Collective Difference: The Pan-American Association of Composers
Collective Difference: The Pan-American Association of Composers
Collective Difference: The Pan-American Association of Composers
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York performance <strong>of</strong> Nos. 1-4 in 1931. 32 Furthermore, the manuscript <strong>of</strong> Rítmica No. 6 in<br />
the Fleisher Collection <strong>of</strong> the Free Library <strong>of</strong> Philadelphia contains the inscription: “First<br />
performance Seattle, Cornish School,” one <strong>of</strong> John Cage’s famous percussion concerts <strong>of</strong><br />
1939. This is an important issue to clarify, because if the last two Rítmicas had been<br />
performed in 1931, they would mark the first performance <strong>of</strong> percussion ensemble music<br />
in the Americas other than George Antheil’s Ballet mécanique. As it is, this is not the<br />
case.<br />
Russell’s “Percussion Studies in Cuban Rhythms” shows a young composer<br />
experimenting with an exotic set <strong>of</strong> rhythms and instruments. Roldán’s folk rhythms and<br />
ensemble also signify Cuban music, but he altered those rhythms and enlarged their<br />
capacity for participation in international modernism. Rather than merely exploiting the<br />
exotic qualities <strong>of</strong> Afro-Cuban music, Roldán modernized it. Conversely, Edgard Varèse<br />
(1883-1965) added exotic musical elements, including Afro-Caribbean instruments and<br />
rhythms, to ultramodernism in his percussion ensemble work, Ionisation.<br />
It may seem strange to label Varèse’s Ionisation a <strong>Pan</strong>-<strong>American</strong> work, since<br />
Varèse composed it entirely in France between 1929 and 1931. <strong>The</strong> essence <strong>of</strong> Ionisation<br />
is firmly rooted in a cosmopolitan urban atmosphere in all its cultural diversity. <strong>The</strong> piece<br />
represents a mixture <strong>of</strong> cultures, evident from the short repeating cells <strong>of</strong> traditional Latin<br />
music and the Chinese cymbals and gongs that mark important structural moments, the<br />
European and <strong>American</strong> marching traditions in the snare drums, and the sirens <strong>of</strong> the<br />
urban soundscape.<br />
Paris, with its influx in the 1920s <strong>of</strong> <strong>Pan</strong>-<strong>American</strong> artists, was an ideal place to<br />
compose this music. Varèse returned to France as a U.S. citizen and as President <strong>of</strong> the<br />
PAAC. 33 He intended to present music <strong>of</strong> the Americas as an antidote to the reigning neo-<br />
classicism in French music. But music from the Americas had preceded him. When<br />
Varèse arrived in France, Joséphine Baker was taking Europe by storm and Cuban singer<br />
Rita Montaner’s version <strong>of</strong> “El manisero” (<strong>The</strong> Peanut Vendor) was surging through<br />
Parisian popular society. As early as 1922 Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier reported from<br />
32 Antonieta Henríquez and José Piñero Díaz, Amadeo Roldán: Testimonios, 219.<br />
33 Varèse became a U.S. citizen in October 1927.<br />
32