Diario las Américas Newspaper, April 28, 1957, Page 24

OAS BACKS NEW INTER-AMERICAN MUSIC ADOLFO SOLORZANO DIAZ Brazilian composer Camargo Guarnieri will contribute a sym- phony. Mexican Carles Chavez, whose Symphony No. 3 had world -pre- miere at Caracas in 1955, Héctor Tosar Erreeart of Uru- guay will write string cempo- sition for New Orleans musie festival. Cuban José Ardévol has been commissioned te write chamber work for 1958 festival. Young Juliaa Orbén of Cuba was prize winner at First Festi- val of Music ia Caracas. PAG. 10 Argentine Juan José Castro took first place at Caracas with Co- rales Crielles, Reprinted from AMERICAS. monthly magazine published by the Pan American Union in English, Spanish and Portu- guese. After a grueling — session, one of the musicians gathered round the conference table in the Pan American Union commented glumly to his colleagues: “IAMC, Four letters you can say quicker than you can say ‘Jack Robinson,’ but so much time and work went into putting them together!” Heads nodded im agreement, and, despite . their exhaustion, some of the men even clapped. The Inter American Musie Center, which would mean an easier future for new Latin American composers, had just been bora. Obviously, it takes talent to win recognition in the arts, but some- times that alone is mot enough. Countless obstacles hamper, and sometimes prevent, its discovery and development. In Latin Ameri- ca new composers must wage a des- perate daily battle to forge names for themselves. Just to earn a liv- ing, most have to work outside their field. The luckier ones play in ehurches or in symphony orehes- tras; others are compelled to take routing teaching jobs; still others hold positions totally unrelated to music. For want of a market, musie- publishing firms are few in Latin America. Therefore, new compos- ers are frequently unknown even in their own countries, and the problems they face are multiple. The public prefers works by the Sreat masters and, to a lesser de- gree, those by revered national composers. There are not many symphony orchestras, choruses, or chamber-music groups. Economic incentive is meager or totally lack- ing. Recording of serious works is sporadic at best. Although large wealthy nations — Brazil , for ex- amplee — boast many recording firms, there is a decided prefer- ence for popular music. The es- tablished national composers have become symbols of a sort, and their recordings are easier to find in the United States or Europe than in their respective countries. Until early in the twentieth cen- tury, serious music in- America was sponsored almost exclusively by the landowning aristocracy and by the church, whose ban on secular mus- HEMISPHERE CENTER ic limited composing by the choir- masters. Later stimulus given to the arts in general and music in particular has paralleled the coun- tries’ economie and imdustrial de- velopment and the rise of an up- per-middle class. The next genera- tion traveled in Europe, brought back an older and broader musical tradition, and, out of cultural_a- wareness Or perhaps to gain pres- tige, began to lend definite assist- ance. Thanks to extraordimary econom- 1¢ development, this evolution was speediest in the United States. Soon affluent patrons were sup- porting first the more fashionable activites, such as the opera, then the others Also, particularly dur- ing the last quarter century, power- ful philanthropic institutions have done their share. For its unfailing interest and sizable donations, the Rockefeller Foundation deserves special mention. In’ 1954, for ex- ample, it gave the considerable sum of four hundred thousand dol- lars to the Louisville Symphony Orchestra to finance, over a period of four years, the commissioning, performance, and recording of mu- sical works. Several Latin Ameri- cans are on its list of commissions: among them, Roberto Caamafo of Argentina, who wrote Magnificat; Camargo Guarnieri of Brazil, who wrote Suite IV centenario; and two Chileans, Juan Orrego Salas and Alfonso Letelier, who compos- ed Serenata Concertante and an. orchestral suite called Aculeu, re- spectively. The John Hay Whitney Foundation, established in 1950 in New- York, spent. $485,000 in five years on 243 “eppertunity fellow- ships” for “young persons whe show = exceptional who have been prevented by race, cultural background, economic sta- tus, or region of residence from develophing their . potentialities, Most of the money spent on musie is controlled by seven large or- ganizations — Ford, Rockefeller, Carnegie, Kellogg, Duke, Common- wealth, and Pew — but institutions that contribute on a smaller scale ere numerous. The Guggenheim, Coolidge, and Koussevitzky foundations are es- pecially interested in composers. The oldest of this kind is the Pa- derewski Fund, established in Bos- ton in 1896 by the famous pianist. Washington, D C., has, among others, the Elizabeth Sprague Coo- lidge Foundation at the Library of Congress (see August 1955 AME- RICAS). [t was set up in 1925 with a hundred-thousand-dollar doma- tion and.on Mrs. Coolidge’s death in 1954 was granted another seven hundred thousand. Two others, es- tablished more recently, are the Serge Koussevitzky Foundation, begun in 1942 at the Library of Congress, and the Fromm Musi¢ Foundation, started in 1952 in Chi- cago. Today there are thousands of similar philanthropic organiza- tions and individual patrons in the United States. They contribute hundreds of millions of dollars each year for everything, from giving instruments to schools and grant- ing ‘fellowships te assisting the great orchestras and commissioning works. They have even established retreats for composers and homes for retired musicians, Besides en- juying access to material assistance and ready-made opportunities, the U. S. composer can enter the lu- erative field of “ultilitarian music” and write background themes for movies and television Yet the North American compos- er has his difficulties too. He or his publisher must deai personally -with the conductor 0 soloist, whose mind is on the wishes of the or- chestra’s board of directors, the box-office deficit, limited rehearsal time, and a too-conservative au- dience that, like its Latin Ameri- can counterparts, prefers Beetho- ven, Brahms, and Bach So the new works performed by large sym- phony orchestras each year can be eounted on the fingers of one hand. Many North American com- posers seek broader horizons in Europe, because there special com- mittees, and not conductors or soloists, decide on the new works to be performed. Although pro- grams are prepared in advance, a new composition is often fitted in. However, even a rejection has its advantages, or it may mean that the work will be included in a spe- cial program or that the commit- tee will recommend a smaller work — say, a piano sonata or a string quartet — for the wider audience of a radio broadcast. The U. S. com- poser abroad can also count on the help of the U. S. Information Cen- ters, which arrange concerts in all the European capitals and are part- tcularly imterested in presenting North American culture through musicians and artists. Strangely enough, the U. S. Government has these centers all over Europe and Latin America but has none at home. The situation in Latin America is quite different. No country has yet developed eco- nomically and industrially to the Air view of National Conservatory of Music in México City. SUNDAY, APRIL 28 1957 e Promise ané i . lis a Juice aati ee Lana rtRi ase I