Uccelli [née Pazzini], Carolina Uccellini, Marco

Urreta [Urrueta] (Arroyo), Alicia

(b Veracruz, 12 Oct 1933; d Mexico City, 20 Dec 1987). Mexican composer and pianist. She began six years of piano study with Joaquín Amparán in Mexico City in 1948. In 1952 she entered the Conservatorio Nacional de Música, studying harmony with Rodolfo Halffter, and other subjects with Hernández Moncada, León Mariscal and Sandor Roth. After graduation she continued studying the piano privately with Alfred Brendel and Alicia de Larrocha, and she studied acoustics and electronic music at the Schola Cantorum in Paris. From 1957, while titular pianist of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional and instructor in acoustics at the Instituto Politécnico Nacional, she was the chosen performer in the Mexico City premières of all works including piano by Stockhausen, Cage, Gilbert Amy, Manuel Enríquez and Halffter. Meanwhile she composed many works showing her mastery of the avant-garde techniques emanating from Darmstadt. These works favour aleatory procedures with a Boulez-like notion of control: specific markings indicate the exact durations of particular passages and precise dynamic contours; pedalling too is indicated. In the 1970s she co-founded the Festival Hispano-Mexicano de Música Contemporánea, founded the Camerata de México and made recordings (for Voz Viva de México and Creaciones Cisne). Her many awards include prizes for the music for the film El ídolo de los orígenes (1967) and for incidental dramatic music, and a citation for her own mixed-media creation, Pequeña historia de la música (1980). Her incidental music for plays kept her name constantly before the Mexico City public. In 1981 the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional gave the first performance of her concerto for amplified piano and orchestra, Arcana, in which she herself was the soloist; the première of her Esferas poéticas was given in 1983 by the same orchestra. Manuel Enriquez, Halffter, Mario Lavista and Héctor Quintanar are among those who dedicated works to her.

WORKS

(selective list)

Stage: Romance de Doña Balada (chbr op, Urreta), 1972; Canto (Homage to Falla), 1v, actor, dancers; Tributo (ballet); Verán a conocernos [for marionettes]

Orch: Arcana, conc., amp pf, orch, perf. 1981; Esferas poéticas, perf. 1983; Estudio sonoro para una escultura; Hasta aquí la memoria, S, pf, perc, gui, str; Homenaje a Castro, str; Rallenti; Teogonía mixteca

Elec: De natura mortis o La verdadera historia de Caperucita Roja [The True Story of Little Red Riding Hood], vv, insts, tape, 1972

Other: El ídolo de los orígines, film score, 1967; Pequeña historia de la música, mixed media work, 1980

BIBLIOGRAPHY

E. Pulido: ‘Con Alicia Urreta’, Heterofonía, iv/22 (1972), 23

E. Pulido: ‘La mujer mexicana en la música Alicia Urreta’, Heterofonía, iv/24 (1972), 24

50 años de música: Palacio de Bellas Artes (Mexico City, 1986), 513, 527 [pubn of the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes]

E. Pulido: ‘Mexico’s Women Musicians’, The Musical Woman: an International Perspective, ii: 1984–5, ed. J.L. Zaimont and others (Westport, CT, 1987), 327–8

ROBERT STEVENSON

Urroz, José [Urros, Joseph]

(d early 18th century). Spanish organist and composer. He was first organist of Avila Cathedral and apparently a musician of some distinction; his name also appears in the records of the church of Santiago de Compostela for 24 January 1710. He was cited as an authority approving the Escuela música of Pablo Nassarre (Zaragoza, 1724). His only known works are a Te Deum for eight voices with continuo, a Magnificat, a mass with organ accompaniment and three canciónes and nine versos for organ; the organ music is transcribed in B. Hudson: A Portuguese Source of Seventeenth-Century Iberian Organ Music: MS 1577, Loc.B, 5, Municipal Library, Oporto, Portugal (diss., Indiana U., 1961).

BARTON HUDSON

Urrutia Blondel, Jorge

(b La Serena, 17 Sept 1905; d Santiago, 5 July 1981). Chilean composer and musicologist. He studied at the Instituto Nacional de Santiago and at the Law School of the University of Chile, while studying music privately under Pedro Humberto Allende and Domingo Santa Cruz. As an active participant in the music organization movement associated with the Sociedad Bach, under the leadership of Santa Cruz, he joined the society’s board of directors. After being nominated secretary of the National Conservatory of Music, he was awarded a scholarship for further studies in Europe: he studied in Paris under Koechlin, Dukas and Boulanger, and in Berlin under Hindemith and Mersmann (1928–31). On his return he was appointed professor of theory and composition at the National Conservatory; his various subsequent positions during the 1940s and 50s included those of secretary and acting dean of the Facultad de Ciencias y Artes Musicales of the University of Chile, and research member of the Instituto de Investigaciones Musicales. As a composer Urrutia Blondel initially cultivated a nationalist style but later adopted elements of post-impressionism (e.g. in Pastoral de Alhué, 1937) and neo-classicism. His work as a musicologist consisted chiefly of analytic studies of 20th-century music in Chile and of folk music research, particularly in the northern provinces of Chile.

WORKS

(selective list)

Choral: Canciones y danzas folklóricas de Chile, 2 sers., 1933–7, 1944; 3 romances campesinos de Chile, 1953; 3 canciones corales, 1957; Cantares de Rapa-Nui, 1958–9; Música folklórica ritual de La Tirana, 1962

Songs: 3 canciones, 1924; 3 canciones de Cuna, 1924; Canciones y danzas campesinas de Chile, 1932; Canciones de Cuna, 1932–4; Poemas de Gabriela Mistral, 1938–42

Orch: La guitarra del diablo, 2 sym. suites, 1942; Música para un cuento de antaño, 1948; Pf Conc., 1938–50

Chbr: Pf Trio, 1932–3; Pastoral de Alhué, 1937; Str Qt no.1, 1944; Sonata, vn, pf, 1954

Pf: 3 sugerencias de Chile, 3 sets, 1924, 1925, 1926; Para un auditorio infantil, 1927

Principal publishers: Instituto Extensión Musical (Santiago), Ricordi

WRITINGS

‘Claude Debussy crítico, y su libro Monsieur Croche antidilettante’, Marsyas, no.2 (1927)

‘La obra sinfónica de Beethoven y algunos aspectos de su orquestación’, Marsyas, no.1 (1927)

‘Bach en la evolución musical chilena’, Revista de arte, no.4 (1935)

‘Apuntes sobre los albores de la historia musical chilena’, Boletín latino-americano de música, iii (1937), 89–96

‘Gabriela Mistral y los músicos chilenos’, RMC, no.9 (1946), 11–17; no.52 (1957), 22–3

‘Algunos aforismos sobre Alfonso Leng’, RMC, no.54 (1957), 69–71

‘Reportaje de un músico a Rapa-Nui’, RMC, no.60 (1958), 5–47

‘Apunte sobre Próspero Bisquertt’, RMC, no.67 (1959), 56–61

‘Mis momentos con Igor Strawinsky: impresiones y conversaciones con el gran músico ruso durante su estada en Santiago’, RMC, no.73 (1960), 39–60

‘Algunas proyecciones del folklore y etnología musicales de Chile’, RMC, no.79 (1962), 95–107

‘Algunos casos de Isamitt como caso’, RMC, no.97 (1966), 49–53

‘Carlos Lavín, compositor’, RMC, no.99 (1967), 61–84

‘Danzas rituales en las festividades de San Pedro de Atacama’, RMC, no.100 (1967), 44–80; pubd separately (Santiago, 1968)

‘Danzas rituales en la provincia de Santiago’, RMC, no.103 (1968), 43–76

‘Los “Sonetos de la muerte” y otras obras sinfónicas de Alfonso Letelier’, RMC, no.109 (1969), 11–32

‘Doña Isidora Zegers, 1803–1869’, RMC, nos.113–14 (1971), 3–17

‘“Tres momentos musicales”, Europa 1971’, RMC, nos.115–16 (1971), 15–29

with S. Claro: Historia de la música en Chile (Santiago, 1973)

BIBLIOGRAPHY

V. Salas Viú: La creación musical en Chile, 1900–1951 (Santiago, 1952)

Compositores de América/Composers of the Americas, ed. Pan American Union, xiv (Washington DC, 1968) [incl. list of writings]

S. Claro: Panorama de la música contemporánea en Chile (Santiago, 1969)

R. Escobar and R. Yrarrazaval: Música compuesta en Chile, 1900–1968 (Santiago, 1969)

GERARD BÉHAGUE