Silvestre Revueltas

Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (December 31, 1899 – October 5, 1940) was a Mexican classical music composer, a violinist, and conductor.

Life

Revueltas was born in Santiago Papasquiaro in Durango, and studied at the National Conservatory in Mexico City, St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, and the Chicago College of Music. He gave violin recitals and in 1929 was invited by Carlos Chávez to become assistant conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Mexico, a post he held until 1935. He and Chávez did much to promote contemporary Mexican music. It was around this time that Revueltas began to compose in earnest. He began his first film score, Redes, in 1934, a commission which resulted in Revueltas and Chávez falling out. Chávez had originally expected to write the score, but political changes led to him losing his job in the Ministry of Education, which was behind the film project. Revueltas left Chávez's orchestra in 1935 to be the principal conductor of a newly created and short-lived rival orchestra, the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional.

He was a member of the Revueltas Sánchez family, a number of whom were also famous and recognized in Mexico: his brother Fermín (1901–1935) and sister Consuelo (born before 1908, died before 1999) were painters, sister Rosaura (ca. 1909–1996) was an actress and dancer, and younger brother José Revueltas (1914–1976) was a noted writer. His nephew Román Revueltas Retes, son of José, is a violinist and conductor.

In 1937 Revueltas went to Spain during the Spanish Civil War, as part of a tour organized by the leftist organization Liga de Escritores y Artistas Revolucionarios (LEAR); upon Francisco Franco's victory, he returned to Mexico. He earned little, and fell into poverty and alcoholism. He died in Mexico City of pneumonia (complicated by alcoholism), at the age of 40 on October 5, 1940, the day his ballet El renacuajo paseador, written four years earlier, was premiered. In 1976, his remains were transferred to the Rotonda de los Hombres Ilustres in Mexico City.

Works Revueltas wrote film music, chamber music, songs, and a number of other works. His best-known work is the 1960 arrangement by drawn from Revueltas' film score for the 1939 film La noche de los mayas, although some dissenting opinions hold that the orchestral work Sensemayá is better known. In any case, it is Sensemayá that is considered Revueltas's masterpiece.

He appeared briefly as a bar piano player in the movie ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa! (Let's Go with Pancho Villa, Mexico, 1935), for which he composed the music. When shooting breaks out in the bar while he is playing "La Cucaracha", he holds up a sign reading "Se suplica no tirarle al pianista" ("We beg you not to shoot at the pianist").

Music Chamber works El afilador, 1924 Batik, 1926 Four Little Pieces for two violins and cello, 1929 String Quartet No. 1, 1930 String Quartet No. 2, 1931 String Quartet No. 3, 1931 String Quartet No. 4, Música de feria, 1932 Tres piezas, for violin and piano, 1932 Tres pequeñas piezas serias, for quintet of mixed winds, 1932–33 Ocho x radio, 1933 Planos, 1934 Homenaje a Federico García Lorca, 1936 Éste era un rey 1940 First Little Serious Piece, for chamber ensemble, 1940 Second Little Serious Piece, for chamber ensemble, 1940

Orchestral works Pieza para orquesta, 1929 Cuauhnáhuac, for string orchestra, 1931; revised for full orchestra, 1931; revised again for full orchestra 1932 Esquinas, 1931 (rev. 1933) Ventanas, 1931 Alcancías, 1932 Colorines, for chamber orchestra, 1932 Janitzio, 1933 (rev. 1936) Toccata (sin fuga), for violin and chamber orchestra 1933 Troka, 1933 Caminos, 1934 Danza geométrica (orchestral version of Planos), 1934 Sensemayá, 1938 Itinerarios, 1938 Música para charlar, 1938 (from the film score of Ferrocarriles de Baja California)

Ballets El renacuajo paseador, 1936 La coronela, 1939 (unfinished; orch. by Moncayo, arr. by Limantour; also completed by Blas Galindo and Candelario Huízar, lost)

Film scores Redes, 1935 ¡Vámonos con Pancho Villa!, 1936 El indio, 1938 Ferrocarriles de Baja California, 1938 selections reworked as Música para charlar Bajo el signo de la muerte, 1939 La noche de los mayas (Night of the Mayas), 1939 ¡Que viene mi marido!, 1940

Songs Duo para pato y canario, voice and chamber orchestra, 1931 "Ranas" (Frogs) and "El tecolote" (The Owl), voice and piano, 1931 Caminando, 1937 "Canto a una muchacha negra" (words: Langston Hughes), voice and piano 1938 Cinco canciones para niños y dos canciones profanas, 1938–1939

Piano Adagio Tragedia en forma de rábano (no es plagio) Allegro Canción (a passage used also in Cuauhnáhuac)