Entertainment · Books & Arts · 3 hrs ago
Alida Vázquez’s 1980 electronic work is heard in Mexico for the first time
Mexican composer Alida Vázquez’s 1980 electronic work is being heard in Mexico for the first time at the MUAC, a university art museum in Mexico City.
The piece, *Danzas de la vida y la muerte*, was created for dance and remained on cassette tapes in Stanford University’s archives for decades.
Vázquez studied in Mexico and New York, including with electronic music pioneer Vladimir Ussachevsky, and continued composing into the early 2000s.
Much of her music was lost after her death in 2015, because her archive was not preserved.
Mexican musician and researcher Teresa Díaz de Cossío found Vázquez while looking for music by women composers and spent years piecing together her story.
The exhibition pairs the recovered work with four new pieces by contemporary composers, who imagined Vázquez’s music as an influence on their own.
The project gives her work a musical legacy that years in the archive had prevented it from building.
Alida Vázquez’s 1980 electronic work Danzas de la vida y la muerte is being heard in Mexico for the first time at the MUAC.
The work had been held on cassette in Stanford University archives for nearly half a century.
The presentation includes four new works by contemporary composers, created in response to Vázquez’s piece.
Mexican flautist, composer and researcher Teresa Díaz de Cossío helped recover the work and reconstruct Vázquez’s story.
Vázquez studied electronic music in New York and composed at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center.
- Who
- Mexican composer Alida Vázquez Ayala, and four contemporary composers responding to her work.
- What
- Vázquez’s electronic work Danzas de la vida y la muerte is being presented in Mexico for the first time, alongside four commissioned works.
- When
- The work was composed in 1980. The first Mexican presentation is taking place at the time of the article.
- Where
- The Espacio de Experimentación Sonora at the Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo in Mexico City.
- Why
- The work is being recovered from the archives and presented with new works that imagine a musical lineage for Vázquez’s piece.
This story does not have two clearly opposing sides.
Vázquez emigrated to New York.
Vázquez created Danzas de la vida y la muerte for dance.
Vázquez died in New York.
Teresa Díaz de Cossío had been reconstructing Vázquez’s history.
The work was heard in Mexico for the first time at the MUAC’s Espacio de Experimentación Sonora.
- Composer
- Alida Vázquez Ayala (1923–2015)
- Work
- Danzas de la vida y la muerte
- Composition year
- 1980
- Archive
- Stanford University
- Venue
- Espacio de Experimentación Sonora, MUAC
- New works
- Four commissioned responses by contemporary composers
1 source
What people are saying
When a work is archived, it is prevented from building a genealogy.
Alida saw this piece as a laboratory for exploration, and for us this exhibition is also one, almost 50 years later.
I think I have found the language of dance in my music.