AN APPROACH TO THE CUBAN INSTITUTIONS THAT HOLD DOCUMENTS RELATED TO MUSICAL HERITAGE Author(s): Yohana Ortega Hernández Source: Fontes Artis Musicae , Vol. 65, No. 2 (April–June 2018), pp. 77-86 Published by: International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML) Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2307/26769890 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML) is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Fontes Artis Musicae This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:44:24 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms AN APPROACH TO THE CUBAN INSTITUTIONS THAT HOLD DOCUMENTS RELATED TO MUSICAL HERITAGE Yohana Ortega Hernández Introduction The first institution in Cuba which strived to compile, study, and disseminate Cuban musical heritage was the Instituto Musical de Investigaciones Folklóricas (Institute for Research on Folk Music [IMIF]), created in 1949 by Odilio Urfé González (1921–1988), together with a group of outstanding musicians. In 1963, the Instituto became the Seminar for Popular Music (SMP) and in 1989, the Resource and Information Center on Cuban Music Odilio Urfé. In 2002, this institution merged its holdings with the collections of the Museo Nacional de la Música (MNM; officially created on 9 September 1971). The MNM is the most important institution in the country dedicated to the conservation, study, and dissemination of Cuban music heritage. Its collections are housed in the Biblioteca y Archivo Odilio Urfé (Archives and Library Odilio Urfé ). Other institutions in Cuba that hold documents related to music are the Biblioteca Nacional de Cuba José Martí (National Library José Martí ) in Havana, the Biblioteca Elvira Cape (Elvira Cape Library) in Santiago de Cuba, the Centro de Investigación y Desarrollo de la Música Cubana (Center for Research and Development of Cuban Music [CIDMUC]); the Museo de Música Alejandro García Caturla (Alejandro García Caturla Museum) in Remedios, and the Museo de la Música Rodrigo Prats (Museum of Music Rodrigo Prats) in Sagua la Grande, both in Villa Clara province; the Centro de Información y Documentación Musical Argeliers León (Resource and Information Center on Music Argeliers León) in Pinar del Río; the Centro de Información y Documentación Musical Rafael Inciarte (Center for Information and Documentation on Music Rafael Inciarte) in Guantánamo, and the Museo de la Música Pablo Hernández Balaguer (Museum of Music Pablo Hernández Balaguer) in Santiago de Cuba. In addition, there are other institutions that maintain heritage collections related to music, including the archives of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de Cuba (National Sym - phony Orchestra), and of provincial symphony orchestras; the Banda Nacional de Con - ciertos (National Concert Band), and the music bands of the provinces; the archives of the Gran Teatro de La Habana (National Lyrical Theatre), which includes operas, op- erettas, zarzuelas, and other collections of the lyrical music genre. All these archives hold many manuscript music scores that are part of their repertoire. Yohana Ortega Hernández is a musicologist and since 2010, head of the Biblioteca y Archivo Odilio Urfé at the Museo Nacional de la Música in Havana, Cuba. She also teaches counterpoint classes at the Conservatorio Provincial de Música Carlos Hidalgo. Previously, she worked as a specialist in the Department of Musicology at the Centro de Información y Documentación Musical Argeliers León in Pinar del Río and has taught classes on the history of music and on Cuban music. 77 This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:44:24 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 78 FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE 65/2 In 2004, the Instituto Cubano de la Música (Cuban Institute of Music [ICM]) drafted and approved the project Programme for the Recovery, Interpretation and Dissemination of the Cuban Musical Heritage, the implementation of which was coordinated by the National Museum of Music. The programme includes organisational, financial, and cul- tural actions aimed at safeguarding and recovering masterpieces of the Cuban tangible cultural heritage, as well as other Cuban tangible cultural properties held in either muse- ums, other cultural institutions, or private collections. The remainder of this article presents a directory of the Cuban institutions that hold documents pertaining to musical heritage. Contact information, Web site, mailing and e-mail addresses are included, as well as an overview of the important holdings of each repository. Directory Biblioteca y Archivo Odilio Urfé (Archives and Library Odilio Urfé of the National Museum of Music) Address: Obrapía no. 509/ Bernaza y Villegas, Habana Vieja, La Habana. Cuba. CP 10100. (Sede provisional). E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] Telephone: +53 7863-00-52 / 7861-98-46 / 78643277 Web site: www.museomusica.cult.cu/biblioteca_archivos.php The Library and Archives Odilio Urfé of the National Museum of Music holds the largest and most important document collection of Cuban music heritage of all periods and genres. These collections began around 1949 when musicologist, pianist, and orchestra conductor Odilio Urfé González founded the Institute for Research on Folk Music (IMIF), which became the Seminar of Popular Music (SMP) and later Resource and Information Center on Cuban Music Odilio Urfé. When the latter institution merged with the National Museum of Music in 1997, the collections of both institutions were also merged thus be- coming the most comprehensive and important library and archives of music documents and sound recordings. Such historic and heritage records include many different types of documents which have been grouped into four departments for better organisation and to facilitate research, namely: library, archive, music library, and photographic library. The first department documents and records material that was part of the Urfé family private collection; how- ever, the archives have developed quickly over time thanks to donations and voluntary deposits from private collectors, musicians, intellectuals, and others associated with the institution. Because of their value, these records are a significant part of the historic memory re- lated to music, which includes historic documents from the past, as well as the present of the Cuban nation. This has been acknowledged by well-known Cuban and international cultural institutions and personalities, among them UNESCO, which has described the collection as a “cultural heritage that should be preserved and widely disseminated around the world”. Fifteen professionals comprise the interdisciplinary staff of the Library and Archives Odilio Urfé, and include musicologists, librarians, historians, social communicators, and specialists in socio-cultural studies and information science. The library provides consul- tation, loans, advisory, reference, retrospective search, and reproduction services, as well as the regular services provided by libraries and archives. This content downloaded from 86.59.13.237 on Thu, 08 Jul 2021 11:44:24 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms CUBAN INSTITUTIONS THAT HOLD DOCUMENTS RELATED TO MUSICAL HERITAGE 79 The Departments and their Collections Archives Manuscript music scores. More than 30,000 music scores from the end of the eigh- teenth century to the present, including so-called concert or academic music, as well as popular music. Composers such as Esteban Salas, Juan París, Gaspar Villate, Ignacio Cervantes, Manuel Saumell, José White, Pedro Figueredo, Nicolás Ruiz Espadero, Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes, Gaspar Agüero, José Ardévol, Hubert de Blanck, Alejandro García Caturla, Amadeo Roldán, Gonzalo Roig, Rodrigo Prats, Ernesto Lecuona, Carlos Borbolla, José Urfé, Enrique Jorrín, Miguel Matamoros, and Dámaso Pérez Prado are among the most outstanding in the collection. Other records in the collection of the Cuban musical theatre are the manuscripts from the repertoire of the Teatro de la Alhambra (Alhambra Theatre) such as plays by Jorge Anckerman, José Mauri, and Manuel Mauri; manuscripts from the Teatro Tacón of well- known Spanish zarzuelas by Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Asenjo Barbieri, Tomás Bretón, and Ruperto Chapí; as well as Italian and French operas. Most of these collections include manuscript librettos that go with the music. Published music scores. A collection of more than 20,000 items of first editions pub- lished in Cuba from the nineteenth century to the present. These include a wide range of genres and, because not all the original manuscripts have been preserved, they are the only written reference to the musical works. The lyrical works collection of the Teatro Tacón (Tacón Theatre) includes both music scores and librettos published by Spanish and Italian publishers, for example F. Fiscowich, Arregui y Aruej, Casa Zozaya, Ricordi, Francesco Lucca, among others. Private collections, Collections of music groups, Collections