M. Camargo Guarnieri and the influence of Mario de Andrade's modernism.(Critical essay)

Modernism in Brazilian art music called for a convergence of separate emphases: 1) renovation of compositional practices through the adaptation of current techniques; and 2) incorporation of native elements to better align art music with the hybrid Brazilian heritage. The music of M. Camargo Guarnieri (1907-93) maintains a modern aesthetic even with an obvious preference for nationalist content, demonstrating that it was possible to combine the two emphases without sacrificing the integrity of either. (1) Guarnieri's artistic temperament and compositional output (which includes art songs, symphonies, chamber and piano pieces, operas, and masses) must be considered in the context of his personal affiliation with Mario de Andrade (1893-1945). (2) Andrade supported Guarnieri's creative instincts, and through their long relationship, the elder figure fostered in various ways consistency and momentum for Guarnieri's ever-evolving compositional style.

Indeed, the parallels between Guarnieri's music and Andrade's message are of intense interest to scholars; here they will be explored in context with the composer's professional endeavors (which remained anchored in Andrade's counsel even as be thought independently), as Guarnieri sustained his mentor's directive to perpetuate the musical traditions of ah immensely varied culture. To summarize comprehensively Guarnieri's contributions to American music, this article will 1) outline Andrade's modernist ideology and methodology; 2) explore pivotal events that shaped Guarnieri's and Andrade's professional and personal relationship (including Andrade's stylistic criticism of Guarnieri's music); and, 3) survey the foundational points of Guarnieri's individual musical language and details related to the critical reception of his music.

Initiating Musical Modernism

After initially recruiting reform for Brazilian literature, Mario de Andrade began constructing valid hypotheses about the renovation of art music. Despite positive advancements for Brazilian culture after the Semana de Arte Moderna, the 1922 event (partially masterminded by Andrade) (3) had little to do with the culmination of modernist practice and nationalist content in musical compositions, a favorable convergence of ideals that occurred only years later. (4) In his post-conference essay "O movimento modernisto," Andrade did, however, revel in the banding together of artists after the Week, stating that, "they now marched with the multitudes." (5) The conference seemingly instigated dialogue among composers intent on presenting the "intellectual goals" of the movement, bringing together those previously isolated within individual approaches to art-music reform. The year 1922 was thus a new "declaration of independence" for Brazilian culture (on the centenary of political independence) and a successful break with an artistic heritage considered exhausted of its potential.

Andrade began perpetuating his belief that music (the abstract discipline) could reflect the societal environment in which it was created, and while he considered Heitor Villa-Lobos "completely national" (see Neves 1981, 43), Andrade knew that his efforts would be better spent on next-generation representatives of a new aesthetic current. Andrade knew that he was demanding these young composers to write within newly created cultural parameters without the benefit of standardized compositional instruction, (6) and he began his crusade in direct response to the uncertainties of those working in such an unsettled cultural atmosphere. To be most effective, Andrade supported composers not as one of them (he signed his name to only one musical composition), but instead by guiding others; it was thus in a supporting role that Andrade set out to develop modernist principles in others. He declared that the composer's function was a social one, and that "moral obligation" should remain at the core of the profession. Stemming from that conviction was the insistence that music depict social reality, to which the recognition and subsequent representation of a multilayered Brazilian society was crucial. Ultimately, then, Andrade understood Brazilian modernism as distinct from concurrent European trends, and to emphasize the separation, he focused on "o povo brasileiro," seeking brasilidade in the nation's blended culture. Andrade was not, however, content with the long-accepted "trio" emblem of Brazilian society (Indian, Portuguese, and African). Nineteenth- and twentieth-century migrations to Sao Paulo (stimulated by agricultural, industrial, and commercial economies) resulted in a pluralistic demographic in the city's business, production, and manufacturing sectors. The urban immigrant (Guarnieri's family took part in this movement) added a new constituent to the racial "trinity," altering Brazil's artistic landscape through the addition, adaptation, and absorption of transplanted cultural values. For the post-1922 composer, the resulting fusion (and finding pride and power in the newly formed combinations) (7) was what would define the "future Brazilian," and likewise the new classical music.

Andrade argued that a composer's immediate surroundings presented the most obvious stimuli for musical creation (see Andrade 1998, 112-16). He urged composers not simply to enjoy the benefits of a cultural heritage furnished for them, but to live the "drama of their society" and the "struggles of their time." Andrade encouraged collectivity to combat "disinterested art" (art for individual expression) in favor of "interested art" (art at the service of society), (8) calling for composers to sacrifice "personal liberties and vanities" and to replace the "absolute canon of aesthetics" with the "principle of usefulness" toward abandoning "preoccupations of beauty." This dialectic helped frame a strategy for composers to align the creative process with social function. Since music was created for man, by man, it should maintain a connection between "sender and receiver," or rather, between composer and audience. To effectively do so, Andrade stressed that music should boast tangible evidence of a cause and that only original compositions (9) exploitative of native elements would prevent the separation (which modernizing music might create) between the Brazilian composer and his audience.

The function of the modernist composer (10) was thus to elaborate, in a classical and artistic sense, the source material revealed through research to be unique to Brazil. As composers liberated the force of folk and popular music, often revealing a fine line between the two, the repressed components representative of the Brazilian (African, Portuguese, Indian or other) came to the surface, breaking the barrier imposed by officialized ideologies rooted in past creative choices. Revealed was a Brazilian musical heritage that perpetuated specific melodic motives and formal structures, as well as prescribed instrumental combinations and performance protocol. In field research, Andrade observed certain consistencies such as how a few "melodic constructions ... combine to always new organizations." The informed modernist composers could thus build a melody from characteristic motivic units based on formulae (limited ranges, repeated motives, and descending melodic lines) specific to Brazilian song. Other consistencies in vocal genres include syllabic text setting, particularly in the Northeast, and harmonic constructions based on fundamental cadential formulae, (11) Futhermore, Andrade naturally deemed Brazilian Portuguese a rich and sonorous language, and knew that art songs set to vernacular poetry could inspire a new awareness of local identity. Choosing a Portuguese text thus had nationalizing effects on the classical repertoire, particularly after the long-standing reliance on vocal models from abroad, notably Italian opera arias. (12)