Pablo Hernández Balaguer

Musicologist and composer. He was director of the Provincial Music Archive of Santiago de Cuba, and conducted extensive research on the history of Cuban music and especially that concerning Esteban Salas and the archives of The Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba.

He was born in La Habana. He studied harmony and cello with Ernesto Xancó; subsequently he continued his studies in Barcelona where he studied harmony with Zamacois, and completed them in Moscú, Budapest and Praga, to specialize in musicology.

Upon his return to Cuba, he joined the faculty of the University of Oriente, where he taught classes on the history of general music and Cuban folk music. He was a professor at the Conservatorio Esteban Salas of Santiago de Cuba.

In 1959 he was appointed director of the Music Archive of Oriente, in Santiago de Cuba, a city where he had begun in 1956 his research on the life and work of Esteban Salas, Cratilio Guerra and Pedro Boudet, all masters of the Music Chapel of the Santiago Cathedral, as well as on Laureano Fuentes Matons, Silvano Boudet and José Bisbé; he carried out the same work in the Music Archive of the Museo Bacardí.

Regarding the research work, Hernández Balaguer would express:
«The musicological research work being carried out by the Music Section of the University of Oriente has not been limited to the search and study of musical works, but also includes the examination of the archives in everything that may have a relationship with music, especially documents that may contain data relating to the life and musical activity of the composers studied, such as ordination records, capitular acts, royal decrees, etcetera, in addition to baptism records, death records and other documents of a similar nature.»

This rescue work, this desire to make the musical past something present and everyday, had its culminating point when he delved into the life and work of Esteban Salas, who was for him a recurring figure at all times. This passion and the profound significance that the Habanero priest and composer had, resulted in the most complete study that has been carried out to date on a Cuban musician: The villancicos, cantadas and pastorelas of Esteban Salas, a work that completes the references of Laureano Fuentes Matons in The arts in Santiago de Cuba and the discoveries of Alejo Carpentier, presented in Music in Cuba. Furthermore, he set out to write a history of Cuban music in the colonial period, a study that he divided by centuries: XVI, XVII, XVIII and XIX, the latter periodized from 1800 to 1898.

In his research, Hernández Balaguer departed from the models of European historiography in use, which were followed—and are still followed—in Cuba and the rest of the countries of Latin America, and did not fall into the error of measuring the development achieved by our composers based on foreign standards. He did situate the influences exerted by the schools and aesthetic currents of the Old Continent, but only to reaffirm our way of doing things—if the expression is permissible—at a moment when Cuba was shaping its physiognomy as a nation. As a composer, he showed an exquisite and refined sensitivity, not without a certain Creole air.

Works
Lied, (for voice and piano)
Madrigal, (for choir)
Pastoral, (for piano), 1951
Divertimento, 1957
Elegy, inspired by the figure of Frank País, 1958

Active Bibliography
Esteban Salas. Four villancicos. La Habana, Editions of the Department of Music of the José Martí National Library, n.d.; Works of Esteban Salas. Santiago de Cuba, University of Oriente, 1960
Esteban Salas. Bright lights. Christmas villancico for four voices with violins and bass. Santiago de Cuba, University of Oriente, 1961; Esteban Salas. 3 liturgical works. Santiago de Cuba, University of Oriente, 1962
«Panorama of Cuban colonial music». Revista Musical Chilena (Santiago de Chile)(81-82): 201-208; July December 1962
«The Music Chapel of the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba». Revista Musical Chilena (Santiago de Chile) (90): 14-61, October-December 1964
The villancicos, cantadas and pastorelas of Esteban Salas. La Habana, Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1986
The oldest document of Cuban music and other essays. La Habana, Editorial Letras Cubanas, 1986.