# Olga de Blanck  Martín

**Date of birth:** March 11, 1916

**Date of death:** July 28, 1998

**Categories:** Arts, Music, female composer, pianist, Guitarist, arranger, professor

One of the most solid and prestigious personalities in musical creation and teaching in Cuba. Composer, pianist, guitarist, arranger, and pedagogue. Daughter of maestro Hubert de Blanck and Pilar Martín. She participated in numerous concerts of Cuban music for guitar and piano.

She moved in 1938 to the United States and Mexico to expand her musical studies. She premiered various musical comedies, such as "Vivimos hoy", "Hotel tropical" and "Cuento de Navidad". In 1945 she held the position of subdirector of the National Conservatory, and its direction in 1955.

Among her works is "Mi guitarra guajira", with which she won the National Prize in the Cuban Song Competition of 1948. She also wrote "Homenaje a la danza" and "Pentasílabo". She worked on valuable transcriptions for piano, guitar, and voices. She worked at the National Council of Culture starting in 1960 as a specialist in music for children.

She began her musical studies in 1924, graduating years later in Piano, Solfège and Theory of Music from the National Conservatory of Music of Havana Hubert de Blanck. She studied Harmony with Amadeo Roldán and Pedro San Juan, and fugue and counterpoint in 1935 with Burle Marx while residing in New York. She traveled to Mexico and received classes from Julián Carrillo and Carlos Jiménez Mabarak.

She worked at the conservatory founded by her father, Hubert de Blanck, of which she eventually became director. There she created the technical direction, and worked alongside Gisela Hernández in the development of a new pedagogical-musical system for elementary music instruction and in the founding of Ediciones de Blanck, a publishing house intended for the publication of pedagogical and musicological works. She also inaugurated the "Hubert de Blanck" theater-room, located on the upper floors of the institution, and organized the Opera Department which allowed professional singers and voice students to practice performance and operatic repertoire.

In 1956 she created, in the conservatory itself, the Department of Cultural Activities, with three sections: music, theater, and cultural exchange, with the purpose of bringing together directors and teachers from branch locations to exchange pedagogical experiences, plans and study programs with music schools abroad.

In 1948 she won the first National Prize for Cuban Song with her composition Mi guitarra guajira, dedicated to Cuban singer Esther Borja.

In 1957 she collaborated in the revision of 40 dances for piano by pianist and composer Ignacio Cervantes which Ediciones de Blanck published in 1959, and was appointed in 1965 as a member of the commission in charge of collecting, selecting, reviewing and beginning recordings and editions of works by Cuban composers of the 19th Century and early 20th Century.

A year later she won all ten prizes of the children's song competition called by the Union of Pioneers of Cuba (today Organization of Pioneers "José Martí"), which constituted the first major attempt by the country's mass organizations to promote musical training of Cuban children.

In 1961 she developed for the School of Art Instructors, diverse study materials grouped under the name of Cuban Popular Music, which contained simple versions of some works by Eliseo Grenet, Ernesto Lecuona, Sindo Garay and Tania Castellanos, among other Cuban creators.

Starting in 1966, representing the National Council of Culture (today Ministry of Culture), and together with the Music Department of the José Martí National Library, she promoted the publication of a collection of books dedicated to publicizing the life and musical work of Cuban composers. From this collection only the one dedicated to Ignacio Cervantes was published.

In 1968 she was part of the technical team of the Education Plan, and collaborated with the methodological magazine Simientes, dedicated to workers of children's circles and parents of children enrolled in these centers. She collaborated in the founding of the Music Museum in 1971, and two years later began working as a researcher.

As a pedagogue, she was responsible for transcendental changes in the plans, programs and methods of music study in Cuban schools. She was the founder of musical kindergarten and the author, along with Gisela Hernández, of didactic methods, children's songs, games and musical stories, small pieces for piano, and books of dictation, handwriting, and musical appreciation.

As a composer she is characterized by absolute mastery of Cuban rhythms in different formats.

Works
Incidental Music:
Vivimos hoy, musical comedy, 3 acts, lib: María Julia Casanova, 1934;
54 musical comedies, 1 act, lib: María Julia Casanova, 1943-1944;
Hotel Tropical, musical comedy, 3 acts, lib: María Julia Casanova, 1944;
Un cuento de Navidad, musical comedy, 3 acts, lib: María Julia Casanova, 1958;
El encuentro, ballet, 1962;
Bohío, ballet, [[1964];
El mago de Oz, 1 act, 1967;
El caballito enano, musicalized story, 1: Dora Alonso, 1967;
Saltarín, musicalized story, 1: Dora Alonso, 1967.

Choral Music:
Cantata guajira, for sol, Comx, Orch, 1: Emilio Ballagas, 1967;
Décimas guerreras, Op Patria of [[Hubert de Blanck], vv: ` Juan Cristóbal Nápoles, 1979.

Religious Works: 6 traditional Cuban and Latin American Christmas songs, for chr, 1961-1962;
Misa cubana, for Comx, org, 1987;
Plegaria Así dijo Santa Rosa Filipa, for V, org, 1989.

Chamber Music:
Trío de Cecilia Arizti, for vn, vc, p, 1968-1969;
Trío de Hubert de Blanck, for vn, vc, p, 1968-1969;
Pentasílabo, for p, güiro, gui, tumb, 1972.
Songs (all for V, p): seventy-three songs, 1935-1954;
Así te quise, 1: María Collazo, 1954;
Guíame a Belén, 1957;
Muy felices pascuas, for Chr, 1957;
Canto porque te quiero, 1957;
Mi guitarra guajira, 1957;
Recuerdas aquel diciembre, 1957;
Sé que volverás, 1957;
La vida es el amor, 1957;
Brujos, 1957;
¿Qué estaba pensando?, 1957;
Hasta mañana mi amor, 1957;
Por lejos que estés, 1957;
Hasta luego mi amor, 1957;
Embrujo de amor, 1957;
17 Cuban songs, güiro, 1960-1970;
24 traditional Cuban and Latin American songs, 1961-1962;
Décima es, 1: Mirta Aguirre, 1972;
Yo sé los nombres extraños, 1: José Martí, 1972;
Aprende que hoy no es ayer, 1: Mirta Aguirre, 1972;
Yo no me quejo no, 1972;
Paso una paloma, 1: Nicolás Guillén, 1973;
Camino mujer sin sombra, 1: Mirta Aguirre, 1973;
El agua lenta del río, 1: Mirta Aguirre, 1973;
No quiero aprender tus bailes, 1: Mirta Aguirre, 1973;
Mayombe-Bombe-mayombe, marimbula, cla, 3 tumbs, 1987.
Children's Songs (all for V, p): La guira, 1: Dora Alonso, 1970;
La tojosa, 1: Dora Alonso, 1970;
109 songs, 1966-1973;
5 songs, 1: Pepita Veritsky, 1973.

Books Published for Children:
Mi patria cubana, 1969.
26 sobre mi tierra, 1: Mirta Aguirre, 1969.
Canciones de Misifú, 1972. Piano: Portocromía, 1981.
Son: Son, guajira, son, for Comx, 1: Rosario Antuña, 1988.

Pedagogical Works
Theoretical: Practical Harmony (first course), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1946; Music Writing (2 notebooks), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1952; Elementary Lessons in Theory (2 notebooks), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1953; Musical Handwriting, in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1953; Musical Dictation and Musical Education of the Ear (3 notebooks), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1953; Musical Pedagogical Games (3 notebooks), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1953; Musical Appreciation (5 notebooks), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1953-1956.

Piano: The Little Pianist, in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1949; New Blanck Schools for Piano (7 notebooks), 1951-1953; Cuban Music for Children, 1952; Four-Hand Lessons, in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1952; Cuban Miniatures (25 pieces), 1970. Solfège: Musical Reading (3 notebooks), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1954-1956.

Arrangements
Easy arrangements for piano: of Pedro Figueredo: Cuban National Anthem; of [[Hubert de Blanck]: Gavotte, Lullaby and Paraphrase of the Bayamo Hymn; of Manuel Saumell: Six Contradances; of Ignacio Cervantes: Six Four-Hand Dances, 1952-1960. Easy arrangements for two pianos: of Hubert de Blanck: Love Song, Dance of the Witches, Paraphrase of the Bayamo Hymn, 1954-1957; of Pedro Figueredo: Cuban National Anthem, 1970. Easy arrangements for three pianos: of Hubert de Blanck: Cuban Caprice, Intermezzo and Elegy, 1954-1957. Easy arrangements for one, two, three and four accordions: 24 traditional Cuban and Latin American songs; revolutionary hymns, 1961. Easy arrangements for four accordions: of Manuel Saumell: 5 Contradances, 1961-1962; of Ignacio Cervantes: 5 Contradances, 1961-1962. Easy arrangements for six string instruments: of Ignacio Cervantes: four dances, 1961. Easy arrangements for two VV, gui, three and güiro: 14 traditional Cuban and Latin American songs; 6 traditional Cuban and Latin American Christmas songs, 1961-1962. Free arrangements for four mixed VV: of Miguel Matamoros: Mamá ¿son de la loma? and El que siembra tu maíz, 1962-1963; of Ernesto Lecuona: Allá en el batey, 1956-1963; of Rodrigo Prats: Yo sí tumbo caña, 1962-1963; of Eliseo Grenet: Ay mamá Inés and Songoro Cosongo, 1962-1963; of Tania Castellanos: The Song of the Children, 1962-1963.

Revisions
Of Hubert de Blanck: New School for Piano (3 notebooks), in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1951-1953; of Ignacio Cervantes: 40 Dances for p, in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1959-1962; of Gaspar Villate: Seven Cuban Dances for p, in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1967; of José White: Six Concert Studies for vn, in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1957; of Ignacio Cervantes: Rapello-toi, Fusión de almas, Serenata cubana, Anhelos, all for p, 1966-1967; Musicological Works, in collaboration with Gisela Hernández, 1970; of Moisés Simons: El manisero for V and P, 1972-1973; of Gisela Hernández: 17 Cuban Lieder, 1972-1973; of Hubert de Blanck: La huérfana for V and p, 1973-1974 and La esperanza for V and p, 1973-1974.