In May of 1940, Carlos Chávez presented a concert at the Festival of Mexican music at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. The program emphasized the influence of the indigenous, pre-conquest cultures of Mexico, with a mix of other musical numbers cut from the European cloth.
Both the critics who reviewed the concert and the public in attendance came away expressing a near unanimous preference for the music thought to show the least European influence. The success of the program Chávez presented confirmed his hunch that the truest expressions of Mexican music speak the language of the Aztecs, the Toltecs, the Mayas... cultures which shared the Nahuatl language.
In Robert Stevenson's book, "Music in Mexico," the author derides much of the Euro-influenced music of the colonial period, accusing the Italian-born Ignacio Jerusalem, who, in 1750 was appointed Maestro de Capilla at the Mexico City cathedral, as a conspicuous example of a second-rate Italian composer. Protectors of Jerusalem's music, such as the vocal ensemble, Chanticleer, would surely disagree with Stevenson's assessment.
The Symphony in D Major by Antonio Sarrier, organist at the Morelia Cathedral, is regarded by some as the first symphony written in the New World. Yet it shows nothing, especially Mexican. Contrast Sarrier's Symphony with Luis Sandi's arrangement published as "Yaqui Music." This was one of a number of titles featured on the 1940 recording published as "A Program of Mexican Music" with Carlos Chávez and members the Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Mexico.
As we learned earlier in the Momentos Musicales series, there is no evidence of a system of melodic or harmonic notation in the pre-Columbian era. Composers such as Chávez and Sandi took their cues from the numerous indigenous musical instruments to write their Neo-Aztec music. If we don't have written down music of Aztecs, Mayans, and Incans, we do have quite a few indigenous languages surviving in an age when hundreds and more languages have died out. Nahuatl in its various forms is one of the languages still in use. Singers and song writers such as Violetta Parra of Chile, Mercedes Sosa of Argentina, and the current artists such as Lila Downs have shown the way of resurrecting the indigenous languages, wrapping them in contemporary melodies and harmonies.
Yesterday, I promised to take you inside the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires. Here we find Daniel Barenboim playing one of Alberto Ginastera's "Danzas Argentinas." This going by the title "Danza de la Moza donosa," which means dance of the graceful girl, as with much of Ginastera's music, this is inhabited by the atmosphere of the vast, pampas region of Argentina.
PLAYLIST:
Antonio Sarrier: Symphony in D
Ronald Zollman, OFUNAM
Bluebell 73
Luis Sandi: Yaqui Music
Chavez, OSN de Mexic
SONY 19439977412
Juan de Dios Ortiz: Yunu Yucu Ninu
Lila Downs
Narada 8497982
Alberto Ginastera: Danzas Argentinas #3 Danza de la moza donosa
Barenboim
EMI 57416
