Music and Politics in the Spain of the 1960s: The Case of Tomás Marco

Abstract

MUSIC AND POLITICS IN THE SPAIN OF THE 1960S: THE CASE OF TOMÁS MARCO ROBERTO ALONSO TRILLO HE 1936–1939 SPANISH CIVIL WAR would shape and significantly determine the development of the Spanish musical scene after the 1950s. Different theoretical standpoints have risen with regard to the analysis of its actual impact on such development within the Spanish academia. That explains why while some scholars (see Reseña 1977, 298) go so far as to refer to 1939 as year zero of the “new” Spanish music, Eva Moreda (2009, 10) chooses instead to theorize on what she terms the “myth of musical deprivation in the Spain of the 1940s,” a myth grounded on the fact that most key members of the so-called 1927 Generation (Ernesto Halffter, who eventually returned to Spain, Rodolfo Halffter, Gustavo Pittaluga, and Julián Bautista—see Marco T The Case of Tomás Marco 107 1993, 101–111) had already gone into exile before the War had come to an end and both Manuel de Falla and Roberto Gerhard abandoned the country just after it.1 It is commonly agreed, nonetheless, that the pre-war situation was marked by the significance and international recognition of de Falla’s work, which used an “up-to-date musical language and a progressive way of writing that was completely attuned to currents in the rest of the world” (Marco 1993, 101), having become the model that needed to be transcended for an emerging generation of young composers. The disappearance or dissolution of the 1927 Generation left an empty space which was “eventually occupied by figureheads that maybe, in different circumstances, would not have been so” (Marco 1998, 163; my translation).2 But how did Franco’s regime confront such a situation, and what sort of relationship did it establish with the musical and cultural realities at the time? To begin with, the new regime created in 1939 the Comisaría General de la Música (subsequently renamed Comisaría Nacional de la Música) as its central official musical agency. This organism would be first directed by Nemesio Otaño, José Cubiles, and Joaquín Turina (who would remain there until his death in 1949); between 1949 and 1956 the position was held by Bartolomé Perez Casas, conductor of the National Orchestra; and until 1969 it remained vacant, being directed, in practical terms, by Antonio de las Heras. In 1969 the Comisaría was restructured and Salvador Pons Muñoz (who was not a musician) appointed director. After his resignation in 1970, José León Tello (a musician) was newly appointed. Nevertheless, a similar situation recurred when Tello resigned in 1971, and Federico Sopeña (priest and musicologist) took on the direction of the Comisaría only up to 1972, walking out and leaving the position, once again, vacant. In 1974, Manuel Valls wrote, adopting a critical standpoint with regard to the historical development of the Comisaría: “the national projection and promotion of music, which should be the competence and aim of the Comisaría, has instead been transformed into an absolute absorption of all musical activities, with Madrid as the only headquarters. Even more. In reality, the Comisaría has become a powerful governmental artists’ agency. This implies the complete ignorance of the cultural reality in the rest of Spain” (Valls 1974, 27; my translation).3 The existence of such governmental structures justifies the potential distinction throughout Franco’s regime (1939–1975), according to the Equipo Reseña, between three different levels of musical activity: “the real, which could also be identified with the term ‘popular,’ the official, and the underground. On many occasions and for a long 108 Perspectives of New Music period of time, the real and the official should be understood as one, as reality did not have more options than those provided by the official and quasi-official, or in any case governmental, channels” (Reseña 1977, 297; my translation).4 The balance between those levels changes with time and helps us understand the development of the avant-garde musical scene after the 1950s. Interestingly, Marco, being one of the key analysts of the Spanish musical avant-garde, argues that the...