String Quartets by Revueltas: In Search of a Critical Edition in "Musica de Feria"

• Main Author: Galvan-Herrera, Rafael
• Other Authors: Lilleslatten, Espen
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: LSU 2016
• Subjects: Music
• Online Access: http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-04112016-145117/

Música de Feria (1932) is the fourth and last string quartet written by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas Sánchez (1899-1940). The descriptive title of the piece, given by the composer himself, suggests the depiction of a Mexican Fair or Festival with its implied chaos, crowds, noises, dances, and of course, music. The single movement piece takes the listeners into a high energized journey with its sudden changes of tempo, color, and texture, all of this achieved in just under ten minutes of music. This quartet is by far the most popular, performed, and recorded of all four. Nevertheless, Música de Feria, along with the other quartets, remains largely unknown outside of the reduced, but enthusiastic, circle of Revueltas followers around the world, with the expected exception of his home country Mexico and some Latin American countries. In order to help us understand this work better, as well as to make a case for its inclusion to the twentieth-century string quartet canon, this dissertation provides a comprehensive research based on three different perspectives: An Overview of Revueltas life and Musical Style, a General Description of the Quartets with a particular emphasis on the String Quartet No. 4, and a Critical Commentary on the Published Edition and the Manuscript. This last part, a Critical Commentary, closely examines and identifies errors in the Published Edition when compare to the Manuscript. It also focuses on ambiguous markings made by Revueltas himself, highlights possible mistakes in the Manuscript, and finally proposes informed solutions to performers.