Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Nueva canción.

Latin American song genre. Nueva canción (or ‘new song’ movement) has been largely defined by Chilean musicians, active before and during the first democratically elected socialist coalition government of President Salvador Allende (1970–73). Little of the music and song of nueva canción is political in any overt sense, rather it expresses the energies, hopes and experiences of the times. The groups Quilapayún, Inti Illimani and singers such as Víctor Jara (1932–73), Patricio Manns, and Angel and Isabel Parra epitomise a generation of musicians across the continent and beyond whose formative years in the 1950s and 60s were rooted in ideals of social justice and equality.

The pioneering example of three key folklore collectors and musicians, Violeta Parra (1917–67) in Chile, Atahualpa Yupanqui (1908–92) in Argentina and Carlos Puebla (1917–96) in Cuba, helped pave the way for the rediscovery of the rural sounds of Latin America. In Chile this included the rediscovery of the oldest instruments and traditions of the Andes which had survived since pre-colonial times, including the small armadillo-backed string charango, the kena bamboo flute and panpipes. A ‘Latin American’ cultural identity emerged in a music whose sensibilities and lyrics were poetic, some of it drawing on popular poetry of early hispanic origin, epitomised by Violeta Parra's ‘Canto a lo poeta y a lo humano’, modelled on complex poetry of rural payadores (improvising poets). The centre of nueva canción was the Santiago Peña de los Parra (a small nightclub run at weekends by Angel and Isabel Parra), a meeting point for musicians, where Jara, the Parras and Manns sang regularly. The songs of Víctor Jara (who was murdered after the 1973 Chilean coup d'état) characterize the period in both musical style and verbal content, two of the most loved being ‘Plegaria a un labrador’ (which won the July 1969 first festival of nueva canción) and ‘Te recuerdo Amanda’.

After 1973, in European exile, Inti Illimani became the heart and soul of the solidarity movement until they were finally allowed to return home in 1998. In the 1970s and 80s, when tough military dictatorships dominated the Americas, nueva canción musicians, persecuted by these regimes met up at peace concerts and festivals held in Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru, Cuba, Argentina and Brazil. Musicians involved included Mercedes Sosa, Leon Gieco and Víctor Heredia (Argentina); Chico Buarque, Wagner Tiso and Milton Nascimento (Brazil); Silvio Rodríguez and Pablo Milanés (Cuba); Carlos and Luís Enrique and Mejía Godoy (Nicaragua); Daniel Viglietti (Uruguay); Amparo Ochoa and Gabino Palomares (Mexico). In Spain, despite no direct links to the genre, a similar sensibility survives in singers of Catalan nova canço (see also Nueva trova. In the post-dictatorship ambience of the 1990s individual careers have blossomed while strong supportive friendships between many of these musicians remain of significance.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

and other resources

V.J. Jara: An Unfinished Song (London, 1983/R)

April in Managua, Varagram TNF 160 (1984)

Corazón americano, perf. Mercedes Sosa, León Gieco, Milton Nascimento, Tropical Music 680013 (1985)

De mi, perf. Mercedes Sosa, Tropical Music 68.955 (1990)

A. Godoy and J.-P. González: Música popular chilena: 20 años 1970–90 (Santiago, 1995)

C. Acevedo and R. Torres, eds.: Víctor Jara, obra musical completa (Chile, 1996)

Arriesgaré la piel, perf. Inti Illimani, Xenophile 4049 (1996)

Víctor Jara Complete, Pläne 88747 (1997)

L. Advis and J.-P. González: Clásicos de la música popular Chilena ii, 1960–73 (Santiago, 1998)

JAN FAIRLEY

Nueva trova.

Cuban song genre. A reinterpretation of trova, the romantic troubadour traditions of the island (which developed from those brought by Hispanic colonizers and immigrants), nueva trova is also closely linked to the Latin American Nueva canción movement. Musically the fundamental elements have been those of the classic troubadour (vocals and acoustic guitar), with songs then interpreted by bands of varying size and style. Songs describe the everyday experience of living; a hallmark is a poetic lyric imbued with a sense of metaphysical emotion and existential questioning, with a pervasive use of metaphor and a non-gendered approach to the complexities of love. The Cuban tradition of ‘double meaning’ is not, as with old troubadours, used for sexual wit, but instead for the doubts of inner experience within a thematic framework of time and death.

Nueva trova emerged in the late 1960s, when a collective of young musicians came together at the Cuban Cinematographic Institute (ICAIC), under the direction of classical guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer. They included Vicente Feliú, Silvio Rodríguez, Pablo Milanés, Noel Nicola, Sara González, Eduardo Ramos and Pablo Menendez, musicians who re-defined the subject matter of Cuban song, while demonstrating innovative use of popular music forms with intuitive use of older Cuban elements. Born in the decade before the 1959 revolution they were not only politicized by growing up in the revolution but also questioned the experience. Milanés, for example, had undergone ‘special military service’, a euphemism for labour camps involving cane cutting and designed to change the behaviour of those regarded as bohemian. Championed by Haydée Santa Maria, who ran the seminal cultural centre Casa de Las Americas, he and the others who formed the ICAIC collective became part of the Protest Song Centre which existed at Casa for a time; it provided a forum for the singing of nueva trova and was set up in the wake of the 1967 ‘Festival de la canción protesta’. Participants rejected the term ‘protest’ as they felt it did not accurately describe their music, which was not necessarily an expression of political protest. Many subsequent festivals and concerts in Cuba and elsewhere have also nurtured significant networks of musical friendship.

In the 1980s, the songs of Rodríguez and Milanés became a phenomenon in the Spanish speaking world, generating a large amount of foreign money for the Cuban state. In the 1990s, a new generation has emerged, for whom growing up in the revolution has exposed a different set of conflicts. The lyrics and more eclectic musical influences (notably rock) of Carlos Varela and Gerardo Alfonso, reflect the preoccupations of youth whose horizons have openly moved beyond revolutionary strictures.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

and other resources

R. Benmayor: ‘La “nueva trova”: New Cuban Song’, LAMR, ii (1981), 11–45

Silvio Rodríguez y Pablo Milanés en vivo en Argentina, Polydor Argentina LP 241170–1(1984)

Canciones Urgentes, perf. Silvio Rodríguez, Luaka Bop/Warner 7599–26480 (1991)

Antología de la nueva trova, iii, Egrem CD-0297 (1998)

JAN FAIRLEY