# Adolfo José  Guzmán  González

**Date of birth:** May 13, 1920

**Date of death:** July 30, 1976

**Categories:** pianist, Musician, orchestra director, Arts, composer

Composer and pianist, orchestra director.

He was the ninth child of a humble family. The family's economic situation was not the best in those times and because of this they decided he would be the last.

Guzmán was decidedly born a genius, and he demonstrated this in 1934 when, at only fourteen years of age, he composed his first musical piece. It was a waltz that he named Marina, which apparently was related to his work as an employee of a Customs broker, a position he had held since an early age to help the family.

His aunt Lucila González (Tití) was the first to discover the artistic talent that Adolfo Guzmán possessed, especially his inclination toward music and within it his preference for piano. In this way the aunt assumed the expenses of the first piano lessons that he would receive from professor Alberto Falcón, concluding these studies in 1936; later he was a student of harmony, instrumentation and composition under Bernardo Moncada. He began his artistic career as an accompanying pianist for singer Floro Acosta, with whom he formed the duo Ideal.

In 1938, he composed what is considered his oldest musical work, which he titled Recuerdo del Ayer and which he performed himself on piano. That year he joined Los Románticos Gauchos as a pianist, to which Ricardo Dantés belonged—who would later become an actor—, with whom he performed on the radio station CMW Cadena Roja; in 1941 he moved to RHC Cadena Azul, where he accompanied Argentine singer Alberto Gómez, with whom in 1944 he traveled to Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.

That same year he accompanied singers Libertad Lamarque, Amanda Ledesma and singer Hugo del Carril.

In 1943 he entered as musical director of the radio station Mil Diez. From 1945 to 1946 he directed the orchestras of the Zombie Club, the Montmartre cabaret, and those of the theaters América, Fausto, Nacional (today Gran Teatro de La Habana) and Campoamor.

In 1948 he inaugurated the Warner theater (today Cine Yara) at the head of his orchestra, where he served as musical director and made orchestrations for Ignacio Villa (Bola de Nieve), and Mexican singers Jorge Negrete and Tito Guízar.

In 1959 he was appointed president of the Instituto Cubano de Derechos Musicales and founded together with Isolina Carrillo the Coro Gigante de la Central de Trabajadores de Cuba.

Between 1967 and 1968 he directed the quartet Los Modernistas. He also directed the Riverside orchestra. He was director of the Teatro Musical, in which he directed Las vacas gordas, by Abelardo Estorino, and El apartamento, by Jesús Gregorio, 1968; El vergonzoso en Palacio, by Tirso de Molina, and Pato Macho, by Ignacio Gutiérrez, 1969.

In 1970, Guzmán directed the ICRT Orchestra and the Varadero Song Festival.

He toured Czechoslovakia, East Germany and France, 1966; Participated in Expo'67, in Montreal, Canada; traveled to Poland in 1969 to appear on Cuban Television.

Until his death, Guzmán worked as an orchestra director in television, theaters and musical shows.

As a composer, according to Juan Blanco: "Guzmán's music is absolutely Cuban. National identity, in its most refined form, is present throughout his work. Guzmán's Cubanness comes from within outward. It is incorporated in him, in the individual. And he returned it in "quintessential" form. In Guzmán a phenomenon unique to cybernetics occurs: he receives information, which is the environment in which he develops, transforms said information, and returns it improved.

Guzmán absorbs everything: a revolution (the one of 1933), son, danzón, idiosyncrasy, the speech of the people, everything; and he develops it. That is precisely creation. That is why his music, although distinctly Cuban, is more international, more universal.

The texts of Guzmán's songs are outside the group within his era. They are aesthetic, poetic, delicate. They oppose the monotony of the chorus. The negative environment does not influence the development of creative techniques.

There is a very interesting facet in Guzmán. He moves in an environment hostile to avant-garde music, to development; that was the environment of CMQ and continued to be for some time the environment at ICR. An environment hostile to avant-garde music. And despite Guzmán being embedded in that world, he encouraged and understood that avant-garde music.

He had knowledge of electronic music, he had analyzed it. He explained to me why he believed it was good, and he was not mistaken in his technical assessment [...].» For composer and pianist Hilario González: «What stands out in Guzmán's music is how he transforms the type of filin melody that emanates from the great American song—mainly from musical comedies—, how he transforms the sentimental song of that style into something directly related to traditional Cuban song.

That is to say, that starting from that root which is romantic song, he connects with the great Cuban trovador tradition, with the music of composers like Lecuona and Sánchez de Fuentes. However, and despite that root, No puedo ser feliz, to cite just one example, is closer to Corazón, by Sánchez de Fuentes, than to any American song. Adolfo had a very advanced command of harmony. He was a first-rate song creator for the melodic gift and harmonic work he gave them. Besides, he worked orchestration wonderfully. His instrumentation was superior. That is why his songs sound like concert music.»

Regarding his harmonic conceptions and orchestrations, Vicente González-Rubiera (Guyún) expresses: «Guzmán, after studying the different harmonic systems, was seduced by the genius of Claude Debussy and his impressionist harmony. But he did not surrender completely to this harmonic procedure; for this reason, he modified those elements that he considered foreign to his creative idiosyncrasy.

Guzmán liked to use major seventh chords and dominant ninth chords, characteristic of the impressionist style; but he combined them in an exclusively his own way. Despite these observations, Debussy was his predominant admiration.

The dominant ninth chord acquires its maximum sonority, splendor and beauty when we use it with all the sounds that comprise it, and in fundamental state. Guzmán perfectly knew these aesthetic secrets of harmony, so he used them with full technical command. Of this chord we can say that it is the greatest chord unit that can be conceived in the intricate field of harmony, since eleventh and thirteenth chords are harmonic aggregations, but not true chords.

Another contribution by Guzmán—although in the style created by Debussy—is that in his harmonic evolutions he preserves the tonic, true tonal center of the sound domain, which is not appreciated in genuine impressionist progressions. With this way of working music, Guzmán achieves the majesty and essence of those harmonies, but not in the Debussy way (its creator), nor in the Ravel way (its most faithful follower), but in the Guzmán way.

When he wrote for the orchestra he did not see in it the acoustic phenomenon that physics explains to us, but rather a broad medium to produce timbral and harmonic beauty. Hence he was always looking to discover new effects in the orchestral apparatus.

Works

Ballet
Maleficio, 1950; Juana Revolico and La calle de la esperanza.

Song
Sin saber por qué, 1938; Luna del Congo, Melancolía, 1940; No me engañes, ¿Por qué me hiciste amarla?, Tu voz, 1943; Vuelve, 1944; Llueve, 1945; El amor es quien sabe, 1948; Hijo, No puedo ser feliz, 1954; Profecía, Seré feliz cuando tú me quieras, Símbolo de amor, Ven, ven un instante,1955; Acapulco, tierra de Dios, Cuando cantan las estrellas, Ensueño antillano, Mi corazón y yo, Noche brasilera, Vivir sin ti es padecer, 1956; Amor, gracia divina, Esta noche te encontré, No es posible querer tanto, Poca cosa, Siempre navidad, 1957; Así, verte de lejos, Libre de pecado, Tú y el viento, 1958; Como antes jamás, La máquina del tiempo and Lloviendo, 1960; Canción de cuna, Es tan fácil mentir, Estar enamorado, 1962; Te espero en la eternidad, 1963; Al fin amor, Juntos tú y yo, Si alguna vez te vas, 1964; Amor, eso es amor, Cuando pasen las horas, Magia de amor, Te traigo una palabra, 1965; Es natural, mi bien, 1967; Dime la razón, Gracias, gracias mi amor, Olvido, Olvida el ayer, 1970; Cantar, reír, soñar, He perdido la fe, 1971.

Song-blues
Melancolía, 1940; Beso azul, 1944.

Hymn
Che Guevara, querido maestro, 1967; Libertad o muerte.

March
La victoria de Viet Nam, 1973; Los deportes.

Incidental Music
El capitán tormenta, Los insurgentes, Los tres mosqueteros, Los vikingos, Ulises.

Piano and Orchestra
Tristeza, concerto in A minor, Concerto in D flat.

Tango
Lamento árabe, 1941; Caravana, 1943.

Waltz-song

Recuerdo de ayer, 1938; Nuestro idilio, 1956.

Guzmán stands out first as a pianist both as part of different musical groups and as a soloist. Later he began to become known and recognized as a composer and finally as an orchestrator and orchestra director. The above shows that Guzmán was undoubtedly one of the most complete musicians in the history of Cuban music.

Source: Ecured, Emisora Habana Radio