Biography

Born in San Gabriel

San Gabriel

San Gabriel may mean:Ecuador*San Gabriel, EcuadorGuatemala*San Gabriel, SuchitepéquezMexico*San Gabriel, Durango*San Gabriel, Guanajuato*San Gabriel, Jalisco*San Gabriel Chilac, Puebla*San Gabriel Mixtepec, OaxacaPhilippines*San Gabriel, La Union...

, Jalisco

Jalisco

Jalisco officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Jalisco is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is located in Western Mexico and divided in 125 municipalities and its capital city is Guadalajara.It is one of the more important states...

, Galindo studied intermittently from 1931 to 1944 at the National Conservatory

National Conservatory of Music (Mexico)

The National Conservatory of Music of Mexico is a music conservatory located in the Polanco section of Mexico City, Federal District, Mexico.-History:...

 in Mexico City

Mexico City

Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...

, under Carlos Chávez

Carlos Chávez

Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez was a Mexican composer, conductor, music theorist, educator, journalist, and founder and director of the Mexican Symphonic Orchestra. He was influenced by native Mexican cultures. Of his six Symphonies, his Symphony No...

, Candelario Huizar, José Rolón, and Manuel Rodríguez Vizcarra. In 1934, he formed the Grupo de los cuatro with fellow composers Daniel Ayala, Salvador Contreras, and José Pablo Moncayo

José Pablo Moncayo

José Pablo Moncayo García was a Mexican pianist, percussionist, music teacher, composer and conductor. "As composer, José Pablo Moncayo represents one of the most important legacies of the Mexican nationalism in art music, after Silvestre Revueltas and Carlos Chávez." He produced some of the...

, seeking to use indigenous Mexican musical materials in art-music compositions.

In 1941, he was an assistant at the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood

Tanglewood

Tanglewood is an estate and music venue in Lenox and Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It is the home of the annual summer Tanglewood Music Festival and the Tanglewood Jazz Festival, and has been the Boston Symphony Orchestra's summer home since 1937. It was the venue of the Berkshire Festival.- History...

, and studied under Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland

Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...

 at the Berkshire Music Center

Tanglewood Music Center

The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...

 in 1941-42. Returning to Mexico in 1942, he became a professor of composition at the National Conservatory and in 1947 was named Director of the conservatory (which he held until 1961) as well as director of the music department of the National Institute of Fine Arts (Conant 1977, 95–96). From 1960 to 1965, he was music director for the Symphony of the Mexican Institute of Social Security (Conant 1977, 97).

In 1947, Galindo was named Chief of the Department for the National Institute of Fine Arts. In September 1947, Chávez named him Director of the National Conservatory of Music

National Conservatory of Music

National Conservatory of Music may refer to:* CNSM de Lyon, in Lyon, France* National Conservatory of Music * National Conservatory of Music of America, a school founded by Jeannette Thurber in New York City in 1885...

, a title he maintained until 1961. Before this appointment he began as a student at the Conservatory, later becoming a professor of many subjects including “harmony, counterpoint, musical analysis, history of music and composition.” While at the Conservatory, Galindo also conducted the student orchestra, reformed the bylaws and built a new building. In August 1949, he judged the fourth Frederick Chopin piano competition in Poland. There he directed six concerts of Mexican music.

In 1952, he married Ernestina Mendoza Vega. He became Director of Artistic Activities for the Mexican Social Security Institute

Mexican Social Security Institute

The Mexican Social Security Institute is a governmental organization that attends to public health, pensions and social security in Mexico operating under Secretaría de Salud .-History:...

 (I.M.S.S.) in 1955 and in 1959 I.M.S.S. named him Chief of the Music Section of the Department of Social Services. In 1960, he began conducting the Social Security Institute’s Symphony Orchestra. Galindo was a frequent attendee of music festivals and guest conductor of symphony orchestras. Also, he was a lecturer and editor of magazines, sometimes writing articles, concerning music.

In 1960, he was able to focus on composition when he was awarded a “fellowship from the Secretary of Public Education”. Galindo retired in 1965 and dedicated himself to his composition, writing some for pleasure and others for “commission”. To do this, he would frequently “retreat from Mexico City to a house in the country for weeks at a time in order to immerse himself fully.” To celebrate the 25th anniversary of the opening of the new building at eh Conservatory, he directed the Conservatory orchestra and chorus in 1974. In July 1974, Galindo accompanied the President of Mexico with “a number of other intellectuals” to South America.

Galindo “constantly [fought] the problem of trying to have [his works] performed more than just once and the financial problems of having them published”. R.P. Conant wrote of Galindo, “He would, however, like to write an opera or even a cycle of operas dealing with the life of Mexico, the agitated life of Mexico from the Aztec leader Cuauhtémoc through the leaders of Mexican independence like Morelos, Juárez, Zapata, and Cardenas” (Conant 1977).

Awards

“José Angel Lamas” prize from Secretary of Public Education; honor diploma from the Venezuelan Society of Authors and Composers; gold medal as “the best composer of the year”; diploma from the Municipality of Los Angeles, California; National Arts and Science Award for 1958-1964, presented by the President of the republic of Mexico, Adolfo Lopez Mateos

Works

Galindo's compositions number over 150, and include works in a variety of styles and ensemble forces.

Orchestral

• 1940 Sones de mariachi
• 1951 Suite for the ballet "La manda"
• 1952 Scherzo mexicano for string orchestra
• 1957 Segunda Sinfonía
• Concierto for flute and orchestra
• Concierto, for violin and orchestra
• Concierto, for cello and orchestra
• Concierto Nº 2, for piano and orchestra
• Homenaje a Cervantes, suite
• Letanía erótica
• Nocturno, for orchestra
• Obertura mexicana no. 2, for piano and orchestra
• Poema de Neruda, for string orchestra
• Sinfonía breve, voor strings
• Concierto, for flute and band
• Concierto, for guitar and band
• 1951 La Manda, ballet

Vocal works

• 1939 Jicarita
• 1939 Mi querer pasaba el río
• 1939 Paloma blanca
• 1946 Cantata a la Patria, cantate based on the poem Suave Patria by Ramón López Velarde
  Ramón López Velarde
  Ramón López Velarde was aMexican poet. His work is generally considered to be postmodern, but is unique for its subject matter. He achieved great fame in his native land, to the point of being considered Mexico's national poet....
  
  , for mixed choir and orchestra
• 1948 Me Gusta Cuando Callas, after Pablo Neruda
  Pablo Neruda
  Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet, diplomat and politician Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. He chose his pen name after Czech poet Jan Neruda....
  
  
• 1957 Cantata Homenaje a Benito Juárez
  Benito Juárez
  Benito Juárez born Benito Pablo Juárez García, was a Mexican lawyer and politician of Zapotec origin from Oaxaca who served five terms as president of Mexico: 1858–1861 as interim, 1861–1865, 1865–1867, 1867–1871 and 1871–1872...
  
  
• Dos Corazones for mixed choir
• Arrullo, for soloist and orchestra
• Canciones de Jalisco
• Madre mía cuando muera, for soprano and orchestra
• Segundo himno de Jalisco

Chamber music

• 1947 Sonata, for clarinet and piano
• 1948 Sonata, for cello and piano
• Piano Quintet
• Suite, for violin and piano

Solo piano

• 1935 La lagartija
• 1936 Suite No. 2
  1. Impresión
  2. Caricatura de vals
  3. Jalisciense
• 1937 Sombra, Preludio
• 1937 Preludio
• 1938 Llano alegre
• 1939 Danzarina, waltz
• 1941 Fuga en do
• 1944 Allegro para una sonata
• 1944 Preludio
• 1945 Cinco preludios
• 1945 Y ella estaba triste, Preludio
• 1952 Siete piezas
• 1964-1973 Piezas infantiles
• 1976 Sonata
• 1987 Preludio No. VI

Guitar

• Suplica de Amor

Film scores

• 1955 Raices

Further reading

• Stevenson, Robert. 2001. "Galindo Dimas, Blas". The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie
  Stanley Sadie
  Stanley Sadie CBE was a leading British musicologist, music critic, and editor. He was editor of the sixth edition of the Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians , which was published as the first edition of the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians.Sadie was educated at St Paul's School,...
  
   and John Tyrrell
  John Tyrrell (professor of music)
  John Tyrrell was born in Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia in 1942. He studied at the universities of Cape Town, Oxford and Brno. In 2000 he was appointed Research Professor at Cardiff University....
  
  . London: Macmillan Publishers.