Nationalism in Venezuelan Music
Nationalism in Venezuelan Music:
The Pioneers, Propagators, and its effects on Venezuela’s guitar situation
Presented to Dr. Jeffrey McFadden as the final assignment of:
The history and literature of the classical guitar course
The Nationalist movement in the Venezuelan art began around 1920 when the dictator president, General Juan Vicente Gomez forced the closure of the Circuelo de Bellas Artes de Caracas (Caracas’ Fine Arts Circle). Nevertheless, “the artistic interests of poets (Generation of 1918) and young musicians were beginning to stir, Vicente Emilio Sojo, Juan Bautista Plaza, and Jose Antonio Calcaño surfaced, starting
the birth of Venezuelan academic music”.1
This essay will discuss the background and achievements of the Founders and Propagators of this movement and then will address how their results affected the place of Venezuela’s guitar in the 20th century.
1- Pioneers (First Generation): Vicente Emilio Sojo, Juan Bautista Plaza, Jose Antonio Calcaño
1.1-Historical Situation and Strategies of the Nationalist Society Founders (pioneers);
The movement took place at a critical time when the country confronted the dictatorship government and had also entered a process of economic transformation caused by the new petroleum industry in 1918.
Pedro Rafael Aponte in his Ph.D. thesis, The Invention of the National in Venezuelan Art Music, states:
“The shift in Venezuela’s economic system from agrarian to industrial in the 1910s triggered a reconfiguration of the country’s social and cultural structure. In art music, the movement initiated by a group of three native musicians (Vicente Emilio Sojo, Juan Bautista Plaza and Jose Antonio Calcaño) in Caracas to set out a national ideology and to act historical and ethnomusicological research, creating national policies on music and music education and, composing a nationalist music repertoire.”2
In other words, to achieve their aims, the founders (pioneers) of the nationalist movement chose these four strategies:
1- Creating a solid national repertoire 2- Reorganizing music education
3- Creating National Music ensembles
4- Expanding the audience’s knowledge by writing reviews and holding conferences on every musical event.
1 . Bruzual, Alejandro, The Guitar in Venezuela, DOBERMAN-YPPAN EDITION (2005-p51)
2 . Aponte, Pedro Rafael, The Invention of the National in Venezuelan Music, University of Pittsburgh (2008-p
1.2-Vicente Emilio Sojo (1887-1974), a Practical Musician
Known as the “father of modern Venezuelan music,”3and the cornerstone of the nationalist movement, Vicente Emilio Sojo, a composer, educator, musicologist, conductor, and politician, was born into a family of farmers and artisans on December 8th, 1887.
Although he claimed that he lacked formal musical training, existing documents show that Sojo had received music lessons from his hometown’s band director, Romulo Rico, after he had settled in Caracas in -1906-, at the school of music, where he was enrolled in the harmony course in 1910.4
In 1921, Sojo started his career as an instructor by teaching theory and musicianship courses at the School of Music and Declamation in Caracas and became the director of the same school in 1936. His Achievements and Legacy for Venezuelan Music:
Among the mentioned strategies, Sojo had an essential role in reorganizing music education, building a national repertoire, and creating national ensembles.
As Alejandro Bruzual in his book The Guitar in Venezuela states:
“Sojo had the greatest influence on the development of Venezuelan music. He reconstructed the way music was taught by reorganizing the National Conservatory. He encouraged the creation of new theoretical and instrumental professorships, selected teachers and students, and made the conservatory the heart of music activity in Venezuela.”5
3 . Sojo, Vicente Emilio, Works for Guitar Vol.1, Caroni Music (2003-preface)
4 . Aponte, Pedro Rafael, The Invention of the National in Venezuelan Art Music, University of Pittsburgh (2008-p76) 5. Bruzual, Alejandro, The Guitar in Venezuela, DOBERMAN-YPPAN EDITION (2005-p56-57
o build a solid repertoire of Venezuelan music, Sojo travelled around the country collecting, arranging, and compiling Venezuelan melodies. He also created a repertoire which Bruzual titled” a kind of Nationalist Gregorian repertoire.”6
Moreover, Sojo was the founder and director of Orfeon Lamas (Lamas Choir) and the Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra in 1930.
Marie Elizabeth Labonville in her book, Juan Bautista Plaza and Musical Nationalism in Venezuela, describes the situation as follows;
“When Sojo became the permanent director of Orfeon Lamas and Venezuelan Symphony Orchestra, each of which had its own mission. The Orfeon Lamas was created to present contemporary choral music by Venezuelans, and the Orchestra was created to bring the standard repertory to Caracas. Later, it began offering new works by Venezuelans.”7
His Legacy for Venezuela’s Guitar Culture; Sojo was familiar with the techniques of a few instruments, among them, the guitar which he studied with Carlos Acevedo.
He composed two original works for guitar,” Quripa “and “Endecho”8 and harmonized many folk melodies for guitar which later were published in Alirio Diaz- Edition in 6 Volumes from a set of 34 Volumes of harmonized melodies for various instruments.9
Another of his vital works for the guitar was the National Conservatory’s guitar course “one of the first academic guitar courses in the world.”10
Antonio Lauro, The great Venezuelan guitarist and composer explains Sojo’s work as follows:
“Sojo took great pains to have the guitar included as a permanent instrument in the school. At first, it fell under harp classes because a salary for a guitar teacher had not been approved in the budget. At that time the entire staff was opposed to the idea. The academics did not accept the inclusion of such an instrument […] But Sojo, who knew the value of the instrument, its history, and its potential, insisted, and in the end, he was successful.”11
6 . Bruzual, Alejandro, The Guitar in Venezuela, DOBERMAN-YPPAN EDITION (2005-p56-57)
7. Labonville, Marie Elizabeth, Juan Bautista Plaza and musical Nationalism in Venezuela, Indiana University Press(2007-p9) 8 . Bruzual, Alejandro, The Guitar in Venezuela, DOBERMAN-YPPAN EDITION (2005-p57)
9 . Sojo, Vicente Emilio, Works for Guitar Vol.1 ,Caroni Music (2003-Catalogue)
10. Bruzual, Alejandro, The Guitar in Venezuela, DOBERMAN-YPPAN EDITION (2005-p76)
11. Ibid
1.3- Juan Bautista Plaza (1898-1965), an Academic Musician