Silvestre Revueltas
Encyclopedia
Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...

 composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...

 of classical music, a violin
Violin
The violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....

ist and a conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...

.

Life

He was born in Santiago Papasquiaro
Santiago Papasquiaro
Santiago Papasquiaro is a town of 47,360 people located in a valley in west-central Durango, Mexico. It is the fourth-largest community in the state in population, and is the municipal seat of the municipality of the same name. It is home of a military base of the 71st Infantry Battalion. The town...

 in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory
National Conservatory of Music (Mexico)
The National Conservatory of Music of Mexico is a music conservatory located in the Polanco section of Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico.-History:...

 in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

, St. Edward's University
St. Edward's University
St. Edward's University is a private Roman Catholic institution of higher learning located south of Lady Bird Lake in Austin, Texas. The university offers a liberal arts education and its campus is located on a hill overlooking the city of Austin. The campus's most notable landmark is Main...

 in Austin, Texas
Austin, Texas
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of :Texas and the seat of Travis County. Located in Central Texas on the eastern edge of the American Southwest, it is the fourth-largest city in Texas and the 14th most populous city in the United States. It was the third-fastest-growing large city in...

 and the Chicago College of Music. He gave violin recitals and in 1929 was invited by Carlos Chávez
Carlos Chávez
Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by native Mexican cultures. Of his six Symphonies, his Symphony No...

 to become assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra (Mexico)
National Symphony Orchestra (Mexico)
The National Symphony Orchestra is the most important classical music and symphonic ensemble in Mexico. With its origins traced back as 1881, it is the second oldest symphony orchestra in the American continent along with the Boston Symphony Orchestra...

, 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
Revueltas Sánchez
Revueltas Sánchez is the surname of the children of Gregorio Revueltas Gutiérrez and his wife Romana Sánchez Arias , a Mexican artist family with roots in Durango. All in all they had twelve children...

, a number of whom were also famous and recognized in Mexico: his brother Fermín
Fermín Revueltas Sánchez
Fermín Revueltas Sánchez was a Mexican painter.- Biography :Fermín Revueltas was son of Gregorio Revueltas Gutiérrez and his wife Romana Sánchez Arias. The Revueltas Sánchez family came from the North of Mexico, and lived in Guadalajara, Jalisco, from 1910 to 1913...

 (1901–1935) and sister Consuelo (b. before 1908, d. before 1999) were painters, sister Rosaura
Rosaura Revueltas
Rosaura Revueltas Sánchez was a Mexican star of screen and stage, and a dancer, author and teacher.-Early life:...

 (ca. 1909–1996) was an actress and dancer, and younger brother José Revueltas
José Revueltas
José Revueltas Sánchez was a Mexican writer, essayist, and political activist. He was part of an important artistic family that included his siblings Silvestre , Fermín and Rosaura .-Life:He was often imprisoned for his political activism, almost from the time he was a boy...

 (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, painter and conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes (OSA). His daughter from his first marriage to Jules Klarecy (née 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.

In 1937 Revueltas went to Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 during the Spanish Civil War
Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...

, as part of a tour organized by the leftist organization LEAR
Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios
The Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios was a Mexican association of revolutionary artists and writers. It was established in the house of its first president Leopoldo Méndez in 1933 in due to the disbanded "Sindicato de Trabajadores Técnicos, Pintores y Escultores" , and was defined as...

; upon Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco
Francisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...

's victory, he returned to Mexico. He earned little, and fell into poverty and alcoholism. He died in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

 on October 5, 1940, the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador, written four years earlier, was premièred, of pneumonia
Pneumonia
Pneumonia is an inflammatory condition of the lung—especially affecting the microscopic air sacs —associated with fever, chest symptoms, and a lack of air space on a chest X-ray. Pneumonia is typically caused by an infection but there are a number of other causes...

 (complicated by alcoholism
Alcoholism
Alcoholism is a broad term for problems with alcohol, and is generally used to mean compulsive and uncontrolled consumption of alcoholic beverages, usually to the detriment of the drinker's health, personal relationships, and social standing...

), at the age of 40. His remains are kept at the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City.

Works

He wrote film music, chamber music
Chamber music
Chamber music is a form of classical music, written for a small group of instruments which traditionally could be accommodated in a palace chamber. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers with one performer to a part...

, song
Song
In music, a song is a composition for voice or voices, performed by singing.A song may be accompanied by musical instruments, or it may be unaccompanied, as in the case of a cappella songs...

s and a number of other works. Among his orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...

l music are a number of symphonic poem
Symphonic poem
A symphonic poem or tone poem is a piece of orchestral music in a single continuous section in which the content of a poem, a story or novel, a painting, a landscape or another source is illustrated or evoked. The term was first applied by Hungarian composer Franz Liszt to his 13 works in this vein...

s with Sensemayá: Chant for the Killing of a Snake
Sensemayá
Sensemayá is a poem by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén, adapted as an orchestral work by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. It is one of Revueltas's most famous compositions....

(1938), based on a poem by Nicolás Guillén
Nicolás Guillén
Nicolás Cristóbal Guillén Batista was a Cuban poet, journalist, political activist, and writer. He is best remembered as the national poet of Cuba.Guillén was born in Camagüey, Cuba...

, the most famous. His music is often vigorous, rhythm
Rhythm
Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

ically vital, and frequently has a distinctly Mexican flavour.

He appeared briefly as a bar piano player in the movie ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!
¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!
Let's Go with Pancho Villa is a Mexican motion picture filmed in 1936.An anti-epic based on a novel, it focuses on the cruelty of the Mexican Revolution and Pancho Villa himself, contrary to most of the Mexican movies about this national hero.The movie is thought to have been the first Mexican...

(Mexico, 1935), for which he composed the music. When shooting breaks out in the bar while he is playing "La cucaracha", he holds up a sign reading "Se suplica no tirarle al pianista" ("Please don't shoot at the piano player").

Chamber works

  • El afilador, 1924
  • Batik, 1926
  • Four Little Pieces for String Trio, 1929
  • Homenaje a Federico García Lorca
    Federico García Lorca
    Federico del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús García Lorca was a Spanish poet, dramatist and theatre director. García Lorca achieved international recognition as an emblematic member of the Generation of '27. He is believed to be one of thousands who were summarily shot by anti-communist death squads...

    , 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
  • Éste era un rey 1940
  • First Little Serious Piece, for chamber ensemble, 1940
  • Second Little Serious Piece, for chamber ensemble, 1940

Orchestral works

  • Pieza para Orquesta, 1929
  • 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
    Sensemayá
    Sensemayá is a poem by the Cuban poet Nicolás Guillén, adapted as an orchestral work by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. It is one of Revueltas's most famous compositions....

    , 1938
  • Toccata (sin fuga), for violin and chamber orchestra 1933
  • Troka, 1933
  • Ventanas, 1931

Ballets

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

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
    Redes (film)
    Redes is a Mexican film, released in 1936, about a fishing community. The English language title is The Wave, although the Spanish language title refers to nets....

    , 1935
  • ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!, 1936

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 tecolote" (The Owl), voice and piano, 1931
  • Caminando, 1937

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
  • Kolb Neuhaus, Roberto, and José Wolffer (eds.). 2007. Silvestre Revueltas: sonidos en rebelión. México: UNAM, Escuela Nacional de Música. ISBN 9703231721
  • 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
  • Palencia Alonso, Héctor. 2000. "Voces magistrales: Silvestre Revueltas". In Conservatorianos: Revista de información, reflexión y divulgación culturales 6 (November–December): 25–29.
  • 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.

External links

  • Silvestre Revueltas web site By Mexico's National University, UNAM
    Unam
    UNAM or UNaM may refer to:* National University of Misiones, a National University in Posadas, Argentina*National Autonomous University of Mexico , the large public autonomous university based in Mexico City...

    .
  • Foro Virtual Silvestre Revueltas, UNAM
    Unam
    UNAM or UNaM may refer to:* National University of Misiones, a National University in Posadas, Argentina*National Autonomous University of Mexico , the large public autonomous university based in Mexico City...

    .
  • Del Sol Quartet: Tear includes Revueltas' Musica de Feria (1932) performed by Del Sol Quartet
    Del Sol Quartet
    The Del Sol Quartet is a string quartet based in San Francisco, California. Del Sol is known for actively working with living composers from a wide range of cultural perspectives, and recording and performing exclusively 20th and 21st century music...

  • Peermusic classical : Composer Silvestre Revueltas at www.peermusicclassical.com Silvestre Revueltas' web site at Peer Music Classical.
  • Silvestre Revueltas at www.wwnorton.com Silvestre Revueltas' web site at W.W. Norton.
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