Galindo, Blas (1910–1993)
Galindo, Blas (1910–1993)
Blas Galindo (b. 3 February 1910; d. 19 April 1993), Mexican composer, teacher, and administrator. A Huichol Indian, Galindo came to Mexico City in 1931 from San Gabriel, Jalisco, and began composition study with Carlos Chávez at the National Conservatory. He was affiliated with three other Chávez students, labeled "Los cuatro," a group committed to the creation and performance of a genuine Mexican music, engendering pieces like his picturesque Sones de mariachi, which was premiered at a Mexican exhibit in New York's Museum of Modern Art in 1940. In 1941 he studied composition with Aaron Copland at the Berkshire Music Center and returned to Mexico to complete his conservatory training. He taught at the National Conservatory from 1944, and became its director in 1947, the year in which he was also appointed head of the music department of the National Institute of Fine Arts. His output—encompassing works for piano, small ensembles, orchestra, voice, and chorus—ranged from folk-loric to neoclassic to boldly dissonant.
See alsoMusic: Art Music .
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Gérard Béhague, Music in Latin America: An Introduction (1979).
Additional Bibliography
Hacer música: Blas Galindo, compositor. Guadalajara, Jalisco, México: Universidad de Guadalajara, Dirección de Publicaciones, 1994.
Ruiz Ortiz, Xochiquetzal, and Blas Galindo. Blas Galindo: Biografía, antología de textos y catálogo. México, D.F.: CENIDIM, 1994.
Robert L. Parker