Planos (Revueltas)

''Planos'' (Planes) is a chamber-music composition by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas, also slightly enlarged and scored for full orchestra and published under its alternate title, ''Danza geométrica'' (Geometric Dance). Both versions were composed in 1934, and the scores are both dedicated to the architect Ricardo Ortega.

History

From at least as early as 1926, the architect Ricardo Ortega had encouraged Revueltas to take his composing more seriously, and showed some of his early scores to Edgard Varèse. When, in 1934, Revueltas composed ''Planos'' with a structure clearly alluding to architectural models, he dedicated the score to his architect friend. Although Revueltas is often regarded as a Mexican nationalist with strong populist leanings, ''Planos'' contains no obvious reference to folklore. It is one of his purest musical works, in which the use of any folk-like musical elements is almost imperceptible. His references to geometry, though more programmatic than Varèse's, nevertheless indicate a kinship with the older composer's work in a shared overall linear character. Revueltas was certainly aware of Varèse's music and aesthetics in the 1920s, when the two composers had exchanged correspondence.

The chamber-music version was completed in March 1934, and was reorchestrated in June of the same year for full orchestra.

Revueltas described the work as

Instrumentation

The chamber version, published as ''Planos'', is scored for a nonet: B clarinet, B bass clarinet, bassoon, C trumpet, piano, 2 violins, cello, and double bass. This heterogenous scoring, reminiscent of provincial bands, resembles those of other Revueltas scores, such as '' Alcancías'' and '' Colorines '' (both from 1932), ''Toccata sin Fuga'' (1933), and the slightly later ''Homenaje a Federico García Lorca''.

The large-orchestra version, published as ''Danza geométrica'', is scored for piccolo, 2 flutes, 2 E clarinets, 2 B clarinets, B bass clarinet, 3 bassoons (3rd doubling contrabassoon), 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, percussion (4 players: xylophone, glockenspiel, large and small tamtams, bass drum, slapstick, cymbal, large gong, tambourine, and tubular bells), 2 pianos, and strings. The larger ensemble seems to have required a temporal expansion as well. Two sections in the first half are extended and rewritten with newly added melodic material, the return of the opening material at the end is recast, and occasional motivic repetitions are added throughout.

Analysis

''Planos'' departs from the ternary A–B–A form Revueltas habitually employed in single-movement works. Instead, it is freely structured and through-composed. It is constructed in modular, mosaic fashion from six generating motives, each with several variant forms. These motives are manipulated and juxtaposed, resulting in their continual re-contextualization. The identity of each of these motivic groups is intensified by the use of particular timbres, intensities, articulations, registers, melodic contours, meters, rhythmic patterns, and durations. Revueltas combines them into a whole through the use of sequencing, double and triple superimposition, stretto, fragmentation, extension, and shadowing, united by a complex design of ostinatos and rhythmic planes. The resulting musical discourse is often both flowing and abrupt, "a faithful mirror of the daily battle within the conflicting imagery of his inner and outer worlds".

When the influence of Igor Stravinsky on the orchestral version was suggested, the composer reacted:

Discography

Chamber version

* Silvestre Revueltas: '' Homenaje a Garcia Lorca''; ''Planos, a Geometric Dance''; ''Toccata sin fuga''; ''Two Little Serious Pieces''; ''Tres sonetos''. MGM Chamber Orchestra, Carlos Surinach

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