Harold Gramatges

Harold Gramatges, born in Santiago de Cuba on 26 September 1918, was one of the central figures of twentieth-century Cuban art music, both for his output and for his teaching and institutional work. His career combines composition with orchestral conducting, cultural management and diplomacy, an unusual path that is worth bearing in mind when assessing his catalogue.

He was first trained in his native city and then at the Municipal Conservatory of Havana, where he studied composition with Roldán and Ardévol. Ardévol brought him into the Grupo de Renovación Musical from its foundation in 1942. That same year he broadened his studies at Tanglewood with Copland and Koussevitzky, and between 1948 and 1949 he returned to New York with Copland, also attending seminars given by Carter and Ulysses Kay at Columbia University. In Havana he founded and directed the Conservatory's Youth Symphony Orchestra, and he served as assistant conductor of the Havana Chamber Orchestra. He presided over the Sociedad Cultural Nuestro Tiempo for a decade, and in 1959 he advised the music department of the national cultural affairs body, from where he took part in the reform of music education and in the creation of the National Symphony Orchestra.

His diplomatic and managerial phase came later: he was Cuba's ambassador to France between 1960 and 1964 and, in 1965, he created the music department of the Casa de las Américas, which he directed until 1970. From the founding of the Instituto Superior de Arte in 1976 he taught there, and he is now professor emeritus.

His works of the 1940s show the influence of neoclassicism; the Serenata (1947) is probably his most widely performed piece. After his stay in Paris and the impulse of the avant-garde in Cuba, he adopted serial techniques from 1966 in works such as Volpone and Cimarrón, and later developed the series Móviles (1969-1980), based on numbered 'events' that generate their own development. His music is distinguished by its attention to form, the presence of Cuban elements and a sober, elegant lyricism. His legacy remains current as a bridge between neoclassicism, modernity and the musical identity of his country.