Movers and Shakers

Louis Moreau Gottschalk (1829-1869) was arguably the first composer of global music. Born in New Orleans in 1829 of Haitian ancestry, he was exposed from an early age to the rich Caribbean and Creole cultures that thrived in this cosmopolitan, multi-ethnic city. It is said that his grandmother and his nurse Sally--both born in Saint Domingue--sang to him the native tunes that he soon learned in the piano and that later resurfaced in his unique compositions. He made his musical debut at age eleven, playing a Latin dance tune at the Hotel St. Charles (Fernandez, 17). He later went to study in Spain and France, where his considerable talents and charismatic personality earned him the attention and friendship of major composers like Manuel de Falla, Georges Bizet, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. He traveled extensively throughout the Caribbean and lived for prolonged periods of time in Cuba, Puerto Rico and Martinique in the 1850's and 60's before settling in Brazil, where he died.

Carlos Gomes (1836-1896) is the most important opera composer of the Americas and the only one who had a rotund success in Milan, the major opera center of the world. Like Gottschalk, he incorporated the indigenous rhythms and melodies of his native land (Brazil) into his classical compositions. Specifically, his opera "O Escravo" ("The Slave") reflects the influence of African-derived music on his music. He is said to have walked through the favelas of Rio de Janeiro, notebook in hand, trying to gather the essence of popular chants and the calls of street vendors which he later distilled in his operas. He won the admiration of composers of the stature of Mascagni, Verdi, Gounod and Ponchielli, among others.

Igor Stravinsky (1880-1971) was one of the most revolutionary composers of the twentieth century. Commissioned to write a number of ballet scores for the famous impresario Diaghilev, he experimented with phrasing and syncopation in the famous The Firebird and most notably The Rite of Spring, composed over two years(1911-13), which created a major scandal when it premiered at the Théâtre des Champs Élysées, Paris (May 29, 1913). Stravinsky's interest in the "primitive" inspired Cuban musicians of the Grupo Minorista to find inspiration in the ritual music of Afro-Cuban religions.

Heitor Villa-Lobos (1881-1959) is considered the most important Brazilian composer of the twentieth century and one of the most notable Latin American composers. Villa-Lobos extended to Brazilian music the nationalist ideas that had propelled Stravinsky, Copland, Gershwin, Roldán and Caturla in their respective musical milieus. Villa-Lobos found inspiration for his music in the carioca tradition, including the choro, the carnival samba and the ballroom samba of the twenties and thirties. Like Caturla and Roldán in Cuba, he broke away from strict adherence to western tradition and sought inspiration in the popular music of Brazil. Aside from creating music of unparallelled beauty like the Bachianas Brasileiras, Villa-Lobos influenced classical composers like Mozart Camargo Guarnieri and the composers of the bossa nova movement and the MPB (musica popular brasileira/Brazilian popular music) like João Gilberto, Vinicius de Moraes, Luiz Bonfá and Antonio Carlos Jobim. These musicians, in their turn, had a profound impact on American jazz of the sixties which continues until today.

Gonzalo Roig (1890-1970) was one of the most important figures in Cuban operetta, art song, and symphonic music. With Ernesto Lecuona and others, he founded in 1922 the Orquesta Sinfónica de La Habana, which he directed for many years before Erich Kleiber's tenure.In 1929 he founded the Orquesta Ignacio Cervantes and in 1930 he toured the United States as guest conductor of the U.S. Army Band, U.S. Soldier's Home Military Band, U.S. Marine Band, and U.S. Navy Band, bringing a repertory of Cuban and Latin American composers to the American public. In 1932 he composed "Cecilia Valdes," based on the novel of the same title by Cirilo Villaverde, which explored racial relations in nineteenth century Cuba. Incorporating danzas, contradanzas and habaneras, this operetta is considered his masterpiece and the best example of Cuban musical theatre.

Aaron Copland (1900-1990), a leading American composer, was born in Brooklyn of Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. At age fifteen he decided to become a composer. He first sought inspiration in jazz, which for him was the true American music. An example is his "Music for the Theater" (1925), a piece for small orchestra with elements of blues and ragtime; but this 'jazz period' lasted only a few years. During the depression years he found inspiration in American folklore--as in his ballets "Billy the Kid" (1938), "Rodeo" (1942), "Appalachian Spring" (1944)--and again in jazz and folk music. His interest in Cuban music led him to compose pieces such as "Cuban Danzón."

George Gershwin(1898-1937) was, like Copland, a New Yorker of Russian-Jewish ancestry who found musical inspiration in jazz. In 1935 he wrote the opera Porgy and Bess, inspired in black American music. Gershwin's interest in Cuban music resulted in the "Cuban Overture" (1942), based on the son and played with Cuban percussive instruments like maracas and bongos.

Alejo Carpentier (1900-1980), the world famous Cuban novelist, art critic, historian and musicologist, was one of the leaders of the Grupo Minorista of the 1920's which established afrocubanismo as the first avant-garde Cuban movement in the twentieth century. His seminal study of Music in Cuba set the standards for future works on Cuban ethnomusicology and inspired the works of Fernando Ortiz, Lydia Cabrera and Cristóbal Díaz-Ayala. He was the first major Cuban intellectual to define Cuban nationality in terms of the island's African heritage.

Amadeo Roldán (1900-1939). Born in Paris, Roldán did not go to Cuba to live until 1919. Undertaking the life of a professional musician and composer, he accepted commissions to compose for the newly created Havana Symphony Orchestra (1922) and for the subsequent Havana Philharmonic, later conducted by Erich Kleiber. His Overture on Cuban Themes (1925) continued a trend--already established by Gottschalk, Casamitjana and Reinó--using African themes as the basis of Cuban classical compositions. This work was followed by Three Small Poems (1926), which was soon incorporated into the repertoire of the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, and by a ballet, La rebambaramba (1928). He later composed pieces based on the poems of Nicolás Guillén, who was also a member of the Grupo Minorista that defined Cuban nationality in terms of its African heritage.

Mozart Camargo Guarnieri (1907-1993) occupies a central position in the context of Brazilian music. His influence on several generations of nationalist composers is widely acknowledged. His style is characterized by the blending of melodies and rhythms influenced by Brazilian traditions. Even though he remained a devoted nationalist throughout his career, Guarnieri also absorbed European elements during his period of studies in Paris.

Julian Orbón (1925-1991). Born is Avilés (Asturias, Spain)and raised in Cuba, Orbón became actively involved in Cuban musical nationalism. He later settled in New York, where he remained until his death. Characterized by an eclectic mix of styles and influences, some of Orbón 's compositions, especially the Three Symphonic Variations of 1953, reflect the influence of Congolese rhythmic patterns associated with the conga and the rumba.