José Ardévol (13 March 1911, in

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

– 7 January 1981, in

Havana Havana (; Spanish: ''La Habana'' ) is the capital and largest city of Cuba. The heart of the La Habana Province, Havana is the country's main port and commercial center.

) was a Cuban composer and conductor of Spanish derivation. As a child, Ardévol studied under his father, Fernando, who was a musician and conductor. He

emigrate Emigration is the act of leaving a resident country or place of residence with the intent to settle elsewhere (to permanently leave a country). Conversely, immigration describes the movement of people into one country from another (to permanentl ...

d to Cuba in 1930, and from 1934 to 1952 was the director of the Orquestra de cámara de la Habana. He was a professor in Cuba from 1936 to 1951, teaching in universities in Havana and Oriente. In 1942 he founded a movement called ''Grupo de renovación musical'', which included several of his students devoted to his

aesthetic Aesthetics, or esthetics, is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of beauty and taste, as well as the philosophy of art (its own area of philosophy that comes out of aesthetics). It examines aesthetic values, often expressed th ...

ideals. He conducted the orchestra of the government's Ministry of Education beginning in 1959. He continued teaching, working as a professor of composition at Havana Conservatory from 1965 and at the National School of Music from 1968. Ardévol's early compositions fall generally into the style of

neoclassicism Neoclassicism (also spelled Neo-classicism) was a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassicism was ...

, but later in his life he began to explore the techniques of

aleatory music Aleatoric music (also aleatory music or chance music; from the Latin word ''alea'', meaning "dice") is music in which some element of the composition is left to chance, and/or some primary element of a composed work's realization is left to the ...

and

serialism In music, serialism is a method of Musical composition, composition using series of pitches, rhythms, dynamics, timbres or other elements of music, musical elements. Serialism began primarily with Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone technique, thou ...

. Some of his vocal works praise communism and address other political/revolutionary topics.

Works

''Note:this list is incomplete''. *3 symphonies *2 Cuban suites for orchestra *''Forma'', ballet, 1942 *''La burla de Don Pedro a caballo'', for soloists, chorus and orchestra, 1943 *''Cantos de la Revolución'', vocal work, 1962 *''Che comandante'', cantata, 1968 *''Lenin'', vocal work, 1970 *''Sonata'' for guitar *''6 Sonate a 3'', chamber work *3 piano sonatas *''Tensiones'', for piano left hand 1933 – "Study in the form of Prelude and Fugue" for percussion ensemble 1934 – "Suite" for percussion ensemble 1942 – "Preludio a 11" for percussion ensemble

References

Don Randel Don Michael Randel (born December 9, 1940) is an American musicologist, specializing in the music of the Middle Ages and Renaissance in Spain and France. He is currently the Chair of the Board of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a trustee ...

. ''The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music''. Harvard, 1996, p. 24. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ardevol, Jose Cuban composers Male composers 20th-century classical composers 1911 births 1981 deaths Male classical composers 20th-century male musicians Spanish emigrants to Cuba Cuban male musicians