José Ardevol Gimbernat

Spanish composer, born in Barcelona and naturalized Cuban. Pianist. He founded the Chamber Orchestra of La Habana and was general director of music of the National Council of Culture. His work encompasses three symphonies, a cantata, several suites and compositions for small orchestra.

He began his musical studies in Spain under the guidance of his father, a musician and orchestra conductor. Since 1930 he established his residence in La Habana (Cuba) adopting Cuban nationality.

In 1924 he presented himself for the first time before the public in the Mozart Hall, Barcelona; between 1925 and 1926 he offered several recitals, performed as a soloist with the Chamber Orchestra, conducted by his father, and premiered Capriccio. In 1929 he graduated from the Ardévol Academy; he traveled to Paris, where he obtained the superior degree in piano; there he met Russian composer Igor Stravinsky and Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos. Upon returning to Barcelona he premiered Nocturno no. 2, and became part of the Beethoven Trio, with Roberto Plaja on violin, Buenaventura Casalina on cello and Ardévol on piano. In 1930 he went to Paris again to study orchestra conducting with Hermann Scherchen.

He was a professor of composition, gathering around him a group of young musicians with whom he undertook a movement of renewal whose results were soon evident.

In a pamphlet titled Presencia cubana en la música universal (La Habana, 1945), the objectives of the "Musical Renewal Group" and its aesthetic are set forth.

Among Ardévol's works, we have the ballet Forma (premiered in 1943), La Burla de Don Pedro a caballo (1943), for soloists, choir and orchestra; 3 Symphonies, 2 Cuban suites and various works for orchestra and quartets, he is also author of numerous chamber music compositions, piano pieces and melodies.

On December 8, 1930 he arrived in Cuba, where he settled. In 1931 he offered piano recitals and gave lectures; he met composer and orchestra conductor Amadeo Roldán. On April 7, 1932 he presented a recital with several of his works for piano at the Lyceum Lawn and Tennis Club. He joined as an active member of The American Association of Composers. On March 5, 1934 he founded as conductor the Chamber Orchestra of La Habana, whose first concert took place on April 8 at the Campoamor theater, with works by Juan Sebastián Bach, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Joseph Haydn. He obtained, with the Concerto no. 1 for string instruments, first prize in the International Chamber Music Competition in Brussels, Belgium.

In 1936 he was appointed professor of aesthetics and history of music at the Municipal Conservatory of Music of La Habana; in 1938, due to illness of Amadeo Roldán, he taught the subjects of Orchestration and Composition; at this center he worked until 1961. He was also professor at the Internacional, Orbón, Hubert de Blanck and Mateu conservatories.

On June 20, 1942 the Chamber Orchestra offered a concert at the Lyceum where sonatinas by a group of Ardévol's students at the Conservatory were presented. From this concert came the idea of bringing together the young students who participated, and thus was born the Musical Renewal Group.

Regarding Ardévol's importance as a teacher, Alejo Carpentier would say years later:

«I believe that Ardévol is the best teacher that the current generation of Cuban composers could have found [...]. The presence of José Ardévol has caused Cuban music to take a tremendous step forward [...].»

At the Museum of Modern Art in New York, John Cage premiered on May 18, 1943 Ardévol's work Preludio a once. In La Habana, the Pro-Arte Musical Society celebrated in May 1943 its Ballet Festival, in which Forma was premiered, with music by Ardévol, text by José Lezama Lima and choreography by Alberto Alonso, performed by Alicia and Fernando Alonso and Alexandra Denisova, with the Philharmonic Orchestra of La Habana, conducted by Ardévol, and the Choir of La Habana, with María Muñoz at the helm. In referring to this work, Carpentier expressed:

«Forma [...], is one of the most important works that have been written in Cuba, since the beginning of the century, both in conception and in execution. A masked choir intervenes constantly in the action situated in the universal and timeless, which shows us man finding his own form —his inner dimension and the consciousness of that dimension— by living the phases of all human experience: contact with the people, struggles, falls, discoveries and establishment of the feminine ideal [...]. Human voices intervene in Forma as in ancient tragedy, glossing, although always in a static manner, what occurs on stage.»

In addressing the way Ardévol assumes what is Cuban, composer Harold Gramatges would say:

«A musician like Ardévol, always faithful, in the moment of creation, to the deepest conception of each work, could not capriciously anticipate, by an act of intelligence (I say this thinking of his great mastery and his imaginative force in constructing), the Cubanization of his music. Only a natural process of integration, both in the artistic and human order, could lead him to express himself in the degree of Cuban concreteness with which he does so in the present. Because the true musical essence of a land cannot be borrowed to nourish a work if it is to be that, once created, it belongs substantially to that land; that is, that it can be intuited, with sufficient clarity of what soil it has sprung from, despite any incorporation of constitutive elements (freedom for the choice of morphological ideas, for example) that in the process of its elaboration has been necessary to place it on a plane of universal validity. For this to be so, as happens with Ardévol's current music, one must allow that essence to arise in the artist in a spontaneous manner; that it course through his body, merging with his own blood. Because "seeking it means not having it defined".»

At the First Festival of Latin American Music held in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 7, 1954, works by Amadeo Roldán, Alejandro García Caturla, Julián Orbón and the Tríptico de Santiago by Ardévol are heard, who attended the celebration. In April 1958 he participated in the Interamerican Festival in Washington. In 1959, and until 1964, he taught composition at the Amadeo Roldán Conservatory (formerly Municipal of La Habana), and was subsequently appointed dean of the Faculty of Music of the Higher Institute of Art.

Regarding his importance to the history of Cuban music, Alejo Carpentier expressed in 1946:

«although, by his training and the direction of his aesthetic concerns, José Ardévol could have remained detached from the evolution of Cuban music; the role played by him in recent times is so considerable that, in fact, he has come to lead movements and promote tendencies that characterize, for the moment, the artistic life of the island [...].»

In the realm of criticism and the history of Cuban music, Ardévol also left appreciable contributions that are today important elements for evaluating with historical perspective the development of this important aspect of Cuba's musical culture.

Contributions

Regarding Ardévol's importance as a teacher, Alejo Carpentier would say years later: «I believe that Ardévol is the best teacher that the current generation of Cuban composers could have found [...]. The presence of José Ardévol has caused Cuban music to take a tremendous step forward [...].»

In referring to the work "Forma", Carpentier expressed: «Forma [...], is one of the most important works that have been written in Cuba, since the beginning of the century, both in conception and in execution. A masked choir intervenes constantly in the action situated in the universal and timeless, which shows us man finding his own form —his inner dimension and the consciousness of that dimension— by living the phases of all human experience: contact with the people, struggles, falls, discoveries and establishment of the feminine ideal [...]. Human voices intervene in Forma as in ancient tragedy, glossing, although always in a static manner, what occurs on stage.»

In addressing the way Ardévol assumes what is Cuban, composer Harold Gramatges would say: «A musician like Ardévol, always faithful, in the moment of creation, to the deepest conception of each work, could not capriciously anticipate, by an act of intelligence (I say this thinking of his great mastery and his imaginative force in constructing), the Cubanization of his music. Only a natural process of integration, both in the artistic and human order, could lead him to express himself in the degree of Cuban concreteness with which he does so in the present.

Because the true musical essence of a land cannot be borrowed to nourish a work if it is to be that, once created, it belongs substantially to that land; that is, that it can be intuited, with sufficient clarity of what soil it has sprung from, despite any incorporation of constitutive elements (freedom for the choice of morphological ideas, for example) that in the process of its elaboration has been necessary to place it on a plane of universal validity.

For this to be so, as happens with Ardévol's current music, one must allow that essence to arise in the artist in a spontaneous manner; that it course through his body, merging with his own blood. Because "seeking it means not having it defined".»

Regarding his importance to the history of Cuban music, Alejo Carpentier expressed in 1946: «Although, by his training and the direction of his aesthetic concerns, José Ardévol could have remained detached from the evolution of Cuban music; the role played by him in recent times is so considerable that, in fact, he has come to lead movements and promote tendencies that characterize, for the moment, the artistic life of the island [...].»

In the realm of criticism and the history of Cuban music, Ardévol also left appreciable contributions that are today important elements for evaluating with historical perspective the development of this important aspect of Cuba's musical culture.

At the First Festival of Latin American Music held in Caracas, Venezuela, on December 7, 1954, works by Amadeo Roldán, Alejandro García Caturla, Julián Orbón and the Tríptico de Santiago by Ardévol are heard, who attended the celebration. In April 1958 he participated in the Interamerican Festival in Washington.

Works
Capriccio, 1922
Nocturnos, 1924
Capriccio, 1925, for flute, oboe and piano
Inventions for Two Voices, 1926
Quartet no. 1, 1931, for six string instruments
Concerto no. 2, 1932, for six string instruments
Nine Small Pieces (first version), 1932
Chamber Music, 1936, for six instruments
Concerto, 1938, for three pianos and orchestra
Quartet no. 1 in G and Symphony no. 1, 1943
Concerto, for piano and wind instruments, and Three Sonatas, 1944
Forma, ballet for choirs and orchestra, text: José Lezama Lima, Fifth Sonata for Three, for two clarinets in E flat and bass clarinet
Symphony no. 2 ("Homage to Manuel de Falla"), and Three Small Preludes, 1945
Two Cantigas of Praise to Santa María, text: Arcipreste de Hita
Symphony no. 3 (dedicated to Wifredo Lam), and Third Concerto Grosso, for violin, clarinet, horn and small orchestra, 1946
Sonata, for solo guitar, 1948
Simple Verses, text: José Martí, and Tríptico de Santiago, 1949
Quintet, 1957, for wind instruments
Quartet no. 2, 1958
Music for Two Guitars, 1965
Nonet, 1966
Music, for guitar and small orchestra, 1967
Chile: Comrade President, 1974, cantata for five vocal soloists, reciter, choir and orchestra, texts: Nicolás Guillén, Pablo Neruda, Gonzalo Rojas and Salvador Allende
Chamber Cantata no. 2, for two sopranos, contrabass and instrumental ensemble, text: Pablo Neruda, Concerto, for piano and orchestra and The Satrapies, 1975
Until the Son Bleeding, Chamber Cantata no. 1, for piano, soprano, guitar, xylophone, vibraphone and three percussionists, text: Cintio Vitier and Simple Martianas, five pieces for piano, 1979.