Cotapos, Acario (EN)

Cotapos Baeza Acario, *30 April 1889 Valdivia, †22 November 1969 Santiago (Chile), Chilean composer. He moved frequently, relocating from Buenos Aires to New York (1917–1927), then to France (1927–1934), Spain (1934–1938), Chile (1939–1945), and back to France (1945–1953); in 1957 he settled in Santiago.

Cotapos was initially self-taught, then studied under E. Bloch; he studied the scores of Wagner, as well as the works of Stravinsky, Bartók, Boulez, and Messiaen. Among the composers he met personally were many European and American artists, including E. Varèse, H. Cowell, A. Copland, and D. Milhaud. Cotapos was active as a promoter of musical life; he was a co-founder of the International Composers Guild and the League of Composers. Cotapos’s works were performed (often in the composer’s presence) in Chile as well as in the United States, Spain, France, and Denmark. In 1960, Cotapos received the Chilean Premio Nacional de Música.

Cotapos was a composer classified among the modernists. His oeuvre is dominated by musical genres such as the prelude, the fantasia, and the symphonic poem. Cotapos often left his works unfinished, so they were usually performed in fragments. Cotapos’s music is characterized by great expressiveness, dense texture, and a rich sound.

Literature: “Revista musical chilena” XV, 1961 (special issue devoted to Cotapos, containing, among others: D. Quiroga Acario Cotapos. La creación viviente); P. Neruda Un inventor de estrellas, “Revista musical chilena” XXIII, 1969.