Esquinas, 1930
  • Itinerarios, 1938
  • Janitzio, 1933 (rev. 1936)
  • Música para charlar, 1938 (from the film score of Ferrocarriles de Baja California)
  • El renacuajo paseador, 1933
  • Sensemayá, 1938
  • Toccata (sin fuga), for violin and chamber orchestra 1933
  • Troka, 1933
  • Ventanas, 1931

[edit] Ballets

  • La coronela, 1940 (unfinished; a completion by Blas Galindo and Candelario Huízar lost)
  • El renacuajo paseador, 1936

[edit] Film Scores

  • Bajo el signo de la muerte, 1939
  • Ferrocarriles de Baja California, 1938
    • selections reworked as Música para charlar
  • El indio, 1938
  • La noche de los mayas, 1939
  • Redes, 1935
  • ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!, 1936

[edit] Songs

  • "Canto a una muchacha negra" (words: Langston Hughes), voice and piano 1938
  • Cinco canciones para niños y dos canciones profanas, 1938-1939
  • Duo para pato y canario, voice and chamber orchestra, 1931
  • "Ranas" (Frogs) and "El tecolete" (The Owl), voice and piano, 1931

[edit] Piano

  • Allegro
  • Canción (a passage used also in Cuauhnáhuac)

[edit] Sources

  • Avila, Jacqueline A. 2007."The Influence of the Cinematic in the Music of Silvestre Revueltas". DMA thesis. University of California (Riverside).
  • Barnard Baca, Roberto. 2008. "The String Quartets of Silvestre Revueltas." DMA diss. New York: CUNY GC.
  • Barnard Baca, Roberto. 2008. "Análisis de transformaciones en el cuarteto núm. 1 de Revueltas". Artículo. Guadalajara, MX
  • Contreras Soto, Eduardo. 2000. Silvestre Revueltas: baile, duelo y son. Teoría y práctica del arte [México, D.F.]: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Dirección General de Publicaciones, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. ISBN 9701837622
  • Dean, Jack Lee. 1992. "Silvestre Revueltas: A Discussion of the Background and Influences Affecting His Compositional Style". Ph.D thesis. University of Texas at Austin.
  • Espinosa, Sergio. 2001. "Silvestre Revuelta's Film for Redes". Ph.D. diss. University of Iowa.
  • Garland, Peter. 1991. In Search of Silvestre Revueltas. Essays 1978-1990. Soundings Press.
  • Hyslop, ,J. R. 1982. "An Analysis of Silvestre Revueltas's Sensemayá". DMA thesis. Bloomington: University of Indiana.
  • Kaufman, Christopher. 1991. "Sensemayá: The Layer Procedures of Silvestre Revueltas". DMA thesis. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University.
  • Kolb Neuhaus, Roberto. 2007. "El vanguardismo de Silvestre Revueltas:una perspectiva semiótica." Ph.D. diss. Facultad de Filosofía y Letras, UNAM.
  • Kolb Neuhaus, Roberto. 1998. Silvestre Revueltas. Catálogo de sus obras. Coyoacán, D.F.: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Escuela Nacional de Música. ISBN 9683669093
  • Hoag, Charles K. 1987. "Sensemayá: A Chant for Killing a Snake." Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 8, no. 2 (Autumn): 172–84.
  • Leclair, Charmaine Francoise. 1995. "The Solo and Chamber Music of Silvestre Revueltas." Ph.D. diss. Eugene: University of Oregon.
  • Mayer-Serra, Otto. 1941. "Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico." Musical Quarterly 27:123–45.
  • Moreno Rivas, Yolanda. 1995. Rostros del Nacionalismo en la música mexicana: un ensayo de interpretación, 2nd edition. [México, D.F.]: Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Escuela Nacional de Música. ISBN 9683645569
  • Porrit, Peter. 1983. "Nationalism in Twentieth Century Mexican Music". DMA thesis. Berkeley: University of California.
  • Revueltas, Silvestre. 1989. Silvestre Revueltas por él mismo: apuntes autobiográficos, diarios, correspondencia y otros escritos de un gran músico, compiled by Rosaura Revueltas. México, D.F.: Ediciones Era. ISBN 9684112874
  • Sanchez, Gutiérrez, Carlos. 1996. ¨The Cooked and the Raw: Syncretism in the music of Silvestre Revueltas". Ph.D. thesis. Princeton: University of Princeton [sic].
  • Velazco, Jorge. 1986. "The Original Version of Janitzio, by Silvestre Revueltas." Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 7, no. 2 (Autumn): 341–46.
  • Vondrak, Antonia. 2000. "Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940)". DMA thesis. University of Vienna.
  • Wilson-Spinalle, Katheleen L. 1983. "Selected Solo Songs of Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas. DMA thesis. University of Arizona.
  • Zohn-Muldoon, Ricardo. 1998. "The Song of the Snake: Silvestre Revueltas' Sensemayá." Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 19, no. 2 (Autumn): 133–59.

[edit] External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silvestre_Revueltas"
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