MEXICO CITY (Process).– We had just sung the Proclamation for a Poor Easter, for mixed choir and orchestra, opus 32 by Rodolfo Halffter (1900-1987), when the invitation was given to his house in the company of Ana María Pecanins by the friendly bond between the two families.
There, for the first time, I heard the maestro speak of a new universal language in music, saying:
“There is no doubt that the stage of nationalist music has already been overcome in all countries. This stage was characterized by the use of popular song as a fertilizing element, and when it was overcome, a kind of musical Esperanto of the universal language emerged. I understand by musical Esperanto a series of sound resources that appear in all countries…”.
Often, he added, it is difficult for an inexperienced listener to differentiate a current production from Germany or Mexico. However, an already specialized listener will know how to differentiate a work by Boulez (1925-2016) from one by Stockhausen (1928-2007), “although both use what I have called Esperanto”. When asked why, he replied:
“Because Boulez continues to preserve in his music certain stylistic traits characteristic of French music and Stockhausen the same of German music. The features that I would call characteristic of French music are precision of musical thought, clarity of texture, and transparency. The characteristic German features would be the opposite: the density of the texture and the contrapuntal complication. Boulez is in the same aesthetic line as Debussy, and Stockhausen in the same line as Max Reger.
“The characteristic features of Silvestre Revueltas and of Mexican music in general are the luminosity, the incisive and clear rhythm, and also the concretion of the melodic line. The accent with which this musical Esperanto is expressed is what differentiates the composers of each country”.
The perspective that time offers us evidenced the existence of musical Esperanto, even in the Tower of Babel of this century. The musical imprint of each composer in diversity leaves musical linguistic traces that are complex but fascinating to discover, giving Maestro Halffter the virtue of having been ahead of his time.
Pure strain creator and essential guide for the understanding of the new languages that burst into the concert halls of the 20th century.
Already a living legend, Maestro Halffter, heir to Manuel de Falla (1876-1946), always brought with him the school of the great Spanish composers of the 20th century, such as Isaac Abéniz (1860-1909) and Joaquín Rodrigo (1901-1999). ), coexisting later with the new musical languages.
I was lucky because at that time the maestro opened his door for me to get orchestration advice and get to know some scores. His work in Mexico was fundamental, creating dissemination organizations at the head of the Ediciones Mexicanas de Música, and for introducing twelve-tone music and serial music (Three Pieces for Orchestra was the first twelve-tone work written in Mexico). However, he knew how to stay in tune with his temperament, closer to classicism and polytonality of tonal and harmonic nature.
Rodolfo Halffter had a magnetic personality and a combative aura, a product of the postwar period, combined with the Catalan passion and a sense of wonder that kept him young. He was the winner of Mexico’s 1976 National Fine Arts Award, and in 1986 he received Spain’s National Music Award, among others. Thus, he built a bridge between European and Mexican musical culture, interacting with both and enriching the heritage of the two countries.
Champion of a combative generation, Halffter practiced, in short, true musical Esperanto in all its artistic splendor.
