Some Comments About Electroacoustic Music and Life in Latin America - Ricardo Dal Farra

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Some Comments about Electroacoustic Music and Life in Latin AmericaAuthor(s): Ricardo Dal FarraSource: Leonardo Music Journal, Vol. 4 (1994), pp. 93-94Published by: The MIT Press

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C D

C O M PA N I O N

S o m e omments

a b o u t

lectroacoustic

M u s i c

a n d i f e

n

a t i n merica

RicardoDalFarra

For manyyears,

I havebeen trying

to promote

the

various ormsof

electroacoustic

musicproduced

by Latin

American omposers.

Why?

Sometimes think

I shouldask

a

psychoanalyst.)

One

of myown answers

s thatthere

is signifi-

cant interest

in electroacoustic

and computer

mediaamong

LatinAmerican

omposers,

but the lack of infrastructure,

he

poorand/or expensivecommunicationsystems ndthe con-

trolof information

byboth

governments nd

commercialn-

terests)

oftenfrustrate

manyattempts

o work n this

field.

For

composers ike

myselfwho work

andlive in this

region

of the planet,

it is oftenvery

hard to know

what s happening

(musically

nd/or otherwise)

n a neighboring

country,but it

is comparatively

asy

to stay nformed

aboutmusic

produced

in North America

orWestern

Europe.I know

this problem

s

pervasive n

manyareasof the

world,but I believe

weneed to

do something

aboutit. I do

wish to have and

appreciatehav-

ing

accessto music

from the C;first

orld, but I think

that

LatinAmerican

composers

need to find a

way to knoweach

other,

too. The global

villageshould

not workonly

for some

peoples, knowledgeshould not travel n only one direction

andthe transmission

f information

hould

not be controlled

byany single

networkn the

globe. I saw he invitation

o cu-

rate

this CD as an

opportunityto

disseminatesome

of the

electroacoustic

music

that has been composed

in Latin

America n

recentyears.

During the

yearand a half

I devoted to collecting

music

and

information n

order to produce

this CD,I encountered

innumerable

problems

as a result of the

conditions men-

tioned above.

Unreliable

and expensive

communications

werea central

concern.

Things are changing

fastin the ';first

world, and

they are

also changing n some LatinAmericancountries(at least in

some

aspectsof our

lives). However,

we cannot forget

that

people still

die becausethere

is not enough

food, medicine

andwork n

manyLatinAmerican

ountries.

But that s not

a

reason

to stopmusic

production.On

the contrary,t

is a very

good reason

o investmoney

n educationand

culturalgoods.

ELECTROACOUSTIC

MUSIC

IN LATIN

AMECA

There

is muchthat

can be saidabout

musiccreation

and pro-

duction n

LatinAmerica,and

this is ust a brief

ntroduction.

However,

would ike

to mentionsome

namesthat are

partof

the recenthistoryof electroacoustic nd computermusic.

Electroacoustic

music s

not new in LatinAmerica.

Chilean

composers

Leon

Schidlowsky,Juan

Amenabar

and Jose

VicenteAsuar

were among

the pioneers that

startedto ex-

periment

with sounds and

electroacoustic

medias in the

1950s.There

wasalsoactivity

n the field in

Argentinaduring

the

same period:

MauricioKagel,

CesarFranchisena

and

Francisco

Kropflwereall developing

music

n differentcities,

planting the

firstseeds in

what became,

with time, a fertile

place for

electroacoustic

composers. In

1962, the Centro

Latinoamericano e AltosEstudiosMusicales f the Institute

Torcuato

Di Tella

was oundedin

Argentina's apital,

Buenos

Aires.

Thiswas a thriving

hub of

experimentation,

research

and creativity

or all Latin

Americanartists.

Within a few

years,the

Institutehad an

electroacoustic

music studio,and

Peruvian

omposer

CesarBolanos

had created he

firstpiece

produced

there (';Intensidad

altura,

1964). In

197S, the

center closed

and the laboratory

donated

its equipment

to

the

Municipality f

BuenosAires,

whichcreated he

CICMAT

(Centrode Investigaciones

n Comunicacion

Masiva,

Artey

Tecnologia).

After several

mutations, all

the instruments

housedin

the CICMAT ere

ntegratednto

a new, argerstu-

dio:

the LIPM(Laboratorio

de Investigacion

y Produccion

Musical)

Several

other studioswere

founded in

LatinAmericadur-

ing

the earlyyears

n the development

of electroacoustic

mu-

sic.

Amongthem

were theLaboratorio

e MusicaElectronica

in Mexico,

directedby Hector

Quintanar,

nd the Estudio

de

Fonologia

Musical n Caracas,

Venezuela.

Despitethe frequent

politicalchanges

thathave

disrupted

this region

in recent history,

electroacousticmusic

has sur-

vived

n LatinAmerica

and, more

importantly, lectroacous-

tic

composers hemselves

avesurvived nd

continued o pro-

duce music.

However,many

have emigrated

to Europe

or

North America

some haveearned

grantsto study

or com-

pose in other countriesand then settledthere; othershave

chosen or

been drivento

leave becauseof

governmentswith

a very conservative

pproach

o the artsand

a not-so-conser-

vativeapproach o

people'slives.

However, here

have been and

still are many

composers

working n the fields

of electroacoustic

and computer

music

in almost

everyLatinAmerican

country.Following

s a short

list of thosewhose

workI am familiar

with:Joaquin

Orellana,

from

Guatemala;

Jorge Antunes,

Jose Augusto

Mannis,

Frederico Richter,

Wilson Sukorski,

Ricardo Tacuchian,

Rodolfo

Caesar(now

living n England),

LivioTragtenberg,

Paulo Chagas

(now a resident

of Germany),

Jose Maria

Neves,

VaniaDantas

Leite and

Roberto Coelho

de Souza,

Ricardo Dal Farra

(composer), Estudio

de Musica Electroacustica, Azcuenaga

2764,

(1640) Martinez,

Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Tel: (54-1) 553-3015;

fax: (54-1) 827-

0640;

e-mail: (dalfarraNclacso.edu.ar>.

LEONARDO

MUSIC

JOURNAL, Vol. 4, pp. 93-94,

1994

93

O 1995 ISAST







from Brazil; Edgar Valcarcel, Cesar

Bolanos, RajmilFischman (now living

in England) and ArturoRuiz del Pozo,

from Peru; Leon Biriotti, Antonio

Mastrogiovanni, onradoSilva(now liv-

ing in Brazil), Coriun Aharonian,

MarinoRiveroand Ariel Martinez, rom

Uruguay; uan Blanco, Carlos Farinas,

Aurelio de la Vega (now living in the

United States), Sergio Barroso now liv-

ing in Canada),Jesus Ortega, Jacinto

Orlando Garcia (now living in the

United States) and Julio Roloff, from

Cuba; Alfredo del Monaco, Adina

Izarra,GustavoMatamoros now living

in the United States), Antonio Estevez,

Julio D'Escrivan and Alfredo Ruge-

les, from Venezuela;Jacqueline Nova,

Blas Emilio Atehortua, Juan Reyes

and Andres Posada, from Colombia;

Antonio Russek, Roberto Morales-

Manzanares, ulio Estrada (now living

in France), Francisco Nunez, Javier

Alvarez (now living in England) and

ManuelEnriquez, rom Mexico;Milton

Estevez,PabloFreireand MesiasMaigu-

aschca (now a resident of Germany),

from Ecuador;CarlosVazquez,William

Ortiz andJose Montalvo,from Puerto

Rico; Eduardo Caceres and Gabriel

Brncic, rom Chile;AlbertoVillalpando,

Cergio Prudencio, Agustin Fernandez

(now living in England) and Nicolas

Suarez, from Bolivia; Alejandro Jose,

from the Dominican Republic; Jose

Maranzano,Claudio Alsuyet, Enrique

Gerardi,EduardoBertola (now iving n

Brazil), Hilda Dianda, Alcides Lanza

(now living n Canada),EnriqueBelloc,

Alejandro Vinao (now living in En-

gland), Alejandro Iglesias Rossi,Jorge

Rapp, Horacio Vaggione (now living in

France), Luis Maria Serra, Claudio

Lluan, GerardoDirie (now living n the

United States), Teodoro Cromberg,

Mario Davidovsky (now living in the

United States), Julio Viera, Daniel

Miraglia,BeatrizFerreyra now iving n

France), Pablo Cetta, Stella Perales,

Daniel Teruggi (now living in France),

EduardoKusnir (now living in Venezu-

ela), RicardoPerezMiro,CarlosGratzer

(now living in France), Daniel Schach-

ter,Jorge Sad, CarlosSimkin, Edgardo

Canton (now living in France), Dante

Grela, Silvia Goldberg, Sergio Schmil-

ovich (now living in Israel), Fabian

Luna, Martin Fumarola, Fernando

Lopez Lezcano (now living in Japan),

Jorge Molina, Guillermo Pozzati, Car-

melo Saitta (born in Italy), Arturo

Gervasoni now living n France),Javier

Leichman, ose Halac (now iving n the

United States), GustavoChab,Ezequiel

Vinao (now living n the United States),

Miguel Calzon, Carlos Cerana, Miguel

Rosas Cobian (now living in England),

EduardoPiantino,GabrielValverde,Ri-

cardo Nillni (now living in France),

MariaTeresa Luengo, Oscar Edelstein,

Ricardo Mandolini (now living in

France), Mario Mary,Alberto Paulin

and OscarBazan,all from Argentina.

I am sure there are manyactivecom-

posers who are not included in-this ist.

Any omissions are absolutely uninten-

tional.

ABOUr

MUSICA

ELECTROACUSTIGAE

COMPOSITOR ES

LATINOAMERlCANOS

The work ncluded on this CD coversa

wide range of compositionalstyles and

techniquesand represents erydifferent

kindsof musical hought.Leon Biriotti's

live performanceon the oboe interacts

in real time with electroacousticproces-

sors;Jose Augusto Mannis presents a

strong composition for tape; Carlos

Vazquezdepicts a journey through the

Caribbean andscape;and RobertoMo-

rales-Manzanares mixes piano, com-

puter and synthesizerduring a live per-

formance recorded in concert. The

distantsonoritiesof Pablo Freire'swork

for tape are juxtaposed with the bright

and agile action of the composition by

Andres Posada. From the subtle elec-

troacoustic ncidence on the live vocal

work written by Adina Izarra ( the only

womanon this CD) to the strongcontra-

dictions and entirelydigitallygenerated

sounds of my own composition, the

workon this CD presentsa crosssection

of the diverse deas, mediasand musical

approaches xperienced,assembled nd

developed by some of the composers n

LatinAmerica.

Some people are now looking to Latin

Americawith the idea that it holds the

future (at least n some respects);others

seem to think that Latin America does

not exist at all. How difficult t is to find

the right balance, to establishgood cri-

teria. Perhapsa good wayto begin is by

furthering communication, getting to

knoweach other by sharing deas, infor-

mation, opinions and music;over time,

we may develop global and mutual un-

derstandings and interests. From my

point of view, this CD is an important

step for LatinAmericanelectroacoustic

composers toward better communica-

tion with each other and with the rest

of the world.

Acknowledgments

I am very grateful to the International Society for

the Arts, Sciences and Technology for making the

effort to complete this project. My very special

thanks to Grace Sullivan, Managing Editor of

LeonardoMustcJournal and to Larry Polansky, who

first proposed the idea for this CD during a brief,

productive and friendly talk more than 3 years ago.

94 DalFarra Some Comments about Electroacoustic Music and Life





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