Music In Cuba

Music in Cuba

In the wake of the Buena Vista Social Club, the world has rediscovered the rich musical tradition of Cuba. A unique combination of popular and elite influences, the music of this island nation has fascinated since the golden age of the son -- that New World aural collision of Africa and Europe that made Cuban music the rage in Paris, New York, and Mexico beginning in the 1920s.Originally published in 1946 and never before available in an English translation, Music in Cuba is not only the best and most extensive study of Cuban musical history, it is a work of literature in its own right. Drawing on such primary documents as obscure church circulars, dog-eared musical scores pulled from attics, and the records of the Spanish colonial authorities, Music in Cuba sweeps panoramically from the sixteenth into the twentieth century. Carpentier covers European-style elite Cuban music as well as the popular rural Spanish folk and urban Afro-Cuban music.In a substantial introduction based on extensive original research, Timothy Brennan explores Carpentier's career prior to the writing of his novels. Looking especially at Carpentier's work as a music reviewer, radio producer, and musical theorist, Brennan suggests new ways of thinking about the role of Latin American artists in Europe between the wars and about the central place of radio and music-club cultures in the European avant-gardes.From Library JournalFranco-Cuban novelist Carpentier (1904-80) was also a musician, music critic, librettist, and radio show producer, well equipped to handle the primary sources he gathered for his 1946 work. His narrative skills are put to happy use in this first English translation as he traces (and perhaps sometimes imagines) how European, West Indian, and African musical influences shaped a uniquely Cuban sound in religious, popular, dance, and art music. A political thinker, Carpentier uncovered major figures in Cuban music history whom other encyclopedias of the time overlooked. Readers, however, should not rely on this book for an up-to-date account of Cuban music lore but instead treat it as a document of its times from a writer who exiled himself from Cuba until after the Castro revolution. Brennan (cultural studies, comparative literature, and English, Univ. of Minnesota) provides useful annotations when needed as well as an introductory critical essay. Recommended for larger libraries. Bonnie Jo Dopp, Univ. of Maryland Libs., College ParkCopyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.ReviewA pioneering chronicle. Remarkable, groundbreaking and indispensable. This first translation is elegantly produced, with an extensive introduction by Timothy Brennan. -- Times Literary Supplement (London)Remarkable, groundbreaking and indispensable. -- Times Literary Supplement