Opus (Dec 2013)
Compositores Latino-Americanos and New Paradigms of the 20th Century Classical Music
Abstract
This article discusses the direction taken by some Latin American composers in light of the new tendencies aimed to challenge paradigms of traditional Western classical music during the 20th century. Latin American composers were influenced by these tendencies to a greater or lesser degree depending on the place and time they lived. They worked with different styles and techniques while attempting to maintain a dialogue with the production of other contemporary artists without losing their identity. Some of these practices are shown in this paper. The examples were taken from a set of 54 pieces for piano recorded by Beatriz Balzi, an Argentinian-Brazilian pianist, contained in her album entitled Compositores Latino-americanos [Latin American Composers]. Exemplifying 13 Latin American countries, this repertoire was analyzed by the authors in order to define the most common practices adopted and/or created by the composers chosen by Balzi. These practices were then catalogued into six topics and organized in chronological order of events and styles to which they relate. To describe the main tendencies mentioned in this paper the authors adopted Stefan Kostka's Materials and Techniques of Twentieth Century Music for his clear, objective writing. This work helped to contextualize Balzi's repertoire, comparing the Latin American compositional process to some of the most respected musicians of the Western world.
