Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2022

“A (Latin) American in Paris”: The educational experiences of Latin American composers in the French capital, 1880–1930

Résumé

Since the early rise of Latin American nation-states and the search for national identities, music always played an important role. While the first nationalist manifestations of music came in the shape of marches and national anthems, by the end of the nineteenth century the influence of the discourses on European musical nationalisms started to affect the production of Latin American composers. Yet, most of the time, this influence did not come just from within each Latin American nation-state, but was fostered by Latin American composers’ educational experiences in Europe, most particularly in Paris, where many of them sought a cosmopolitan education. While many of them went to the French capital in the search of becoming better professionals, most of them realized that the European milieu had some expectations on their music that differed from their own, which was certainly fostered by the Universal Exposition of 1889 and the craze for exoticism that Europeans have been developing since the turn of the twentieth century. In this paper, thus, I will analyse the cases of Latin American composers Alberto Williams (Argentina, 1862-1952), Manuel María Ponce (Mexico, 1882-1948) and Alejandro García Caturla (Cuba, 1906-1940) who continued their music education in Paris, to see how their European experience affected (or not) their music in the search of a more “Latin American” sound. While Williams begun to compose “Argentine” music after his return from Paris, Manuel María Ponce –already known in Mexico as a nationalist composer– used the French opportunity to distance his work from the national sound and explore the latest European art music techniques. Meanwhile –and in contrast with Williams and Ponce– Alejandro García Caturla’s Parisian experience contributed to reinforce the “exotic” Latin American sound already acquired in his previous work.

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Dates et versions

hal-03894497 , version 1 (12-12-2022)

Identifiants

  • HAL Id : hal-03894497 , version 1

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Vera Wolkowicz. “A (Latin) American in Paris”: The educational experiences of Latin American composers in the French capital, 1880–1930. 21st Quinquennial Congress of the International Musicological Society, International Musicological Society (IMS), Aug 2022, Athens, Greece. ⟨hal-03894497⟩
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