The First Retrospective of Mexican Electroacustic Music
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The First Retrospective of Mexican Electroacustic Music Manuel Rocha Iturbide National School of Music, UNAM [email protected] Abstract The first retrospective of Mexican and explain the problems and difficulties of its electroacustic music was held in March 2003. development. I undertook the organization of this event, as This research resulted quite difficult well as an important research work that because there was little bibliography and allot hadn't been done before. I rescued old works of fieldwork needed to be done. It was that were lost, and reconstructed the difficult specially hard to find information about the beginning of the history of this field in Mexico. works produced in the 60's and 70's, because This paper goes through the origins and there wasn’t a center for the experimentation, development of music related to technology production, diffusion and conservation of in my country, trying to make a global recount electronic works, functioning in an for the first time, and making use of a critical appropriate and continuos way through the analysis in order to make up with the past, four and a half decades of history of this understand our present and foreseen the music specialty in our nation. future. 2 The origins 1 Introduction Carlos Chavez is perhaps the first In 2002 the director of the Mexican composer that became interested in contemporary music festival Radar in Mexico the possibilities of technology in relation to asked me if I would do a retrospective of music. In 1932 he travels to the RCA Victor Mexican electroacustic music for his venue in and the Bell Telephone studios in the USA, 2003. This idea seemed to me very valuable and writes two articles that will become part because such an event had never been of the book “Toward a new music; music and organized in my country. I started then to do electricity” published later in 1937. Here, a research and to take it further away, trying Chavez foresees the institutional obstacles that composers and artists interested in the to gather more information in order to search 1 for a continuity in the history of Mexican new audio media confront everyday. He electroacustic music. Also, I aimed to provide considered that the day when these artists a critical personal view of what happened here on the foundation days of this domain 1 These new media were for Chavez: electric photography, sound photography, and electric instruments that hadn’t been invented yet. Proceedings ICMC 2004 would be able to get involved with these New musical technologies (like media without the help of technical synthesizers and the tape machine) and their intermediaries, a new path would be open for possibilities to create music through new the creation of new forms of art. However, ideas and ways to work with sounds, Chavez did not maintain this early interest attracted the generation of Mabarak4, and left the good intentions to the new Enriquez and Urreta, as well as younger generations. composers like Mario Lavista (b. 1942) who It wasn’t until the decade of the 60’s later wrote various articles about how the that there was a significant development of composer could work directly with sound contemporary music in Mexico, owing to the matter, and about the necessity to create new creation of the “Taller de composición” types of musical representation for electronic directed by this same composer. From this music, (Lavista, 1974) and to regard new workshop, composers like Mario Lavista, conceptions starting from the sound-noise Francisco Nuñez, Héctor Quintanar and Julio paradigm5 (Lavista, 1984). Estrada emerged, who assimilated the newest serial techniques imported from 3 Development of the first epoch Europe, the aleatory music techniques, and who acquired increasing interest to the new The seventies saw the emergence of sonorous languages emerging from technical the experimental group Quanta6, which development (Moreno, 1994). incorporated in some of their music live Some of them, and elder generations electroacustic manipulations. Furthermore, of composers like Carlos Jiménez Mabarak, Héctor Quintanar was interested in Manuel Enríquez, Manuel de Elías and Alicia composing by way of performing and Urreta, tried their hands on the electronic and manipulating synthesizers alive (Pulido, concrete music fields, thanks to their contact 1971). He also organized a seminar centered in and out of Mexico with some of the in electronic music with the participation of pioneers of this genre (Europeans and North 2 national and international composers at the Americans) . Yet, it was until the end of the University of Mexico (UNAM) in 1974. That sixties when the engineer Raúl Pavón (b. 3 same year, composer Julio Estrada (b. 1942) 1927) together with the composer Héctor in collaboration with the mathematician Jorge Quintanar (b. 1936) created the first Gil researched around computer assisted laboratory of electronic music in Mexico, at the grounds of the National Conservatory of Mexico City (and with the support of Carlos 4 Composer from an elder generation (1916- Chávez). Moreover, this project did not 1994) who wrote the first electroacustic piece in experience a fruitful life. Mexico ("Paradise of the drowned”, for tape and ballet, 1957), and also creator of the first concrete music concert in our country that same year. Seems paradoxical that this composer and 2 Particularly with Jean Etienne Marie in Paris, pioneer, who produced concerts regarding this and with the composers members of the musical language, only wrote 2 pieces for tape. electronic music studio at Columbia-Princeton 5 Lavista presented this paper in a symposium University (Milton Babbit and Vladimir called "The identity of Latin American music" in Ussachevsky). Casa de las Americas Havana Cuba in 1977. 3 An electronic engineer passionate for music and 6 Created by Mario Lavista and integrated by technology since 1958, inventor of various Antero Chávez, Víctor Medeles, Juan synthesizers and writer of a book on electronic Cuahutemoc Herrejón and Fernando Nicolás music and multimedia in 1980. Echeverría. Proceedings ICMC 2004 compositions7. At the same time, Raúl Pavón successful results9. Finally, there was also an imparts the class of electronic music at the obstacle created from traditional academia National Conservatory of Mexico City, and that was not interested in the specialization of thanks to this, new composers like Juan electronic music in the music schools, and in Cuahutemoc Herrejón start experimenting in fact this is still up to this date a problem we this area. Also, the young composer and have in our country. We should try to analyze electrical engineer Antonio Russek (b. 1955) why in a Latin American country analogous to creates the first private Laboratory for the Mexico like Argentina there was an electronic production and broadcasting of electronic music laboratory since 195810, which is still music at his home (1975). Nevertheless, working up to this date, while in Mexico this regardless of these positive factors that situation never became possible. contributed to the development of electronic music, the fact is that there was little 4 The true pioneers continuity, a lack of research, forums, concerts and conferences. Also, there were My personal view is that the real origin hardly forty pieces of electroacustic music of electroacustic music in Mexico happens in created through the first two decades of the eighties, particularly outside the cultural production in our country (many of them that institutions of the government, and thanks to have been lost or not recovered). We will composers like Antonio Russek, Vicente Rojo have to wait until the beginning of the 80’s (b. 1960), Arturo Marquez (b. 1960) and when a new generation of composers, Roberto Morales (b. 1955), who gave it an bearers of mayor passion for this language important impulse through the creation of will emerge. works and interdisciplinary concerts11. Also, I think that besides the bureaucratic problems that made difficult the lack of 9 development of the electroacustic field in At those times only the engineer Raúl Pavón Mexico8, the main problem was the little understood the true possibilities of this new musical language. Its too bad that he was never interest that those generations showed for considered by his colleges as a "serious" this genre. The reason is that many of them composer (he doesn’t appear in any of the thought synthesizers were simply new dictionaries of Mexican composers, although Julio instruments with fresh sound colors that Estrada speaks of him benevolently in the book became supplementary to the ones already "La música en México"). Pavón developed an existing in the orchestra. This is why these important research and composed multi media composers were unable to go deeper into the electroacustic works in the early eighties and then technical-esthetical specificity's of this new he suddenly disappeared from our country in the language. On the other side, the creation of early nineties. On the other hand, from these elecrtoacustic music demanded a through full generations only Manuel Enriquez and Francisco study of the acoustic sciences, and this factor Nuñez maintained an interest in electroacustic music and created new forums and spaces for its prevented many composers from investing production and diffusion. the time and effort involved in having 10 Founded by Francisco Kröpfl. This laboratory is located now in the "Centro Cultural Recoleta" in 7 Julio Estrada is the pioneer in Mexico in using a Buenos Aires. computer and producing information set-aside for 11 In the eighties there were various the creation of an instrumental composition. interdisciplinary collectives that presented 8 Due to the lack of support from the cultural electroacustic works such as Atentamente a la public institutions in Mexico to renovate the dirección, Música de Cámara, La Sonora equipment of the laboratory and keep it working.