Grupo de los cuatro

Last updated

Grupo de los Cuatro (Group of the Four) is the name adopted by a group of four young Mexican composers in 1935, who organized together with the aim of propagating new music, particularly their own.

Contents

History

Carlos Chávez, who had replaced Antonio Castro Leal as director of the Mexican Conservatorio Nacional de Música in 1928, set about revising the curriculum to increase the emphasis on writing music in all styles. [1] [2] In 1931, he received approval from the Secretariat of Public Education to inaugurate a course in free composition, at first titled Class of Musical Creation, later renamed Composition Workshop. The first students enrolled in this class included some older members, such as Vincente Mendoza, Candelario Huízar, and Silvestre Revueltas, but also three young students under the age of twenty, Daniel Ayala, Salvador Contreras, and José Pablo Moncayo. They were joined the next year by another pupil of their age group, Blas Galindo. [3]

Early in 1933 Chávez relinquished the directorship of the Conservatory to assume the post of Chief of the Department of Fine Arts, a position he held for only a year, after which he resumed directorship of the Conservatory in May 1934. However, he only remained until December of that year, following the change of regime when Lázaro Cárdenas became president. [4] [2] Almost immediately on Chávez's departure the composition course was dropped, prompting Ayala, Contreras, Galindo, and Moncayo to demonstrate the validity of the suppressed course by presenting a program of their own compositions. For this purpose, they organized in 1935 (on the initiation of Contreras) as the Grupo de Jóvenes Compositores (Group of Young Composers), and gave their first concert under this name on 25 November 1935. [5] The works performed included two works by Contreras (the Sonata for Violin and Cello and Danza for piano) and two by Moncayo (the Sonatina for piano and Amatzinac, for flute and string quartet). [6] [7] [8] [9] A newspaper review of this concert, published two days later, referred them as the "Grupo de los Cuatro", with deliberate reference to the Russian "Mighty Five" and French "Les Six", [10] and they adopted this as their name for their following concert on 26 March 1936 at the Teatro de Orientación. [11] [12] Their next program was a workers' concert, given on 17 June 1936, followed by their second "official" concert under the new name, on 15 October 1936. This included the Quartet for four cellos by Galindo and two works by Moncayo: the Sonatina for violin and piano, and Romanza for piano trio. [13] [14] [15]

Related Research Articles

Carlos Chávez Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra (1899-1978)

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, the second, or Sinfonía india, which uses native Yaqui percussion instruments, is probably the most popular.

Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez was a Mexican composer of classical music, a violinist and a conductor.

José Pablo Moncayo Mexican musician, music teacher, composer and conductor

José Pablo Moncayo García was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationalism in art music, after Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez." He produced some of the masterworks that best symbolize the essence of the national aspirations and contradictions of Mexico in the 20th century.

Joaquín Rodrigo

Joaquín Rodrigo Vidre, 1st Marquess of the Gardens of Aranjuez, was a Spanish composer and a virtuoso pianist. He is best known for composing the Concierto de Aranjuez, a cornerstone of the classical guitar repertoire.

Manuel Ponce

Manuel María Ponce Cuéllar was a Mexican composer active in the 20th century. His work as a composer, music educator and scholar of Mexican music connected the concert scene with a mostly forgotten tradition of popular song and Mexican folklore. Many of his compositions are strongly influenced by the harmonies and form of traditional songs.

Daniel Ayala Pérez was a Mexican violinist, conductor, and composer.

National Symphony Orchestra (Mexico) classical music and symphony orchestra

The National Symphony Orchestra is the most important symphony orchestra in Mexico. With its origins traced back as 1881, along with the Boston Symphony Orchestra, it is the second-oldest symphony orchestra in the American continent. The orchestra does not have a permanent venue but performs regularly in the Grand Hall of the Palace of Fine Arts in Mexico City.

Blas Galindo Dimas was a Mexican composer.

Conservatorio Nacional de Música (Mexico) Public school in Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico

The Conservatorio Nacional de Música is a music conservatory located in the Polanco neighborhood of Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico.

Luis Sandi

Luis Sandi Meneses, was a musician, teacher and composer.

Sinfonía de Antígona is Carlos Chávez's Symphony No. 1, composed in 1933. The music originated as theatre music to accompany the tragedy of Antigone, hence the title of the symphony. The material was reworked into a single movement and rescored for a large orchestra. It lasts about 11 minutes in performance.

<i>Sinfonía india</i>

Sinfonía india is Carlos Chávez's Symphony No. 2, composed in 1935–36. In a single movement, its sections nevertheless follow the traditional pattern for a three-movement symphony. The title signifies the fact that the thematic material consists of three melodies originating from native-American tribes of northern Mexico. The symphony is Chávez's most popular composition.

Symphony No. 5 (Chávez)

Symphony No. 5, also called Sinfonía para cuerdas is a composition for string orchestra by Carlos Chávez, composed in 1953.

<i>Janitzio</i> (Revueltas)

Janitzio is a symphonic poem by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, composed in 1933 and revised in 1936. A performance lasts about fifteen minutes. The work is a portrait of Janitzio Island in Lake Pátzcuaro, Mexico.

The Grupo renovación was an Argentine composers' association founded in 1929 to promote modern music.

Salvador Contreras Sánchez was a Mexican composer and violinist, a member of the Grupo de los cuatro.

<i>Caballos de vapor</i>

Caballos de vapor, sinfonía de baile is a ballet score composed by the Mexican composer Carlos Chávez in 1926–32. A shortened concert version is published as Suite sinfónica del ballet Caballos de vapor.

<i>Xochipilli</i> (Chávez)

Xochipilli, subtitled "An Imagined Aztec Music", is a short composition for four wind instruments and six percussionists by the Mexican composer Carlos Chávez, written in 1940. Its original title was Xochipilli-Macuilxóchitl, which is the double name of an Aztec god in two of his aspects, meaning "Flower Prince" and "Five Flower".

Maria Teresa Naranjo Ochoa

Maria Teresa Naranjo Ochoa was a Mexican virtuoso pianist and teacher.

References

  1. ↑ Parker 1983, 9.
  2. 1 2 Slonimsky 1945, 233.
  3. ↑ Parker 1983, 10.
  4. ↑ Parker 1983, 9, 12.
  5. ↑ Anon. 1935.
  6. ↑ Malmström 1974, 81–82.
  7. ↑ Parker 1983, 11.
  8. ↑ Slonimsky 1945, 227, 235, 243.
  9. ↑ Stevenson 2001.
  10. ↑ Barros Serra 1935.
  11. ↑ Anon. 1936a.
  12. ↑ Tello 1987, 227.
  13. ↑ Anon. 1936b.
  14. ↑ Anon. 1936c.
  15. ↑ Slonimsky 1945, 237, 243.

Sources

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.