Americas Society at 608 Park Avenue
If the history of South America has been tempestuous it has also been colorful. Perhaps the two are inextricably linked. After all, highly spiced foods are a feast for the tastebuds but can also cause heartburn from time to time. Recently, the musical life of Venezuela has come to the attention of the world by means of its highly successful musical program El Sistema.
Activities like El Sestima seem to prove that many aspects of Western music can be promoted and nurtured without raising the ghosts of colonialism. Back in the nineteenth century, although Venezuela achieved its independence from Spain in 1810 the ensuing years would prove to be tumultuous as the factors that brought on the war with Spain were not all settled. One of Venezuela's first long-standing leaders Antonio Guzman Blanco was a devoted Francophile who sought to bring to Venezuela what he considered to be the great qualities of French culture by creating institutions modeled on the French academies. In addition, a salon society developed in Venezuela among artists and intellectuals as it did in France. Cultivated music became associated with such salons as well as domestic culture.
Evidence of an increasingly liberated society can be found in the rise of numerous magazines and newspapers (again, a French influence-- "the third estate"). Some of these newspapers and magazines often featured music along with discussions of musical topics and reports on musical activities. It was the inclusion of music in these popular periodicals that prompted Venezuelan pianist and musicologist Mariantonia Palacios to research this area one result of which was a fascinating lecture-recital given the Americas Society on March 25.
A wonderful lecturer, Dr.Palacios enveloped her performance of 19th and early 20th century piano music with historical contexts, composer profiles, discussions of music and very engaging and entertaining anecdotes. Her translator, Sebastian Zubeta, Music Director for Americas Society, did an excellent job not only of communicating Dr. Paraclios's words but her spirit as well.
Viewed through the lenses of periodicals, Professor Palacios painted a vivid picture of musical life and many of the composers and performers who created it. Even though she began her program with the most French inspired works such as Consolation,Op. 6 (nocturne pour piano) and Derniere Adieu, Op. 5 (meditations pour piano) by Pedro Larrazbel , one could not fail to hear evocations of Venezuela's Spanish musical traditions in the ornaments, melodic patterns and rhythms.
Before performing works drawn from the satirical magazine El Zancudo (the mosquito) Professor Palacios commented insightfully on the difference between the European waltz and the Venezuelan. She peppered this discussion with an amusing anecdote concerning the famed musicologist Curt Sachs successful notation of the "limping" waltz rhythm of the Venezuelan waltz only to be brought down to size by his inability to dance the waltz!
Selections drawn from El cojo ilustrado highlighted some significant female composers of the period. As was typical of the time, women's education was aimed at enabling a young female to become accomplished in the arts so as to increase her "value" as a potential wife and mother. For a female to compose salon music was just as acceptable in Venezuela as it was in Europe. However, as in Europe, pursuing a professional career as a performer was not encouraged.
I might insert at this point the fact that one of Venezuela's most illustrious performers of the nineteenth century, Teresa Carreno, was not included in the program as she made her career largely in Europe rather than her home country.
Teutonic shadings emerge in the works of such composers as Federico Vollmer, whose works appears in La Lira Venezolana. Although born in Venezuela, Vollmer's father had come from Hamburg, Germany, the birthplace of Johannes Brahms elements of whose style can be noted in Vollmer's music. However, Latin elements from the meringue, guasa and gaitas are also evident from time to time.
To close out the program Professor Palacios performed selections from a musical album compiled to celebrate the centennial of the the Revolution in 1910. Portions of three works performed here revealed an emerging modernist impulse.
Before performing the final work of the program, Professor Paraclios related yet another amusing anecdote. The piano piece El Diablo Suelto has entered into the folk repertoire and even if Venezuelans do not know the name of the composer they know the work. Although a waltz, it has many traits of the Veneuean joropo. Its composer, Heraclio Fernandez, was a prodigious and extremely colorful pianist and composer. Having founded both El Zancudo and El Museo, Fernandez' charismatic piano playing made him very famous, and he was invited to play the piano at every party he attended. According to Professor Paraclios, one of these parties was quite important to him as a young lady whom he greatly admired was to be in attendance. He took care to dress and groom hmself especially well. Unfortunately, he was stuck playing the piano most of the evening and never got to talk to or dance with the young lady. On top of this, he was beaten up on the way home. It was not a good day for poor Heraclio.
Fernandez published a book on accompanying that was designed for those who could not play the piano! It contained copious instructions but no musical examples. He himself would actually go to people to help them. A second edition tweaked the method but it still contained no notated music.
Most of the music performed on the program is of largely historical interest and remains true to the salon aesthetic. However, a few works, including Sibandito a Pie by Jose Vicente de Aramburu, El cielo y tu by Ramon Delgado Palacios and El Jarro mocho by Federico Vollmer piqued my interest.
In a relatively short amount of time, Professor Paraclios opened up a world of music to me that was previously unknown. It is not surprising therefore that the establishment of a classical music infrastructure in Venezuela in the nineteenth century helped pave the way for the great accomlishments of the twentieth century and today. Thank you, Professor Paraclios!
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