Harold Gramatges Leyte-Vidal

One of the most illustrious Cuban creators in the field of academic music. Iberoamerican Music Prize Tomás Luis de Victoria.

Harold Gramatges Leyte-Vidal was born in Santiago de Cuba and descends from a family of Catalan origin. His father, an engineer, architect and mathematician with a passion for music, was the one who introduced him to the study of piano.

Quickly, Harold's talent stood out and thus he came into contact with professor Zoila Figueras, who gave him his first piano lessons in his native city. At the early age of eight years, in 1926, he gave what is considered his first public performance, as a pianist accompanying his father, in a concert by the Theosophical Society "Soy de Oriente", of Santiago de Cuba.

In 1927, he enrolled in the Provincial Conservatory of Oriente, with pianist and professor Dulce María Serret. In 1936 he moved to Havana with the purpose of preparing himself to later complete his musical training at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, in Belgium.

In the Cuban capital he studied piano repertoire with professor Flora Mora. He then enrolled in the Municipal Conservatory of Music in a broad program of subjects such as Analysis, Philosophy, History, Aesthetics, Pedagogy, Harmony, Counterpoint and Fugue, Orchestration and Composition, the latter under the direction of Amadeo Roldán and José Ardévol, founders and directors of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Havana and Chamber Orchestra of Havana, respectively. With these teachers, Harold discovered all the music before and after romanticism, up to Falla and Stravinsky. The experience dazzles him and he decides not to go to Belgium.

During that period, he began his career as a composer, with a first group of pieces created for piano, of which he would only preserve Thinking of You (1937), a kind of romance in the style of Schumann, dedicated to his then fiancée and later wife, his eternal companion Ena Susana (Manila).

It is considered that it was in 1940 when Gramatges wrote his first two works of great recognition, one for wind instrument (Prelude and Invention I), and another for brass (Prelude and Invention II), as well as two pieces for mixed choir (Song and Sonnet).

On June 20, 1942, he premiered his Sonata for Harpsichord, performed on piano by himself, in a concert by the Chamber Orchestra of Havana, an occasion on which five other sonatas by young Cuban composers were presented, with the purpose of competing for a scholarship to study in the United States. Among the contestants, Gramatges was chosen and then had the opportunity to go to North America, where he studied composition at the renowned Berkshire Music Center, with Aaron Copland and orchestral conducting with Serge Koussevitzky.

Upon his return from the United States, he founded the Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Municipal Conservatory of Havana (1944-1948) and assumed the subdirectorship of the Chamber Orchestra of Havana (1946-1957). During that period, he also served as guest conductor of the Symphony Orchestra of the RADIO CMQ station. Likewise, at that time he worked as a professor at the Municipal Conservatory of Music, where he held, until 1959, the chairs of advanced harmony, counterpoint and fugue, orchestration, history and aesthetics of music, and composition. At the same time, his gifts as an integral musician and cultured intellectual allowed him to offer piano recitals and practice music criticism in Cuba and abroad.

From 1943 to 1948 he joined, along with the most outstanding Cuban composers of the time, an avant-garde artistic group with nationalist projection, Musical Renewal, which had among other objectives the development of new trends in contemporary music; from then on, Gramatges tried to always stay up-to-date with a view to incorporating in his creation everything of value that was emerging.

The Musical Renewal group initially set out to continue the legacy traced by Amadeo Roldán and Alejandro García Caturla, who by that date had already died. However, such continuation would only be in part, since the then young composers like Harold Gramatges were influenced by José Ardévol, a Catalan settled in Havana, who stylistically was a neoclassicist. That is to say, it can be affirmed that unlike Roldán and García Caturla, the members of the group were surrounded by another world and immersed in different concerns regarding definitions and integration.

The manifest purpose of Harold and his companions of those years was to update Cuban music and place Cuba fully in the orbit of contemporary music. Thus, in his compositions of that time a less direct treatment is appreciated, less typical of the Cuban elements that prevailed in Roldán and García Caturla. In such a way, in the pieces that Gramatges made known by that date, a very elaborate and refined nationalism is evident, in correspondence with his solid cultural and intellectual formation.

In the concert that marked the birth of the Musical Renewal group, held on January 19, 1943 at the Lyceum Lawn Tennis Club of Havana, a work by Harold Gramatges named Song, with text by Rafael Alberti, was premiered, a creation that exemplifies one of the characteristic features of the illustrious composer from Santiago, that is, the vocation for making pieces by setting literary texts to music, especially those classifiable within the stylistic parameters of avant-garde poetry. As has been stated, in this period of the forties Harold "would use the technical baggage of neoclassicism – polytonality, polyharmony, counterpoint brought up to date, etc. – to express himself in a musical language that would become increasingly personal and at the same time more Cuban".

A chapter of special relevance in Harold Gramatges's life would be, without question, the work he developed as founder and guide of the Society Our Time (1951–1960), an institution in which progressive youth gathered with the objective of promoting contemporary culture, guided by the interest in reinforcing in all of them the existence of national identity.

In 1954 and 1957 he attended the Latin American music festivals in Caracas, Venezuela, where some of his works were performed. At the first of those meetings, the Inter-American Association of Music was created, for which Harold was appointed Vice President and President of the Cuban section. He also held the position of Vice President of the Cuban section of the International Society for Contemporary Music (UNESCO).

In 1958 he attended the first convention of the Ibero-American Center for Music (CIDEM), held in Mexico. Following the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959, Gramatges joined the music department of the culture directorate of the Ministry of Education, work that he performed for a short time, as he had to travel to Paris (1960) on a diplomatic mission for a period of four years. The French government highly valued Cuba's gesture of appointing a creator of Gramatges's stature to head its diplomatic representation, and in the condition of ambassador, Harold came to enjoy the personal esteem of President De Gaulle.

Upon his return to Cuba, in 1965 he founded the Music Department of Casa de las Américas, which he directed until 1970. In the section of his public work, it should also be noted his work as Full Professor of Composition and Analytical Listening at the Institute of Superior Art and President of the Association of Musicians of the Union of Writers and Artists of Cuba.

During his long career, he obtained various awards, including the Reichold Prize, Boston Symphony Orchestra, for Symphony in E Minor, 1945; National Prize for Chamber Music, Havana, 1950, for the Quintet, for flute, clarinet, bassoon, viola and double bass; Special Interpodium Prize, International Music Festival Bratislava, 1977, for Mobile III, for flute and piano. He also obtained the Manuel M. Ponce Medal at the International Guitar Festival, Mexico, 1982; the Order Félix Varela of First Grade, Cuba, 1988.

In 1996 he would be the first to receive the Iberoamerican Music Prize "Tomás Luis de Victoria", created in order "to award during their lifetime the highest public recognition to a composer born in the Iberoamerican community for their contribution to the enrichment of the musical culture of our peoples", as stated in the bases of said Prize, instituted by the General Society of Authors and Publishers of Spain (SGAE) and the Fundación Autor. It should be noted that for that first call for the "Tomás Luis de Victoria" Prize, there were about fifty nominated creators from about twenty countries; among them, figures such as Joaquín Rodrigo, Cristóbal Halffter and another Cuban, Leo Brouwer. Harold Gramatges found out that he had won in his chair at the Institute of Superior Art, along with his students, and his first reaction was one of disbelief. He commented: "It is a great opening for 'high' music and, in particular, significant for Cuba…"

The body of Harold Gramatges's work is revealed to us as a memory of the main characteristics of Cuban concert music of the twentieth century and, at the same time, as an anticipation of the fruitful lines of what is being developed in this new century.

From universal heritage, critics say, he takes up the sense of balance and rigor in the treatment of forms. But above all else, there is in the pieces composed by Gramatges a complete dialectic between the universal and the creole. He is a creator, specialists emphasize, who in the visible and invisible thinks in Cuban and expresses himself as such. The pianism developed by him as a composer continues what was done in his time by Ernesto Lecuona.

The recording made in 1997 by Cuban pianist Roberto Urbay, thanks to the collaboration of EGREM and Estudios Ojalá, demonstrates this. Mentor of important Cuban creators of academic music such as Tania León or Keyla Orozco, Harold Gramatges always worked for those who are emerging and for those who will come. He gave them his music, his teachings, but above all, a way of understanding music as a spiritual adventure, intellectual enjoyment and ethics committed to an identity.

Main Works

Ballet: Icarus, for percussion instruments and piano, 1943.

Chorus: Guitar in Greater Duel, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Nicolás Guillén, 1968.

Guitar: Mobile IV, 1980.

Chamber Music: Guirigay, for violin I and II, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn, 1985.

Symphonic Music: The Death of the Guerrilla Fighter, for reciter and orchestra, text: Nicolás Guillén, 1968-1969.

Piano: Study of Contrasts, 1974.

Works
Ballet
Icarus, 1943, for percussion instruments and piano; Message, 1944, for orchestra.
Bandoneon
Toccata, 1960.
Harpsichord
Sonata in G Sharp, 1942; Hispanic Sonatina, 1957.

Chorus
Song, for mixed choir of six voices, text: Juan Ramón Jiménez
Sonnet, for mixed choir of five voices, text: Luis de Góngora, 1940
Hunters' Romance, for mixed choir of seven voices, text: Justo Rodríguez Santos
Song, for mixed choir of three voices, text: Rafael Alberti, 1941
Night's Flow is Heard, 1943, for mixed choir of five voices, text: Justo Rodríguez Santos
Two Decades, 1949
For choir of three and four voices, text: Rafaela Chacón Nardi
Three Children's Madrigals, 1956, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Emilio Ballagas
The Palm Tree, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Gerardo Diego
Song for Peace, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Raúl Ferrer, 1959
Land of Blue Mountains, 1964, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Nicolás Guillén; Two Songs, 1965, for mixed choir of four voices, text: José Martí; Guitar in Greater Duel, 1968, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Nicolás Guillén; Twelve Songs for Children, Album No. 1, 1972, for one and two voices with percussion rhythms; Santiago, 1980, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Rafaela Chacón Nardi; Wait, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Mirta Aguirre; No One Has It, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Nicolás Guillén; Josefa and José, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Juan Cristóbal Nápoles Fajardo (El Cucalambé), 1984; The Essence of Your Name, 1988, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Virgilio López Lemus; Small Love, Like a Shell and There Love, for mixed choir of four voices, text: Rafaela Chacón Nardi; Love in Spring, for mixed choir of four voices, 1989, text: Anonymous.

Guitar
Small Suite (Homage to Ravel), 1943, transcription by Jesús Ortega
Fantasy, 1971; Seven Notes for the Dama Duende, Ten Tales for Two Guitars, 1973
Mobile IV, 1980, Like the Flow of the Fountain, 1983
Songs of Villa Graziole, The Miraculous Harp (on an engraving by F. Pereznieto), 1986.

Chamber Music
Prelude and Invention I, for clarinet and bassoon, and Prelude and Invention II, for two trumpets and trombone, 1940
Duo in A Flat, 1943, for flute and piano; Trio, 1944, for clarinet, cello and piano
Capriccio, 1945, for flute, clarinet and cello
Quintet, 1950, for flute, clarinet, bassoon, viola and double bass
Caligula, 1955, concertante for piano, clarinet, flute, French horn and percussion
Quintet, for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn, and Divertimento, for trumpet, French horn, trombone and tuba, 1957
Mobile II, 1968-1970, for flute, French horn, piano, vibraphone, xylophone and percussion
Synthesis, 1971, for flute, guitar, viola and percussion
Hell, for baritone, guitar, flute, cello and vibraphone, text: José Martí
For the Dama Duende, for guitar, flute, viola, cello and percussion
Repairing the Path, first version: choir, flute, guitar and percussion; second version: Soprano, two flutes, guitar and percussion
Cantata for Abel, mixed choir, narrator and ten percussionists, texts: José Martí, Raúl Gómez García, Abel Santamaría, Haydée Santamaría, Fidel Castro and Juan Almeida, 1973
Other Days Will Come (Homage to Chile in the Death of Salvador Allende), 1975, for soprano, reciter, piano, flute, clarinet, French horn and percussion, text: Pablo Neruda
Designs, 1976, for flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn and bassoon with percussion
Mobile III, 1977, for flute and piano; In the Garden of Song, 1979, cantata for soprano and chamber orchestra, text: Ángel Gaztelu
Trio for Four, for piano, violin, cello and French horn
Dialogue, for violin and piano, 1981; Guirigay, 1985, for violin I and II, viola, cello, double bass, flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon and French horn
Corimeu, 1987, for violin, cello and piano
Pax Verum Eninvero, 1995, for flute, oboe and clarinet, bass.

Incidental Music for Puppet Theater
Mariana's Caprices (Alfredo de Musset), 1943
Don't Lose Your Head (anonymous farce for puppet theater), Floripondito (farce for puppet theater)
text: Nicolás Guillén, 1951; Caligula (Albert Camus), 1955
Love of Don Perlimplin with Belisa in the Garden (erotic alleluia by Federico García Lorca), Medea the Enchantress (José Bergamín), 1957
Volpone (Ben Jonson, version by Rolando Ferrer), 1966
Amphitryon (Plautus, version by Rolando Ferrer), 1970
The Three Sisters (Anton Chekhov), 1972
Repairing the Path (documentary theater by Hoang Trung Thong), The Inspector (Nikolai Gogol), The Phantom Lady (Pedro Calderón de la Barca, version by Rolando Ferrer), 1973.

Music for Cinema
The Times of Young Martí, short film, directed: José Massip, ICAIC
Housing, short film, directed: José Massip, ICAIC, 1959
Rebels (Stories of the Revolution), directed: Tomás Gutiérrez Alea, ICAIC, 1960
Travel Notebook, short film, directed: Joris Ivens, ICAIC
Havana 61, documentary, directed: Jerzy Hoffman and music by Edgar Korzewski
String Serenade, Poland, 1962
Maroon, short film, directed: Sergio Giral, ICAIC, 1967
David, documentary about Frank País, directed: Enrique Pineda Barnet, ICAIC, 1969.

Symphonic Music
Symphony in E Minor, 1945
Serenade, 1947, for string orchestra
Two Cuban Dances: "Montuna" and "Sonera", 1950; Symphonietta, 1955
In Memoriam (Homage to Frank País), 1961
The Death of the Guerrilla Fighter, 1968-1969, for reciter and orchestra, text: Nicolás Guillén ("Che Commander") Triptych, 1972, for soprano and orchestra, text: José Martí
For the Dama Duende, 1974, concerto for guitar and orchestra; Martí's Ode, 1978-1979, for baritone and orchestra, text: José Martí ("Flowers of Heaven" and "Hell")
Discourse of Ancient America (Homage to Haydée Santamaría), 1985, for soprano and orchestra, texts: Pre-Columbian Anonymities ("Gucunatz", "Our Song", and "Kacharpari").

Piano
Sonata in G Sharp, 1942
Small Suite (Homage to Ravel), 1943
Three Dances (Homage to Ignacio Cervantes), 1947
Two Cuban Dances, 1949
Prelude for the Album, 1950
Three Preludes in the Manner of a Toccata, 1951
Cuban Suite for Children, Guajira, 1956
Hispanic Sonatina, 1957
Mobile I, 1969
Study of Contrasts, 1974
Incidents, 1977
Six Ancient Dances, 1989
Landscape of Two for Four, 1996.

Voice and Guitar
Medea's Song, for soprano, text: José Bergamín
Belisa's Song and Couplets, soprano, text: Federico García Lorca, 1957
Song for Peace, soprano or baritone, 1959, text: Raúl Ferrer
Guitar in Greater Duel, for soprano or baritone, 1967, text: Nicolás Guillén.

Voice and Piano
Triptych, 1954, for soprano or baritone, text: José Martí
In the Garden of Song, for soprano, text: Ángel Gaztelu
Two Songs, for soprano, text: Emilio Ballagas, 1956
Belisa's Song and Couplets, for soprano, text: Federico García Lorca
Song of Love of Don Perlimplin, for tenor, text: Federico García Lorca
Song for Peace, for soprano or baritone, text: Raúl Ferrer
Songs, for soprano or baritone, text: Antonio Machado, 1959
Guitar in Greater Duel, for soprano or baritone, 1967, text: Nicolás Guillén
Two Songs, 1971, for soprano or tenor, text: José Martí
The Pearl, for soprano, text: Humberto Hedman
Turtledove, for soprano, text: Pablo Armando Fernández
You Have the Gift, for baritone, text: José Martí, 1982
Discourse of Ancient America, for soprano, texts: Pre-Columbian Anonymities
Eternal Song, for soprano, text: Emilio Ballagas, 1985
Two Songs, 1993, for soprano, text: Nicolás Guillén.