LAMúsiCa
Volume 2, Number 3 (February, 1998)
Carmen Téllez, Editor in Chief
Gerardo Dirié, Editor
Erick Carballo, Managing Editor
from the LAMC desk . . .
Francisco Curt Lange
(1903-1997)
"Musicology is a product of the development of musical
life.
Without this development it is inconceivable:
musicology is based on music itself."
Francisco Curt Lange
Of German birth, Francisco Curt Lange became by inspiration and choice a Latin American citizen. During his life he traveled extensively through the continent coming to know its people, and its landscapes, learning about its musical life, and contributing to the development of Latin American music on a scale that has now become legendary. He will be remembered not only for the magnitude of his contribution but also for his passionate dedication and his flair for the epic with which he experienced his mission.
His academic training included studies at Leipzig, Berlin, Munich, and Bonn universities, where he obtained degrees in architecture and musicology. His main music teachers were Adolf Sandberger, Eugène d'Albert, Charles van den Borren, Ernst Buecken, Ludwig Schiedermair, Erich von Hornbostel, and Curt Sachs.
In 1930, while visiting Latin America, he was invited by the goverment of Uruguay to organize several of the musical activities in the country. As a result of this engagement, he co-founded the national broadcasting service (SODRE), founded and directed the national sound archives, and started one of the first musicology graduate programs in the Americas.
He was also involved in the creation of many international music conferences and festivals, such as Conferencia Iberoamericana de Música (Colombia, 1938), Conferencia Interamericana de Música (Washington, 1939), and the Festivales Interamericanos de Música (1933-46), which took place in several Latin American cities.
He founded several publications, such as the periodical Música Viva (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 1940-41), Revista de Estudios Musicales (Mendoza, Argentina, 1949-56), and the prestigious Boletin Latinoamericano de Música. His writings include numerous articles on a wide range of topics: music education, colonial music in Brazil, and Latin American composers.
His main contributions to musicological research were his exploration of Colonial archives in Argentina and Brazil-particularly his discovery and subsequent edition of the mulato music culture from eighteenth-century Minas Gerais; and his perspective on music scholarship for Latin America music, which he dubbed "Americanismo Musical".
In a 1980 interview with Esperanza Pulido for the Heterofonía magazine, Lange commented:
"... actually I should tell you a little about the story of what I published first. After realizing the isolation of composers and musicologists like us throughout the Americas, I resolved to issue a brochure announcing the formation of a music movement which would promote professional unity and at the same time encourage rapprochement: I called this Americanismo Musical. That brochure, which today is a historic object, was published in 1934."
We commend his life, his work, and his soul with profound admiration and gratitude.
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