Chávez, Carlos (EN)

Chávez Carlos Antonio de Padua, actually C. Chávez y Ramírez, *13 June 1899 Calzada de Tacuba (near Mexico City), †2 August 1978 Mexico City, Mexican composer, conductor, teacher, music writer and organiser of musical life. As the grandson of an Indian woman, he came into contact with the culture of Mexican Indians in childhood. Initially, his musical education was the responsibility of his brother, Manuel, who taught him to play the piano. In 1910–14, Chávez studied with M. Ponce, and from 1915 to 1920 with P.L. Ogazón (theory and piano). In terms of composition, he was an autodidact, using only the theory of harmony by J.B. Fuentes (thanks to Ogazón) and the treatise on orchestration by A. Guiraud. He wrote his first compositions for piano when he began learning to play the piano, and at the age of 15, he began working on his first symphony (Sinfonía para Orchestra, completed in 1918). In 1920, he published his first piano pieces, and a year later, the first concert performance of his works took place (Piano Sextet), after which the government commissioned a ballet based on an Aztec legend (El Fuego Nuevo). In 1922–23, he stayed in Europe (Berlin, Vienna, Paris), where he gave concerts with his wife (Otilia Ortiz), performing his music and establishing contacts with European publishers (including Berlin’s Bote und Bock) and composers (including Paul Dukas). From 1923, he often travelled to the USA; in 1924–26, he became friends with A. Copland, H. Cowell and E. Varèse, with whom he actively participated in the work of the International Composers’ Guild (later the Pan American Association of Composers). In 1924, he began his critical and essayistic work in the Mexican press, mainly in El Universal (initially in Música Revista Mexicana). In 1928–48, when he had established himself as a composer, he conducted the newly founded Orquesta Sinfónica de México; from 1928 to 1934, he was director of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico, where he also taught composition. In 1930, he initiated a series of permanent concerts for workers (Conciertos para trabajadores). In 1932, he encountered the first attempts at electronic music in the United States. In 1943, Chávez began organising the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), of which he was the first director from 1947 to 1952, and where he created the Orguesta Sinfónica Nacional, which he guest-conducted until 1971. During this time, he founded the Ediciones Mexicanas de Música, which contributed to the popularisation of contemporary music in Mexico. In 1952, he resigned from most of his posts and devoted himself to composition, although occasionally conducting orchestras in Mexico and the United States. In 1958–59, he gave a series of lectures at Harvard University, later published as Musical Thought (1961). In 1971, he was appointed by Mexican President L. Echeverría to the positions of secretary of public instruction and head of the music department of the INBA and music director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional. Since 1974, Chávez has resided mainly in the United States. Awarded with many of the highest European distinctions, he was an honorary member of numerous academies and institutions in the USA and South America and a laureate of Mexican state awards.

Chávez’s work was initially influenced by Schumann, then de Falla, Ravel and Debussy. Over time, two parallel trends emerged: classicising, referring to the neoclassicism of Stravinsky and Hindemith (symphonies, concertos, quartets, sonatas, preference for polyphonic techniques) and — partly — experimental. The first of these is a reflection of Chávez’s preference for traditional formal order, sometimes even articulated in the title (Symphony No. 4 “Romantic”); at the same time, the composer did not give up attempts to modify the patterns (Violin Concerto with a “mirror” arrangement of the nine-part cycle, in which the axis of symmetry is the extremely virtuoso, four-part Cadenza) or from explorations in the field of sound language (archaising, polyphonised, with modal harmony Sinfonia de Antigona). Here, too, belongs one of Chávez’s most outstanding works – Symphony No. 3 (1954), which is a masterful synthesis of the compositional techniques of the time. He also referred to Mexican popular and pre-Columbian music (Cantos de Mexico, 1933), which he integrated with an individual musical language, in a manner similar to the work of B. Bartók. He also wrote music for theatre performances. The second trend in Chávez’s work is determined by formal and sound explorations; the cycle of Soli I–IV, composed in 1933–66, is an expression of the consistent application of the principle of the uniqueness of both sounds and entire structures, taken from the serial technique. The rejection of traditional principles of construction, from motif and phrase to the entire progression, is visible in many of Chávez’s chamber and vocal works. Chávez’s sound language was strongly influenced by the music of Mexican Indians and the popular Mexican folk music, containing Aztec and Spanish elements, but only in Sinfonia india did Chávez use original quotations; on the other hand, he often used traditional Indian instruments (Lamentaciones, pieces for percussion, Xochipilli-Macuilxochitl, Capultepec). Chávez’s preference for the sounds of wind and percussion instruments, his tendency towards vitalism and motorics (Energia), and the use of specific metro-rhythmic sequences (Poligonos) should also be attributed to inspiration from native folklore. The composer’s work also includes socio-political themes, especially in his committed works from the 1930s (Sinfonia proletaria, 1934; Obertura republicano, 1935). The outstanding values ​​of Chávez’s music made him one of the classics of 20^th century music, thanks to whom it became possible to define Mexican artistic music.

Chávez’s special significance for Mexican musical culture was also marked by his conducting activities; over the course of 20 years, he gave 155 Mexican premieres of the popular symphonic repertoire, and premiered 82 works by Mexican composers. As a teacher and organiser, he contributed to the deepening of knowledge about Mexican musical culture, initiated historical research, and drew attention to the sonic possibilities of new music. Chávez’s role in the development of Mexican music and the musical life of this country is compared to that of Villa-Lobos in Brazil and A. Ginastera in Argentina.

Literature: P. Rosenfeld Carlos Chávez, “Modern Music” IX, 1932; H. Weinstock Carlos Chávez, “The Musical Quarterly” XXII, 1936; R. Garcia Morillo Carlos Chávez. Vida y obra, Mexico 1960 (includes a list of Chávez’s works, bibliography and discography); R. Halfiter Complete Catalogue of the Works of Carlos Chávez, Mexico 1971; Epistolario selecto de Carlos Chávez, ed. G. Carmona, Mexico 1989.

R. Stevenson Carlos Chávez’s United States Press Coverage, “InterAmerican Music Review” III, 1981; G. Carmona Carlos Chávez. 1899–1978, “México en el arte” XXIV, 1989 (includes a bibliography); R.L. Parker A Recurring Melodic Cell in the Music of Carlos Chávez, “Latin American Music Review/Revista de música latino-americana” XII, 1991; R.L. Parker Carlos Chávez’s opus ultimum. The Unfinished Cello Concerto, “American Music” X, 1992; R.L. Parker Carlos Chávez’s Phantom Harp Concerto, “American Music” XI, 1993; D.R. Conklin Carlos Chávez and Musical Nationalism in Mexico, “Percussive Notes” XXXII, 1994; C.A. Hess El salón México: Chávez, Copland, and American Music, “The Sonneck Society for American Music Bulletin” XXI, 1995.

K. Snow Dancing a Sandunga in English: Carlos Chávez and Diego Rivera in the United States, in: A Revolution in Movement: Dancers, Painters, and the Image of Modern Mexico, 1^st ed., University Press of Florida, 2020; Carlos Chávez a guide to research, ed. Robert Parker, New York / London: Garland, 1998 (2^nd ed. 2021 Routledge); Carlos Chávez and His World, ed. L. Saavedra, Princeton-Oxford 2015 (Spanish ed. L. Saavedra ed.: Carlos Chávez y su mundo. Ciudad de México: El Colegio Nacional, 2018); L. Saavedra Carlos Chávez’s Polysemic Style, “Journal of the American Musicological Society”2015, vol. 68 no. 1; E. Herrera Carlos Chávez, in: Musicians and Composers of the 20^th Century, ed. Alfred W. Cramer, Pasadena, CA: Salem Press 2009 Music, Rutgers University; Diálogo de resplandores: Carlos Chávez y Silvestre Revueltas, ed. R. Miranda, Y. Bitrán, México, D.F.: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (CONACULTA), 2002; Y. Tapia The Political Power of Carlos Chávez and His Influence Upon Silvestre Revueltas and Blas Galindo, The University of Western Ontario (unpublished doctorate), 2018; R. Parker Carlos Chávez, Mexico’s modern-day Orpheus, Twayne Publishers, Boston, Massachusetts, 1983; Ch. Taylor Gibson The Reception of Carlos Chávez’s ’Horsepower’: A Pan-American Communication Failure, “American Music” 2012, vol. 30 no. 2; C. Meierovich Especulación y Verdad: Novedad Histórica En La Biografía Más Temprana de Carlos Chávez, “Latin American Music Review / Revista de Música Latinoamericana” 13, no. 1 (1992); L. Saavedra Marxismo y socialism mexicano en redes, de Paul Strand y Carlos Chávez, con música de Silvestre Revueltas, “Historia Mexicana” 2021, vol. 70 no. 4 (280).