The Rhetorical Use of the Trumpet
in the Works of Silvestre Revueltas: An Introduction

(Jacobs School of Music, Indiana University, 2006)

INTRODUCTION

[Rhetoric is] that discipline which studies all of the ways in
which men may influence each other's thinking and
behavior through the strategic use of symbols. ¹

The year 1999 marked the centennial of the birth of Mexican composer, conductor and violinist Silvestre Revueltas (1899 – 1940). Though his music in recent years has received more attention, including recordings by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London Sinfonetta, and an increment in publicity of his works by his publisher Peer Music Classical, Revueltas still remains absent from mainstream programs. Except for a few orchestral works such as Sensemayá and La Noche de los Mayas, as well as chamber works such as Ocho por Radio, his compositions requiring the trumpet remain virtually unknown to many trumpet performers and pedagogues. Still, the upsurge of interest in Revueltas generated by the 1999 celebration has maintained its momentum. Mexican scholars are currently preparing a critical edition of his music and the composer’s place in the pantheon of major continental figures seems assured. At the same time, Latin American music in general has gained a more relevant presence in orchestral programs in the last few years, in part as a response to social developments; and also as the critical appreciation of the true merits of this repertoire gains in analytical precision and sophistication. Therefore, an evaluation of his repertoire for trumpet seems necessary at this time, since performers of this instrument are likely to be confronted with more opportunities to interpret the music of this extraordinary composer.

The purpose of this study is to discuss how Revueltas uses the trumpet in his compositions, examining the way the trumpet has a rhetorical role in his works. Through the use of musical gestures found in folk and urban popular traditions such as the mariachi and corrido, the trumpet provides a vital role in the way the music represents the national ideals of this composer. In addition, this study will help promote a greater awareness of this composer’s musical style and interpretive requirements among trumpet performers and pedagogues.

In the late 1970s, I was fortunate to perform somewhat regularly with a mariachi band in St. Louis, Missouri. While the group did not consist of the traditional instrumentation of the mariachi in Mexico, the group did include two trumpets. The nucleus of the band was made up of Mexican-born musicians and we performed arrangements of many Mexican popular songs, including sons, boleros, huapangos, rancheras, polkas and cumbias. This performance experience was a great introduction to the mariachi-style, which helped lead to my interest in this topic.

In the early 1990s, I became introduced to the music of Silvestre Revueltas through a seminar course on Latin American music at Indiana University’s Jacobs School of Music. With the encouragement of both my trumpet professor at the time, Charles Gorham, and the class instructor, Dr. Carmen Helena Téllez, I developed a class project which eventually became this document.

Since then, I have had the privilege of studying Revueltas and his music for the past twelve years, including a research trip to Mexico City, where I visited with eminent scholar Roberto Kolb Neuhaus, who is preparing the critical edition of Revueltas’s music. While there, I explored many of the places that Revueltas frequented, such as the Plaza de Garibaldi, where the mariachis gather each evening; the Palacio de Bellas Artes (Palace of Fine Arts), where many of Revueltas’s works were premiered; the Zócalo, which includes the Palacio Nacional (National Palace) and Catedral Metropolitana (Metropolitan Cathedral); and the Casa Azul (Blue House), the home of artist Frida Kahlo. I have added this experience to thirty years of professional performances and academic study of the trumpet under the guidance of William Adam, Edmund Cord, Charles Gorham and John Rommel, addressing the broad repertoire for the trumpet, in the classical symphonic, jazz and Latin traditions.

Some studies on the works of Revueltas took place during the years immediately following his death, but the majority of the important scholarship on Revueltas has taken place more recently, including several doctoral dissertations that look at various aspects of his music. However, none address the use of trumpet specifically in his compositions. More importantly, none discuss the assertion that the trumpet has a symbolic role in the works of Revueltas. Music theorist and semiotician Dr. Robert S. Hatten wrote this about Beethoven's music, “Since I believe that expressive meanings, and the stylistic competency they presuppose, where a part of Beethoven’s compositional process (whether consciously or tacitly), I maintain that expressive meanings are as purely musical as the forms and structures that serve to distinguish them.” ² I will argue that in a parallel fashion, Revueltas’s music include expressive meanings that reveal his competency with the musical languages of his surroundings, and reveal his life attitude and circumstance; and more specifically, that the trumpet assumes symbolic roles in many of his works, and possibly, every time Revueltas used it.

Whether used to sound the call for the workers’ solidarity; or to set a mood similar to those in a cantina; or to mourn the death of a fallen hero, Revueltas chose the trumpet to be the symbol and voice for specific themes or characters in a number of his works. This rhetorical use of the trumpet is the focus of this document.

For this purpose, I have selected representative compositions in the orchestral, chamber and film music of Revueltas. They are Esquinas, Ocho por Radio, Homenaje a Federico García Lorca and Redes. In addition to an examination of the rhetorical use of the trumpet, each of these works will include a discussion of historical facts, performance considerations and score examples.

¹ Ehninger, Douglas. Influence, Belief, and Argument: An Introduction to Responsible Persuasion. Glenview, IL: Scott Foresman and Company, 1974.

² Hatten, Robert S. Musical Meaning in Beethoven: Markedness, Correlation, and Interpretation. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press, 1994.