UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title The Caribbean and the Avant-Garde: Luciano Berio's Rhumba-Ramble Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6g99b1pf Author Calzada, Orlando Manuel Publication Date 2015 Supplemental Material https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6g99b1pf#supplemental Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles The Caribbean and the Avant-Garde: Luciano Berio’s Rhumba-Ramble A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements of the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Music by Orlando M. Calzada 2015 © Copyright by Orlando M. Calzada 2015 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION The Caribbean and the Avant-Garde: Luciano Berio’s Rhumba-Ramble by Orlando M. Calzada Doctor of Philosophy in Music University of California, Los Angeles, 2015 Professor Ian Krouse, Chair Abstract With the establishment of the first Spanish settlement in Las Américas called La Navidad – in what is today Dominican Republic – Cristobal Colón established official domination of Europe over the newly discovered land. A new era of worldwide exchange started to reshape territories, societies, cultures and relationships between peoples around the globe. Early in the 16th Century, as Charles C. Mann explains in his book 14931, “slaves from Africa mined silver in the Americas for sale to China; Spanish merchants waited impatiently for the latest shipment of Asian silk and porcelain from Mexico; Dutch sailors traded cowry shells from the Maldive Island in the Indian Ocean for human beings in 1 Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created (New York: Vintage Books, 2011), 6. ii Angola” while “tobacco from the Caribbean ensorcelled the wealthy and powerful in Madrid, Madras, Mecca and Manila.” The musical arena was not exempt from the dynamic phenomenon created by this globalization. Slaves brought, from Africa, a strong and sophisticated sense of melodic rhythm and percussive tradition and the European colonizers imposed their overpowering structural and harmonic tendencies. Although the Taínos2 were eradicated in a few years after the beginnings of the colonization, they also contributed to this cultural amalgamation with prototypes of musical instruments commonly used in Caribbean music today. Because of the historic socio-political situation from the 16th through the 19th Century, the importation of European music to the Caribbean concert halls was emphasized over the exportation of the Caribbean popular music to homogeneous venues in Europe. Yet, by 1850’s, the New Orleans pianist and composer, Louis Moreau Gottschalk took on the mission of composing music full of Caribbeanism with the purpose of presenting it in the concert hall. Inspired by his experiences in Cuba and Puerto Rico, Cocoyé (1853) and Souvenir de Porto Rico (1857)3 were early prototypes in the development of the influence of Caribbean music on classical composers. Since then, Caribbean music has become part of the influences embraced by classical composers around the globe. It has been a fountain of inspiration in pieces where the composer’s style interweaves with its elements and its character. Hector Berlioz, Georges Bizet, Maurice Ravel, Claude Debussy, Camille Saint- Saens, Aaron Copland, George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Hans Werner Henze and György Ligeti, all adopted Caribbean elements into their music while preserving their own 2 Natives of the Greater Antilles 3 Starr S. Frederick, Louis Moreau Gottschalk (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois, 2000), 266. iii styles. In Rhumba-Ramble, Luciano Berio, as did his fellow composers, embraces Caribbean elements and its substance, allowing them to become pillars of the piece while still being truthful to his own compositional voice. This analysis of Rhumba-Ramble will identify and discuss the specific ways in which the composition serves Berio as a vehicle to manifest his idiosyncrasy in perfect integration with traditional dance Caribbean music. iv This dissertation of Orlando M. Calzada is approved. David Lefkowitz Steve Loza James Newton Neal Stulberg Ian Krouse, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2015 v Dedication This dissertation is dedicated to my wife Mayra whose mission in life seems to be to love and support me. You deserve more than I could ever give you, I am sure that we will enjoy the fruits of our efforts together for years to come. I also dedicate this dissertation to my parents Orlando and Nelly. The support that you have given me goes beyond anything imaginable. I am infinitely proud and grateful to have been born of you. vi Table of Content Acknowledgments viii Biographical Sketches ix Introduction 1 I. Background and the Path to Rhumba-Ramble 3 II. Rhumba 6 1. Clave 6 2. Tresillo 11 3. The Rhumba 23 4. Ramble 24 5. Mambo 31 6. Son 36 IV. Ramble 41 7. The Row 41 8. The Use of the Row 46 9. Intervals 49 10. The Ramble 61 V. The Cycles 66 VI. Structure Summary 73 VII. Conclusion 78 VIII. Bibliography 81 vii Acknowledgements I am very grateful to my committee members for being part of this process, generously imparting me with their knowledge, experience and time. I am especially grateful to Dr. Ian Krouse, my committee chairman, for all the knowledge and encouragement poured to me with his special teaching gift, on this dissertation and throughout my years at UCLA. I am also thankful to Dr. David Lefkowitz for the time he dedicated to have constructive discussions with me about this dissertation. Thanks to Dr. James Newton for sharing so much information and spending such great times exploring great topics of music. Thanks very much, Dr. Steve Loza and Dr. Neal Stulberg for being part of this committee. It has been an honor. Many thanks to Edizioni Survini Zerboni –Sugarmusic S p.A for their kindness in granting me permission to use pages 43, 52 and 56 of the score Divertimento per Orchestra as figures in this dissertation. Also, thanks to Tom Somerset for helping me in proofreading and editing this dissertation and to Dr. Juliet McMains for providing me with important information, which turned out to be key for the development of this dissertation. Finally, I would like to thank, who has been, one of the most important persons in this process. My infinite gratitude and respect go to my mentor and precious friend Dr. Raymond Torres-Santos. Your encouragement, intellectual and emotional support has been invaluable. viii Biographical Sketch Orlando Manuel Calzada was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico. There, he received his Bachelors Degree in Percussion at the Conservatory of Music, where he was awarded the “Most Outstanding Student Award”, the “Highest GPA Award” and the “Conservatory of Music Award”. He received his Masters degree at UCLA in 2000, after which he taught at the Conservatory of Music of Puerto Rico, from 2002 to 2006 and served as Adjunct Professor at the Universidad Inter Americana from 2001 to 2008. Calzada has been Composer in Residence of the New Albany Symphony Orchestra, the Festival de Orquesta Sinfónica Juvenil de las Américas, and the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. He has received commissions from the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, the Johnstone Fund for New Music, the Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña and Música de Cámara Inc. His Music has been performed in the United States, Latin America and Spain. Orlando Manuel Calzada has also worked, since 2001, as arranger, film composer, theater composer, orchestrator and music producer, in Puerto Rico, New York City and Los Angeles. ix Introduction Although Rhumba-Ramble is the third movement of Divertimento per Orchestra, it was the first to be composed. It was finished in 1953, the year after Berio’s visit to New York City. Dark Rapture Crawl, the first movement of the Divertimento, was composed by Bruno Maderna in 1957 and the second movement, called Scat Rag, was composed, by Berio in 1958. Berio states himself, “we were always together and together we composed Divertimento for Orchestra”4. The names of these three movements were given by the singer Cathy Berberian. According to Berio’s statement (understatement as this dissertation will prove), Rhumba-Ramble is a “rigorous development of the rumba”5; the other two movements are “frequent distorted echoes of jazz and night-club music”6. The inclusion of a section of ten saxophones in Dark Rapture Crawl, five saxophones in Scat Rag and three saxophones in Rhumba-Ramble speaks about the composers’ intentions of evoking American sounds like the big band or, in the case of Rhumba-Ramble, the Latin big band. A rare recording was found by the American Composer Charles Amirkhanian, in 1973, while “rummaging through the archives of the West German Radio in Cologne”7. This recording was performed by the Cologne Radio Symphony, conducted by Bruno Maderna himself. Up to now there is not a single published study of Rhumba-Ramble and very little has been written about it. In fact, in my research I found no substantial information other 4 Centro Studi Luciano Berio, Divertimento (nota dell’autore), accessed October 15th, 2015, http://www.lucianoberio.org/node/1367?1223294767=1 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 Radiom, Divertimento for Orchestra by Bruno Maderna and Luciano Berio, accessed October 15th, 2015, http://radiom.org/detail.php?omid=AM.1973.XX.XX.01 1 than the one offered by Charles Amirkhanian in Radiom.org and Berio’s note dell’autore in the Centri Studi Luciano Berio website. This Divertimento per Orchestra has been a hidden treasure since its conception. It is an outstanding piece and should be recognized as an important contribution to 20th Century music. While I am greatly fascinated by the three movements of this Divertimento, I have a special interest in Rhumba-Ramble. This special interest arises from my own urge to discover how Caribbean musical genres, especially those of the Hispanic Antilles, have penetrated the European classical music territory of the 20th Century.