Abstract

ESTRADA, Julio. Silvestre Revueltas: a music of impure character. An. Inst. Investig. Estét [online]. 2013, vol.35, n.103, pp.9-34. ISSN 0185-1276.

On radio Revueltas improvises one of his quartets on the violin; creates political music with shouting and ridicule; conducting, he gives a successful and inspired performance while drunk; experiences intense family dramas and the poverty that finally breaks him. In contrast with that reality, the present-day presentation of his music seeks the precious equilibrium between the written notes, the sounds and a picturesque and nationalistic must-be that only serves the requirements of the Mexican politico-cultural system. Meanwhile, his irony, grief and obsession are neutralized while no possible biographical historicism is capable of intensifying the deep meaning of a music that is indeed original. The scrupulous seeking after an ambitious technique of exactitude and perfection is abstracted from the esthetic and ethical rebellion with which his work is laden. The fusion of life and opus compels one to emphasize its rumors, noises, disasters and impurities and so perceive a music that combats the civilized world.

Keywords : Silvestre Revueltas; historicism; interinterpretation; popular music; modernity.

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