Silvestre Revueltas: Sounds of a Political Passion(CURRENTS IN LATIN AMER AND IBERIAN MUSIC)

Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) has been portrayed as a nationalist artist both at home and beyond Mexico's borders. However, the musicking of a presumed "Mexicanness" was far from Revueltas' mind. In Silvestre Revueltas: Sounds of a Political Passion, author Roberto Kolb-Neuhaus shows how Revueltas, strongly inspired by the Mexican and Russian Revolutions, sought ways to sound the voice of the commoners wandering the Mexican streets, as well as that of gypsy miners in Spain, Black women in the U.S. South, and slaves in Cuba in colonial times. The soundings of such social actors and their environments account for the great variety of musical approaches in Revueltas' scores, from Dadaistic collages satirizing domesticating nationalisms to symphonic poems akin to socialist realism. The intent behind this hermeneutic approach is to reveal and inform the political passion expressed in Revueltas's music, interlinked with his writings and political actions. Buried in history for half a century, Revueltas has recently risen to be recognized as one of the most prominent Latin American composers of the twentieth century. The peculiar story of his life and works reveals not only what led to the stunning originality of his music that was unprecedented in Western art music. It also opens the window to all those interested in the unique art that emerged in Mexico as a result of the Revolution that shook the country for decades at the offset of the twentieth century.

Table of Contents:
Preface Introduction PART I: Silvestre Revueltas: A Political Composer Chapter 1. Political Being and Doing: a Social Biography Chapter 2. Political Soundings: Change through Art Part II: Targeting Western Modernity: De-Colonial Avantgardism Chapter 3. Epistemic Disobedience: Surrealis and Dadaist Soundings? Chapter 4. The Lure of the Russian Revolution: Machinist Soundings Chapter 5. The Art of the Streets: Sounding "The Piercing Cries of the Poor and Helpless Street Vendor" Chapter 6. Breaking down False Consciousness: The Musical Irony behind Revueltas' "Geometric Dance" Part III: How (not) to Sound the Nation Chapter 7. Magueyes and Música de Feria (1932) Chapter 8. Colorines (1932) Chapter 9. Alcancías (Three Pieces for Orchestra) (1932) Chapter 10. Janitzio (1933/1936) Chapter 11. Ocho x Radio (1933) Part IV: Sounding Utopia: Revueltas' Musical Allegories of Revolution Chapter 12. Composing for the People Chapter 13. Spain in the Heart: Revueltas and the Civil War in Spain Chapter 14. Nostalgia of the Future: Sounding Allegories of Liberation through Poetry and Music (Co-authored with Susana González-Aktories) Part V: Colonialist Reception and Continued Colonizing of Revueltas' Music Chapter 15. Aberrant Reception Yesterday: Views from Within and Without Chapter 16. Aberrant Reception Today (and Tomorrow?): "Mayadämmerung" or the Chronicle of a Fraudulent Performance of Exotic Otherness Some Closing Thoughts Notes References Index

About the Author :
Roberto Kolb-Neuhaus has dedicated his life as a researcher to the study of the music of Silvestre Revueltas. He has published four books on the composer, including the catalog of his works. He designed the Foro Virtual Silvestre Revueltas homepage, and he is also the editor of the bilingual Revueltas Digital Manuscript Library. He is also the chief editor of the Revueltas Critical Edition, published by the National University of Mexico in collaboration with Peer Music. Kolb-Neuhaus has also contributed to the revival of Revueltas in his capacity as a performer and artistic director of Camerata de las Américas. His identity as a cultural promoter has led to the inclusion of Revueltas´s music in concert programs in Europe, United States and South America.

Review :
In an unprecedented approach to the study of politically-driven music, Roberto Kolb-Neuhaus mines an arsenal of analytical tools from an array of disciplines to deconstruct the compositional legacy of Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940), the legendary rebel of Mexican music."-Malena Kuss, Ph.D., University of North Texas, Denton (Emeritus) This book contributes to position Revueltas in his rightful place as a composer of international importance, and to remove the patina of mysticism that has made Revueltas and his life the subject of much equivocation."- Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez, Professor of Composition, Eastman School of Music The knowledge and ethnusiasm Kolb-Neuhaus has for Silvestre Revueltas is evident, and this work is without a doubt the result of his long career and experience on the subject. This book is not just a profound exploration and analysis of the musical work of Revueltas, but also an extensively documented reinterpretation of his life and work on different levels set on contemporary debates of de/post-colonialism and critical historiography.