In Havana and Paris: The musical activities of Alejo Carpentier

One of the major figures in tweritieth-century Latin American literature, the Cuban writer Alejo Carpentier was closely involved with members of the musical, as well as literary, avant-garde during his creative apprenticeship in the inter-war years. Placed as much between the vocations of music and literature as between the cultures of Europe and Latin America, he mounted the first concerts of new music M 1920s Havana, established himself by writing music criticism, and engaged in several musical collaborations with his compatriots Amadeo Roldan and Alejandro Garcia Caturla. After being forced to flee Havana owing to his political activities and the repressive policies of Machado's dictatorship, Carpentier established himself in Paris, where he became associated with an impressively wide circle of composers, including Varese, Villa-Lobos, Milhaud, and the now little known Marius-Francois Gaillard. He was also acquainted with Carlos Chavez and knew Jolivet through Varese. Involving himself in further musical collaborations during his eleven-year residence in Paris (1928-39), a creative cross-fertilization took place between Carpentier and the composers with whom lie shared both friendship and artistic kinship.