Silvestre Revueltas

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Silvestre Revueltas
Chicago College of Music
Spouse(s)Jules Klarecy and Eugenia
RelativesFermín, José Revueltas (brothers), Consuelo and Rosaura (sisters) Román Revueltas Retes (nephew)

Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican composer of classical music, a violinist and a conductor.

Life

Silvestre Revueltas

Revueltas was born in

Redes, in 1934, a commission which resulted in Revueltas and Chávez falling out. Chávez had originally expected to write the score, but political changes led to him losing his job in the Ministry of Education, which was behind the film project.[1] Revueltas left Chávez's orchestra in 1935 to be the principal conductor of a newly created and short-lived rival orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional.[citation needed
]

Silvestre Revueltas

He was part of a family of artists, a number of whom were also famous and recognized in Mexico: his brother Fermín (1901–1935) and sister Consuelo (born before 1908, died before 1999) were painters, sister Rosaura (ca. 1909–1996) was an actress and dancer, and younger brother José Revueltas (1914–1976) was a noted writer. His daughter from his first marriage to Jules Klarecy (née Hlavacek), Romano Carmen (later Montoya and Peers), enjoyed a successful career as a dancer, taught ballet and flamenco in New York, and died on November 13, 1995, at age 73, in Athens, Greece. She is survived by three sons, and two kindred creative female heirs in Oceanside, California. His daughter from his second marriage, Eugenia (born November 15, 1934), is an essayist. His nephew Román Revueltas Retes, son of José, is a violinist, journalist, painter and conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Aguascalientes (OSA).[citation needed]

Tomb of Silvestre Revueltas in the Panteon Civil de Dolores cemetery in Mexico City

In 1937 Revueltas went to Spain during the

leftist organization Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR);[2] upon Francisco Franco's victory, he returned to Mexico. He earned little, and fell into poverty and alcoholism. He died in Mexico City of pneumonia (complicated by alcoholism), at the age of 40 on October 5, 1940, the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador, written four years earlier, was premiered. His remains are kept at the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City.[citation needed
]

Works

Revueltas wrote

Revueltas' film score for the 1939 film La noche de los mayas,[3] although some dissenting opinions hold that the orchestral work Sensemayá is better known.[4] In any case, it is Sensemayá that is considered Revueltas's masterpiece.[5]

He appeared briefly as a bar piano player in the movie ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (Let's Go with Pancho Villa, Mexico, 1935), for which he composed the music. When shooting breaks out in the bar while he is playing "La Cucaracha", he holds up a sign reading "Se suplica no tirarle al pianista" ("Please don't shoot the pianist").[6]

Music

Chamber works

Orchestral works

  • Pieza para orquesta, 1929
  • Cuauhnáhuac, for string orchestra, 1931; revised for full orchestra, 1931; revised again for full orchestra 1932
  • Esquinas, 1931 (rev. 1933)
  • Ventanas, 1931
  • Alcancías, 1932
  • Colorines, for chamber orchestra, 1932
  • Janitzio, 1933 (rev. 1936)
  • Toccata (sin fuga), for violin and chamber orchestra 1933
  • Troka, 1933
  • Caminos, 1934
  • Danza geométrica (orchestral version of Planos), 1934
  • Sensemayá, 1938
  • Itinerarios, 1938
  • Música para charlar, 1938 (from the film score of Ferrocarriles de Baja California)

Ballets

  • El renacuajo paseador, 1936
  • La coronela, 1939 (unfinished; orch. by Moncayo, arr. by Limantour; also completed by Blas Galindo and Candelario Huízar, lost)

Film scores

  • Redes
    , 1935
  • ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!
    , 1936
  • El indio, 1938
  • Ferrocarriles de Baja California, 1938
    • selections reworked as Música para charlar[7]
  • Bajo el signo de la muerte, 1939
  • La noche de los mayas
     (Night of the Mayas), 1939
  • Los de abajo, 1940, directed by Chano Urueta, based on the 1920 novel by Mariano Azuela[citation needed]
  • ¡Que viene mi marido!, 1940

Songs

  • Duo para pato y canario, voice and chamber orchestra, 1931
  • "Ranas" (Frogs) and "El tecolote" (The Owl), voice and piano, 1931
  • Caminando, 1937
  • "Canto a una muchacha negra" (words: Langston Hughes), voice and piano 1938
  • Cinco canciones para niños y dos canciones profanas, 1938–1939

Piano

  • Adagio
  • Tragedia en forma de rábano (no es plagio)
  • Allegro
  • Canción (a passage used also in Cuauhnáhuac)

See also

References

  1. ^ Huscher, Phillip (May 13, 2010). "Program Notes – Suite from Redes (Nets)" (PDF). Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Retrieved 2019-05-11.
  2. ^ Hess 1997, [page needed].
  3. ^ Hernández 2009, 19.
  4. ^ Clark 1999, 240; Estrada 1982, 191; Hoag 1987, 173; Morris 1996, 280; Velazco 1986, 343
  5. ^ Contreras Soto 2000, 62.
  6. ^ In Palencia 2000, 26, Revueltas' appearance in this scene is cited as an example of his sense of humor.
  7. AllMusic

Sources

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Silvestre Revueltas.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Silvestre_Revueltas&oldid=1218209444"