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Musicology in Cuba


Throughout the years, the Cuban nation has developed a wealth of musicological material created by numerous investigators and experts on this subject.

Apart from the work of some authors who provided information about the music in Cuba during the 19th century, that was usually included in chronicles covering a more general subject, the first investigations and studies specifically dedicated to the musical art and practice did not appear in Cuba until the beginning of the 20th century.

At that time, musicological research and documentation in Cuba was not undertaken by professionals fully dedicated to that subject, but instead it was conducted by historians, ethnologists or composers such as polymath Fernando Ortiz (b. 1881) or composer Eduardo Sánchez de Fuentes (b. 1874). The controversy sustained by these distinguished personalities in reference to the possible African (or indigenous) roots of Cuban music spanned several decades, from the 1930s to the 1950s.

Another important personality, María Muñoz (b. 1886), a Galician pianist, professor and choir conductor that graduated at the Madrid Conservatory under the guidance of Manuel de Falla, developed an outstanding musical activity in Cuba. Together with her husband Antonio Quevedo, she co-founded the Society of Contemporary Music in 1929, promoted the cultural journal “Musicalia” and founded the Havana Choral Society. Together with Fernando Ortiz, she gave summer courses on musicology at the Havana University from the 1930s. Those courses nurtured and stimulated the careers of some future outstanding musicologists such as María Teresa Linares Savio (b. 1920).

In 1946, the famous Cuban writer, art critic and musicologist Alejo Carpentier (b. 104) established a benchmark with his work “La música en Cuba” (1946), an attempt to put together a comprehensive history of Cuban music from the 16th century until his time. Although the work presented as facts some controversial historical issues, such as the origins of the well known “Son de la Mateodora” and the “Cuban Contradanza”, this important study (based on extensive investigations conducted by Carpentier) offered a deep insight into Cuban music history never witnessed before.

Coincidentally, young composers and musicologists such as Argeliers León (b. 1918) and Hilario González (b. 1920) were diligently working along with José Ardévol at “Grupo de Renovación Musical” to improve and renovate the Cuban musical panorama. In 1947, Argeliers León continued offering the musicology summer courses started by María Muñoz and Fernando Ortiz at the Havana University and served as a professor of such prominent students as pianist and professor Ana Margarita Aguilera Ripoll (b. 1903), author of the important compilation of children songs “Cancionero Infantil de Hispanoamérica.” Other contemporary Cuban musicologists were María Antonieta Henriquez, founder of the National Museum of Music, and Lydia Cabrera, an anthropologist renowned for her studies of Afro-Cuban music.


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