379 Ml mj. y$"9o A MEXICAN POSTMODERNIST VISION GROUNDED ON STRUCTURALISM: THE CASES OF JUAN TRIGOS' CUARTETO DA DO (1988) AND VICTOR RASGADO'S RAYO NOCTURNAL (1989) THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Alejandro L. Madrid-Gonzalez, B.M., M.F.A. Denton, Texas May, 1999 Madrid-Gonzalez, Alejandro Luis, A Mexican postmodernist vision grounded on structuralism: The cases of Juan Triao's Cuarteto da do (1988^ and Victor Rasaado's Ravo nocturnal (1989). Master of Music (Musicology), May, 1999, 111 pp., 35 illustrations, references, 12 titles. This thesis contributes analyses of two works by Mexican composers: Rayo nocturnal (1989) by Victor Rasgado (b. 1959), and the Cuarteto da do (1988) by Juan Trigos (b. 1965). Although composed according to structuralist principles, a postmodern interpretation is offered. The analytical method applied is based on Allen Forte's set theory, including rhythmic and timbral dimensions that are integral to the conceptions of these works. A survey of modernism and postmodernism in twentieth-century Mexico serves to place these works in their cultural context. 379 Ml mj. y$"9o A MEXICAN POSTMODERNIST VISION GROUNDED ON STRUCTURALISM: THE CASES OF JUAN TRIGOS' CUARTETO DA DO (1988) AND VICTOR RASGADO'S RAYO NOCTURNAL (1989) THESIS Presented to the Graduate Council of the University of North Texas in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of MASTER OF MUSIC By Alejandro L. Madrid-Gonzalez, B.M., M.F.A. Denton, Texas May, 1999 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The author wishes to offer thanks to the two composers whose work is the subject of this thesis, Vfctor Rasgado and Juan Trigos, who have been extremely understanding, helpful, and patient as this work was taking shape. Special thanks are due to Professor Jaime Moreno Villarreal for his comments and suggestions in the late stages of this research. His intimate knowledge of twentieth-century aesthetics as well as Mexican history were invaluable resources for confirmation and collation of information gathered from published sources. Further thanks are offered to Miguel Hernandez Montero, who kindly copied the musical examples used in this essay. Finally, the author wishes to extend thanks to the members of his graduate committee, Dr. Malena Kuss, for her continuous inspiration and encouragement, and Dr. Joseph Klein, for his invaluable comments and suggestions. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS iii INTRODUCTION 1 Chapter 1. ASPECTS OF THE POSTMODERN 4 2. POSTMODERN STEPS IN MEXICO 25 3. A PROFILE OF FRANCO DONATONI, THE "MAESTRO" 43 4. JUAN TRIGOS AND HIS CUARTETO DA DO (1988) 48 The Genesis of Trigos' Cuarteto da do Analytical Justification Intervallic Structure of the Basic Material Presentation and Manipulation of the Basic Material Rhythmic Characteristics Structural Articulation 5. VICTOR RASGADO AND HIS RAYO NOCTURNAL (1989) 76 The Genesis of Rasgado's Rayo nocturnal Analytical Justification Intervallic Structure of the Basic Material Presentation and Manipulation of the Basic Material Rhythmic Characteristics Structural Articulation CONCLUSIONS 101 APPENDIX 106 BIBLIOGRAPHY 108 IV INTRODUCTION Postmodern art theorists, including postmodern music critics, have often received a strong opposition from the traditional academic community, on the basis of the lack of logical argumentation to support their positions. In musicology this problem has usually translated into an absence of convincing analytical explorations of the works studied, which has largely seemed suspicious to less radical scholars. The so-called "New Musicology," although undoubtly appealing as a posture that attempts to establish bold relationships between musical works and social events, as well as aesthetic views, fails to offer musical objective facts obtained from a careful examination of the scores. Nevertheless, the problem that New Musicology sees in traditional musicology is also valid, especially when it comes to the study of music written after World War II. The sole exercise of analysis, without an interpretative framework which gives it a purpose, is also futile. Currently, scholars have understood that the mere positivistic approach that prevailed in the 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's does not completely explain the significance of a work of art, and uses their traditionally strong analytical background as the basis of larger interpretative essays. The objective of this thesis is to analytically support the premise that technical tools inherited from modernity can be used to express postmodern aesthetic positions by contemporary composers. I will focus on the cases of Juari Trigos and Victor Rasgado, two Mexican composers who, trained under the Italian composer Franco Donatoni, have acquired a very solid technique that branches out from post-serial structuralism, while maintaining a radically different aesthetic from the modernist abstractionist approach of their former teacher. The essay will be divided into three major sections and six chapters. A section devoted to a historical and theoretical discussion of postmodern aesthetics will be presented in chapter I—Aspects of the Postmodern, and chapter II Postmodern steps in Mexico. The section for specific music discussion will be divided into three chapters: chapter III—A Portrait of Franco Donatoni the "Maestro;" chapter IV—Juan Trigos and His Cuarteto da do; and chapter V Victor Rasgado and His Rayo nocturnal. The last section, presenting the conclusions drawn from these discussions will be formed by chapter VI—Conclusions. Throughout this essay I will interchangeably use the terms structuralism' and 'serialism' to refer to the 'integral serialism1 movement represented by the generation of Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Bruno Maderna, since integral serialism is the musical trend that more closely resembles the ideals of structuralist thought. Equally, I will apply the term 'post-structuralist' to the generation of composers whose musical technique comes as a 'progression' of the serialist principles. My analysis will prove that, although strong elements from structuralism are still present in the works of Trigos and Rasgado, we also find elements that clearly set these works apart from a modern aesthetic, placing them within a postmodern stream in accordance with the aesthetic of their contemporaries. The analytical aspect of the thesis will primarily concentrate on discovering the elements that bring unity and coherence to the works. The basic theoretical framework will be a thorough intervallic, formal, and rhythmic exploration of the two works chosen: Trigos' Cuarteto da do (1988) and Rasgado s Rayo nocturnal (1989). Once the formal analysis is completed, the particular methods, or compositional codes, used in these two works will be compared to those preferred by Franco Donatoni, and generally by European composers of Rasgado's and Trigos' generation. CHAPTER I ASPECTS OF THE POSTMODERN To define the art objects of postmodernity and to establish their aesthetic value proves to be a difficult task for most cultural theorists, since there are as many different positions as there are scholars studying the phenomenon. The difficulties of studying a musical phenomenon that is currently developing are indeed immense. Not only are we historically too close to the events to properly and objectively judge them, but, as a matter of fact, we ourselves become part of the problem. The fact that theorists have problems outlining and agreeing on the characteristics of a postmodern posture is just a natural result of our proximity to the situation. Nevertheless, among the different adjectives and circumstances used to describe and specify the postmodern era, one is shared by most authors: a definite sense of crisis seems to lie at the core of postmodernity. This condition, inherited from the contradictions of modernism and structuralism, is confronted in an attempt to overcome it by the artists and creators of the postmodern generation with their own technical and aesthetic tools, as well as by the use of those tools received through academic training by their mentors, themselves members of the modern generation. When this classification problem moves to the realm of music, the situation becomes more difficult, due to the very subjective quality of this art form. Rubert de Ventos explains that as an abstract fact, and not as an abstractive process, music is the most abstract of the fine arts, in the sense that it is the least "representational art," an idea first espoused by Hegel in his Aesthetics, and later resumed by Vassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) in his ideal of non-representational painting.1 This characteristic of music, which was elaborated upon by the modernists (twelve-tone composers, who had a close relationship with Kandinsky, and their serialist heirs), as we will explore later, represents an additional challenge for those who try to explain the properties of a musical postmodern language. It has been traditionally assumed that scholars were to approach a specific phenomenon only once the period when those events occurred was at a sufficient time-distance to be considered objectively and in its entirety. Steven Connor points out that recent scholarly trends tend to consider knowledge and experience as part of the same complex continuum, where experiencing an event and trying to grasp its meaning can both relate to the older structures of knowledge inherited from the past.2 In other