Between Alto Cedro and Marcané. A Brief Remembrance of Danilo Orozco (Santiago de Cuba, July 17, 1944; Havana, Cuba, March 26, 2013)

Authors

  • Agustín Ruiz Zamora Patrimonio Cultural de Valparaíso

Abstract

The Cuban musicologist Danilo Orozco died in 2013 in Havana, Cuba. He was able to combine a solid scientific background with a deep commitment to social work. As the writer of or the responsible for numerous musicological studies, he stands among the most important scholars of the twentieth century. He undertook and handled a multifarious effort to further and value the musical heritage of his native Cuba, showing a special care for peasant musicians many of whom had been by then forgotten. He kept in permanent contact and had a close relationship with them as part of his musicological fieldwork. For him music could not be studied from the standpoint of isolated disciplinary fields. Far from that, he practised a widely encompassing musicology considering music on the basis of the musical processes themselves, rather than from the historical, cultural or social situation. For many his most outstanding achievement was his doctoral dissertation submitted in 1987 at the Humboldt University in Germany. However his most enduring legacy has to do with the monumental work that he carried out with musicians of the Oriente province in Cuba. Doubtless his intelectual endeavor was truly gigantic. However it has yet to be made widely known.

Keywords:

Son, Changüi, Buena Vista Social Club, Cuba, Nueva Trova