Silvestre Revueltas

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Silvestre Revueltas
Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas (December 31, 1899 - October 5, 1940) was a Mexican composer of classical music, violinist and conductor.

He was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas and the Chicago College of Music. He gave violin recitals and in 1929 was invited by Carlos Chávez to become assistant conductor of the Mexico 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, a number of whom were also famous and recognized in Mexico; his brother Fermín (1901–1935) and sister Consuelo (b. before 1908, d. before 1999) were painters, sister Rosaura (ca. 1909–1996) was an actress and dancer, younger brother José Revueltas (1914–1976), was a noted writer. His daughter from his second marriage, Eugenia (born 15 November 1934), is an essayist. His nephew Román Revueltas Retes, son of José, is a violinist, journalist, and painter. His daughter from his first marriage to Jules Klarecy (orig: 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.

He went to Spain and worked for the Republicans during the Spanish Civil War, but upon Francisco Franco's victory, returned to Mexico to teach. He earned little, and fell into poverty and alcoholism. He died in Mexico City on the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador, written four years earlier, was premièred.

He wrote film music, chamber music, songs and a number of other works. Among his orchestral music are a number of symphonic poems with Sensemayá: Chant for the Killing of a Snake (1938), based on a poem by Nicolás Guillén, the most famous. His musical language is often tonal but more often post-tonal,reflecting a modernist approach influenced by Bartók, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and others.[citation needed] His music is often vigorous, rhythmically vital, and frequently has a distinctly Mexican flavour.

He appeared briefly as a bar piano player in the movie ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (Mexico, 1935), for which he composed the music, placing a sign over the piano saying Se suplica no tirarle al pianista (We beg you not to shoot at the pianist).

Revueltas died of pneumonia (complicated by alcoholism) in Mexico City on October 5, 1940, at the age of 40. His remains are kept at the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City.


Contents

[edit] Music

[edit] Chamber Works

  • Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, 1936
  • Ocho x radio, 1933
  • Planos, 1934
  • Four little pieces for String Trio, 1929
  • String Quartet No. 1, 1930
  • String Quartet No. 2, 1931
  • String Quartet No. 3, 1931
  • String Quartet No. 4, Música de feria, 1932
  • 3 piezas, for violin and piano, 1932

[edit] Orchestral Works

  • Alcancías, 1932
  • Caminos, 1934
  • Colorines, 1932
  • Cuanáhuac, 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)
  • Sensemayá, 1938
  • Toccata (sin fuga), for violin and chamber orchestra 1933
  • Ventanas, 1931
  • El renacuajo paseador, 1933
  • La Coronela (orch. by Moncayo and arr. by Limantour)

[edit] Ballets

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

[edit] 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, 1935
  • ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!, 1936

[edit] 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 tecolete" (The Owl), voice and piano, 1931

[edit] Piano

  • Cancion (a passage used also in Cuahnáhuac)
  • Allegro

[edit] Sources

  • Charles K. Hoag. 1987. "Sensemayá: A Chant for Killing a Snake." Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 8, no. 2 (Autumn): 172–84.
  • Otto Mayer-Serra. 1941. "Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico." Musical Quarterly 27: 123–45.
  • Jorge Velazco. 1986. "The Original Version of Janitzio, by Silvestre Revueltas." Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 7, no. 2 (Autumn): 341–46.
  • Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon. 1998. "The Song of the Snake: Silvestre Revueltas' Sensemayá." Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana 19, no. 2 (Autumn): 133–59.

[edit] External links