The CLAEM and the construction of elite art worlds: philanthropy, Latinamericanism, and avant-garde music

In this dissertation I argue that the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM, 1962-1971) accurately exemplifies how the embrace of avant-garde art music by several young Latin American composers is crucial to understand the creation and consolidation of particular social groups often identified as elites. This dissertation is a concrete case study of how elites in a formation phase consolidate their status and achieve distinction by looking at the stories composers and patrons tell about themselves, their relation to the musical avant-garde, and discourses of Latin Americanism. By following, consuming, and rearticulating international musical models, the members of this art world—as patrons, composers, critics and listeners—engaged in a hegemonic process that resulted in their legitimization of new elites and the institutionalization of the avant-garde in Argentina. There are three key questions that I want to answer with this dissertation. First, how was the avant-garde articulated in Latin America, and in which ways did it respond or not to theories of avant-garde movements and modernity in the rest of the world? Second, how were composers during the 1960s engaging with discourses of Latin Americanism as professional strategy, identification marker and musical style? Third, what is the role of art in the legitimation and construction of elite status and identity? The case study of the CLAEM provides insight into three different aspects of music making, elite art worlds, and the embrace of the avant-garde in Argentina and Latin America during the second half of the twentieth century. These aspects become my main themes throughout the dissertation. The first theme involves the unique way in which composers at the CLAEM followed, consumed, and rearticulated international models of the avant-garde that were then embodied, resignified and institutionalized. The second theme explores how the CLAEM was a formative social experience, where transnational connections between actors who are part of the same cultural formation—both from Latin America as well as Europe and the United States—created important networks of solidarity, communication and intellectual exchange and resulted in the adoption of Latin Americanism as a professional strategy and musical style. Finally, this work explores the consolidation of elite groups and the creation of elite art worlds as the result of philanthropic efforts led by the Rockefeller Foundation and the Di Tella family.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph.D.

Level thesis:degree_level

Dissertation

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Musicology

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2013

Author dc:creator

• Herrera, Luis Eduardo

Contributors dc:contributor

• Turino, Thomas R.
• Buchanan, Donna A.
• Jacobsen, Nils P.
• Solis, Gabriel
• Taylor, Stephen A.

• Luis Arias
• Blas Emilio Atehortúa
• Jorge Antunes
• Rafael Aponte-Ledee
• Jorge Arandia Navarro
• Latin American Music
• Ethnomusicology
• Elites
• Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM)
• 20th Century Music
• Alberto Ginastera
• Di Tella Institute
• Rockefeller Foundation
• Avant-Garde
• Latinamericanism
• Latinamericanismo
• Gerardo Gandini
• Francisco Kröpfl
• Fernando von Reichenbach
• Coriún Aharonián
• Enrique Belloc
• León Biriotti
• Cesar Bolaños
• Gabriel Brnčić
• Oscar Cubillas
• Bruno D’Astoli
• Mariano Etkin
• Armando Krieger
• Eduardo Kusnir
• Alcides Lanza
• Mesías Maiguashca
• Ariel Martínez
• Graciela Paraskevaídis
• Mario Perusso
• Salvador Ranieri
• Miguel Angel Rondano
• Iris Sangüesa
• Luis María Serra
• Alberto Villalpando

Statement dc:rights

• This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License. Copyright 2013 Luis Eduardo Herrera

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/44285

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/44285