Silvestre Revueltas

Born: December 31, 1899. Santiago Papasquiaro (near Durango), Mexico Died: October 5, 1940. Mexico City, Mexico - Biography - Musical Examples - Works - Links - 20th Century Composer Index

Mexican violinist, conductor, and composer. He helped to create an original Mexican music based on indigenous folk styles.

The first half of the twentieth century was a time of political and creative upheaval in Mexican society. The Mexican Revolution (1910–20), along with global events such as the Spanish Civil War (1936–39), helped to shape a generation of artists (painters and writers as well as musicians) who grounded their work in social issues and in the newly emerging Mexican nationalism. Perhaps the most famous of these is the muralist Diego Rivera. In music, this trend was seen in the music of Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas.

Reveultas's work as a composer came relatively late in his life, beginning when he took on the duties of associate conductor of the Mexico Symphony Orchestra (1931–34). Before that he played violin in a theater orchestra in San Antonio, Texas, and conducted an orchestra in Mobile, Alabama. He also studied in the United States (in Chicago and Austin), building on his early training in Durango and Mexico City. In the last years of his life, which ended early due to complications of alcoholism, he taught at the conservatory in Mexico City.

The music of Revueltas is striking in its use of distinctive tone colors and complex rhythmic structures, often showing the influence of European composers such as Igor Stravinsky. More importantly, however, Revueltas strove to create a music that reflected the indigenous Mexican culture. To do this, he often used elements of the folk songs and dances of the mestizo culture (a blend of European and native traditions that we recognize in styles such as mariachi music). Revueltas also took elements of the so-called Aztec Renaissance, which tried to evoke pre-Columbian musical and cultural practice. All of this creates a musical style of great variety, one infused with Revueltas's distinctive wit.

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Musical Examples:

• "Noche de Jaranas" from La Noche de los Mayas (1939)
• Sensemayá
• Second Little Serious Piece (1938)

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Works:

• Chamber music, including 4 string quartets; works for violin and piano; 8x radio (Ocho por radio, 1933); and Homenaje a Federico García Lorca (1935)
• Orchestral music, including Venetenas (1931), Janitzio (1933), and Sensemayá (1938)
• 7 film scores, including Redes (1935) and La noche de los mayas (1939)
• 2 ballets, including La Coronela (1940(
• Songs, including 7 Canciones (1938; on poems by García Lorca)

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Links:

• Revueltas from a Mexican Perspective
• The Virtual Diego Rivera Web Museum

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