Redes (soundtrack)

Redes is a film score by Silvestre Revueltas for the 1936 eponymous film directed by Fred Zinnemann and Emilio Gómez Muriel. Redes means "nets" in Spanish. It was the composer's first film score, begun in 1934, when he visited the film crew on location in Alvarado, Veracruz. The film concerns the efforts of exploited fishermen to unite. In the US it was issued as The Wave.

Concert versions

Revueltas arranged a concert version which he premiered in 1936, the same year as the film was released. However, in concert performance the music is usually heard in an arrangement by Erich Kleiber, made in the 1940s after the composer's death. Kleiber's version is in two parts and lasts about 16 minutes.

• Part I
  • The Fisherman
  • The Child’s Funeral
  • Setting Out to Fish
• Part II
  • The Fight
  • The Return of the Fishermen with Their Dead Friend

Critical reception

In his New York Times review, Aaron Copland commented that the music of Revueltas is "above all vibrant and colorful". He regarded this score to possess "many of the qualities characteristic of Revueltas's art". He added:

The need for musical accompaniments by serious composers is gradually becoming evident even to Hollywood. The Mexican Government, choosing Revueltas to supply the music for [Redes], is very much like the USSR asking Shostakovich to supply sound for its best pictures.

Recordings

The complete score has been recorded by the PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Angel Gil-Ordoñez for a version of the film released on DVD by Naxos in 2016. A CD of music from the score by the same performers without narration or dialogue (duration 34.17 minutes, twice the length of the usual concert versions) was issued in 2022, paired with Copland's The City (1939).

Further reading

• Bowles, Paul. Paul Bowles on Music, edited by Timothy Mangan and Irene Hermann. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press; London: University of California Press, 2003. ISBN 978-0-520-23655-4.
• Contreras Soto, Eduardo. Silvestre Revueltas: baile, duelo y son. Teoría y práctica del arte. México, D. F.: Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes, Dirección General de Publicaciones, Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, 2000.
• Estrada, Julio. Canto roto: Silvestre Revueltas. Vida y Pensamiente de México. México, D. F.: Fondo de Cultura Económica, Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, 2012. ISBN 978-607-16-0951-9.
• Garland, Peter. In Search of Silvestre Revueltas: Essays 1978–1990. Santa Fe: Soundings Press, 1991.
• Giro, Radamés. Imágen de Silvestre Revueltas. México, D. F.: Presencia Latinoamericana, 1983.
• Kolb Neuhaus, Roberto. "Redes: La versión de concierto de Silvestre Revueltas". Pauta, nos. 87–88 (July–December 2003): 38–53.
• Kolb Neuhaus, Roberto. "Silvestre Revueltas's Redes: Composing for Film or Filming for Music?" The Journal of Film Music 2, nos. 2–4 (Winter 2009): 127–144.
• Mayer-Serra, Otto. "Silvestre Revueltas and Musical Nationalism in Mexico". The Musical Quarterly 27, no. 2 (April 1941): 123–145.
• Nugent, Frank. S. "The Screen: At the Filmarte: The Wave", The New York Times (21 April 1937): 18.
• Slonimsky, Nicolas. Music in Latin America. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1945.
• Teibler-Vondrak, Antonia. Silvestre Revueltas: Musik für Bühne und Film. Wiener Schriften zur Stilkunde und Aufführungspraxis: Sonderband 6. Vienna, Cologne, and Weimar: Böhlau Verlag, 2011. ISBN 978-3-205-78767-9.

External links

• 2014 performance on YouTube, Sydney Conservatorium of Music Symphony Orchestra, Eduardo Diazmuñoz conducting