Juan Carlos Paz (5 August 1897 – 26 August 1972) was an Argentine

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Defi ...

and music theorist. Paz was born in Buenos Aires, either in 1897 or in 1901, where he studied piano with Roberto Nery and composition with Constantino Gaito and Eduardo Fornarini. He also studied organ with Jules Beyer, and then travelled to Paris to work with Vincent d'Indy at the

Schola Cantorum The Schola Cantorum de Paris is a private conservatory in Paris. It was founded in 1894 by Charles Bordes, Alexandre Guilmant and Vincent d'Indy as a counterbalance to the Paris Conservatoire's emphasis on opera. History La Schola was founded i ...

. On 22 October 1929, a shared enthusiasm for new musical developments caused him, together with Juan José Castro and José María Castro,

Gilardo Gilardi Gilardo Gilardi (May 25, 1889 - January 16, 1963) was an Argentine composer, pianist, and conductor who was the eponym of the Gilardo Gilardi Conservatory of Music in La Plata, Buenos Aires. He was born in San Fernando, Argentina and first ...

, and Jacobo Ficher, to form the

Grupo renovación The Grupo renovación was an Argentine composers' association founded in 1929 to promote modern music. The Grupo renovación was founded on 22 October 1929. The aims of the group were "to discuss compositions of its members; to perform and to publi ...

, with the aim of promoting the cause of modern music in Argentina. In 1936, Paz left the group to found his own concert series, the Conciertos de la Nueva Música. Paz was firmly opposed to the folkloristic approach to music that was widespread in Latin America in the 1930s and 1940s. Opinions differ about his earliest compositional styles. According to one authority, in the 1920s and early 1930s, his music was post-Romantic, with influences from César Franck and

Richard Strauss Richard Georg Strauss (; 11 June 1864 – 8 September 1949) was a German composer, conductor, pianist, and violinist. Considered a leading composer of the late Romantic and early modern eras, he has been described as a successor of Richard Wag ...

; another writer describes this same period (1920–27) as characterized by neoclassical polyphony. The former author regards

Igor Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky (6 April 1971) was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor, later of French (from 1934) and American (from 1945) citizenship. He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of the ...

's neoclassicism and jazz as Paz's focus in the 1930s, whereas the latter describes his second period (1927–1934) as "marked by atonal melodic idiom and polytonal harmony". Both authors agree that in the 1930s he was investing the diverse styles and techniques prevalent worldwide at that time, and particularly

Arnold Schoenberg Arnold Schoenberg or Schönberg (, ; ; 13 September 187413 July 1951) was an Austrian-American composer, music theorist, teacher, writer, and painter. He is widely considered one of the most influential composers of the 20th century. He was as ...

's twelve-tone technique, which Paz introduced to Argentina. He was particularly attracted by Anton Webern's music, and from 1934 adopted twelve-tone writing, which he continued to use until 1950. Though he continued to maintain that Schoenberg's methods deserved to be better-known and understood, publishing in 1954 a book ''Arnold Schoenberg, o el fin de la era tonal'', he abandoned the technique in his own compositions, evolving a new experimental, highly structured idiom. In the mid-1960s, however, he gave up composing altogether. Paz's pupils included Susana Barón Superville who, like him, was a member of the Agrupación Nueva Música.

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Juan Carlos Paz
Biografías y Vidas

Latinoamérica Música * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Paz, Juan Carlos 1897 births 1972 deaths Musicians from Buenos Aires Argentine classical composers Schola Cantorum de Paris alumni Twelve-tone and serial composers Male classical composers 20th-century classical composers 20th-century male musicians

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