Paz, Juan Carlos (1897–1972)

Juan Carlos Paz (b. 5 August 1897; d. 25 August 1972), Argentine composer, teacher, and writer. Paz was born in Buenos Aires, where he studied piano and composition with Alphonse Thibaud and harmony with Constantino Gaito but recognized a main influence in the figure of Eduardo Fornarini, an itinerant Italian musician. Fornarini initiated Paz in the analysis of the works of César Franck, Debussy, and the early works of Schönberg and Stravinsky. In 1924, Paz went to Europe and entered the Schola Cantorum in Paris, where he worked with Vincent d'Indy. In spite of all his studies, Paz considered himself largely self-taught. On returning to Buenos Aires he joined in 1929 with composers Juan José and José María Castro, Gilardo Gilardi, and Jacobo Ficher to create the Renovation Group to promote their music. Later, Paz withdrew from it due to a lack of agreement on the methods to achieve their goals and on aesthetic differences. Soon he began to teach composition privately, and he introduced twelve-tone techniques to his students and to the public at large. In 1937 he created the Agrupación Nueva Música (ANM), which performed in concert featuring works by Schönberg, Webern, Varèse, Cowell, Cage, Messiaen, and many others.

Paz's works were neoclassical well into the mid-1930s, characterized by linear, contrapuntal writing, with some harmonies within an atonal style, as in his Tres piezas para orquesta (1931) and Octet for wind instruments (1930). Tres invenciones a dos voces (1932), Tres movimientos de Jazz (1932) and his Piano Sonatina no. 3 (1933) show his angular, neoclassical writing and jazz influences. The abstract phrasing of these pieces introduced the strict atonal writing that Paz would favor in later years.

In 1934, Paz began to explore twelve-tone writing, a technique he applied in a very personal way in his Primera composición en los doce tonos for flute, English horn, and cello (1934); Segunda composición en los doce tonos for flute and piano (1934–1935); Diez piezas sobre una serie de los doce tonos for piano (1935); Passacaglia for orchestra (1936); and Tercera composición en los doce tonos for clarinet and piano (1937); and Cuarta composición en los doce tonos for solo violin (1938). Paz continued in this phase into the mid-1950s, although he tried something different in his Rítmica ostinata for orchestra (1942). In this work, a large toccata in fast tempo with sixteenth- and eighth-note values as a constant figuration, the many pedal points and ostinatos are orchestrated brilliantly. During the 1960s, Paz explored other styles and techniques but favored what he had called the "return to intuition." He wrote only a few works after that, in a free style that offered him a greater freedom of language. During the 1960s he wrote Continuidad (1960) for orchestra; Música for piano and orchestra (1963); Invención for string quartet (1961); Concreción for woodwind and brass instruments (1964); Galaxia for organ (1964); and the series Núcleos for piano (1962–1964). Other important works by Paz include Dédalus for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, and piano (1950); Transformaciones canónicas (Canonical transformations) for orchestra (1955–1966); and his monumental Música 1946 for piano (1945–1946).

His books left a mark on many young composers, not only in Argentina but throughout South America and Europe. They included La música en los Estados Unidos (1952; revised in 1958); Introducción a la música de nuestro tiempo (1955); Arnold Schoenberg, o el fin de la era tonal (1958); Alturas, tensiones, ataques, intensidades (1972).

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

John Vinton, ed., Dictionary of Contemporary Music (1974), p. 557.

J. Romano, Vidas de Paz (1976), pp. 7-13, 94-97.

Gérard Béhague, Music in Latin America: An Introduction (1979), pp. 245-246, 274-276, 335-336; Octavo festival internacional de música contemporánea (1992), pp. 72, 96.

Additional Bibliography

Benarós, León. "Juan Carlos Paz: 'Dodecafonismo o muerte.'" Todo Es Historia 35: 408 (July 2001), 30-31.

Scarabino, Guillermo. El Grupo Renovación (1929–1944) y la "nueva música" en la Argentina del siglo XX. Buenos Aires: Ediciones de la Universidad Católica Argentina, 2000.

                                        Alcides Lanza