Silvestre Revueltas Sounds of a Political Passion

Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) has been portrayed as a nationalist artist both at home and beyond Mexico's borders. However, the musicking of a presumed "Mexicanness" was far from Revueltas' mind. In Silvestre Revueltas: Sounds of a Political Passion, author Roberto Kolb-Neuhaus shows how Revueltas, strongly inspired by the Mexican and Russian Revolutions, sought ways to sound the voice of the commoners wandering the Mexican streets, as well as that of gypsy miners in Spain, Black women in the U.S. South, and slaves in Cuba in colonial times. The soundings of such social actors and their environments account for the great variety of musical approaches in Revueltas' scores, from Dadaistic collages satirizing domesticating nationalisms to symphonic poems akin to socialist realism. The intent behind this hermeneutic approach is to reveal and inform the political passion expressed in Revueltas's music, interlinked with his writings and political actions.

Buried in history for half a century, Revueltas has recently risen to be recognized as one of the most prominent Latin American composers of the twentieth century. The peculiar story of his life and works reveals not only what led to the stunning originality of his music that was unprecedented in Western art music. It also opens the window to all those interested in the unique art that emerged in Mexico as a result of the Revolution that shook the country for decades at the offset of the twentieth century.

Roberto Kolb-Neuhaus has dedicated his life as a researcher to the study of the music of Silvestre Revueltas. He has published four books on the composer, including the catalog of his works. He designed the Foro Virtual Silvestre Revueltas homepage, and he is also the editor of the bilingual Revueltas Digital Manuscript Library. He is also the chief editor of the Revueltas Critical Edition, published by the National University of Mexico in collaboration with Peer Music. Kolb-Neuhaus has also contributed to the revival of Revueltas in his capacity as a performer and artistic director of Camerata de las Américas. His identity as a cultural promoter has led to the inclusion of Revueltas´s music in concert programs in Europe, United States and South America.

Preface
Introduction

PART I: Silvestre Revueltas: A Political Composer
Chapter 1. Political Being and Doing: a Social Biography
Chapter 2. Political Soundings: Change through Art

Part II: Targeting Western Modernity: De-Colonial Avantgardism
Chapter 3. Epistemic Disobedience: Surrealis and Dadaist Soundings?
Chapter 4. The Lure of the Russian Revolution: Machinist Soundings
Chapter 5. The Art of the Streets: Sounding "The Piercing Cries of the Poor and Helpless Street Vendor"
Chapter 6. Breaking down False Consciousness: The Musical Irony behind Revueltas' "Geometric Dance"

Part III: How (not) to Sound the Nation
Chapter 7. Magueyes and Música de Feria (1932)
Chapter 8. Colorines (1932)
Chapter 9. Alcancías (Three Pieces for Orchestra) (1932)
Chapter 10. Janitzio (1933/1936)
Chapter 11. Ocho x Radio (1933)

Part IV: Sounding Utopia: Revueltas' Musical Allegories of Revolution
Chapter 12. Composing for the People
Chapter 13. Spain in the Heart: Revueltas and the Civil War in Spain
Chapter 14. Nostalgia of the Future: Sounding Allegories of Liberation through Poetry and Music (Co-authored with Susana González-Aktories)

Part V: Colonialist Reception and Continued Colonizing of Revueltas' Music
Chapter 15. Aberrant Reception Yesterday: Views from Within and Without
Chapter 16. Aberrant Reception Today (and Tomorrow?): "Mayadämmerung" or the Chronicle of a Fraudulent Performance of Exotic Otherness

Some Closing Thoughts
Notes
References
Index