MUSIC-CHILE: First Dictionary of Spanish and Latin American Music

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Jul 30 2002 (IPS) - Seventy musicologists, composers, and artists are working on the Chilean section of the first comprehensive Dictionary of Spanish and Latin American Music, a monumental 10-volume work, eight of which are already complete.

The project, headed by the director of the Complutense Institute of Musical Science in Madrid, Emilio Casares, allowed each country to delve into, discover and even rewrite its own musical history, explained Fernando García with the University of Chile’s Institute of Musicology.

The work consists of a total of 1,200 pages in 10 volumes that contain more than 27,000 articles and cross-references and 5,000 illustrations on the classical and popular music of Latin America and Spain.

“This is the great contribution of our bicentennial in this field, because nothing like this has ever been done before in our country,” said García, referring to the preparations for the 200th anniversary of Chile’s birth as an independent republic, to be celebrated in 2010.

García and Professor Luis Merino, another member of the Institute of Musicology, invited prominent artists and academic figures from Chile’s music scene to contribute to the project.

“The important thing is that 80 percent of the content (of the section on Chile) is previously unpublished information,” said García, who added that “we had to completely revise the information that already existed, which allowed us to correct mistaken notions.”

The dictionary presents new writings on outstanding 20th century Chilean musicians and composers like pianist Claudio Arrau, who was considered one of the best interpreters of the works of Ludwig van Beethoven and Wolfang Amadeus Mozart. Arrau died in 1991 at the age of 88.

Also represented are singer-songwriter Violeta Parra, one of the leading promoters of Latin America’s New Song movement, who committed suicide in 1967, and Víctor Jara, the singer-songwriter who was killed just after the September 1973 military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet which overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende.

The study covers classical music as well as traditional folk music and popular urban genres, the academic study of which is just now gaining ground in Chile, García told the university newspaper, U-Noticias.

The information in the dictionary is organised by composers and songwriters, interpreters, musical styles, festivals, instruments, dancers and choreographers, and provides references to archives and libraries for further research.

Since Chile gained independence from Spain, several of its national leaders have been music lovers. Bernardo O’Higgins, known as the “father of the motherland,” was a talented piano player.

José Miguel Carrera, who headed a short-lived government at the dawn of the republic, not only created the country’s first newspaper, “La Aurora de Chile”, but the first war band as well, and was known for his fondness for singing.

Manuel Rodríguez, the mythical guerrilla leader who fought the Spanish during the Reconquista (1814-1818), used to entertain social gatherings playing his guitar.

These and other anecdotes can be found in the Chilean section of the dictionary, which also underlines the importance of historical figures in Chile’s musical tradition like Isidora Zegers, Bernardo Alcedo and José Zapiola.

Among the 70 people who contributed to the dictionary in Chile were academics Miguel Claro and María Ester Gredes, as well as octogenarian Margot Loyola, Chile’s foremost interpreter of rural folk music.

Each country put priority on musicians with outstanding careers, who have achieved international renown.

Alongside Arrau, Parra and Jara, readers of the chapter on Chile will find bolero singer Lucho Gatica and opera singer Verónica Villarroel.

The research carried out for the Chilean section of the dictionary highlighted the fact that popular music is a melting pot of cultural influences, said García, who added that “those who are seeking purity in culture are bringing about its death.”

“We are a kind of boiling stew, into which everyone throws something. The mix between what is strictly American, European or African shows three trunks which are themselves mixtures of great diversity,” said the professor.

“For that reason, there is a debate over the origin of the cueca (Chile’s national dance), with some arguing that it is Spanish, and others saying it is Arabic,” he noted.

While the dictionary is the final product of Casares’ initiative, it has also served as a starting-point for a movement towards integration, said García. “This project has enabled musicologists throughout Latin America to make contact, spontaneously creating a regional network of musicologists, which is still weak, but is enriching nonetheless,” he added.