Carlos Chávez
Encyclopedia
Carlos Antonio de Padua Chávez y Ramírez (13 June 1899 – 2 August 1978) 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. 2, which uses native Yaqui percussion instruments, is probably the most popular.
, near the suburb of Popotla (Garcia Morillo 1960, 11). His paternal grandfather, José María Chávez Alonso
, served as governor of the state of Aguascalientes
and was ordered executed by Emperor Maximilian in 1864. His father, Augustín Chávez, invented a plough
that was produced and used in the United States
, and died when Carlos was barely three years old (Parker 1998, 3).
Carlos had his first piano lessons from his brother Manuel, and later on he was taught by Asunción Parra, Manuel Ponce and Pedro Luis Ozagón, for piano, and later Juan Fuentes for harmony. His family often went on vacations to Tlaxcala
, Michoacán
, Guanajuato
, Oaxaca
and other places where the cultural influence of the Aztec
and other indigenous peoples was still very strong (Parker 2001).
In 1916, Chávez and friends started a cultural journal, Gladios, and this led to Chávez joining the staff of the Mexico City newspaper in 1924. In the succeeding 36 years he wrote over 500 items for this paper (Parker 2001; García Morillo 1960, 230–36).
After the Mexican Revolution
and the installation of a democratically elected president, Álvaro Obregón
, Chávez became one of the first exponents of Mexican nationalist music with ballets on Aztec
themes (Parker 2001).
In September 1922, Chávez married Otilia Ortiz and they went on honeymoon to Europe, from October 1922 until April 1923, spending two weeks in Vienna
, five months in Berlin
, and eight or ten days in Paris
(Garcia Morillo 1960, 25–26). During the latter visit he met Paul Dukas
(Parker 2001). Some months later, in December 1923, Chávez visited the United States
for the first time, returning in March 1924 (Garcia Morillo 1960, 26). Chávez again went to New York
in September 1926 and stayed there until June 1928 (Garcia Morillo 1960, 40). Upon his return to Mexico, Chávez became director of the (Mexican Symphonic Orchestra), later renamed (Mexico's Symphonic Orchestra); the country's first permanent orchestra, started by a musicians' labor union. Chávez was instrumental in taking the orchestra on tour through Mexico's rural areas.
In 1928, Chávez was appointed director of Mexico's National Conservatory of Music—a position he held for six years. In that capacity, Chávez spearheaded projects to collect aboriginal folk music.
In 1937, Chávez published a book, Toward a New Music, which is one of the first books in which a composer speaks about electronic music
. In 1938, he conducted a series of concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra
, during a period of absence by the orchestra's regular conductor, Arturo Toscanini
. In 1940 he produced concerts at New York's Museum of Modern Art
, and by 1945, Chávez had come to be regarded as the foremost Mexican composer and conductor (Slonimsky 1945, 230–31).
From January 1947 until 1952, Chávez served as director-general of the National Institute of Fine Arts. In his first year, he formed the National Symphony Orchestra
, which supplanted the older OSM as Mexico's premier orchestra and led to the disbanding of the older ensemble. Throughout all this time, Chávez maintained a busy international touring schedule (Parker 2001).
In May 1953 he was commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein
, director of the New York City center of Music and Drama, for a three-act opera to a libretto by Chester Kallman
based on a story by Boccaccio, to be titled The Tuscan Players. Intended to be finished in August 1954, it was first postponed to April 1955, but only finally completed in 1956, by which time the title had been changed twice, first to Pánfilo and Lauretta, then to . The City Center waived its rights to the first performance, which was given under the title Panfilo and Lauretta in the Brander Matthews Theatre at Columbia University
in New York on May 9, 1957, under the baton of Howard Shanet
. Stage direction was by Bill Butler, scenic design by Herbert Senn and Helen Pond, and costumes by Sylvia Wintle. The principal singers were Sylvia Stahlman
, Frank Porretta, Craig Timberlake
, Mary McMurray, Michael Kermoyan, and Thomas Stewart (Taubman 1957). The opera would be revised twice more and the title changed again to (The Visitors
), for productions in 1968 and 1973, in Mexico City and Aptos, California
, respectively (Parker 2001; Garcia Morillo 1960, 171). From 1958–1959 he was the Charles Eliot Norton professor at Harvard University
, and the public lectures he gave there were published as a book, Musical Thought (Chávez 1961).
Failing health and financial setbacks forced Chávez to sell his house in the neighborhood of Mexico City and move in with his daughter Anita in Coyoacán
, in the fringes of the Mexican capital, where he died quietly on 2 August 1978 (Parker 2001).
Carlos Chávez's manuscripts and papers are housed in the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
and in the National Archive of Mexico, in Mexico City.
During his time in New York between 1924 and 1928, Chávez acquired a taste for the then-fashionable abstract and quasi-scientific music, as is reflected in the titles of many of his compositions written between 1923 and 1934: for piano (Polygons, 1923), for voice and piano (Hexagons, 1924), 36 for piano (1925), for nine instruments (Energy, 1925), for violin and piano (Spiral, 1934), and an unfinished orchestral score titled (Pyramids).
The culmination of this period was the ballet H. P. (i.e., Horse Power), also known by the Spanish title (1926–31) (Slonimsky 1945, 231). H. P. is a colorfully orchestrated score of ample dimensions and dense, compact atmosphere, notable for its dynamism and vitality, revealing the influence of Stravinsky
and at the same time returning to folkloric and popular elements, with dances such as the sandunga, tango
, huapango
, and foxtrot (Garcia Morillo 1960, 49–51). Such nationalisms would appear through the 1930s, notably in the Second Symphony (the of 1935–36, one of the few works by Chávez to quote actual Native-American themes), but only sporadically in later compositions (Parker 2001).
Although this early period saw the creation of the Sonatina for violin and piano (1924), it was only in the 1930s that Chávez returned to another of the main musical interests of his maturity, prefigured in the juvenilia: the traditional genres of the sonata
, quartet
, symphony
, and concerto
(Parker 2001). He composed six numbered symphonies. The first, titled (1933), was reworked from incidental music for Cocteau's Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles
' tragedy. In it, Chávez sought to create an archaic ambiance through the use of modal polyphony, harmonies built on fourths and fifths, and a predominant use of wind instruments (Parker 2001).
In the fourth of his Norton lectures of 1958–59, titled "Repetition in Music" (Chávez 1961, 55–84), he described a mode of composition already observable in many of his compositions since the 1920s, in which "The idea of repetition and variation can be replaced by the notion of constant rebirth, of true derivation: a stream that never comes back to its source; a stream in eternal development, like a spiral …" (Chávez 1961, 84).
stereophonic recording of his Sinfonía India, Sinfonía di Antígona, and Sinfonía Romántica, in which Chávez conducted the Stadium Symphony Orchestra, the name given to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for its summer performances in the Lewisohn Stadium
. The album was originally issued in 1959 by Everest Records
on LP SDBR 3029, and was reissued on CD in 1996 by Everest as EVC-9041, as well as at some point by Philips Records
. In 1963 Chávez conducted the Vienna State Opera Orchestra
in two recordings with pianist Eugene List
for Westminster Records
, both released on LP: one of his own Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Westminster WST 17030, reissued in 1976 as Westminster Gold WGS 8324) and one of the two piano concertos by Edward Macdowell
(ABC Westminster Gold WGS 8156). In the 1950s he released two recordings on US Decca records, on which he conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica de México. In 1951 a 10-inch mono LP was issued (Decca Gold Label DL 7512, reissued 1978 by Varèse Sarabande on side 2 of 12-inch LP ), containing his Suite from La hija de Cólquide (originally recorded in 1947 for the Mexican label Anfión and issued as a 3-disc 78 rpm set Anfión AM 4), and in 1956 they released an anthology, Music of Mexico, on which he conducted three of his own works, plus José Pablo Moncayo
's Huapango (Decca Gold Label LP, DL9527). He also made some recordings for Columbia Records
which were issued on 78-rpm discs and on LP (Columbia 4-disc 78-rpm set M 414, reissued 1949 on Columbia 10-inch LP, Columbia ML 2080 and Mexican Columbia DCL 98, reissued on Columbia 12-inch LP, LL 1015; CBS Masterworks 3-LP set 32 31 0001 (mono)/ 32 31 002 (stereo); CBC Masterworks LP 32 11 0064; Columbia LP M32685; Odyssey LP Y 31534). In 1961 he recorded Sergey Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de México and Carlos Pellicer, narrator, released on Mexican CBS MC 1360.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, conductor
Conducting
Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. The primary duties of the conductor are to unify performers, set the tempo, execute clear preparations and beats, and to listen critically and shape the sound of the ensemble...
, 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. 2, which uses native Yaqui percussion instruments, is probably the most popular.
Biography
The seventh child of a creole family, Chávez was born on Tacuba avenue in Mexico CityMexico 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...
, near the suburb of Popotla (Garcia Morillo 1960, 11). His paternal grandfather, José María Chávez Alonso
José María Chávez Alonso
José María Chávez Alonso was a Mexican politician. He served as the governor of the state of Aguascalientes from 1862 to 1863....
, served as governor of the state of Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes
Aguascalientes is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 11 municipalities and its capital city is Aguascalientes....
and was ordered executed by Emperor Maximilian in 1864. His father, Augustín Chávez, invented a plough
Plough
The plough or plow is a tool used in farming for initial cultivation of soil in preparation for sowing seed or planting. It has been a basic instrument for most of recorded history, and represents one of the major advances in agriculture...
that was produced and used in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and died when Carlos was barely three years old (Parker 1998, 3).
Carlos had his first piano lessons from his brother Manuel, and later on he was taught by Asunción Parra, Manuel Ponce and Pedro Luis Ozagón, for piano, and later Juan Fuentes for harmony. His family often went on vacations to Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala
Tlaxcala officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Tlaxcala is one of the 31 states which along with the Federal District comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 60 municipalities and its capital city is Tlaxcala....
, Michoacán
Michoacán
Michoacán officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Michoacán de Ocampo is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 113 municipalities and its capital city is Morelia...
, Guanajuato
Guanajuato
Guanajuato officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato is one of the 31 states which, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 46 municipalities and its capital city is Guanajuato....
, Oaxaca
Oaxaca
Oaxaca , , officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca is one of the 31 states which, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided into 571 municipalities; of which 418 are governed by the system of customs and traditions...
and other places where the cultural influence of the Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
and other indigenous peoples was still very strong (Parker 2001).
In 1916, Chávez and friends started a cultural journal, Gladios, and this led to Chávez joining the staff of the Mexico City newspaper in 1924. In the succeeding 36 years he wrote over 500 items for this paper (Parker 2001; García Morillo 1960, 230–36).
After the Mexican Revolution
Mexican Revolution
The Mexican Revolution was a major armed struggle that started in 1910, with an uprising led by Francisco I. Madero against longtime autocrat Porfirio Díaz. The Revolution was characterized by several socialist, liberal, anarchist, populist, and agrarianist movements. Over time the Revolution...
and the installation of a democratically elected president, Álvaro Obregón
Álvaro Obregón
General Álvaro Obregón Salido was the President of Mexico from 1920 to 1924. He was assassinated in 1928, shortly after winning election to another presidential term....
, Chávez became one of the first exponents of Mexican nationalist music with ballets on Aztec
Aztec
The Aztec people were certain ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl language and who dominated large parts of Mesoamerica in the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries, a period referred to as the late post-classic period in Mesoamerican chronology.Aztec is the...
themes (Parker 2001).
In September 1922, Chávez married Otilia Ortiz and they went on honeymoon to Europe, from October 1922 until April 1923, spending two weeks in Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, five months in Berlin
Berlin
Berlin is the capital city of Germany and is one of the 16 states of Germany. With a population of 3.45 million people, Berlin is Germany's largest city. It is the second most populous city proper and the seventh most populous urban area in the European Union...
, and eight or ten days in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
(Garcia Morillo 1960, 25–26). During the latter visit he met Paul Dukas
Paul Dukas
Paul Abraham Dukas was a French composer, critic, scholar and teacher. A studious man, of retiring personality, he was intensely self-critical, and he abandoned and destroyed many of his compositions...
(Parker 2001). Some months later, in December 1923, Chávez visited the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
for the first time, returning in March 1924 (Garcia Morillo 1960, 26). Chávez again went to New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in September 1926 and stayed there until June 1928 (Garcia Morillo 1960, 40). Upon his return to Mexico, Chávez became director of the (Mexican Symphonic Orchestra), later renamed (Mexico's Symphonic Orchestra); the country's first permanent orchestra, started by a musicians' labor union. Chávez was instrumental in taking the orchestra on tour through Mexico's rural areas.
In 1928, Chávez was appointed director of Mexico's National Conservatory of Music—a position he held for six years. In that capacity, Chávez spearheaded projects to collect aboriginal folk music.
In 1937, Chávez published a book, Toward a New Music, which is one of the first books in which a composer speaks about electronic music
Electronic music
Electronic music is music that employs electronic musical instruments and electronic music technology in its production. In general a distinction can be made between sound produced using electromechanical means and that produced using electronic technology. Examples of electromechanical sound...
. In 1938, he conducted a series of concerts with the NBC Symphony Orchestra
NBC Symphony Orchestra
The NBC Symphony Orchestra was a radio orchestra established by David Sarnoff of the National Broadcasting Company especially for conductor Arturo Toscanini...
, during a period of absence by the orchestra's regular conductor, Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini
Arturo Toscanini was an Italian conductor. One of the most acclaimed musicians of the late 19th and 20th century, he was renowned for his intensity, his perfectionism, his ear for orchestral detail and sonority, and his photographic memory...
. In 1940 he produced concerts at New York's Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, and by 1945, Chávez had come to be regarded as the foremost Mexican composer and conductor (Slonimsky 1945, 230–31).
From January 1947 until 1952, Chávez served as director-general of the National Institute of Fine Arts. In his first year, he formed the National Symphony Orchestra
National Symphony Orchestra (Mexico)
The National Symphony Orchestra is the most important classical music and symphonic ensemble in Mexico. With its origins traced back as 1881, it is the second oldest symphony orchestra in the American continent along with the Boston Symphony Orchestra...
, which supplanted the older OSM as Mexico's premier orchestra and led to the disbanding of the older ensemble. Throughout all this time, Chávez maintained a busy international touring schedule (Parker 2001).
In May 1953 he was commissioned by Lincoln Kirstein
Lincoln Kirstein
Lincoln Edward Kirstein was an American writer, impresario, art connoisseur, and cultural figure in New York City...
, director of the New York City center of Music and Drama, for a three-act opera to a libretto by Chester Kallman
Chester Kallman
Chester Simon Kallman was an American poet, librettist, and translator, best known for his collaborations with W. H. Auden and Igor Stravinsky.-Life:...
based on a story by Boccaccio, to be titled The Tuscan Players. Intended to be finished in August 1954, it was first postponed to April 1955, but only finally completed in 1956, by which time the title had been changed twice, first to Pánfilo and Lauretta, then to . The City Center waived its rights to the first performance, which was given under the title Panfilo and Lauretta in the Brander Matthews Theatre at Columbia University
Columbia University
Columbia University in the City of New York is a private, Ivy League university in Manhattan, New York City. Columbia is the oldest institution of higher learning in the state of New York, the fifth oldest in the United States, and one of the country's nine Colonial Colleges founded before the...
in New York on May 9, 1957, under the baton of Howard Shanet
Howard Shanet
Howard Shanet was a U.S. conductor and composer. He was also a music professor at Columbia University, and the chairman of its music department from 1972–1978.-Biography:...
. Stage direction was by Bill Butler, scenic design by Herbert Senn and Helen Pond, and costumes by Sylvia Wintle. The principal singers were Sylvia Stahlman
Sylvia Stahlman
Sylvia Stahlman was an American soprano, particularly associated with light, coloratura roles.-Career:Stahlman was born in Nashville, Tennessee, and studied at The Juilliard School in New York City...
, Frank Porretta, Craig Timberlake
Craig Timberlake
Craig Timberlake was an American stage actor, singer, author, and educator. A talented bass, Timberlake performed in operas and musicals in theatres throughout North America in addition to acting in plays from the 1940s through the 1980s.-Biography:Born in Oil City, Pennsylvania, Timberlake was a...
, Mary McMurray, Michael Kermoyan, and Thomas Stewart (Taubman 1957). The opera would be revised twice more and the title changed again to (The Visitors
The Visitors (opera)
The Visitors is an opera in three acts and a prologue composed by Carlos Chávez to an English libretto by the American poet Chester Kallman. The work was Chávez's only opera. Its first version, with the title Panfilo and Lauretta, premiered in New York City in 1957...
), for productions in 1968 and 1973, in Mexico City and Aptos, California
Aptos, California
Aptos is a census-designated place in Santa Cruz County, California, United States. The population was 6,220 at the 2010 census.Aptos is an unincorporated area of Santa Cruz county, consisting of several small communities...
, respectively (Parker 2001; Garcia Morillo 1960, 171). From 1958–1959 he was the Charles Eliot Norton professor at Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, and the public lectures he gave there were published as a book, Musical Thought (Chávez 1961).
Failing health and financial setbacks forced Chávez to sell his house in the neighborhood of Mexico City and move in with his daughter Anita in Coyoacán
Coyoacán
Coyoacán refers to one of the sixteen boroughs of the Federal District of Mexico City as well as the former village which is now the borough’s “historic center.” The name comes from Nahuatl and most likely means “place of coyotes,” when the Aztecs named a pre-Hispanic village on the southern shore...
, in the fringes of the Mexican capital, where he died quietly on 2 August 1978 (Parker 2001).
Carlos Chávez's manuscripts and papers are housed in the Music Division of the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
New York Public Library for the Performing Arts
The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center houses one of the world's largest collections of materials relating to the performing arts. It is one of the four research centers of the New York Public Library's Research library system, and it is also one...
and in the National Archive of Mexico, in Mexico City.
Musical style
Chávez's music does not fall into clear stylistic periods, but rather cumulates elements in a process of continual synthesis. The juvenilia, up to 1921 and consisting primarily of piano compositions, is essentially Romantic, with Schumann as the main influence. A period of nationalistic leanings was initiated in 1921 with the Aztec-themed ballet (The New Fire), followed by a second ballet, (The Four Suns), in 1925 (Parker 2001).During his time in New York between 1924 and 1928, Chávez acquired a taste for the then-fashionable abstract and quasi-scientific music, as is reflected in the titles of many of his compositions written between 1923 and 1934: for piano (Polygons, 1923), for voice and piano (Hexagons, 1924), 36 for piano (1925), for nine instruments (Energy, 1925), for violin and piano (Spiral, 1934), and an unfinished orchestral score titled (Pyramids).
The culmination of this period was the ballet H. P. (i.e., Horse Power), also known by the Spanish title (1926–31) (Slonimsky 1945, 231). H. P. is a colorfully orchestrated score of ample dimensions and dense, compact atmosphere, notable for its dynamism and vitality, revealing the influence of Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
and at the same time returning to folkloric and popular elements, with dances such as the sandunga, tango
Tango (dance)
Tango dance originated in the area of the Rio de la Plata , and spread to the rest of the world soon after....
, huapango
Huapango
Huapango is a corruption of the Nahuatl word huapanco that textually means on top of the wood platform according to the dictionary of the Real Academia Española . Today huapango refers to a musical style that originated in and is played throughout the La Huasteca region in Mexico...
, and foxtrot (Garcia Morillo 1960, 49–51). Such nationalisms would appear through the 1930s, notably in the Second Symphony (the of 1935–36, one of the few works by Chávez to quote actual Native-American themes), but only sporadically in later compositions (Parker 2001).
Although this early period saw the creation of the Sonatina for violin and piano (1924), it was only in the 1930s that Chávez returned to another of the main musical interests of his maturity, prefigured in the juvenilia: the traditional genres of the sonata
Sonata
Sonata , in music, literally means a piece played as opposed to a cantata , a piece sung. The term, being vague, naturally evolved through the history of music, designating a variety of forms prior to the Classical era...
, quartet
String quartet
A string quartet is a musical ensemble of four string players – usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist – or a piece written to be performed by such a group...
, symphony
Symphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
, and concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
(Parker 2001). He composed six numbered symphonies. The first, titled (1933), was reworked from incidental music for Cocteau's Antigone, an adaptation of Sophocles
Sophocles
Sophocles is one of three ancient Greek tragedians whose plays have survived. His first plays were written later than those of Aeschylus, and earlier than or contemporary with those of Euripides...
' tragedy. In it, Chávez sought to create an archaic ambiance through the use of modal polyphony, harmonies built on fourths and fifths, and a predominant use of wind instruments (Parker 2001).
In the fourth of his Norton lectures of 1958–59, titled "Repetition in Music" (Chávez 1961, 55–84), he described a mode of composition already observable in many of his compositions since the 1920s, in which "The idea of repetition and variation can be replaced by the notion of constant rebirth, of true derivation: a stream that never comes back to its source; a stream in eternal development, like a spiral …" (Chávez 1961, 84).
Recordings
Chávez made more than a handful of recordings, conducting his own music as well as that of other composers. One of the earliest was made in the 1930s for Victor, containing Chávez's Sinfonía de Antígona and Sinfonîa India, together with his orchestration of Dietrich Buxtehude's Chaconne in E minor: 4-disc 78-rpm set, Victor Musical Masterpiece Series, Victor Red Seal M 503 (manual sequence) and DM 503 (automatic sequence). The best-known of his discs was the Everest RecordsEverest Records
Everest Records was a stereophonic record label based in Bayside, Long Island started by Harry D. Belock and Bert Whyte in May 1958. It was devoted mainly to classical music.-History:...
stereophonic recording of his Sinfonía India, Sinfonía di Antígona, and Sinfonía Romántica, in which Chávez conducted the Stadium Symphony Orchestra, the name given to the New York Philharmonic Orchestra for its summer performances in the Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium
Lewisohn Stadium was an amphitheater and athletic facility built on the campus of the City College of New York. It opened in 1915 and was demolished in 1973.-History:...
. The album was originally issued in 1959 by Everest Records
Everest Records
Everest Records was a stereophonic record label based in Bayside, Long Island started by Harry D. Belock and Bert Whyte in May 1958. It was devoted mainly to classical music.-History:...
on LP SDBR 3029, and was reissued on CD in 1996 by Everest as EVC-9041, as well as at some point by Philips Records
Philips Records
Philips Records is a record label that was founded by Dutch electronics company Philips. It was started by "Philips Phonographische Industrie" in 1950. Recordings were made with popular artists of various nationalities and also with classical artists from Germany, France and Holland. Philips also...
. In 1963 Chávez conducted the Vienna State Opera Orchestra
Vienna State Opera
The Vienna State Opera is an opera house – and opera company – with a history dating back to the mid-19th century. It is located in the centre of Vienna, Austria. It was originally called the Vienna Court Opera . In 1920, with the replacement of the Habsburg Monarchy by the First Austrian...
in two recordings with pianist Eugene List
Eugene List
Eugene List was an American concert pianist and teacher.-Early life:Eugene List was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He spent his formative years in Los Angeles, California where his father Louis List was a language teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District and his mother, Rose, a...
for Westminster Records
Westminster Records
Westminster Records was an American classical music record label, issuing original recordings from 1949 to 1965.It was founded in 1949 by Mischa Naida, the owner of the Westminster Record shop in New York City, businessman James Grayson, and conductor Henry Swoboda...
, both released on LP: one of his own Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Westminster WST 17030, reissued in 1976 as Westminster Gold WGS 8324) and one of the two piano concertos by Edward Macdowell
Edward MacDowell
Edward Alexander MacDowell was an American composer and pianist of the Romantic period. He was best known for his second piano concerto and his piano suites "Woodland Sketches", "Sea Pieces", and "New England Idylls". "Woodland Sketches" includes his most popular short piece, "To a Wild Rose"...
(ABC Westminster Gold WGS 8156). In the 1950s he released two recordings on US Decca records, on which he conducted the Orquesta Sinfónica de México. In 1951 a 10-inch mono LP was issued (Decca Gold Label DL 7512, reissued 1978 by Varèse Sarabande on side 2 of 12-inch LP ), containing his Suite from La hija de Cólquide (originally recorded in 1947 for the Mexican label Anfión and issued as a 3-disc 78 rpm set Anfión AM 4), and in 1956 they released an anthology, Music of Mexico, on which he conducted three of his own works, plus 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...
's Huapango (Decca Gold Label LP, DL9527). He also made some recordings for Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
which were issued on 78-rpm discs and on LP (Columbia 4-disc 78-rpm set M 414, reissued 1949 on Columbia 10-inch LP, Columbia ML 2080 and Mexican Columbia DCL 98, reissued on Columbia 12-inch LP, LL 1015; CBS Masterworks 3-LP set 32 31 0001 (mono)/ 32 31 002 (stereo); CBC Masterworks LP 32 11 0064; Columbia LP M32685; Odyssey LP Y 31534). In 1961 he recorded Sergey Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf
Peter and the Wolf , Op. 67, is a composition written by Sergei Prokofiev in 1936 in the USSR. It is a children's story , spoken by a narrator accompanied by the orchestra....
, with the Orquesta Sinfónica de México and Carlos Pellicer, narrator, released on Mexican CBS MC 1360.