Hilario González (Cuba, 1920-1999)
BIOGRAPHY
Pianist, composer, and musicologist
Hilario González, a Cuban composer whose compositional style was heavily influenced by Cuban popular music as well as neoclassicism. He studied piano and composition at the Manene de Cienfuegos and the Havana Municipal Conservatory. He was a founding member of Grupo Renovación Musical at the conservatory and co-wrote the manifesto Presencia cubana en la música universal with Julian Orbón. From 1947 until 1960, he lived in Caracas, Venezuela where he continued his career as a pianist and served as the musical advisor for the Teatro Ateneo. Starting in 1971, he was a musicologist at the Museo de la Música in Havana, Cuba and researched the works of Salas y Castro and Caturla. His most well-known compositions include song cycles and piano music, with notable examples including Dos danzas afrocubanas (1938) and Tres preludios en conga (1938).
FEATURED WORK
As a musicologist, González wrote and published several works on several Latin American composers. This essay appears in the anthology El Arte Musical de Ernesto Lecuona.
MUSICAL WORKS
Ciclo de canciones (song cycle for voice and piano)
- González, Hilario. Ciclo de canciones. Caracas, Venezuela: Fundación Vicente Emilio Sojo, 1992. (IUCAT)
El jarrón Chino (song for voice and piano)
Miniaturas: 24 lecturas a 2 voces para solfeo o piano (for piano)
Primera sonata, opus 8 (for piano)
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Works List
DISCOGRAPHY
Performances
As a musicologist, Hilario González frequently researched the works of Cuban Composer Alejandro García Caturla. This recording of Mulata performed by Hilario González is available on Media Collections Online to authorized users.
Mulata
- Caturla, Alejandro García, Mulata. (Hilario González, piano ; Pedro Rodríguez, tenor) (Media Collections Online) (IUCAT)
Tres preludios en conga
These recordings of 3 Preludios en conga are available on Naxos Music Library to authorized users and on YouTube.
3 preludios en conga: Preludio no. 2
3 preludios en conga: Preludio no. 3
- González, Hilario. "3 Preludios en conga: Preludio no. 3." Cuba Piano, Ensayo, 2000, streaming audio. (Naxos Music Library)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings
- González, Hilario (1976). "Algunas tesis sobre las raíces de nuestra música sinfónica." Revista de la Biblioteca Nacional José Martí, 18 (3), 151.
Articles
- Blanco García, Yurima, Carlos Villar-Taboada, and Victoria Eli Rodríguez. "Las canciones de Hilario González (1920-1996) en la cultura cubana: biografía, análisis y recuperación patrimonial." Revista de Musicología, 42, no. 2 (2019): 795-803. (full text)
- Blanco García, Yurima. "Ciudad azul: la habanera como tópico de identidad en la obra de Hilario González." Cuadernos de Música Iberoamericana, Vol. 32 (enero-diciembre 2019), 317-344. (full text)
- Blanco García, Yurima. "Estaciones poéticas y canciones: la poesía de Emilio Ballagas en la creación musical de Hilario González." Clave (2018), 25-32. (full text)
- Blanco García, Yurima. “Hilario González: el minero de lo cubano.” El Sincopado Habanero 1 (January 2016): 3–6. (full text)
- Blanco García, Yurima. “Impronta del compositor cubano Hilario González en la cultura venezolana (1947–1960).” Boletín Música: Revista de Música Latinoamericana y Caribeña, no. 50 (September 2018): 79–113. (full text)
- Fanjul, José Luis. "Grupo de Renovación (1942-1948): neoclasicismo musical en Cuba." Revista Argentina de Musicología, 14 (2013), 187-205. (full text)
Dissertations
Encyclopedias
- Rodríguez, Victoria Eli. "González, Hilario." Grove Music Online, 2001. Accessed September 30, 2020. (Oxford Music Online: Grove Music Online)
For additional works on Hilario González available at IU Bloomington Libraries, click here.
RELATED RESOURCES
- Hilario González, EcuRed
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"Hilario González: Avant-garde Composer and Intellectual," TheCubanHistory.com (Spanish and English)