Rodolfo Halffter

{{Infobox classical composer

| name = Rodolfo Halffter

| image = 1928-01-01, El Sol, La redacción de El Sol, vista por Bagaría (cropped) Rodolfo Halffter.jpg

| caption = Halffter caricatured by Bagaria in El Sol (1928)

| alt = Halffter caricatured by Bagaria in El Sol (1928)

| birth_date = 30 October 1900{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}}

| birth_place = Madrid, Kingdom of Spain{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}}

| death_date = {{death date and age|1987|10|4|1900|10|20|df=y}}{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}}

| death_place = Mexico City, Mexico{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}}

| occupation = {{hlist|Composer|music critic|professor}}{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}}

}}

Rodolfo Halffter Escriche (30 October 1900 – 14 October 1987){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}} was a Spanish composer, music critic, and professor with Mexican citizenship (from 1939). He wrote in a style always informed by his early engagement with the modernist aesthetics of Madrid's {{lang|es|Grupo de los Ocho|italics=no}}, finding inspiration in the music of Claude Debussy, Manuel de Falla, and Arnold Schoenberg.

Halffter came from a musical family. Though largely self-taught as a composer, he studied Schoenberg's Harmonielehre and was advised by Falla. His music has been compared to Domenico Scarlatti's in its neoclassicism and to Falla's in its mild polytonality.

Like others in his milieu, Halffter chose to leave Francoist Spain at the end of the Spanish Civil War. He emigrated to Mexico in 1939 and taught there for more than three decades, enjoying increasing recognition. Several notable composers are among his students. Starting in 1953, he became the first composer to use twelve-tone technique in Mexico.

Halffter returned to Spain beginning in the 1960s, where he also taught, and received its {{lang|es|Premio Nacional de Música|italics=no}} in 1986. He was also honored in Mexico, where he died. He wrote music in many genres and for many films.

Biography

=Early years=

Born in Madrid to a family of musicians, Rodolfo Halffter was the older brother of composer-conductor{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 2, Sc. "When Trains Collide: López-Chavarri versus Adolfo Salazar", ¶2; Ch. 2, Sc. "Falla in Valencia, 1925", ¶1}} Ernesto Halffter and uncle of composer Cristóbal Halffter.{{sfnm|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|1loc=¶1|López Gómez|2024|2loc=54n22}} His father Ernest Halffter Hein was from Königsberg, Germany.{{cn|date=September 2024}} His mother Rosario Escriche Erradón was of Catalan heritage and gave her children their first music lessons.{{cn|date=September 2024}}

=Spain=

Halffter was largely self-taught as a composer and influenced by Debussy and Schoenberg, having read the latter's Harmonielehre.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}} He was also advised by Manuel de Falla, whom he met through composer-critic Adolfo Salazar,{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}}{{efn|By comparison, Halffter's younger brother Ernesto was also guided by Adolfo Salazar, who had taught and praised him as the successor to Manuel de Falla.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 2, Sc. "When Trains Collide: López-Chavarri versus Adolfo Salazar", ¶2; Sc. "Manuel de Falla in Paris: Une heure de musique espagnole", ¶9}} (For this Salazar was accused of favoritism and opposed by {{ill|Eduardo López-Chávarri|es}}.){{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 2, Sc. "When Trains Collide: López-Chavarri versus Adolfo Salazar", ¶6}} By contrast, Roberto Gerhard found the autodidactic approach less fruitful and went to Vienna to study with Schoenberg in 1924.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 3, Sc. "Long Live Paris! (1927–1931)", ¶3}} Likewise, {{ill|Arturo Dúo Vital|es}} and Joaquín Rodrigo, among many international composers, went to study with Paul Dukas at the École Normale de Musique de Paris.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 3, Sc. "Long Live Paris! (1927–1931)", ¶3; Ch. 3, Sc. "Dukas and the École Normale de Musique", ¶1}} Manuel Ponce reported that Dukas emphasized Bach, Mozart, and especially Beethoven but largely excluded opera despite some awe of Wagner.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 3, Sc. "Dukas and the École Normale de Musique", ¶2, quoting Manuel Ponce's February 1928 "Paul Dukas" in La Correspondencia de Valencia 27(4)}} Dukas rejected "ignorant" music no matter its innovations, Ponce wrote, and insisted on counterpoint and economy of means.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 3, Sc. "Dukas and the École Normale de Musique", ¶2–3, quoting Manuel Ponce's 1928 "Paul Dukas" in La Correspondencia de Valencia 27(4)}}}} and whose music then owed much to Igor Stravinsky's neoclassical style.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 2, Sc. "The Curtain Goes Up ... and 'Now Rodericus is disinfecting the piano'", ¶8}}{{efn|Musicians after World War I preferred Stravinsky to "Debussyan softness", Rodrigo recalled in 1949.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 2, Sc. "The Alhambra, Falla, and the Guitar", ¶31 n97, quoting Joaquín Rodrigo's 27 July 1949 "Aspectos de la vida musical contemporánea"}} Ponce disparaged some 1920s composers as "Stravinskyists incapable of harmonizing a chorale".{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 3, Sc. "Dukas and the École Normale de Musique", ¶2–3, quoting Manuel Ponce's February 1928 "Paul Dukas" in La Correspondencia de Valencia 27(4)}}}} Halffter also met artists like Salvador Dalí and Federico García Lorca at the {{lang|es|Residencia de Estudiantes|italics=no}}, and he set the poems of Rafael Alberti to music in Marinero en tierra (1925).{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}} Halffter became counted among the composers of the 1930s {{lang|es|Grupo de los Ocho|italics=no}}, or Grupo de Madrid.{{cn|date=September 2024}}{{efn|This group was influenced by Adolfo Salazar, who encouraged its members to innovate.{{cn|date=September 2024}} Salazar introduced the group to the avant-garde music of the time, including that of Claude Debussy, Arnold Schoenberg, Maurice Ravel, and Béla Bartók.{{cn|date=September 2024}}}}

He worked first as a bank clerk and later as a music critic for Madrid's El Sol, El universo gráfico,{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1–2}} and {{ill|La Voz (Madrid)|lt=La Voz|es|La Voz (Madrid)|display=1}}.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 3, Sc. "Contests of 1934: Composing to Earn a Living", ¶15 incl. n68, quoting Halffter's 1934 "Información Musical. Varios conciertos"}} In the last, he praised Joaquín Rodrigo's {{ill|Zarabanda lejana y Villancico (Joaquín Rodrigo)|lt=Zarabanda lejana y Villancico|es|Zarabanda lejana y Villancico (Joaquín Rodrigo)|display=1}} as "the exquisite product of a refined musician".{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 3, Sc. "Contests of 1934: Composing to Earn a Living", ¶15 incl. n68, quoting Halffter's 1934 "Información Musical. Varios conciertos"}} He cofounded the Alianza de Intelectuales Antifascistas in 1936 and was also Head of the Department of Music at the Undersecretary of Propaganda in the Second Spanish Republic.{{sfn|López Gómez|2024|loc=52–53}} His brother Ernesto, by contrast, supported Francisco Franco.{{sfn|López Gómez|2024|loc=54n22}}

After the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), Halffter chose to leave Francoist Spain for Mexico,{{sfnm|Heile|2024|1loc=100|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=¶1–2}} as only Mexico and the Soviet Union had supported the Republican faction.{{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=741}} He was among many Spanish Republican exiles who did so,{{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=741}} including Falla,{{cn|date=September 2024}} Salazar, Rosa García Ascot, Jesús Bal y Gay, and María Teresa Prieto.{{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=741}}

=Mexico=

Halffter arrived in Mexico in 1939,{{sfn|Heile|2024|loc=100}} where he was welcomed by Carlos Chávez and Blas Galindo in Mexico City.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶2}} He first taught at the {{ill|Escuela Superior de Música (INBA, México)|lt=Escuela Superior de Música|es|Escuela Superior de Música (INBA, México)|display=1}} (1939–1940) and then at the {{lang|es|Conservatorio Nacional de Música|italics=no}} for 30 years.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶2}} {{ill|Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras|es}}, {{ill|Federico Ibarra Groth|es}}, Mario Lavista, and Rocío Sanz Quirós studied music with Galindo and Halffter here before continuing their education at major institutions in Europe or the United States.{{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=752, 761}}

In 1946, he became editor of Nuestra música and director of Ediciones Mexicanas de Música.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶2}} The same year, violinist Samuel Dushkin gave the premieres of Halffter's Violin Concerto, helping to establish Halffter's growing international reputation.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶2}} Halffter may have participated in the 1954 and 1957 {{lang|es|Festivales de Música}} in Caracas, perhaps placing him in the company of Roque Cordero and René Leibowitz.{{sfn|Heile|2024|loc=100}}

=Later career=

Halffter returned to Spain on many occasions after 1962.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶3}} He taught in Granada and Santiago de Compostela and participated in music festivals. He published a catalogue of Chàvez's music in 1971 for the composer's seventieth birthday and updated it after Chàvez's death.{{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=776–777, 786}} Halffter died in Mexico City on October 14, 1987.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1}}

Music

Halffter wrote the majority of his most important works while in the {{lang|es|Grupo de los Ocho|italics=no}}.{{cn|date=September 2024}} They are typified by their mild polytonality, asymmetric rhythms, and clear melodic writing after Falla,{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶3}} and their neoclassical style has been compared to the musical idiom of Domenico Scarlatti.{{cn|date=September 2024}}{{efn|Falla, E. Halffter, and Rodrigo also sometimes wrote in a Scarlattian idiom.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 7, Sc. "Academician of Fine Arts", ¶10}} In fact, hemiola and Phrygian half cadences are common in both Baroque music and the music of Spain.{{sfn|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024|loc=Ch. 2, Sc. "The Curtain Goes Up ... and 'Now Rodericus is disinfecting the piano'", ¶7}}}}

Halffter began to use twelve-tone technique, as the first composer to do so in Mexico,{{sfnm|Heile|2024|1loc=100|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=¶3}} in Tres hojas de album (1953).{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶3}} This was at a time when the technique was becoming mainstream and had already become respected as somewhat antifascist.{{sfn|Heile|2024|loc=100, 102}} He maintained the melodic orientation of his prior style.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶3}}

Reception

The Spanish government honored him with a concert in his later career, and he received further honors from the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando and the Mexican Academia de Artes.{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶3}} In 1986, he was awarded Spain's highest award for composition, the {{lang|es|Premio Nacional de Música|italics=no}}.{{cn|date=September 2024}} He has been remembered as a composer working in the style established by Falla{{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶3}} and as the first composer of twelve-tone music in Mexico.{{sfnm|Heile|2024|1loc=100|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=¶3}} Galindo honored him in music with Homenaje a Rodolfo Halffter (1989).{{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=739}}

Compositions

=Ballet suites=

Don Lindo de Almería (José Bergamín), Op. 7b, from the ballet (1935){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}
La madrugada del panadero (José Bergamín), Op. 12a, from the ballet-pantomime (1940){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}

=Chamber=

Piezas for string quartet (1923){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Giga for guitar, Op. 3 (1930){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Divertimento from Don Lindo de Almería for mixed ensemble, Op. 7a (1935){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Pastorale for violin and piano, Op. 18 (1940){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
String Quartet, Op. 24 (1957–1958){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Cello Sonata, Op. 26 (1960){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Three Movements for string quartet, Op. 28 (1962){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Ocho Tientos for string quartet, Op. 35 (1973){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}

=Films=

The Lady from Trévelez, dir. Edgar Neville (1936){{cn|date=September 2024}}
La mujer y la guerra, dir. Mauricio A. Sollín (1938){{sfn|López Gómez|2024|loc=52–53}}
Christopher Columbus, dir. José Díaz Morales (1943){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Michael Strogoff, dir. Miguel M. Delgado (1944){{cn|date=September 2024}}
Entre hermanos, dir. Ramón Peón (1945){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
{{ill|Los olvidados (película)|lt=Los olvidados|es|Los olvidados (película)|display=1}}, dir. Luis Buñuel (1945){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Raíces, dir. Benito Alazraki (1955), in collaboration with Galindo, José Pablo Moncayo, and Guillermo Noriega{{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=751, 780n63}}

=Orchestra=

Suite, Op. 1 (1924–1928){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}
Preludio atonal, homenaje a Arbós (1933){{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=739}}
Violin Concerto, Op. 11 (1940){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Tres sonatas de Fray Antonio Soler (1951){{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=739}}
Obertura festiva, Op. 21 (1952){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}
Tripartita, Op. 25 (1959){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}
Diferencias for orchestra, Op. 33 (1970){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}
Dos ambientes sonoros, Op. 37 (1975–1979){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}

=Piano=

{{ill|Dos Sonatas de El Escorial|lt=Dos sonatas|es|Dos Sonatas de El Escorial|display=1}} de El Escorial, Op. 2 (1928, after Antonio Soler){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=¶1, §Works}}
Para la tumba de Lenin (1937){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Homenaje a Antonio Machado, Op. 13 (1944){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Sonata No. 1, Op. 16 (1947){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Sonata No. 2, Op. 20 (1951){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Tres hojas de album, Op. 22 (1953){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Sonata No. 3, Op. 30 (1967){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Homenaje Arturo Rubinstein (Nocturno), Op. 36 (1973){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}

=String orchestra=

Dos impromptus y divertimento (c. 1931){{sfn|Hess|2023|loc=739}}
Tres piezas, Op. 23 (1954){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}
Elegía en memoriam Carlos Chávez, Op. 41 (1978){{sfnm|Hess|2023|1loc=739|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|2loc=§Works}}

=Vocal=

Marinero en tierra (Rafael Alberti) for voice and piano, Op. 27 (1925){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
La nuez (A. del Rio) for three-part children's chorus (1944){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Dos sonetos (Juana Inés de la Cruz) for alto and piano, Op. 15 (1946){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}
Tres epitafios (Miguel de Cervantes) for chorus, Op. 17 (1947–1953){{sfn|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001|loc=§Works}}

References

=Notes=

=Citations=

=Bibliography=

{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Heile|2024}}|reference={{ill|Björn Heile|lt=Heile, Björn|et|Björn Heile|display=1}}. 2024. Musical Modernism in Global Perspective: Entangled Histories on a Shared Planet. Music in Context Series, gen. ed. Benedict Taylor. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. {{ISBN|978-1-009-49170-9}} (hbk). {{doi|10.1017/9781009491716}}.}}
{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Hess|2023}}|reference=Hess, Carol A. 2023. "The Symphony in Mexico, Central America, and the Spanish-Speaking Caribbean". The Symphony in the Americas, ed. Brian Hart. Vol. 5, The Symphonic Repertoire, founding ed. A. Peter Brown. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. {{ISBN|978-0-253-06754-8}} (ebk). {{ISBN|978-0-253-06753-1}} (hbk).}}
{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Iglesias and Orrego-Salas|2001}}|reference=Iglesias, Antonio and Juan A. Orrego-Salas. 2001. "[https://web.archive.org/web/20240920202904/https://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/grovemusic/display/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.001.0001/omo-9781561592630-e-90000380286 Halffter (Escriche), Rodolfo]". Grove Music Online. Digitally published 2001. Retrieved 20 September 2024. {{doi|10.1093/omo/9781561592630.013.90000380286}}.}} {{Grove Music subscription}}
{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|López Gómez|2024}}|reference=López Gómez, Lidia. 2024. "Soundtracks for the Republic: Musical propaganda in documentary films during the Spanish Civil War". The Routledge Handbook to Spanish Film Music, ed. Laura Miranda. Routledge Music Handbooks Series. London and New York: Routledge. {{ISBN|978-1-032-00634-5}} (hbk). {{ISBN|978-1-032-00639-0}} (pbk). {{ISBN|978-1-003-17497-4}} (ebk). {{doi|10.4324/9781003174974}}.}}
{{wikicite|ref={{harvid|Suárez-Pajares and Clark|2024}}|reference=Suárez-Pajares, Javier and Walter Aaron Clark. 2024. A Light in the Darkness: The Music and Life of Joaquín Rodrigo, fwd. Julian Lloyd Webber, ed. and trans. {{ill|Nelson R. Orringer|es}}. Music in Context Series, gen. ed. Benedict Taylor. New York: W. W. Norton. {{ISBN|978-1-32-400446-2}} (ebk). {{ISBN|978-1-324-00445-5}} (hbk).}}