Collective Difference: The Pan-American Association of Composers

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primitivist, nationalist, modernist, and neo-classical tendencies usually treated as separate in the musicological literature. In doing so, this discussion reevaluates accepted nationalist discourses in the Americas from a transnational perspective and demonstrates how Pan-American musical creation arose organically from interactions between Mexican, Cuban, and U.S. composers. Chapter 2, “Organizing the Hemisphere: The Pan- American Association of Composers,” examines the early organizing efforts of the association and its concerts in New York and Cuba between 1931 and 1934. Here I introduce the society’s organizing principle of collective difference and assess its ability to impact the modern music scene in New York City and Havana. Chapter 3, “Collective Difference: The Pan-American Association Abroad,” provides a chronology and reception history of the society’s European concerts. Chapter 4, “Esta boca es la mía: Jazz, Blues, and Pan-Americanism during the Depression and the Popular Front,” explains connections between African Americans and Latin Americans that developed during the late 1930s and examines four Latin American art songs that participate in the international movement of negritude, or blackness, and incorporate elements of jazz and blues. Two anti-lynching songs by Carlos Chávez and Silvestre Revueltas show the extent to which the popular front of the late 1930s, with its wave of socialist activity, strengthened bonds between those in the western hemisphere who identified themselves (or each other) as members of a common Pan-American proletariat. Ultimately, this final chapter provides a necessary counterpoint to the PAAC’s activities by emphasizing connections between African American and Latin American cultures, circumventing the Anglo-American interpretation of Pan-Americanism that the PAAC espoused. The Epilogue that concludes this study briefly discusses other developments of Inter- American musical cooperation, including the publication of the Boletín Latino- Americano de Música in Uruguay by Francisco Curt Lange and the activities of the Music Division of the Pan-American Union with Charles Seeger as its director. 10
CHAPTER 1 1930s PAN-AMERICAN PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE MUSIC “Nuts to Europe!” was the rallying cry issued by a group of modern composers from the Americas in the decade leading up to the Second World War. 1 Though these Americans had been inspired by the work of formidable European modernists such as Igor Stravinsky, Béla Bartók, Darius Milhaud, and Manuel de Falla, they sought recognition of their own in the international modern music scene through a process Steven Schick has described as the “reexpression of inherited culture by means of new language.” 2 To accomplish such a goal, the composers examined in this chapter explored unorthodox or folk instruments, created new combinations of timbres, and developed fresh rhythmic devices. Works belonging to one genre in particular can be understood as an upwelling of Pan-American musical creation: music written for an ensemble composed only of percussion instruments. The extant percussion ensemble works of the 1930s provide ample evidence of an era of playful technical innovations and self- conscious explorations of rhythm and timbre. They also embody the collective difference that guided the programming on concerts of the Pan-American Association of Composers. In the percussion ensemble repertory one can find qualities of ancient and modern, quantifiable and mystical, cosmopolitan and parochial, programmatic and abstract. The following discussion reevaluates accepted nationalist discourses in the Americas from a transnational perspective. This revaluation de-emphasizes the importance of certain “-isms” associated with modern music (especially ultramodernism, 1 A review of conductor Nicolas Slonimsky’s concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1933 appears in a magazine issue entitled “Nuts! to Europe: Swell Stuff by Rodriguez, Lord and Vanderbilt,” Rob Wagner’s Script Weekly (Beverly Hills, CA) July 22, 1933 9/231. Nicolas Slonimsky Papers, Library of Congress. 2 Steven Schick, The Percussionist’s Art: Same Bed, Different Dreams. (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2006), 35. 11
Page 1 and 2: FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF
Page 3 and 4: ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to exp
Page 5 and 6: TABLE OF CONTENTS List of Figures .
Page 7 and 8: LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE I.1. Pan-Ame
Page 9 and 10: LIST OF MUSICAL EXAMPLES EXAMPLE 1.
Page 11 and 12: EXAMPLE 4.5. Amadeo Roldán, “Sig
Page 13 and 14: INTRODUCTION Friendly cultural and
Page 15 and 16: of America, and [to] stimulate comp
Page 17 and 18: United States, because of its wonde
Page 19 and 20: Figure I.1. Pan-American Exposition
Page 21: the New Music Quarterly Recordings
Page 25 and 26: publication composed for percussion
Page 27 and 28: of scientific and technological adv
Page 29 and 30: In his Tecumseh, or the Battle of t
Page 31 and 32: percussion ensemble, eight pianos a
Page 33 and 34: in those popular dance genres. The
Page 35 and 36: concertmaster of the New York Philh
Page 37 and 38: Example 1.1. William Russell, Percu
Page 39 and 40: instruments that contributed to the
Page 41 and 42: Example 1.4. Amadeo Roldán, Rítmi
Page 43 and 44: Rítmica No. 5 separates rhythmic e
Page 45 and 46: Paris, “there is nothing more con
Page 47 and 48: of decadence and collapse.” 44 Ne
Page 49 and 50: Example 1.7. Ionisation, mm. 9-12 S
Page 51 and 52: Example 1.8b. Edgard Varèse, Ionis
Page 53 and 54: Example 1.9b. Amadeo Roldán, Rítm
Page 55 and 56: coquettes neither with academies no
Page 57 and 58: Rhythms and general direction of pi
Page 59 and 60: No. 1 conducted by Fritz Reiner wit
Page 61 and 62: against-three cross-rhythm (Example
Page 63 and 64: knowledge of it. Certainly, the sam
Page 65 and 66: with both Roldán and Caturla in th
Page 67: fortissimo 83 and are immediately f
Page 70 and 71: wrote in 1932, “I am convinced th
Page 72 and 73:
subject of his early percussion wor
Page 74 and 75:
societies, the PAAC presented at le
Page 76 and 77:
their own PAAC concerts in Havana a
Page 78 and 79:
in Berlin was unsuccessful in Cowel
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This music congress never took plac
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most likely in the hope that he wou
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from Fabini - and Cotapos did not e
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sponsored by the League of Composer
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neither Cuban nor American, nor eve
Page 90 and 91:
Figure 2.1. Concert program, Carneg
Page 92 and 93:
Figure 2.3. Concert program, Slonim
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and somewhat soporific.” 39 With
Page 96 and 97:
Figure 2.4. Concert program, New Sc
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composers of the Pan American, amon
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voz, who stated unequivocally of Ge
Page 102 and 103:
Caturla’s insightful description
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modern American music to these citi
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organizer and financier, and Slonim
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Paris, June 6 and 11, 1931 Paris in
Page 110 and 111:
Example 3.1. Adolph Weiss, American
Page 112 and 113:
elated to Cowell, “the final gong
Page 114 and 115:
however, attributed to the work a m
Page 116 and 117:
of American popular culture in the
Page 118 and 119:
Example 3.4. Wallingford Riegger, T
Page 120 and 121:
musicians seem to turn their invent
Page 122 and 123:
July,” with its quotations from t
Page 124 and 125:
as a medium. Slonimsky described To
Page 126 and 127:
a generation of older composers inc
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the twelve-tone system. Roldán’s
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sponsored many concerts of new Fren
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Figure 3.2. Concert program. Madrid
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in collaboration with Cowell’s Ne
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which I gave the names of Ives, Rug
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Figure 3.5. Concert program. Budape
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talent.” 81 In January 1933 Varè
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The evening consisted of Ruggles’
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on four Latin American PAAC members
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having been governed by Spain (1764
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God’s America, Spanish America.
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Blues and Son: Pan-American Literar
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example is “I, Too, Sing America,
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cultural expressions that defined a
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the repeated lines “tú no sabe i
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Example 4.2. Alejandro García Catu
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Example 4.3. Amadeo Roldán, “Neg
Page 162 and 163:
Example 4.6. Amadeo Roldán, “Sig
Page 164 and 165:
in Havana. Mexican composers Cháve
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Revueltas . . . asked me if I had o
Page 168 and 169:
Example 4.11. Silvestre Revueltas,
Page 170 and 171:
applying Marxist social theory to t
Page 172 and 173:
present in the preceding stanza, le
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Figure 4.1. Carlos Chávez, “Nort
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A slave—under the whip, Beaten an
Page 178 and 179:
may be mistaken for Blacks). Each s
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however, the logo was changed to re
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as well as other musical heritages.
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Henry Brant, Two Sarabandes Adolph
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Charles Weidman assisted by José L
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JUNE 6, 1932 Hause des Rundfunks, B
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Claude Debussy, La fille aux cheveu
Page 192 and 193:
Alejandro García Caturla, La Rumba
Page 194 and 195:
Paul Dambly, A Paris June 26, 1931.
Page 196 and 197:
Oscar Bie, Stuttgarter Neues Tagebl
Page 198 and 199:
BIBLIOGRAPHY Aharonián, Coriún.
Page 200 and 201:
___, ed. Yearbook for Inter-America
Page 202 and 203:
García Canclini, Nestor. Hybrid Cu
Page 204 and 205:
Kuss, Malena. "Leitmotive de Charle
Page 206 and 207:
“Nuts! to Europe: Swell Stuff by
Page 208 and 209:
___. “The Newest American Compose
Page 210 and 211:
Unruh, Vicky. Latin American Vangua
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