A BRIEF OVERVIEW OF THE MUSIC IN COSTA RICA Dr. Norman A. Gamboa (2015) INTRODUCTION This document focuses on the relevant historical elements that played a role in the formation of a symphonic music tradition in Costa Rica as well as the governmental policies that led to the establishment of important institutions such as the National Symphony Orchestra and the University of Costa Rica. It also provides a brief description of the economic turmoil that affected the country during the mid-1900s that prompted an important social revolution and its ramifications on the development of the country. The history of our nations has always been molded by significant events of profound effect that have left their mark on the cultural background in every society. A crucial moment in history is reached with the Sinfonía I by Luis Diego Herra (b.1952), marking one of those turning points in the musical growth of Costa Rica where the idea of fomenting a distinct identity that is true to the region became relevant once again. More than fifty years earlier, during the first part of the 1900s, several Costa Rican composers made the first attempts towards the establishment of a nationalistic idiom, however the fixation on European styles favored by the military bands, together with the importation of foreign musicians and the absence of an ongoing wellestablished symphony orchestra, did not allow composers to form a unique language. This document will also highlight the role played by the National Symphony all through the twentieth-century in the creation of symphonic works by distinguished composers, placing Herra’s Symphony within the continuity of the history the orchestral literature. Furthermore, a secondary purpose of this document is to provide a revised authoritative edition of the Symphony and to make it accessible to performers, scholars as well as to the general public. 1 THE EARLY YEARS One of the smallest countries in Latin America, Costa Rica is located in the heart of the isthmus, between Nicaragua and Panama. The cultural development of the country is closely tied to the growth and advance of the Central American region as a whole. Discovered by Columbus during his last trip in 1502, Spaniards began to settle in 1562 led by Juan Vazquez de Coronado (1523-1565) who served as Governor and first Adelantado of Costa Rica.1 Compared to Mexico and Peru, the two main Spanish centers during the colonial times, progress in Central America moved at much slower pace, this as a result of the division created by the gold fever that favored richer territories previously occupied by the Aztec and the Inca tribes respectively.2 In 1609 Guatemala is designated as Capitanía General (Captaincy General), an administrative branch of the Spanish Empire in charge of the Central American territory that included the present-day nations of Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala, as well as the Mexican state of Chiapas. This unique situation enthused Guatemala into an exceptional cultural renaissance with numerous Catholic missions being established in the area, bringing with them the compositional practices of the European Baroque music. Meanwhile, Costa Rica continued to evolve much more autonomously. By the end of the sixteenth-century it was one of the poorest provinces in the kingdom and with a decreasing population; music was by no means in top order, the slow settlement process by the Spaniards significantly delayed the adoption of European practices, making music highly rudimental and mostly reserved for use in the Roman Catholic Church ceremonies; in addition, musical instruments in Costa Rica were scarce due to the treacherous travel to import them from 1 Carlos Monge, Historia de Costa Rica (San José: Imprenta Trejos Hermanos., 1966), 32. 2 Eugenio Rodríguez, Biografía de Costa Rica (San José: Editorial Costa Rica, 1981), 19. 2 Guatemala and the difficulty to properly maintain them in the prevailing precarious conditions. An early inventory from 1785 of the Church of San José of Orosi in Cartago recorded a modest group of instruments used for church rituals that included violins, guitars, a marimba, and two chirimías.3 Since no manuscripts from colonial times survived, determining the actual forms of music practiced in Costa Rica becomes problematic to establish. Musical growth in Costa Rica had to wait until the nineteenth-century to begin to flourish.4 THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY In 1821 all Central American provinces joined Mexico in rebelling against the Spanish crown and agreed on a declaration of independence. A newly formed Federal Republic of Central America emerged only to be fully dissolved by 1840 with Costa Rica seceding from the union and proclaiming itself a sovereign nation in 1838.5 In terms of music, the first professional musicians begin to emerge, and even though they were mostly self-taught and their level proficiency was quite basic, they played an essential role in all military events, religious ceremonies, as well as in private gatherings of wealthy members of the society.6 By 1845, the government saw the need to properly structure the several of bands that were already in existence and to improve the level of artistry among their members, to this end José María Martínez is hired, a notable musician who had implemented a similar reform with 3 The Chirimía is a type of indigenous flute that was highly popular during colonial times. 4 Bernal Flores, La Música en Costa Rica (San José: Editorial Costa Rica, 1978), 30-34. 5 Iván Molina and Steven Palmer, The History of Costa Rica (San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2005), 47. 6 María Clara Vargas, De las Fanfarrias a las Salas de Concierto: Música en Costa Rica (San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2004), 41. 3 the military bands of Guatemala and El Salvador.7 This restructuring also included the creation of the Dirección General de Bandas Militares by executive order LXIII under President José María Alfaro (1799-1856).8 Despite their designation, military duties that applied to bands in Costa Rica were rather limited, musicians rarely took part in any armed conflict; instead, bands served as a symbolic representation of power for a new emerging country that sought to foment its own identity. Since they remained under the command of the army regime, members received the same military ranks up to colonel, however these were rather honorary and purely figurative since they were conferred based solely on behavior and longevity.9 In addition to their few military obligations, bands in Costa Rica fulfilled a variety of social functions including performing at the Catholic mass known as misa de tropa10 as well as presenting public concerts on Thursday evenings or retretas and recreos on Sundays during late morning hours: Gradually, these ensembles ceased to be merely reinforcement for the military activities, and assumed a fundamental role in the social entertainment of the civilians. The musical commands, ‘de retraite’ in French, that were used to alert the army to cease activities and, during the evenings, to summon the troops back to the headquarters, became true concerts outdoors. They were called retretas, if they took place during the evening and recreos if they were held at some point in the afternoon.11 7 There are discrepancies regarding the biographical data of José Martínez. While Vargas states Martínez was of Spanish origin (Vargas, 35), Bernal Flores affirms he was from Guatemala (B. Flores, 40). 8 Although the executive order of 1845 led to the creation of the Dirección General de Bandas Militares, it is unclear whether it was truly put in place at that time. According to Vargas, Martínez only stayed in the country for a few months after and a number of individuals assumed the music instruction during the following years. The constant changes made it difficult to establish a formal discipline until 1866, year in which the designation of Director General de Bandas appears for the first time in official documents naming Costa Rican musician Manuel María Gutierrez (Vargas, 39). 9 Pompilio Segura, Desarrollo Musical en Costa Rica Durante el Siglo XX. Las Bandas Militares (Heredia: Editorial Universidad Nacional, 2001), 42. 10 Misa de tropa is a Catholic mass in which the band also participates by performing musical selections to heighten the parts of the ordinary. María Clara Vargas, “Práctica Musical en Costa Rica, 1845-1942” (M.A. thesis, Universidad de Costa Rica, 1999), 104. Translated by Manuel Matarrita. 11 4 These public performances were of paramount importance in the musical development of the country during the nineteenth-century. A number of amateur orchestras were often assembled to provide occasional entertainment at dances and soirees, however the nature of these groups was always quite heterogeneous, lacking of constancy and the adequate organization needed in a formal symphony orchestra. Bands therefore, filled that void by performing an assortment of transcriptions of very popular European operas and Zarzuelas (Spanish themed operettas) as well as Viennese ballroom dances and marches.12 It is also during the second half of the 1800s when the first group of Costa Rican composers emerged and among them, two of the most notorious musicians of this generation were Manuel María Gutiérrez (1829-1887) and Rafael Chávez Torres (1839-1907). For years, well into the 1970s, the Director General de Bandas was also expected to serve as in-house music instructor for all band instruments and also provide prompt and suitable arrangements and original compositions for the groups. In the case of Gutiérrez, his most relevant accomplishment was certainly the composition of the Costa Rican National Anthem in 1852. He assumed the post of Director General de Bandas shortly after the demise of his former teacher and predecessor José María Martínez in 1852. His output of about forty pieces included a handful of overtures, several ballroom pieces and numerous military marches, being the Marcha Santa Rosa undoubtedly the most significant among them since it is said to have been composed during the military campaign of 1856.13 In 1887, a second Costa Rican musician is appointed to the Bernal Flores, “La Vida Musical de Costa Rica en el Siglo XIX.” In Die Musikkulturen Lateinamerikas im 19. Jahrhundert, ed. Robert Gunther, 261-275 (Munich: Gustav Bosse Verlag Regensburg, 1982), 275. 12 13 There are discrepancies concerning the date and place of composition of the Marcha Santa Rosa. Carlos Meléndez in his book Manuel María Gutierrez, 132, argues that there are well established similarities with this march and the Marcha Cádiz composed in Spain in 1820. Carlos Meléndez, Manuel María Gutiérrez (San José: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia, 1994). 5 Dirección General de Bandas, Rafael Chávez Torres. Chávez was also a composer of small character dances such as mazurkas, waltzes, marches for political purposes, as well as commemorative hymns and school anthems. His is best known for his funeral march El Duelo de la Patria which means “The Sorrow of the Fatherland.” He composed this march as a posthumous homage to President Tomás Guardia who died in 1882.14 During the latest part of the nineteenth-century, a substantial influx of trained foreign musicians quickly began to settle in Costa Rica, many of them arrived as members of several traveling opera companies that often performed operas, operettas and zarzuelas in the country. Due to their popularity, by 1850 military bands were frequently called on to serve as pit orchestra for many of the companies that could only travel with a small cast, this situation generated an important exchange between the Costa Rican local players and those from abroad; military band musicians were summoned to play their wind and percussion instruments while players from municipal bands and other aficionados were generally assigned to the piano and strings instruments.15 Even though this was an important moment that significantly improved the skills of the local musicians, their ability still left a lot to be desired. In 1864 the music critic for the official newspaper La Gaceta wrote about a recent performance of Donizzetti’s La Favorita: The theater orchestra, formed by very dedicated young players, in all honesty, isn’t proficient enough to accompany singing of such difficult intonation, to perform the unusual harmonies found in the score, or to pay the full attention required for music that is so dramatic, that is also completely unknown and that has a structure that is all too new for this orchestra; it would be necessary highly experienced musicians to come out victorious in their efforts. On the other hand, the indecisiveness of the accompaniment made artists also suffer of the same problem, singing with little confidence and with fear 14 Ligia María Rosales, "Rafael Chávez Torres." Rafael Chávez Torres. 2014. Accessed July 30, 2015. http://archivomusical.ucr.ac.cr/catalogo/autores/rafael-chavez-torres. 15 Vargas, De las Fanfarrias, 90. 6 of failure, keeping them from performing to the full potential the audience is accustomed to.16 This situation exposed the stagnant and very precarious state of the musical affairs in Costa Rica at the turn of the century. New theaters were built around this time including the Teatro Mora in 1850 (later renamed Teatro Municipal), where the very first opera performance took place, also the Costa Rican National Theater is erected in 1878 and the Teatro Variedades shortly after in 1891. Fueled by the desire to improve the arts in the capital and wanting to make proper use of these newly constructed venues, a number of philharmonic societies began to appear, however these first attempts to create a stable organization failed due to shortage of funds caused in part by the decline in coffee trade and falling prices in the international markets, as well as the unavoidable necessity to continue combining skilled musicians with many unqualified and inexperienced amateurs.17 By the late 1800s, several unsuccessful attempts to create a functional orchestra were already made by ephemeral philharmonic societies of music enthusiasts. It is not until 1890 that the government decides to cultivate the idea of a symphonic body and creates the Escuela Nacional de Música with the sole purpose of training musicians for a future symphony orchestra that could offer top quality concerts at the National Theater. However the program was cancelled shortly after, arguing that the school had failed to produce an orchestra in a timely manner, therefore state funding was withdrawn barely four years after it had opened its doors.18 In 1894 16 La Gaceta Oficial de Costa Rica (September 25, 1864). Quoted in Vargas, De las Fanfarrias, 91. Translated by the author. 17 María Clara Vargas, “Música y Estado en Costa Rica,” Revista de Historia, 34, 1996, 146. 18 Ibid, 148. 7 the Escuela de Música Santa Cecilia is created, an institution that formed a large number of orchestra musicians well into the 1950s, many of them would eventually become members of the first symphony orchestra in Costa Rica.19 EARLY TWENTIETH-CENTURY Job opportunities for musicians during the early years of the twentieth-century were exiguous, the golden era of military bands began to fade and the country was still lacking of an orchestra. This situation limited the already scarce output of pieces written by local composers; bands continued favoring the always popular excerpts from the European operatic repertoire and teaching positions were very just a handful and in great demand since there was only one accredited music school in existence, obliging most musicians, specially composers, to learn other trades and to find alternative ways to supplement their already low income. How can [a composer] make progress in his musical “creation”? Composing takes a lot of time, one has to think, to write, to orchestrate, etc.; all of these require hours and these will be more the longer and more important the work is. If a musician does not have enough time to sit-down to write with minimum comfort and quietude, his musical “creation” will be unavoidably deficient. Without their respective “patrons,” neither Beethoven or Wagner, or any others would have written their best works.20 In 1907, President Cleto González (1858-1937), after the passing of Rafael Chávez Torres, decided to engage a European to the post of Director General de Bandas. Juan Bautista Ghislain Loots Deblaes (1875-1929), a distinguished Belgian musician, former student of the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles and flute player with the Orchestre Symphonique du Théâtre 19 Flores (1978), 106. 20 Ibid, 61. 8 de la Monnaie, is given the task of improving the deficient situation of the bands in Costa Rica and to establish a new military music school.21 With the military music school came a new set of regulations that limited participation of band musicians in non-governmental affairs, this circumstance added to the increasing number of musicians and the need for jobs, led to the formation of several pickup orchestras that with a few exceptions, only engaged skilled players to perform in social events such as dances, weddings, outings, serenades, lunches, dinners, countryside parties, sportive events, as well as religious ceremonies in order to provide a much needed additional source of income. These small groups ought not to be confused with amateur orchestras that gathered to play music for pure simple enjoyment.22 During the first years of the twentieth-century, musicians began to establish new music associations that were different from the previous amateur philharmonic societies of the XIX century, their main objectives were to help promote the appreciation towards music through learning and performing as well as to provide support and assistance to musicians when needed. Among these honorable new organizations were Sociedad Santa Cecilia (1902), Sociedad Musical de Costa Rica (1911), Sociedad Filarmónica Josefina (1914), and Asociación Musical (1915).23 In August 1915, Juan Loots assembled under the auspices of the Asociación Musical what was referred to by the newspaper as the first “true” symphony orchestra of fifty-five 21 María Clara Vargas Cullell, La Música en Costa Rica en el Siglo XX, vol. 1, Eugenio Rodríguez Vega, ed., (San José: Editorial Universidad Nacional a Distancia, 2004), 9. 22 Vargas Cullell, De las Fanfarrias, 97-100. 23 Vargas Cullell, La Música en C. R., 278. 9 musicians; regrettably due to the lack of adequate funding and the sudden return to Europe by Mr. Loots, the project was abandoned within a year after only two performances.24 In spite of its initial failure, the seed was already planted and Costa Rican composers became fascinated with the possibility of someday been able to write for a symphony orchestra they could call their own, an exciting new prospect that had to wait another 13 years for a second attempt to be made. One of these musicians was Julio Fonseca (1885-1950) who studied in 1902 at the Lycée Artistique de Milan in Italy and also at the Conservatoire Royal de Bruxelles in Belgium under the patronage of the Costa Rican government. He is considered to be the most representative post-romantic composer of the first part of the twentieth-century, his style reveals an ample knowledge of the ins and outs of the orchestral ensemble despite the limited access he had to it. With a boundless deal of maturity and profound inspiration, his music displays great influence of the elements that characterized the Impressionistic current; his total output exceeds well over 200 pieces and it encompasses an array of genres including masses, cantatas, numerous works for piano, hymns and anthems, ballroom music, pieces for large orchestra, as well as chamber and choral pieces.25 Among his orchestral works, the unfinished two-movement Suite Tropical of 193226 and the Gran Fantasía Sinfónica sobre Motivos Folclóricos of 1937, a collage of Costa Rican traditional tunes, are the most celebrated. Fonseca was among the first composers who communicated a true nationalist fervor through many of his compositions: 24 Vargas, De las Fanfarrias, 191. 25 Ekaterina Chatski, "Julio Fonseca." Julio Fonseca. 2012. Accessed July 30, 2015. http://archivomusical.ucr.ac.cr/catalogo/autores/julio-fonseca-gutierrez. 26 According to Bernal Flores, some notes left by Julio Fonseca reveal his intent to write additional movements for his Suite Tropical, with sketches for a third movement entitled Bajo los Cafetos (“Under the Coffee Trees”) of captivating musical landscapes using descriptive terms such as “faena” (labour), “coloquio” (colloquial), and “patrón” (foreman). Bernal Flores, Julio Fonseca: Datos Sobre su Vida y Análisis de su Obra (San José: Ministerio de Cultura, Juventud y Deportes, 1973), 158. 10 I am a believer in nationalism, in order for each country to have a personal mark in its compositional school. That is why, here in my homeland, I have put all my effort into collecting and disseminating our popular and folk music, to facilitate the composers with a source of inspiration and grant to their works an original national flavor. Unfortunately, we stumble with the weakness of our indigenous folklore, and regarding the popular music of the country, the material is not completely original. Three composers, including myself, have undertaken the mission of working on this music: Alejandro Monestel with his Rapsodias Guanacastecas, Julio Mata with his operetta Toyupán, and myself in the Fantasía Sinfónica, in which I adopted the Punto Guanacasteco, the most popular motif of our music, as the principal theme and developed it in the form of a fugue at the end.27 Julio Fonseca had also begun exploring the symphony as a compositional genre and in 1914 he wrote his Obertura Húngara (“Hungarian Overture”). The first manuscript bears the title of Sinfonía Húngara (“Hungarian Symphony”), evidencing his intent to compose a first symphony. Since it was not possible to have it performed by an orchestra, Fonseca left it as just an overture and adapted it for military band. The orchestral version of the piece was premiered on September 15, 1935. The work is in G minor in a three-part ABA modified sonata-rondo design and its Hungarian designation derives from the use of two important intervals in the opening theme, the diminished third and the augmented second.28 A second attempt to consolidate a symphony orchestra takes place in 1926, again with Juan Loots at the front and under the name of Asociación Musical de Costa Rica. The new society had no correlation to the previous one of 1915 and unlike the former, it sole purpose was the establishment of a functioning orchestra. The new ensemble was named Orquesta Sinfónica de Costa Rica and it met with a cast of 41 musicians. After 30 rehearsals it announced its 27 Otto Mayer-Serra. Música y Músicos de Latinoamérica (Mexico D.F.: Editorial Atlante, 1947), 248. Translated by Manuel Matarrita. 28 Bernal Flores, Julio Fonseca: Datos Sobre su Vida y Análisis de su Obra (San José: Ministerio de Cultura, Juventud y Deportes, 1973), 161-162. 11 inaugural public performance to be held at the Teatro Moderno (formerly Teatro Oympia) featuring a program that included works by Camille Saint-Saëns, Henry Litolff, Jules Massenet, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Carl María von Weber among others.29 The newspaper La Nueva Prensa praised these new efforts and invited everyone to attend the concert by exalting patriotic fervor: …because it represents a gesture of culture of which the Costa Rican society can later be proud of, for obtaining a triumph over the other Central American nations that do not have such musical groups.30 In 1927, the newly formed orchestra embarked on an international tour, presenting a number of well-received performances through Central America. Once in Mexico however, their fate changed and the humble orchestra was severely criticized for their limited skills compared to those of the Mexican counterparts. After only two concerts the orchestra was instantly dissolved and despite a few efforts to regroup afterwards, only a handful of concerts took place, the final one was offered in 1928.31 Again and due to its short lived tenure, this second orchestra did not provide composers with the time and the opportunity to create original works for it. It is possible to understand the reasons for the repertoire choices made for the tour, however it would have served as vast encouragement to composers such as Julio Fonseca and others if the ensemble would have included at least one local composition as part of the program. With the exception of the two ill attempts to have a symphony orchestra in Costa Rica, small occasional groups with an adaptable instrumentation continued to furnish services 29 Vargas, De la Fanfarrias, 191-192 30 La Nueva Prensa (May 25, 1926). Quoted in Vargas, De las Fanfarrias, 192. Translated by the author. 31 Vargas, De la Fanfarrias, 191. 12 especially to visiting opera companies; these orchestras led by reputable musicians such as Juan de Dios Páez Marchena (1878-1937), Santiesteban Repetto (1894-1936), and Julio Fonseca, did not cultivate the traditional orchestral repertoire, instead, they favored transcriptions and small original compositions that were suitable for weddings, private parties, local festivities, religious ceremonies, as well as scholastic events, only on the rare occasion they presented public performances that featured arrangements of opera selections and ballroom dances because these were not profitable endeavors.32 THE 1930S AND BEYOND The collapse of US stock market prices in 1929 and the effects of the Great Depression in the 1930s adversely impacted Costa Rica, plunging the country into an economic depression of its own. The slow process of recovery was abruptly interrupted six years later with of the advent of World War II. In the midst of this instability, President Rafael Angel Calderón (1900-1970) introduced a number of social reforms that contributed to the advancement of the Costa Rica society, among them the creation of the Universidad de Costa Rica in 1940 and the Caja Costarricense del Seguro Social in 1941 (a state funded health and retirement social security system), as well as the Work Code in 1943.33 Music did not escape this atmosphere of social and political transformation. In 1934 a selected group of music supporters created the Asociación de Cultura Musical, its concept was to promote music concerts, to establish a comprehensive music library, and to create a music conservatory. According to the Revista de la Asociación de Cultura Musical, by 1939 the organization had already begun laying the groundwork for a subsequent 32 Ibid, 74-75. 33 Alfaro. Historia de C. R., 294-295. 13 symphony orchestra, first by rousing music lovers among the high society and second by gathering enough professional musicians to form a modest group under the direction of Cesar Nieto (1893-1969). In 1940, Congress had already begun to discuss the association’s proposal for a national music conservatory and two years later it is founded as a division of the Department of Public Education, in 1944 it becomes an academic unit of the newly established Universidad de Costa Rica.34 Around this time, El Sesteo, the first exclusive night club to open in Costa Rica, hired Italian violinist and conductor Hugo Mariani (1899-1966) and his newly formed dance orchestra.35 Brought to the country by violinist Alfredo Serrano (n.d.), Mariani was an accomplished conductor with countless appearances with the symphony orchestras of Buenos Aires in Argentina and Montevideo in Uruguay and he had also served as music director for several years of the renowned NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York.36 With a musician of such high credentials at hand, the Asociación de Cultura Musical together with Serrano decided to move forward with the plan to institute a symphonic ensemble; they invited selected players from the various bands from around the country and encouraged string students and professors from the Escuela de Música Santa Cecilia and other academies to join this new enterprise. In October 1940 the Orquesta Nacional is unveiled with an inaugural concert at held at the National Theater and underwritten in part by the Rotary Club. In 1942 the group was renamed Orquesta 34 Flores, La Música en C. R., 110-111. 35 Paco Quintana, interviewed by Mario Zaldívar, San José, Costa Rica, March 30, 2001, In, Mario Zaldívar, Costarricenses en la Música: Conversaciones con Protagonistas de la Música Popular Costarricense 1939-1959 (Editorial Universidad de Costa Rica, 2006), 109. Marta Castegnaro. “Día Histórico: Hugo Mariani” La Nación, September 28, 2001. Accessed August 1, 2015. http://wvw.nacion.com/viva/2001/septiembre/28/cul4.html. 36 14 Sinfónica Nacional and a year later it was granted an annual state subsidy of 48,000 colones37 becoming part of the Department of Public Education.38 The events that led to the creation and further development of the National Symphony Orchestra [...] [were] the result of cultural policies formulated by society itself [...], the National Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1940, is born as a result of the level of maturity reached so far in the country.39 Mariani remained in charge of the orchestra until 1948, then the German-American conductor Edvard Fendler is appointed, stepping down after only a year claiming irreconcilable differences with the musicians. Between 1949 and 1950 the orchestra remained without an appointed music director and the conducting of concerts were taken over by the same members of the ensemble. In 1950 the American conductor and composer Joseph Wagner assumes the directorship and remains in that position until 1954 when Mariani returns to the country and takes over once again, staying as music director until his death in 1966. That year, Guatemalan conductor Ricardo del Carmen is hired for one season to replace Mariani and in 1967 the first conductor of Costa Rican origin is appointed, his name Carlos Enrique Vargas.40 Regarded as one of the pillars of the musical scene in Costa Rica during the twentiethcentury, Carlos Enrique Vargas (1919-1998) was a musician of multiple talents, highly esteemed as an organist, conductor, composer, arranger, editor, educator, and musicologist. He graduated from the Conservatorio Santa Cecilia in Italy in 1939 where he studied piano, organ, harmony, 37 In 1896 the colón replaced the peso at par as the Costa Rican official currency, however it is not uncommon to find documents from the first half of the XX-century still making references in pesos. 38 María Clara Vargas, La Música, 280. 39 Carlos Meléndez. Quoted in Virginia Zúñiga, La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (San José: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia, 1992), 13. 40 María Clara Vargas et al., Música Académica Costarricense: Del presente al Pasado Cercano (San José: Editorial de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2012), 21 15 composition, and Gregorian chant.41 Between 1958 and 1959 he also pursued studies in orchestral conducting in Munich, Germany.42 Despite deplorable conditions during his tenure as music director, Vargas was able to raise the level of musicianship of the orchestra even so modestly; he programed reasonably challenging works combined with more accessible ones, thus making a more efficient use of the miserly rehearsal time of just eighteen hours a month the orchestra practiced. By the 1960s the orchestra was in severe disarray; in spite of Vargas’ best efforts, the orchestra continued to play badly; the low wages that musicians received did little to encourage them to take the orchestra seriously so it was common for them to periodically seek supplemental income elsewhere, even if that meant missing rehearsals and accepting engagements that cut into the orchestra’s own schedule. To complicate matters even further, many of the musical instruments used by the orchestra were old and in a pitiable working condition, making intonation almost an unattainable task.43 The hostile environment that loomed above the orchestra did not discourage composers to write for it. Composed twenty-two years before he assumed the direction of the National Symphony Orchestra, Vargas completed in 1945 his Sinfonía in E minor, Op. 17, the first of its genre written by a Costa Rican composer and also the first one in Central America. The piece was composed for the Reichhold Symphonic Award Composition Contest and premiered by the Detroit Symphony Orchestra.44 Manuel Matarrita, “An Analytical Study of Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 13 by Costa Rican Composer Carlos Enrique Vargas” (DMA diss., Louisiana State University, 2010), 11–12. 41 42 Anabel Campos, Carlos Enrique Vargas: Vida y Música (San José: Editorial Universidad Estatal a Distancia, 2003), 47. 43 Guido Sáenz, Para Que Tractores Sin Violínes (San José: Editorial Costa Rica, 1982), 24. 44 Campos, 79. 16 A three-movement work, its musical idiom reveals a somewhat conservative approach to the European Post-Romantic compositional style, with a harmonic language that is essentially tonal and a conventional formal structure. Performed in Costa Rica in 1950, the Sinfonía, Op. 17 was nonetheless a revolutionary work, considering the limited access musicians had to avantgarde music in the country during the decades of the 1940s and 1950s.45 After its premiere, the work was performed again in 1999 by the National Symphony Orchestra with Iwin Hoffman conducting; Andrés Sáenz, former music critic for La Nación newspaper, commented: In three movements […] the piece displays an ample control of the symphonic model by the young musician at the time. The first movement, Allegro energico, is in sonata form and it contrasts a heroic dramatic theme with another one that is more gentle and lyrical, indicated cantabile. An Adagio follows in which a neo-romantic discourse dominates, embellished with beautiful melodies and that is marked molto cantabile. The final movement, Allegro scherzando bursting with verve and vivacity, ends in a radiant coda.46 Later in his life and because he wrote his Symphony during his mid-twenties, Vargas referred to it as a young and not well shaped composition, he insisted in not allowing musicians to have access to it until after his death. However, during his late years, the composer made a number of revisions to the music. There is little reference of Carlos Enrique Vargas as a composer, according to his son Roberto E. Vargas, he finally gave up composition because he felt that it was not financially worthwhile to embark upon a composing career in a small country such as Costa Rica during the mid-century cultural situation.47 45 Matarrita, 14-15. Andrés Sáenz. “Crítica de Música: Avance y Recuperación” La Nación, November 18, 1999. Accessed August 2, 2015. http://wvw.nacion.com/viva/1999/noviembre/18/cul4.html. Translated by the author. 46 47 Roberto Enrique Vargas, interviewed by Manuel Matarrita, San José, Costa Rica, July 28, 2003. 17 Another important initiative during this time was the creation of the Conservatorio de Castella in 1953. Founded by Costa Rican conductor Arnoldo Herrera (1923- 1996), the “Castella” as it is commonly known, opened its doors with a small student body of just 35 children. It was accredited a few years later by the Department of Education. The Conservatorio de Castella has grown over the decades, offering a comprehensive education plan that incorporates the study of academics in combination with the performing arts. Many students from the first graduating class in 1970 continued their musical studies at the Escuela de Artes Musicales (formerly the Conservatorio Nacional) and would later play a vital role in the musical development of the 1970s and 1980s.48 A product of the military bands, Mariano Herrera Solís (1902-1969), became in 1922 a member of the band in the province of Cartago and later transferred to the band in San José where he studied music with Juan Loots and rudiments of composition with Julio Fonseca. For the most part he was a self-taught composer, his output included 18 religious works, three masses, two requiems, two overtures, one march solemn and one festive march for orchestra, as well as several piano character pieces. Between 1959 and 1963 he produced three symphonies that can be considered the pinnacle of his career. In 1998 the Symphony No. 1 was premiered and recorded by the symphony orchestra of the Conservatorio de Castella with his grandson Sergio Herrera conducting, the second and third symphonies have yet to be performed.49 In 1963 the Asociación Sinfónica de Heredia is founded and a new orchestra in Costa Rica is created under the direction of German Alvarado, a horn player trained in France, former 48 María Clara Vargas, et al., Música Académica, 24. 49 Sergio Herrera, "Mariano Herrera Solís." Mariano Herrera Solís. 2013. Accessed August 3, 2015. http://archivomusical.ucr.ac.cr/catalogo/autores/mariano-herrera-solis. 18 member of National Symphony Orchestra during Mariani’s tenure. For the first time, the musical activity moves its focus area outside the capital and this new ensemble is organized north of San José in the Province of Heredia. At first, the project was funded solely through private donations from individuals who wanted to create a musical identity of high standards, three years later the Dirección General de Artes y Letras of the Department of Public Education conferred it the status of “entity of public interest” and assigned it a partial subsidy. The purpose for its creation and its mission have remained unchanged until today and that it is to fulfill two essential necessities: serve as a training ground for young musicians who graduated from the music academies and also to disseminate classical music to all points in the province and all across the country. Alvarado’s tenure with orchestra lasted 40 years, he remained as head of the group until his death in 2003.50 Through its existence, the orchestra has been an encouraging ground for local composers to present their works, Eddie Mora, the orchestra’s current Music Director observes: The relationship between national composers and the OSH [Orquesta Sinfónica de Heredia] has been a very interesting one over the decades, it is an atypical situation at the time even before my appointment. The difference between the OSH and other orchestras is the exception to the rule, that is, the OSN [Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional] has made contributions but it has many other profiles while the OSH has focused on the subject.51 Dr. Bernal Flores (b. 1937) studied with Carlos Enrique Vargas for 10 years and he was later admitted at the renowned Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York where he obtained his Ph.D. in composition. Flores’ music style is the product of two main influences; the first consisted in applying the compositional concepts of his mentor American composer Howard Gaëlle Sévenier, “Tan Sinfónica Como Herediana” La Nación, November 9, 2003. Accessed August 3, 2015. http://gsevenier.free.fr/nacion.comRevistaDominicalheredia.html. 50 51 Eddie Mora, emailed to author, San Jose, Costa Rica, August 3, 2015. Translated by the author. 19 Hanson (1896-1981), which are characterized for the use of atonal experimentation and the implementation of sound structures that include dodecaphony and intervallic relationships; the second is his personal interest for the study of mathematical rhythmic formulas.52 Flores’ Symphony No. 1 of 1964 is a composition that molds to the traditional European style; shorter in length it could be easily considered as a neo-classical work for two simple reasons, its reduced orchestration for strings only and the brevity of the composition as a single movement work.53 The piece was commissioned by Esso Standard Oil S.A. Limited and premiered in May 1965 at the Third Inter-American Music Festival in Washington, D. C. with Guillermo Espinosa conducting the Festival Orchestra.54 In 1966 he composed a second symphony, however access to his compositions is regrettably restricted, his music is kept at his residence where it is not possible obtain permission to study, perform or analyze it. The same year, Ricardo Ulloa (b. 1928) composed his Sinfonietta para Cuerdas (1964). A prolific musician, philosopher, painter, and writer, Ulloa studied music at the Conservatorio Real de Madrid and art at the Círculo de Bellas Artes in Spain. In his compositions, the music tends to follow a somewhat organic style that is seemingly tonal, gradually mutating into a more bold contemporary language. In 1978 he made a revision to his Sinfonietta, regrettably the work is still waiting to be premiered.55 Tania Vicente, “Biografías de Compositores Costarricenses Contemporáneos,” Hacia una Historia, (September 2009), 31 accessed August 2, 2015, http://bellasartes.ucr.ac.cr/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/biografias-compositorescontemporaneos-de-costa-rica1.pdf. 52 53 Miguel Ficher, Martha Furman Schleifer, and John M. Furman, eds., Latin American Classical Composers: A Biographical Dictionary (Maryland: Scarecrow Press, 2002), s.v. “Bernal Flores.” 200. 54 Carol A. Hess, Representing the Good Neighbor: Music, Difference, and the Pan American Dream (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), companion website chap. 6, accessed August 3, 2015, http://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/9780199919994/pdf/Hess_Figures_Chapter_6.pdf 55 Federico Molina, "Ricardo Ulloa Barrenechea: Semblanza Biografica." La Retreta Revista Musical I, no. 4 (September, 2008). Accessed August 3, 2015, http://laretreta.net/0104/reportajes/ulloabiografia.html. 20 Another composer who traveled outside Costa Rica during the 1950s to pursue advanced studies was Benjamín Gutiérrez (b. 1937). He began at the Conservatorio Nacional and later in 1955 he continued in Guatemala at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música. He obtained a Master of Music in composition from the New England Conservatory in Massachusetts and had also taken advanced composition courses with Darius Milhaud (1892-1974) in Aspen, Colorado and in Argentina at the Instituto Torcuato de Tella where he studied with distinguished composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). Unlike other composers of his generation, most of Gutiérrez’s works are written for orchestra. His output exposes a transformational process that has fashioned his language over the decades; a process that by and large, has been determined by the musical environment that influences the sources of inspiration for his compositions.56 His only symphony written in 1980 is entitled Sinfonía Coral: En Recuerdo de Johannes Brahms, (“Choral Symphony: In Remembrance of Johannes Brahms”).57 The Symphony was commissioned by Gerald Brown, conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra at the time and it is written for large orchestra and chorus. It has the special significance of being the second large symphony ever written by a Costa Rican composer.58 In terms of his style, he has been referred to as a “neo-romantic” composer, however his music is in fact a diverse mixture of Romantic and modern components, as Bernal Flores explains: 56 María Clara Vargas, et al., Música Académica, 92. 57 There are a number of authoritative sources that mistakenly attribute Benjamin Gutierrez three distinct symphonies, however the composer himself in an interview conducted by Gerardo Meza in 2006 indicated that he has only one symphony and it was composed in 1980. 58 Benjamín Gutiérrez, interview by Gerardo Meza, in Costa Rican Composer Benjamín Gutiérrez and his Piano Works, Juan Pablo Andrade, (DMA diss., University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008), 57. 21 His style is contemporary-romantic, with a firm orchestration and dissonant harmonies that are not extreme, in which the use of tonality within a free context, appears eclipsed by chords with dissonances that speak the language of the twentieth-century.59 It is unfortunate to think that the vast majority of gems of the Costa Rican orchestral repertoire written during the twentieth-century are now neglected, many are kept forgotten in private libraries and others tucked away deep in the archives of the National Symphony Orchestra. In an effort to preserve this legacy, the University of Costa Rica established the Archivo Histórico Musical as part of the Programa Patrimonio Musical Costarricense that since 1993 has been dedicated to the research, rescue and revitalization of the national musical heritage. It currently contains music of various genres written by more than 200 composers, close to 4,000 works in total that go back as early as 1856. With the patronage of the Programa de Apoyo al Desarrollo de Archivos Iberoamericanos (Program for the Development of IberoAmerican Archives), the Ford Motor Company Foundation, and the University of Costa Rica itself, the Escuela de Artes Musicales has successfully restored, edited, and recorded a number of these pieces.60 Furthermore, several musicians of the current generation including pianists such as Dr. Manuel Matarrita, Gerardo Duarte, Dr. Juan Pablo Andrade and Walter Morales, as well as conductors Eddie Mora, Giancarlo Guerrero, and the author among others, have taken a recent interest in performing some of these longstanding works outside Costa Rica; nevertheless, raising awareness and appreciation for homegrown art-music continues to be a slow process. The 59 Flores, La Música en C. R., 137. 60 Zamira Barquero and Tanya Vicente, Catálogo de Manuscritos e Impresos del Archivo Histórico Musical (San José: Escuela de Artes Musicales de la Universidad de Costa Rica, 2008), x. 22 same way Carlos Enrique Vargas had commented years before about the truth of the Costa Rican composer, Dr. José Manuel Rojas also made the following remark: Costa Rican composers are still unable to make their livelihoods by writing music, they have to complement this practice with other activities within the musical field. Most of the time, composers write their compositions for a symbolic remuneration. Some of them are economically recognized overseas. However, the most common acknowledgment that they are able to receive is the actual performance of their music. In the last 20 years, the production of Costa Rican composers has featured chamber music works, since it is easier to get their music performed by a chamber ensemble rather than all the bureaucratic procedures that they have to do in order to get a piece performed by an orchestra. As it has been seen, the National Symphony Orchestra has minimum opportunities available for readings of Costa Rican pieces, and from my perception, foreign conductors do not show any particular interest for the works of local composers. Being this the current situation, the cultural politics have not developed a clear project that supports the national musical heritage.61 With Bernal Flores and Benjamín Gutiérrez, Costa Rica leaves behind an important period that played a progressive role in the art-music composition arena. The dissolution and immediate reorganization of the National Symphony Orchestra and the creation of a new music school called Programa Juvenil de la Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional (National Symphony Orchestra Youth Program) in the early 1970s, brought different challenges as well as fresh opportunities. Unfortunately, the production of new orchestral material during these years remained low when compared to previous decades, possibly due in part to the lack of interest the National Symphony had shown to local composers for decades, a situation that only began to improve in the late 1980s. Nevertheless, this “musical revolution” as it is known today, opened doors to a new generation of musicians and allowed for new figures to take center stage in the 1970s and 1980s, including a young conductor and composer by the name of Luis Diego Herra. 61 José Manuel Rojas, "Hacia una Historia Crítica de la Práctica de la Música Clásica en Costa Rica (1971-2011)" (Ph.D. diss., Universidad de Costa Rica, 2013), 295-296. Translated by Luis Adolfo Víquez. 23 Table 1.1 – Chronological list of large-scale Romantic orchestral works by Costa Rican composers from 1900 to 1990. Work Obertura Húngara “Leda” Vals Intermezzo Aires Ticos Suite Tropical Suite de Serenata Suite Ballet No. 2 Fantasia sobre “La Guaria Morada” Gran Fantasía Sinfónica Una Fiesta en Liberia Obertura “Las Ruinas de Ujarrás” Suite Abstracta Rapsodia Costarricense No. 1 Rapsodia Costarricense No. 2 Concierto para Piano, Op. 13 Sinfonía, Op. 17 Suite Latina Suite Piedras Preciosas Sinfonietta para Cuerdas Escenas Guanacastecas Overtura Lempira El Sabanero Concerto para Clarinete y Orquesta Suite de Ballet Sinfonías No. 1, 2, 3 Suite “Dulce Hogar” Concierto para Violín y Orquesta Suite para Orquesta de Cuerdas Sinfonía No. 1 para Cuerdas Sinfonía No. 2 Homenaje a Juan Santamaría Poema Sinfónico “El Libertador” Concierto Pentafónico para Clarinete Suite “Tamira” Variaciones Concertantes para Piano Preludio Sinfónico Remembranza Concierto para Piano, Percusión Orquesta Suite Variaciones Rítmicas Concierto Barroco Sinfonía Coral Composer Julio Fonseca Julio Fonseca Julio Fonseca Julio Fonseca Ismael Cardona Ismael Cardona Julio Mata Julio Fonseca Jesús Bonilla Julio Fonseca Julio Mata Alejandro Monestel Alejandro Monestel Carlos Enrique Vargas Carlos Enrique Vargas Julio Mata Julio Mata Ricardo Ulloa Jesús Bonilla Julio Mata Jesús Bonilla Benjamín Gutiérrez Rocío Sanz Mariano Herrera Alcides Prado Benjamín Gutiérrez Félix Mata Bernal Flores Bernal Flores Benjamín Gutiérrez Julio Mata Bernal Flores Alcides Prado Benjamín Gutiérrez Benjamín Gutiérrez Alcides Prado Bernal Flores Benjamín Gutiérrez Benjamín Gutiérrez Benjamín Gutiérrez Benjamín Gutiérrez 24 Year 1914 1914 1933 1933 ca. 1933 ca. 1933 1937 1937 1940 1941 1941 1942 1943 1944 1945 1945 1945 1946 1946 ca. 1953 1958 1959 1959 1961-63 1963 1963 1964 1964 1966 1967 1967 1968 1969 1969 1970 1971 1973 1975 1978 1976 1980 Genre Overture Descriptive Programmatic/Descriptive Orchestral Suite Suite for String Orchestra Orchestral Suite Programmatic/Descriptive Programmatic/Descriptive Programmatic/Descriptive Overture Orchestral Suite Programmatic/Descriptive Programmatic/Descriptive Concerto Symphony Orchestral Suite Orchestral Suite Symphony for Strings Programmatic/Descriptive Overture Programmatic/Descriptive Concerto Orchestral Suite Symphony Orchestral Suite Concerto Suite for String Orchestra Symphony Symphony Programmatic/Descriptive Programmatic/Descriptive Concerto Orchestral Suite Concerto Programmatic/Descriptive Programmatic/Descriptive Concerto Orchestral Suite Theme and variations Concerto Choral Symphony Table 1.1 (continued) Concierto para Flauta y Orquesta Sinfonía Coral Concierto para Viola y Orquesta Pieza para Flauta y Orquesta Sinfonía I Benjamín Gutiérrez Jesús Bonilla Benjamín Gutérrez Ricardo Ulloa Luis Diego Herra 1981 1982 1982 1986 1990 Concerto Choral Symphony Concerto Concerto Symphony Source: Luis Adolfo Viquez, “Romantic Symphonic Music in Costa Rica Throughout the Compositional Style of Julio Mata in His Symphonic Poem El Libertador,” CODA Journal VII (June, 2014): 33-35. 25 BIBLIOGRAPHY Andrade, Juan Pablo. “Costa Rican Composer Benjamín Gutiérrez and his Piano Works.” DMA diss., University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2008. 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