Letter from M. Barnet to H. W. Henze, October 10, 1976

Back

Settings

Show markers in text

more details: General Remark.
[10 October 1976*] Querido Heenze[sic] ;

No sabes lo que me alegra que estés tan lleno de proyectos.*
Veo P arece[sic] que según pasan los años tu capacidad de trabajo aumenta
tus necesidades de expresión son mayores. Eso te occurre porque
e res[sic] un artista auténtico y vital. Me doy cuenta por tu correspo n-
dencia[sic]
que te alimentas cada día de todo lo que te rodea. En eso
me recuerdas mucho Neruda cuando dice que él quisiera beberse
todos los oceános y comerse toda la tierra.* Así eres tú de insa-
ciable y voraz con la vida. ¡Que bueno!, porque lo que más alivia
los males del alma es el trabajo creador. No comprendo bien, no
puedo, a aquellos que no hacen algo de creación, que con sus manos
o su cabeza no tratan de transfor mar[sic][sic] la naturaleza, aunque sea
en un nivel mínimo. Creo que algún día llegará en que todos los
hombres estén empeñ ados[sic] en esta tarea de arte. Un arte espontáneo
y creador. Estoy seguro de que la sociedad comunista llevraa eso. [¿]Te ima-
ginas el grado de comprensión y diálogo que existirá entonces.

Héctor
y el ritmo
mestizo[sic]

Bueno, no hay palabras.

En tu última carta * me pides que te habla de la música en Cuba y
de la tendencias y los logros últimos. Tú sabes que no soy mú-
sico y que eso me resultará difícil. Pero, ¿ qué te voy a negar yo
a tí? Te diré más o menos lo que conozco por simple interés de
artista, pero no porque lo haya estudiado a fondo. El panorama
de la música cubana es muy complejo desde sus inicios. No hay que
olvidar que somos un pueblo mestizo,de confluencias, me stizo y que nuestra
tradición, para llamarle de algún modo, presenta rasgos muy contro-
vertibles, apenas estudiados. La conclusión misma sobre so existe
una música|verdaderamente cubana está p or[sic] demostrar. Eso sí, hay
f enómenos[sic] que evidentemente caracterizan nuestra idiosincrasia, músicas
que expresan nuestro ser en su esencia mixta. Pero hablar de una


(2–)
música genuinamente cubana es algo aventurado. Las influencia extran-
jeras todavía gravitan sobre al hacer musical. Durante siglos estuvimos
afianzados al modelo europeo, romántico o neoclásico, pero siempre la
mirada hacía allá, buscando lo técnico, lo snob, pero nunca lo profun-
damente liberador, lo expansivo, lo nuestro. Así, hemos tenido una tra-
dición rica de instrumentistas-[sic] me vienen a la mente el violinista negro
del siglo pasado, Brindis de Salas, los pianistas Desvernine y Aristi y
otros ejecutantes de piezas de Brahms, de Chopin. La influencia de
un Rubinstein fue terriblemente enajenante.* Y así en la esfera de la
llamada música "culta". Otro fue el panorama en lo popular. Aquí el
problema está más claraxo. Las músicas de origen africano, rituales,
crípticas, fueron saliendo de los templos, de los barracones, y se
expandieron por toda la isla creando géneros musicales bailables de
carácter profano y colectivo. Ese fue el gran horno donde se cocíó lo
mejor de nuestro acerco músical. Ahí, como en un kaleidoscopio se
fueron encontrando músicas diferentes, fusionandose, yuxtaponiéndose y
c r eando[sic] sonoridades propias, transculturadas. El pueblo siempre se
adelantó a los músicos cultos. Hizo su música sin prejuicios, sin sno-
bismos, integrando todos los elementos armónicos, enriqueciendonos.

Pienso enlos[sic] siglos XVll y XVIII, porque ya en el diez y nueve surgen
algunos casos aislados– talentos privilegiados– come Saumell, que
escribeeenhjoas de música las primeras contrandanzas, las primera s[sic]
danzas, que tendrán un carácter nacionalista. Porque Saumell puso su
oído en [el] alma del hombre de pueblo, se identificó con él. A Saumell le
sobraba el aliento artístico. Saumell nunca traicionó su cultura.*

Me imagino que músicos como él, más tarde Cervantes * y luego Amadeo
Roldán
y Caturla *, - fueron portadores celosos de una ideología común a la
de la mayoría, sin trabas, sin prejuicios.

Triste es tener que afirmar que eran solo casos aislados. La colonia
como se sabe, trató de escamotear los valores del negro, del chino y hasta


(3)
del españ el delxxxxxxxxxxxx español sencillo, que venía a trabajar en la Isla y que
traía tambien sus músicas y sus danzas. Todo eso sonaba, pensaban los
colonizadores, a música barata, a inmundicia. A cuanta dispersión contri-
buyó esto seguramente. Cuantos talentos vieron frustradas sus primeras
intenciones, las puras, las espontáneas. Sólo los tenaces, los revolu-
cionarios, pudieron vencer estos valladares. Los demás de jaron un archivo
de composiciones a lo Beethoveen[sic] , a lo Lizt[sic] , a lo Chopin... Solo el pueblo
creó sus orquestas tomando los bombardinos, los figles, los cornetines,
y la percusión, de las bandas militares españolas que recreaban en las tardes domini-
cales a las familias cubanas en los parques de la Isla. De las viejas
y tradicionales rétretas o conciertos de música de valses, e himnos y danzones en les
lugares públicos, de los instrumentos de los esclavos; los tambores, los
sonajeros, los palos entrechocante, surgió una música que sí pueden de-
cirse que la creó el hombre criollos ; una música urbana que sirvió para
bailar en las sociedades de recreo y en la calle. Danzas, contradanzas,
danzones, sones y la inigualable conga, crisol de la fiesta colectiva,
se unen a la rumba de|cajón, la rumba pura auténtica ,para[sic] engrosar el acervo
de nuestra musica popular. Mientras esto proceso se desarrolla con de formaxxxxxxxx intensidad,
mientras las orquestas populares, integradas en su mayóría por negros
libertos o sus descendientes hilvanan los hilos de lo que ya se estaba
teje endo en la calle, y se crean los danzones, los sonesxxxxxxxxx sólo intentos
muy aislados de músicos cultos p oonen atención a este fenómeno de trans-
culturación para hacerlo trascender a sus pentagrams.

Pero claro, nos tendríamos que que preguhtar nos, y¿quien estimulaba a seguir el
czamino de la búsqedode lo nuevo, de las raices?, pues nadie, nada. El
ambiente era sordo y gris, desalentador. Del siglo diez y nueve cubano,
podemos, como de un museo de música italiana, escoger las operas, los
conciertos, con aires napolitanos, milaneses y quien sabe si hasta vene-
cianos. Para encotrar algo que se aproxime al canto de nuestros pajaros,
al susurro de nuestros montes, al murmullo de nuestros ríos, a la angustia


(4)
de nuestros hombres o a su alegría tendríamos que proveernos de una
lupa y buscar y buscar para al fin, seguramente, hallarnos de nuevo
ante la obra de un Saumell o un Cervantes.

El daño que deliberadamente produce el estado de colonización en las
sensibilidades humanas es inapresable, inmedible, fatal.

Por eso estoy convencido de que, obviando los falsos nacionalismos,y[sic]
los colorismos regionalistas, una revolución social de verdad, no una
de pacotilla, sino una como la nuestrasx,es[sic] la única posible vía para
encontrarnos a nosotros mismos, tanto en lo ontológico como en las demas
expresiones del espíritu. Porque une revolución barre con los prejuicios y
madura a base de golpes fuertes. No nos permite, cuando somos artistas
de raza, y no farsantes, irnos por las tangentes del preciosismo e de
culalquiera otro de los ismos* ya conocidos o por conocer. Una revolu ción[sic]
nos devuelve nuestra imágen social y nos ayuda a encontrar nuestra imagen
estética en bucess profundos. No sabe un artista lo que tiene que agra-
d ecerle[sic]
a una Revolución. No podrá medirlo jamás alguien que no viva en
una voragine revolucionaria. La cosa está e n[sic] no desviarse, en no equi-
vocarnos o
como decimos en Cuba, en no coger el rábano por las hojas y descar-
tar lo valedero de viajas tradiciones, de viejas escuelas. Eso jamás.
Mucho tenemos que aprender del viejo arte burgués*, de su precisión, de
sus recursos técnicos, pero siempre en función de lo nuestro, de nuestro
nevo mensaje hacía un hombre distinto, más nuevo, o más viejo quízás y
valga la paradoja.

Pero Henze, mi hermano debo, tengo que[sic] seguir hablandote de lo musical.

Perod de nuevo estas digresiones inevitables.a las cuales me imagino que te tengo acostumbrado. Lo musical, lo musical, lo musi-
cal... Puesebien, ya en nuestro siglo lasituación[sic] cambia algo. Hay
movimientos en la pseudo-república* que van hacía el hallazgo de una
expresión. Lo primero que hacen, lo de siempre, lo común, es tomar al
nacionalismo por las barbas. Y entonces todo es nacionalismo. ¿Pero
quiere esto decir que encontraron una solución, una vía? No. P orque[sic]


(5)
no se hace nada cantando a los siboneyes* o lxa los negros cimarrones
con líneas melódicas italianas o cuando mas o francesas. No se hace
nada escribiendo operas sobre temas nacionales con estructuras extrañas.

Tampoco el camino es el de tomar las bases rítmicas , por ejemplo, de
las mú sices de origen africanos , por ejemplo, e incorporalas a un contexto completamente
ajeno a ellas. Esto es sólo una labor de impostación, sastres malos,
albañilespeores. Y eso se hizo tambien y se le conoció por nacionalismo.
A mi juicio sólo[sic] un músico cubano de Remedios, Las Villas, Alenandro[sic]
García Cat urla[sic]
, logra entender, logra descrubrir la fórmula. Entra de
lleno en la selva musical, bebe su savias, mastica sus raices. Alejandro García Cat urla[sic] , lleva a los pentagramas la sensibilidad cubana en tonos
mayores. Lo hace tambien otro gran músico, Amadeo Roldán, pero suena
m ás[sic] frío, más experimental. A pesar de que este último era mulato y el
otro era blanco. Los dos acumulan grandes méritos para nuestra música,
los dos son pioneros en esta búsqueda de la sonoridad cubana en el regis-
tro de lo sinfónico y lo opérático. Ellos enuncian lo que luego van a
continuar desarrollando, con recursos más modernos y con más solidas
ideologías un Leo Brouwer o un Héctor Angulo . Caturla y Roldán mueren
jovenes dejando un vacío terrible, una gran confusión, hasta que llega
la alborada revolucionaria y volvemos a inquietarnos, ahora estimulados,
por encontrar nuestra verdadera identidad.

Equivalentes de Roldán y Caturla serían en literatura un Guillén y un
Carpentier, en p intura[sic] una Amelia Pelaez[sic] un Wifredo Lam. o un Acosta León.Paralelamente
a estas indagaciones tan válidas, existió una corriente siempre fértil
de nacionalismo rapsódico, cantabile, de compos itores[sic] con gran talento
per cone tendencias faciles ,[sic] silbables, superficiales. Da entre estos
compositores habría que mencionar a Ernesto Lecuona, fino y talentoso
músico que dejó para Cuba un incuestionable arsenal de hermosas y cuaana-
nísimoas
canciones, así como una obra para piano importante,en la cual
aparece el elemento negro como nota dominante y no precisamente colorista,


(6)
p ara[sic] decir verdad. Ernesto Lecuona, cuya música como tú habrás cono-
cido quizas, ha viajo dle mundo y ha sido muy cotizada, tuvo una forma-
ción musical ba stante[sic] solida. Se entregó al negocio de la música pero
nunca con vulgaridad, como otros. Dejó verdaderos lieds[sic] *cubanos como
Siboney y El arrolo que murmura . Herededor de la guajira) –género[sic] salonni-
ere
, que pretende reproducir el aire de las tonadas campesinas, Lecuona incluyó en las músicas congas y melodías y escribió sus danzas sobre estos motivos.
Junto a un Lecuona están tambien en esta
línea un Anckermann, un Roig, un Prats. Músicas muy bellas, muy cercanas a una sensiblidad popular,
muy válidas. Muchas de estas creaciones podríamos calificarlas ya de
folklóricas porque en verdad sus autores han sido superados por ellas.

A tacados, A veces atacadosinjustamente, por los músicos más fieles a los conser-
vatorios y a las academias y a los ismos, estos autores han creado una
especie de tradición criollista con sus obras para orquestay para piano
y con sus canciones que ya dejan una huella indeleble en el óido cubano.

Sus rivales o mejor sus contricantes, propugnaban casi simultaneamente
los atonalismos o los dodecafonismos, para acabar luego en los serialismos
o los aleatorismos. Todo esto muy válido tambien, pero a mi juicio de-
masiado intelectual, demasiado esótérico. Podría mencionar ejemplos,
pero no viene al caso. Ya sabes tú, porque la has escuchado, que una
música como la de Carlos Farinas, de timbre agradable, una como la de Brouwer, más compleja, má s renovadora, una como la de Angulo , puura xxxxxpura
y agripada , son los ejemplos más ricos de estas búsquedas. Tambien
uno de nuestros músicos más dotados, Harold Gramatges *, ha logrado ulti-
mamete
sonoridades increibles provisto de un técnica depurada y una
sensibilidadque[sic] desarolla su dia pasón[sic] día a día. No soy yo quien pudeda ,
en última instancia, definir donde estan las líneas que dividen lo peri-
férico de lo filosófico, del mensaje humano. Esto lo harán otros. Yo
sólamente puedo describirte lo que oigo, lo que presiento en torno de
mí, con mi óptica subjetiva. Ojalá encontrará otras palabras, otras
conceptos más científicos, más acequibles , que te pudieran dar luz so-


(7)
todo esto. Pero las palabras traicionan, se esconden, se niegan.
De todas maneras el sentido está en lograr la imagen, que al mismo
tiempo es sentido .[sic] Y la imagen musical sólo se logra por el oido.
Ya Lo cubano ya – digo ya y estoy hablando desde el triunfo de la revolu-
ción hasta hoy – , no se puede dar ni mediante los colores o los estilos.
Espero que me entiendeas. Lo cubano ahora es otra cosa. Es un estado
del ser, liberado, expansivo. El logro de una identidad. Esto lo han
esxpresado Brouwer, Angulo, Fariñas * y otros cuyas músicas no conozco
lo suficiente pero cuyos aciertos se que brillan a todas luces. Con Angulo
hay un rescate, quizá demasiado intelectual, de la fuente directa.

El recoge los cantos, yoruba *— los de mayor riqueza rítmica y melódica — los transcribe y luego los recrea en plena
identificación con sus mensajes. Esto es muy valido pero creo que
corre el riesgo de cristalizarse. Brouwer sabe lo que hace, es más
abierto, más plástico. ¿Será el que más trascienda? Nada puedo afirmar.

En Cuba hay las posibilidades que antes nunca existieron de una formación
musical e ideológica y cada día egresan de las escuelas de músicas, alum-
dotados para la composición. Cuba es un país de músicos y poetas.

Se dan como el remerillo o la albahaca. La plenitud de vida favorece la forma abierta y la improvisación como medio de comunicación en el arte de la música Así que veremos que occurre.
Por lo pronto nuestra música folklóricatanto la de origin negro- yoruba,
dahomeyana, bantú o carabalí– como la hispánica–son ricas e infinitas.
Carpentier se equivocó al decir que el campesino no inventaba música .[sic] *
He sabido, he escuchado, tonadas inventadas p or[sic] los campesinos de Pinar
del Río
yde[sic] Camagüey. Con este tesoro se pueden hacer maravillas. Tú
que conoces este mosaico de músicas, este mosaico, y que has trabajado con él
con tanto amor y tanta eficacia sabes muy bien a lo que me refiero.
Creo que el son de las mujeres en el Cimarrón,* como muchas de las piezas de La Cubana, son ejemplo supremo del x equilibrio que se puede
lograr entre la emoción , el mensaje, y la escritura musical. el grito, el
chasquido


(8)

Lo que si es imposible y sería imperdonable que alguien lo intentara,
es volver al colorismo, a las referencias. La propria evolución
técnica, nuestra propria ideología no lo asimilarían. Poco a poco el pueblo
cubano va madurando y perfeccionando su oído. Para ponerte un ejemplo
del desarrollo de nuestra sensibilidad musical, aparejada indisoluble-
mente a la ideológica, te diré que los exiliados políticos cubanos que
viven en USA * están a mil años luz de nosotros en cuanto a musica. Todavía
no han salido de las viejas romanzas italianizantes, de los boleros
arcaicos y otros derivados, mientras que como te explicaré más adelante
aquí la evolución ha si do[sic] torrencial y. y ha tocado a varias generaciones.
Pero tú me preguntarías- y cómo me gustáría tenerte frente a mí- que
cómo se explica o se ejemplifica esta evolución. Para ellosx yo iría
siempre a las muicaas más populares. Veremos: En Cuba han surgido muchos
modalidades que parten dela[sic] contradanza y de la línea del boleros del contine te[sic]. latinoamericano con su carcterístico "estilo de acompañar a la guitarra por medio de un rasgado" "rítmico muy segmentado y constante" (A. León) * Tenemos danzones, sones, guarachas cha cha chas ,[sic] mambos, canciones "feeling" etc. Todo esto unido
da u na[sic] imagen sonoro, como un todo. Cada una de estas modalidades tiene
su antecedente en lo p uramente folklórico.: negro, hispánico o norteamericano. Por ello los instrumentos
rituales - en el caso de la música de procedencia africana –a veces pasan a las orquestas populares. Pero los prejuici os[sic]
raciales obstaculizaron este flujo. Y muchos veces instrumentos que se
prestaban más a una sonoridad genuina fueron sustiíidos por otros que
parecerían blancos, es decir de origen español ,y no africano. Los cojuntos,
trataban de buscar sustituos y lolograban[sic]. pero a medias. Solamente ahora,
desprejuiciados, hemos visto cómo se incorporan a la s orquestas de baile
los instrumentos que antes sólo se escuchaban en ceremonias religiosas o
en bailes de carnava l[sic]. Los tambores batá – un conjunto de tres bimenbra-
nofónos
- de origen yoruba, aparecen constantemente en las orquestas moder-
nas .[sic]
Antes sólo aparecían en conferencias de folkloristas como Fernando
Ortíz
o in situ. . Las orquestas han asimilado, a ademas, muchas
sonajas; aggués o chekerés de origin yoruba, guiros y tambores de todo
tip o[sic]. U na[sic] influencia yoruba y conga ha sido determinante en los géneros


(9)
bailables. Contamos con un repertorio coreográfico variadísimo y muy acorde a la época. El piano ha continuado siendo un instrumento en Cuba con
una fuerte trad ción percusiva, así como el violín que en las orquestas va marcando
bases armónicas, marcando como hacía Benny Moré con los saxofones que
sonaban como si fueran tres, es decir, guitarras campesinas que en manos negras guardan más
cuerdas que la tradicional española o italiana.* Se prefieren instrument-
os agudos como la clave que por razones de sonoridadha tenido un resurgimeniento. Pienso que por la convulsión
epocal reclama estas sononidades. Las orquestas cubanas suenan estri-
dentemente, debido a los recursos electrónicos. Me decía un musico
popular hace días que todo había cambiado mucho para ellos. Que ahora
era necesario decir las cosas en voz alta, poner a hablar a los instru-
mentos, mover incluso a los músicos en la escena. To do[sic] esto, entiendo
yo, contribuye a crear una teatralidad, un espéctáculo plástico. Aquí existe un
grupo de creación reciente llamado los Iraikeres[sic] *, que son extraorinarios.
Ellos han incorporado todos los instrumentos que han sido necesarios
para lograr lo que buscan; una sonoridad cubana, integral. Con un formato
rítmico afrocubano, pueden inspirar un free jazz y cosas por el estilo.

Es decir que hay toda una búsqueda en lo popular que, a mi juicio y como
es usual, se adelanta a la de los músicos llamados cultos. Creo que
otro logra indiscutible es el de la música de cine o para cine. Porque
esa música va logrando una armonía con el mensaje político, lo va como
apoyando, comoxxxx en una|interacción única que para mi expresa lo nuevo,
lo necessario. En esto Brouwer,es[sic] sin dudas,un[sic] maestro.*

La imagen estética musical cubana, la última identidad, esa quimera
de todos tendremos que conquistarla a base de muchos sacrifici os[sic] y muchas
explosiones del espíritu, con mucha labor de estudio y mucha
pasión artística y revolucionaria. Encaminados hacía eso estamos. Tu te montans
te
en esta nave con nosotros y hemos viajado juntos por galaxias increi-
bles
. Mejor que nadie sabes lo difiícl que es lograr usar comunicación
cuando existen aún lastres del pasado. La utilización explotadora, mercanti-
lista de las manifestaciones musicales, contribuyó a su adulteración. Predijo
una pseudomúsica que muchos aceptaron como genuina. Ofrecen lo mejor,


por las vías tradionales, es una meta de la misión cubana. Decolonizar el gusto y formar un nuevo oído es un deber.


10

Pero en esta nave de Los hombres que queremos dar siempre lo mejor para la
humanidad volamos en esa nave que, aunque con pequeños desvíos, se vuela hacía un
punto altísimo. Cuando lo alcanzemos, habremos dado un paso giante hacía la solidaridad y la libertad humanas
della hombre. H acía[sic] el mejor conocimiento de sí. Nuestro José Martí
decía, con su gran ingenuidad poética tan sabia, que la música era
el alma de los pueblos.* Hacer música sin prejuicios es entrar en
la totalidad del ser, para salir plenos, como de un baño de luz.

La evolución de la música cubana, tanto la popular como la llamada
culta, está marccada por un signo de gracia con los cambios revolu-
c onarios
. Nuestro canto se alimenta de todo y de todos. Por eso,
mi querido Hans, juntos venceremos.

Te quiere,
miguel barnet.

[10 October 1976] Querido Henze;

You don’t know how happy I am that you are so full of projects. I see that as the years go by your capacity for work increases and your need for expression is greater. This happens to you because you are a genuine and vital artist. I can see from your correspondence that every day you feed on everything that surrounds you. In that you remind me a lot of Neruda when he says that he would like to drink all the oceans and eat the whole earth. That’s how insatiable and voracious you are with life, which is good, because what most relieves the woes of the soul is creative work. I don’t quite understand, I can’t, those who do not do anything creative, who do not try to transform nature with their hands or their head, even at a minimum level. I believe that the day will come when all men will be engaged in this artistic endeavour. A spontaneous and creative art. I am sure that communist society will lead to that. Can you imagine the degree of understanding and dialogue that will exist then?

Well, I am at a loss for words.

In your last letter you asked me to tell you about music in Cuba and recent trends and developments. You know that I am not a composer and that I would find it difficult. But how can I say no to you? I will tell you more or less what I know out of simple interest as an artist, but not because I have studied it in depth. The panorama of Cuban music is very complex from its beginnings. It should not be forgotten that we are a people of mixed races, of confluences, and that our tradition, to call it something, has some very controversial features, which have barely been studied. The very conclusion as to whether a truly Cuban music exists remains to be proven. Of course, there are phenomena that evidently characterise our idiosyncrasy, musics that express our being in its mixed essence. But to speak of a


(2–)
genuinely Cuban music is somewhat adventurous. Foreign influences still gravitate towards the making of music. For centuries we were wedded to the European, romantic or neoclassical model, but always looked towards Europe, seeking the technical, the snobbish, but never the profoundly liberating, the expansive, our own. Thus, we have had a rich tradition of instrumentalists – the Black violinist from last century, Brindis de Salas, the pianists Desvernine and Aristi and other performers of pieces by Brahms, Chopin come to mind. The influence of a Rubinstein was terribly alienating. And so it was in the sphere of so-called "art" music. The popular scene was different. Here the problem is clearer. Musics of African origin, ritualistic, cryptic, gradually emerged from the temples, the barracks, and spread all over the island, creating dance music genres of a secular and collective character. This was the great cauldron where the best of our musical culture was brewed. There, as in a kaleidoscope, different musics met, merging, juxtaposing and creating their own transculturated sonorities. The people were always ahead of art music. They made their music without prejudice, without snobbery, integrating all the harmonic elements, enriching us.

I am thinking of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, because in the nineteenth century there were already a few isolated cases –privileged talents– like Saumell, who notated the first contradanzas, the first dances, which would have a nationalist character. Because Saumell put his ear to the soul of the common man, he identified with him. Saumell had artistic breath to spare. Saumell never betrayed his culture.

I imagine that composers like him –later Cervantes and then Amadeo Roldán and Caturla, – were zealous bearers of an ideology common to that of the majority, without hindrance, without prejudice.

Sadly, it must be said that these were only isolated cases. The colony, as is well known, tried to suppress the values of the Blacks, the Chinese and even


(3)
the simple Spaniards who came to work on the island and who also brought their music and dances with them. All this sounded, the colonisers thought, like cheap music, like filth. Surely this contributed to a great deal of dispersion. How many talents had their first, pure, spontaneous intentions frustrated. Only the tenacious, the revolutionaries, were able to overcome these obstacles. The others left behind an archive of compositions in the style of Beethoven, Liszt, Chopin... The people themselves created their orchestras by taking the euphoniums, ophicleides, piccolo cornets, and percussion, from the Spanish military bands that entertained Cuban families on Sunday afternoons in the Island’s parks. From the old and traditional open-air concerts or music concerts of waltzes, hymns and danzones in public places, from the instruments of the slaves; the drums, the rattles, the sticks, came a music that can be said to have been created by the Creole man; an urban music that was used for dancing in the recreational societies and in the street. Dances, contradanzas, danzones, sones and the incomparable conga, the melting pot of the collective fiesta, were added to the rumba using the cajón, the pure rumba, to enrich the heritage of our popular music. While this process was developing intensely, while the popular orchestras, mostly made up of freed Blacks or their descendants pulled together the threads of what was already being created in the street, and created danzones, there were only very isolated instances in which classical-music composers paid attention to this phenomenon of transculturation to transfer it to their staves.

But, of course, we would have to ask ourselves, and who was it that encouraged us to go down the path of searching for something new, our roots? Well, no-one, nothing. The mood was dull and grey, discouraging. From nineteenth-century Cuba, we can choose operas, concertos with Neapolitan, Milanese and perhaps even Venetian airs, like from a museum of Italian music. To find something that comes close to the song of our birds, the rustling of our mountains, the babbling of our rivers, the anguish


(4)
of our men or their joy, we would have to equip ourselves with a magnifying glass and search and search, and then, surely, we would find ourselves once again before the works of Saumell or Cervantes.

The damage that the state of colonisation deliberately causes to human sensibilities is immeasurable and fatal.

That’s why I am convinced that, leaving aside false nationalism and regionalist colourism, a real social revolution, not a shoddy one, but one like ours, is the only possible way to find ourselves, both ontologically and in other expressions of the spirit. Because a revolution sweeps away prejudices and matures through hard knocks. It does not allow us, when we are true artists, and not phonies, to go off on tangents of beauty or any other of the isms already known or yet to be discovered. A revolution gives us back our social image and helps us to find our aesthetic image in deep recesses. An artist does not know how much he has to thank a Revolution. It is impossible for anyone who does not live in a revolutionary maelstrom to measure it. The thing is not to stray, as we say in Cuba, not to get hold of the wrong end of the stick and discard what is valid from old traditions. Never. There is much to learn from the old bourgeois art, from its precision, its technical resources, but always in terms of our own, of our new message to a different, newer, or perhaps older man, paradoxically.

But Henze, brother, I should keep talking to you about music.

Forgive me again for these digressions, which I imagine you are used to. The musical, the musical, the musical... Well, in our century the situation has changed somewhat. There are movements in the pseudo-republic that are moving towards finding an expression. The first thing they do, the same old thing, the common thing, is to take nationalism by the horns. But does this mean that they have found a solution, a way? No. Because


(5)
it is useless composing Italian or French melodic lines for the Siboneyes or the Black runaway slaves. It is useless composing operas on national themes with strange structures.

In my opinion, only a Cuban composer from Remedios, Las Villas, Alejandro García Caturla, managed to understand, managed to discover the formula. He goes deep into the musical jungle, he drinks its sap, he chews its roots. Alejandro García Caturla brings the Cuban feeling to the staves in major keys. So does another great composer, Amadeo Roldán, but it sounds colder, more experimental. Despite the fact that the latter was a mulatto and the other white, they both amassed important merits for our music, both were pioneers in this search for the Cuban sound in composing symphonic and operatic music. They enunciated what Leo Brouwer or Héctor Angulo would later continue with more modern resources and with more solid ideologies. Caturla and Roldán died young leaving a terrible void, a great confusion, until the dawn of the revolution came, and we were once again restless to find our true identity.

Equivalents of Roldán and Caturla would be Guillén and Carpentier in literature, Wifredo Lam or Acosta León in painting. Alongside these very valid enquiries, there was an ever-fertile current of rhapsodic, cantabile nationalism, of composers with great talent but with facile, hissing, superficial tendencies. Among these composers mention should be made of Ernesto Lecuona, a fine and talented composer who left an indisputable arsenal of beautiful and very Cuban songs for Cuba, as well as a significant output for piano, in which the Black element emerges as a dominant feature and not exactly colourful,


(6)
to tell the truth. Ernesto Lecuona, whose music as you might know, has travelled the world and has been highly sought after, had fairly solid musical training. He went into the music business but never with vulgarity, like others. He left behind true Cuban songs such as Siboney and El arrolo que murmura (The stream that murmurs). The heir to the guajira – a salonniere genre, which aims to recreate the sound of peasant songs, Lecuona included congas and melodies in the music and wrote his dances on these motives. Alongside Lecuona, Anckermann, Roig, Prats are also in this line. Very beautiful musics, very close to a popular sensibility, very valid. Many of these compositions could be labelled folkloric creations because their composers have actually been surpassed by them.

Sometimes unjustly attacked by musicians who are more loyal to conservatories, academies and isms, these composers have created a kind of Creole tradition with their works for orchestra and piano and with their songs, which have already left an indelible mark on the Cuban ear.

Their rivals, or rather their opponents, almost simultaneously advocated atonalisms or dodecaphonisms, and then ended up with serialisms or aleatorisms. All very valid too, but in my opinion too intellectual, too esoteric. I could mention examples, but that’s irrelevant. You know, because you have heard it, music like that of Carlos Farinas, with a pleasant timbre, like that of Brouwer, more complex, more innovative, like that of Angulo, pure and raw, are the richest examples of these searches. Also one of our most gifted musicians, Harold Gramatges, has recently achieved incredible sonorities with a refined technique and a sensitivity that he is developing day by day. I am not the one who can, in the final analysis, define where the lines are that divide the peripheral from the philosophical, from the human message. That is for others to do. I can only describe what I hear to you, what I perceive around me, through my subjective lens. I wish I could find other words, other more academic, more accessible concepts, that could shed light on


(7)
all this. But words betray, hide, negate. In any case, the aim is to achieve the image, which at the same time is meaning. And the musical image can only be achieved through the ear. What is Cuban now – I say now, and I am talking about since the triumph of the revolution until today – cannot be provided by means of colours or styles. I hope you understand me. Cuban now is something else. It is a state of being, liberated, expansive. The achievement of an identity. This has been expressed by Brouwer, Angulo, Farinas and others whose music I don’t know enough about, but whose successes I know shine through. As for Angulo, there is a rescue, perhaps too intellectual, of the direct source.

He collects the songs, Yoruba – the most rhythmically and melodically rich – transcribes them and then recreates them in full identification with their messages. This is very valid but I think it runs the risk of crystallising. Brouwer knows what he is doing, he is more open, more artistic. Will he be the one who transcends the most? I can’t say.

In Cuba there are possibilities for musical and ideological education that never existed before, and every day students who are gifted for composition are graduating from music schools. Cuba is a nation of musicians and poets.

They are everywhere like rosemary or basil. Fullness of life favours open form and improvisation as a means of communication in the art of music. So let’s see what happens. For the time being, our folk music, both of Black – Yoruba, Dahomeyan, Bantu or Carabali – and Hispanic origin, is rich and infinite. Carpentier was wrong when he said that the peasant did not invent music. I have known, I have heard, tunes invented by the peasants from Pinar del Río and Camagüey. You can do wonders with this treasure. You who are familiar with this mosaic of music, and who have worked with it so lovingly and so effectively, know very well what I mean. I believe that the “Son de las mujeres” in Cimarrón, like many of the pieces of La Cubana, are the supreme example of the balance that can be achieved between emotion and music writing.


(8)

What is impossible, and it would be unforgivable for anyone to try, is to return to colourism, to references. Our own technical evolution, our own ideology would not assimilate it. Little by little the Cuban people are maturing and perfecting their ear. To give you an example of the development of our musical sensitivity, inextricably linked to our ideology, I will tell you that Cuban political exiles living in the USA are a thousand light years away from us in regard to music. They have not yet emerged from the old Italianised romanzas, archaic boleros and other derivatives, whereas, as I will explain later, here the evolution has been torrential and has touched several generations. But you will ask me – and how I would love to have you in front of me – how this evolution is exemplified. For that I would always look to the most popular musics. Let’s see: In Cuba many modalities have emerged based on the contradanza and along the lines of the Latin American bolero with its characteristic "style of accompanying the guitar by means of a very segmented and constant rhythmic strumming" (A. León). We have danzones, sones, guarachas, cha cha chas, mambos, "feeling" songs etc. All of this combined gives a sonic image, forming a whole. Each of these modalities has a purely folkloric origin: Black, Hispanic or North American. This is why ritual instruments – in the case of music of African origin – are sometimes transferred to popular orchestras. But racial prejudice hindered this flow. And often instruments that lent themselves more to a genuine sonority were replaced by others that seemed white, i.e. of Spanish, rather than African, origin. The ensembles tried to find substitutes and succeeded, but only partially. Only now, unprejudiced, have we seen instruments that were previously only heard at religious ceremonies or Carnival dances being incorporated into dance orchestras. The batá drums – a set of three bi-membranophones – of Yoruba origin, are a constant feature of modern orchestras. Previously they only appeared in lectures by folklorists such as Fernando Ortíz or in situ. The orchestras have also assimilated many rattles; aggués or chekerés of Yoruba origin, guiros and all kinds of drums. A Yoruba and Conga influence has been a determining factor in the dance


(9)
genres. We have a very varied choreographic repertoire, very much in keeping with the times. The piano has continued to be an instrument in Cuba with a strong percussive tradition, as well as the violin, which marks harmonic bases in the orchestras, as Benny Moré did with the saxophones which sounded as if they were three, that is to say, country guitars which in Black hands have more strings than the traditional Spanish or Italian. High-pitched instruments such as the clave are preferred, which has been revived because of its sound. I think because of the convulsion of the times, which calls for these sounds. Cuban orchestras sound shrill, due to electronic resources. A few days ago a popular musician told me that everything had changed a lot for them, that now it was necessary to say things out loud, to make the instruments talk, even to move the musicians on stage. All this, I believe, helps to create a theatricality, a visual spectacle. Here there is a recently created group called the Iraikeres, who are extraordinary. They have incorporated all the instruments that have been necessary to achieve what they are looking for; a comprehensive Cuban sonority. With an Afro-Cuban rhythmic format, they can inspire free jazz and the like.

That is to say that there is a whole search in the popular which, in my opinion and as always, is ahead of that of the so-called art-music composers. I think that another indisputable achievement is that of film music. Because this music achieves a harmony with the political message, it supports it, in a unique interaction that for me expresses what is new, what is necessary. Brouwer is undoubtedly a master at this.

The Cuban musical aesthetic image, the ultimate identity, that chimera of all of us will have to be conquered through many sacrifices and many explosions of the spirit, with a lot of study and a lot of artistic and revolutionary passion. That is where we are heading. You got on this ship with us and we have travelled together through incredible galaxies. Better than anyone else you know how difficult it is to succeed in using communication when there is still the burden of the past. The exploitative, mercantilist use of musical manifestations contributed to their adulteration. It predicted a pseudo music that many accept as genuine. Offering the best,


through traditional channels, is a goal of the Cuban mission. Decolonising taste and forming a new ear is a duty.


10

Those of us who always want to do our best for humanity are flying in that ship which, although with small deviations, is headed towards a very high point. When we reach it, we will have taken a giant step towards human solidarity and freedom. Towards a better knowledge of ourselves. Our José Martí used to say, with his wise poetic ingenuity, that music was the soul of the people. To make music without prejudices is to enter into the totality of being, to fully emerge, as if from a flood of light.

The evolution of Cuban music, both popular and so-called art music, is characterised by a sign of grace with revolutionary changes. Our song feeds on everything and everyone. That’s why, my dear Hans, together we will prevail.

Love,
miguel barnet.

Translation by Yolanda Acker

Editorial

General Remark

The description of the sources was made according to the provided digital copies.
This letter in Spanish constitutes a preliminary version with numerous handwritten additions and deletions by Barnet of the text published in German translation in Barnet’s “Brief aus La Habana”, pp. 143-152. The fact that this letter is still preserved in Barnet’s private archive in Cuba and not among Henze’s correspondence at the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basel suggests that this version was not sent to Henze. A fine copy was probably produced that has yet to be located.

Responsibilities

Editor(s)
Elena Minetti
Transcription
Dennis Ried; Elena Minetti
Translation  
Yolanda Acker

Tradition

  • Text Source: Miguel Barnet, Private Collection

    Physical Description

    • Document type: Letter
    • Material

    • Gelbes Papier
    • Faltung: 1mal längs
    • Extent

    • 10 folios
    • 11 written pages
    • Condition

    • Gelocht mit 3 Löchern.
    • Layout

Writing styles

  • 1.
    Typescript.
  • 2.
    Handwriting, pencil.
  • 3.
    Handwriting, Barnet, Miguel, ballpoint pen (blue).

Text Constitution

  • "Heenze"sic
  • "… Hee"The second "e"is very faded
  • "Veo"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "P arece"crossed out
  • "P arece"sic
  • "o""a" replaced with "o"
  • "e res"sic
  • "correspo n dencia"sic
  • "tra n s sfor mar"sic
  • "tra n s sfor mar"sic
  • "n""s" replaced with "n"
  • "í""i" replaced with "í"
  • "empeñ ados"sic
  • "Estoy seguro de"" Espero" crossed out and replaced with "Estoy seguro de", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "ra""e" crossed out and replaced with "ra", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • " Héctor y el ritmo mestizo "added in the left margin
  • "Héctor y el ritmo mestizo"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "mestizo"sic
  • "mestizo"uncertain transcription
  • ", ¿"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "mestizo,"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "me stizo"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "s""d" replaced with "s"
  • "r""s" replaced with "r"
  • "|"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "p or"sic
  • "f enómenos"sic
  • "caracterizan""definen" crossed out and replaced with "caracterizan", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "t""s" replaced with "t"
  • "gravitan""cargan" crossed out and replaced with "gravitan", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "instrumentistas-"sic
  • "n"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "a""o" replaced with "a"
  • "q""ú" replaced with "q"
  • "a"deleted by overtyping
  • "."added below
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "e""a" replaced with "e"
  • "e""u" replaced with "e"
  • "yuxtaponiéndose""abrazandoose" crossed out and replaced with "yuxtaponiéndose", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "c r o e ando"sic
  • "e""o" replaced with "e"
  • "d""t" overwritten with "d", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "o""a" replaced with "o"
  • "enlos"sic
  • "e"erased
  • "jo""oj" replaced with "jo"
  • "primera s"sic
  • "–"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "-"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "fueron""eran" crossed out and replaced with "fueron", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "españ el del"deleted by overtyping
  • "ñ""p" replaced with "ñ"
  • "sencillo""pobre" crossed out and replaced with "sencillo"
  • "á""o" replaced with "á"
  • "Beethoveen"sic
  • "Lizt"sic
  • "i""8" replaced with "i"
  • "y"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "militares"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "é""t" replaced with "é"
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "e"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • " y danzones"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ""crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • " les"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "s"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ";"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "|"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "pura"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • " auténtica"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ",para"sic
  • "proceso se desarrolla con"" ocurre" crossed out and replaced with "proceso se desarrolla con", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • " de forma"deleted by overtyping
  • "idad""amente" crossed out and replaced with "idad", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "u""e" replaced with "u"
  • "e""i" replaced with "e"
  • "e""n" replaced with "e"
  • "los sones"deleted by overtyping
  • "u""l" replaced with "u"
  • "o"deleted by overwriting, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "e""t" replaced with "e"
  • " nos"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "que"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "que"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "nos"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "u""e" replaced with "u"
  • ","crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "murmullo""canto" crossed out and replaced with "murmullo", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "h""e" replaced with "h"
  • "e""v" replaced with "e"
  • " inapresable"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ",""." replaced with ",", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "nacionalismos,y"sic
  • "nuestras,es"sic
  • "s"deleted by overtyping
  • "la""el" replaced with "la", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "a""o" replaced with "a", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "vía""camino" crossed out and replaced with "vía", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "del"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "y"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "revolu ción"sic
  • "i""e" replaced with "i"
  • "s""o" replaced with "s"
  • "agra d ecerle"sic
  • "e n"sic
  • "se""nos" replaced with "se", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • " en no equi vocarnos o"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "en no"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "o""r" replaced with "o"
  • "j""r" replaced with "j"
  • "… r las ho j as"The function of this sort of underlining, which features an arrow on the word "decimos", is to indicate that the words enclosed in it continue from the word "desviarse".
  • "su""de" replaced with "su"
  • "función""virtud" crossed out and replaced with "función", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "o""" crossed out and replaced with "o"
  • "y""," replaced with "y"
  • "mi"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "hermano"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "debo"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "tengo"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "que"sic
  • "od""do" replaced with "od"
  • "de nuevo"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "in e v vitables. […] imagino que te tengo acostumbrado."crossed out
  • "in e v vitables."crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "e""v" replaced with "e"
  • "a las cuales … te tengo acostumbrado."added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "e""s" replaced with "e"
  • "lasituación"sic
  • "a"erased
  • "u""n" replaced with "u"
  • "P orque"sic
  • "l"deleted by overtyping
  • "o cua n d do mas"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "n""d" replaced with "n"
  • "o"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ", por ejemplo,"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "sices""cias" replaced with "sices", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ", por ejemplo,"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "│"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "sólo"sic
  • "Alenandro"sic
  • "… Alenandro Ga"The second letter "a" is shifted down and partly illegible.
  • "Cat urla"sic
  • "ó""r" replaced with "ó"
  • "… su savias, mastica sus ra"The second letter "a" is faded and almost illegible.
  • "Cat urla"sic
  • "m ás"sic
  • "era"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "ac""ti" replaced with "ac"
  • "d""s" replaced with "d"
  • "e""o" replaced with "e"
  • "r""o" replaced with "r"
  • "n"added inline
  • "… modernos y con más solida"The penultimate letter "a" is faded, almost illegible.
  • "Cat""que" replaced with "Cat"
  • "c""d" replaced with "c"
  • "ui""ar" replaced with "ui"
  • "p intura"sic
  • "una Amelia Pelaez "crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "Pelaez"sic
  • "o un Acosta León."added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "e"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "compos itores"sic
  • " con""qu" replaced with " con", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "faciles ,"sic
  • "ua""ub" replaced with "ua"
  • "t""a" replaced with "t"
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "p ara"sic
  • "o""a" replaced with "o"
  • "ba stante"sic
  • "lieds"sic
  • "n""y" replaced with "n"
  • ". H"", h" replaced with ". H", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "–género"sic
  • ", Lecuona incluyó en las músicas congas y melodías y escribió sus danzas sobre estos motivos.""." replaced with ", Lecuona incluyó en las músicas congas y melodías y escribió sus danzas sobre estos motivos.", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "… Roig , un Prats ."Two handwritten arrows indicate the order of the words of the sentence, which is followed in this transcription.
  • "muy""pero" replaced with "muy", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "A tacados"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "A""a" replaced with "A", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "atacados"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ","added below
  • "i""e" replaced with "i"
  • "y"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "y""," replaced with "y", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "con"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "dejan""tdejan" crossed out and replaced with "dejan", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "indeleble""una la" overtyped with "indeleble", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "r""s" replaced with "r"
  • "o""," replaced with "o", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "i""a" replaced with "i"
  • "u""w" replaced with "u"
  • "á"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "… , más compleja, m á"The letter "a" is handwritten, but the accent has been typed.
  • "n""v" replaced with "n"
  • "o""a" replaced with "o"
  • " puura "deleted by overtyping
  • " agripada ""algo fria" crossed out and replaced with " agripada ", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "agripada"uncertain transcription
  • "… más ricos de estas bú"The letter "u" has been typed, but the accent is handwritten.
  • "⁓"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "se nsi sib bilidadque"sic
  • "nsi""sib" replaced with "nsi"
  • "su dia pasón"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "dia pasón"sic
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "E""e" replaced with "E"
  • "o""a" replaced with "o"
  • "sentido ."sic
  • " Ya"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • " L"" l" replaced with " L", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "ya –""," replaced with "ya –", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "hoy – ""ahora" crossed out and replaced with "hoy – ", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "ni"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ".""s" replaced with "."
  • "x""s" replaced with "x"
  • "n""t" replaced with "n"
  • " se que"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "o""i" replaced with "o"
  • "yoruba"added above
  • "— los de … y melódica —"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "c""v" replaced with "c"
  • "r"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "abierto""integral" crossed out and replaced with "abierto", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "¿Se""Qui" replaced with "¿Se"
  • "s""u" replaced with "s"
  • "b""l" replaced with "b"
  • ","added below
  • "La plenitud de … de la música"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "a""o" replaced with "a", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "… nuestra música folklóric a tanto"The letter "o" was originally typed and then rewritten by hand with pen.
  • "i""s" replaced with "i"
  • "música ."sic
  • "p or"sic
  • "yde"sic
  • "e""as" replaced with "e", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "mosaico de"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "este mosaico,"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "el""lol" crossed out and replaced with "el", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "La Cubana"Underlining, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "x"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "g""b" replaced with "g", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ", el mensaje,"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "escritura""nota" crossed out and replaced with "escritura", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ".""," replaced with "."
  • "el grito, el chasquido"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ""crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "propria"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "l""o" replaced with "l"
  • "lu""de" replaced with "lu"
  • "i"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "si do"sic
  • ". y ha … a varias generaciones."added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "… frente a mí- que cómo"The accent above the letter "o" is handwritten.
  • "explica o se"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "s"deleted by overtyping
  • "dela"sic
  • "la línea del""los" crossed out and replaced with "la línea del", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "s"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "del contine te."crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "contine te"sic
  • "latinoamericano con su"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "carcterístico "estilo de … de un rasgado""added inline, Text turned clockwise (270°), handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • ""rítmico muy segmentado … constante" (A. León)"added inline, Text turned clockwise (180°), handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "danzones""guarachas" replaced with "danzones", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "guarachas"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "cha cha chas ,"sic
  • "… cha cha chas , mambos,"Two arrows indicate a change of order between "cha cha chas" and "mambos".
  • "canciones "feeling" "added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "u na"sic
  • ": negro, hispánico o norteamericano."added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "- en el … procedencia africana –"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "prejuici os"sic
  • "flujo""fluir" replaced with "flujo", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "l""s" replaced with "l"
  • ","added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "lolograban"sic
  • "carnava l"sic
  • "moder nas ."sic
  • " in situ. ""en su lugarespropios" crossed out and replaced with " in situ. ", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "lugarespropios"sic
  • "a"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "tip o"sic
  • "U na"sic
  • "Contamos con un … a la época."added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "en Cuba "added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "en las orquestas"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "marcando""haciendo" crossed out and replaced with "marcando", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "marcando"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "que en manos negras guardan ""con" crossed out and replaced with "que en manos negras guardan ", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "guardan"uncertain transcription
  • "por razones de sonoridad"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "Pienso que por la""La" crossed out and replaced with "Pienso que por la", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "debido""gracias" replaced with "debido", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "so""eo" replaced with "so"
  • "To do"sic
  • "c""n" replaced with "c"
  • "plástico""Enqé" crossed out and replaced with "plástico", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "Aquí"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "pueden"added above, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "r""n" replaced with "r", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "usual""típi co" replaced with "usual"
  • "típi co"sic
  • "a""e" replaced with "a", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "indiscutible""ineludible" replaced with "indiscutible", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "de cine o"crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "como"deleted by overtyping
  • "|"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "Brouwer,es"sic
  • "dudas,un"sic
  • "sacrifici os"sic
  • " hacía ""a" replaced with " hacía ", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "hacía"sic
  • "estamos""vamos" replaced with "estamos", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "usar""la" replaced with "usar", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "La utilización explotadora, … Ofrecen lo mejor,"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "por las vías … es un deber."added in the bottom margin, Text turned clockwise (340°), handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "Pero en esta nave de "crossed out, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "L""l" replaced with "L"
  • "volamos en esa nave que""siempre" replaced with "volamos en esa nave que", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "habremos""quizás ni lo sabremos, pero sí habremos" replaced with "habremos", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "humanas"added inline, handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel
  • "della hombre"crossed out
  • "H acía"sic
  • "la""el" replaced with "la"
  • "juntos venceremos""venceremos siempre" replaced with "juntos venceremos", handwritten, ballpoint pen (blue), Barnet, Miguel

Commentary

  • "… 10 October 1976"The date is indicated in the publication of a large part of Barnet’s letter in German translation, in "Brief aus La Habana", p. 143 in the volume Neue Aspekte der musikalischen Ästhetik I. Zwischen den Kulturen, edited by Henze in 1979.
  • "… estés tan lleno de proyectos."Among the located correspondence between Barnet and Henze, the letter by the composer preceding this one of 10 October 1976 is dated 11 February 1974. Henze does indeed talk about his future projects, among other things.
  • "… y comerse toda la tierra."Barnet alludes to a sentence by Neruda published in his posthumous memoirs in 1974 Confieso que he vivido. Memorias in which he writes: "Soy omnívoro de sentimientos, de seres, de libros, de acontecimientos y batallas. Me comería toda la tierra. Me bebería todo el mar" (I am an omnivore of feelings, of beings, of books, of events and battles. I would eat the whole earth. I would drink the whole sea). See Neruda, Confieso que he vivido. Memorias, p. 367.
  • "Que"recte "Qué".
  • "llev e ra "recte "llevará".
  • "."recte "?"
  • "… En tu última carta"The letter Barnet replies to containing a detailed digression on Cuban musical culture has yet to be located.
  • "habla"recte "hable".
  • "hacía"recte "hacia".
  • "… un Rubinstein fue terriblemente enajenante."The Polish-American pianist Rubinstein first arrived in Cuba in April 1938 and visited the country very often until 1957. With the expression "alienating influence", Barnet could mean that Rubinstein’s arrival brought a new pianism, very distant from the Cuban musical tradition.
  • "cocíó"recte "coció".
  • "músical"recte "musical".
  • "kaleidoscopio"recte "caleidoscopio".
  • "abrazandoose"recte "abrazándose".
  • "enriqueciendonos"recte "enriqueciédonos".
  • "diez y nueve"recte "diecinueve".
  • "contrandanzas"recte "contradanzas".
  • "… Saumell nunca traicionó su cultura."For more information about the Cuban composer Saumell see Carpentier, "Saumell and nationalism", in: Carpentier, Music in Cuba, pp. 185-193.
  • "… él, – más tarde Cervantes"For more information about the composer Cervantes, see Carpentier, "Ignacio Cervantes", in: Carpentier, Music in Cuba, pp. 204-213.
  • "… luego Amadeo Roldán y Caturla"About Roldán and Caturla, see Carpentier, "Amadeo Roldán – Alejandro García Caturla", in: Carpentier, Music in Cuba, pp. 268-282.
  • "tambien"recte "también".
  • "cuanta"recte "cuánta".
  • "Cuantos"recte "Cuántos".
  • "r é t tretas"recte "retretas".
  • "pueden"recte "puede".
  • "musica"recte "música".
  • "esto"recte "este".
  • "sólo"recte "solo".
  • "preguhtar"recte "preguntar".
  • "quien"recte "quién".
  • "czamino"recte "camino".
  • "búsqedode"recte "búsqueda de".
  • "diez y nueve"recte "diecinueve".
  • "operas"recte "óperas".
  • "quien"recte "quién".
  • "pajaros"recte "pájaros".
  • "demas"recte "demás".
  • "une"recte "una".
  • "… culalquiera otro de los ismos"The "isms" is a collective term to allude to ideologies, theories, religious doctrines or political movements.
  • "imágen"recte "imagen".
  • "voragine"recte "vorágine".
  • "… aprender del viejo arte burgués"About bourgeois musical culture, see Manuel, "Music and Ideology in Contemporary Cuba".
  • "hacía"recte "hacia".
  • "quízás"recte "quizas".
  • "hablandote"recte "hablándote".
  • "Pu s e sebien"recte "Pues bien".
  • "… Hay movimientos en la pseudo-república"Using the expression "pseudo-republic", Barnet refers to the historical period from 1902 to 1959, when Cuba – although formally a republic – was heavily controlled by the United States. See Saruski and Mosquera, The Cultural policy of Cuba, pp. 11-12: "The pseudo-republic was characterized by economic backwardness, onecrop agriculture, chronic unemployment, illiteracy, moral degeneracy, political and administrative corruption, and the existence of anti-democratic governments which practised every form of robbery and violated the fundamental rights and freedoms of the people."
  • "hacía"recte "hacia".
  • "… nada cantando a los siboneyes"The Siboney were Indigenous peoples of the Caribbean living in Cuba, Jamaica, and the Tiburon Peninsula of Haiti. At the time of Spanish colonization, they were the most populous group in Cuba.
  • "operas"recte "óperas".
  • "africanos"recte "africano".
  • "incorporalas"recte "incorporarlas".
  • "tambien"recte "también".
  • "tambien"recte "también".
  • "opérático"recte "operático".
  • "jovenes"recte "jóvenes".
  • "faciles"recte "fáciles".
  • "c ua ub ana nísimoas"recte "cubanísimas".
  • "quizas"recte "quizás".
  • "viajo dle"recte "viajado el".
  • "solida"recte "sólida".
  • "… como otros. Dejó verdaderos lieds"Here, Barnet means the plural form of the word "Lied". See also Barnet, "Brief aus La Habana", p. 147.
  • " , h . H erededor"recte "Heredero".
  • "tambien"recte "también".
  • "óido"recte "oído".
  • "contricantes"recte "contrincantes".
  • "simultaneamente"recte "simultáneamente".
  • "tambien"recte "también".
  • "esótérico"recte "esotérico".
  • "Tambien"recte "También".
  • "… músicos más dotados, Harold Gramatges"Henze writes about Gramatges in his Autobiography, p. 258.
  • "ulti mamete"recte "últimamente".
  • "pudeda"recte "pueda".
  • "donde"recte "dónde".
  • "encontrará"recte "encontrara".
  • "acequibles ,"recte "asequibles,"
  • "oido"recte "oído".
  • "entiendeas"recte "entiendas".
  • "esxpresado"recte "expresado".
  • "… Brouwer , Angulo , Fariñas"The three musicians are mentioned in Henze’s Autobiography, p. 296, as exponents of the modern generation of Cuban music.
  • "se"recte "".
  • "… "According to Henze’s Autobiography, p. 260, Barnet was a follower of the Yoruba cult, i.e. the cult of the descendants of the ethno-linguistic group Yoruba that were deported by European slave traders between the 16th and 19th century from West Africa to the Americas and also to Cuba.
  • "valido"recte "válido".
  • "… campesino no inventaba música ."To date, a reference to the phrase Barnet quotes here has yet to be located in Carpentier’s publications.
  • "… mujeres en el Cimarrón ,"Here, Barnet refers to "Women", the VIII section in Part 2 of El Cimarrón, which Barnet had also highly praised in his letter to Henze of 4 June 1971.
  • "si"recte "".
  • "… cubanos que viven en USA"The impossibility of expressing any opinion not aligned with Fidel Castro’s government led about 250,000 Cubans between 1959 and 1962 going into exile in the United States.
  • "musica"recte "música".
  • "muicaas"recte "música".
  • "… constante ( A. León )"The source from which Barnet drew this quotation has yet to be identified. The author indicated in brackets could be Angel Acosta León, the painter he mentioned earlier in the letter and who probably also had occasion to speak about Cuban music.
  • "sonoro"recte "sonora".
  • "muchos"recte "muchas".
  • "sustiíidos"recte "sustituídos".
  • "bimenbra nofónos"recte "bimembranófonos".
  • "ademas"recte "además".
  • "trad ción"recte "tradición".
  • "… la tradicional española o italiana."Here, Barnet refers to the performances of singer and bandleader Moré, nicknamed "el Bárbaro del Ritmo".
  • "estas"recte "estos".
  • "espéctáculo"recte "espectáculo".
  • "… creación reciente llamado los Iraikeres"The Cuban band "Irakere", an innovative group reworking Afro-Cuban jazz and Cuban popular dance, was formed under this name in 1973.
  • "mi"recte "".
  • "… Brouwer ,es sin dudas,un maestro."Brouwer collaborated as a musician on several films by director Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, including Historias de la Revolución (1960), Memorias del subdesarrollo (1968) and Una pelea cubana contra los demionis (1972).
  • "Tu"recte "".
  • "montans te"recte "montaste".
  • "increi bles"recte "increíbles".
  • "alcanzemos"recte "alcancemos".
  • "hacía"recte "hacia".
  • "… el alma de los pueblos."The phrase "La música es el alma de los pueblos" is generally attributed to Martí, considered the Cuban national hero for his commitment to the liberation of Cuba from Spain. No bibliographical reference has been located so far, even in scholarly texts. The possibility that the phrase was pronounced in an oral discourse cannot be ruled out.
  • "marccada"recte "marcada".
  • "revolu c onarios"recte "revolucionarios".

        XML

        If you've spotted some error or inaccuracy please do not hesitate to inform us via henze-digital [@] zenmem.de.