(b. 3 April 1943, Mexico City – d. 4 November 2021, Mexico City).
Mexican composer of mostly orchestral, chamber, vocal, and piano works that have been performed throughout the world; he was also active as a writer.
Prof. Lavista was the nephew of the composer Raúl Lavista (b. 1912 – d. 1980). He studied piano with Adelina Benítez and Francisco Gyves in Mexico City as a child. He studied analysis with Rodolfo Halffter and composition with Carlos Chávez and Héctor Quintanar at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City from 1963–67, on a grant from the Secretaría de Educación Pública in Mexico City. He then studied analysis with Jean-Étienne Marie at the Schola Cantorum in Paris from 1967–69, on a scholarship from the government of France. He also attended a seminar on analysis with Nadia Boulanger in Paris in 1968, courses with Christoph Caskel, Henri Pousseur and Karlheinz Stockhausen at the Rheinische Musikschule in Cologne in 1968 and the Ferienkurse in Darmstadt in 1969, where he encountered György Ligeti.
Among his honours were the Diosa de Plata from the Asociación de Periodistas y Críticos de Cine (1978, for Flores de papel, shared with Raúl Lavista), a grant from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation (1987–88), the Premio Nacional de Ciencias y Artes in Mexico (1991), the Medalla Mozart in Mexico (1991), the Diploma de la Unión Mexicana de Cronistas de Teatro y Música (1999, for his uvre), and the Premio Tomás Luis de Victoria from SGAE (2013, for his uvre). In addition, he was a member of the Academia de Artes de México in Mexico City from 1987–2021, an emeritus composer of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores del Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes (FONCA) from 1993–2021 and a member of El Colegio Nacional in Mexico City from 1998–2021.
As a writer, he contributed articles and essays to numerous publications, many of which appear in Mario Lavista: textos en torno a la música (1988, second edition, 1990, edited by Luis Jaime Cortez, CENIDIM). His other writings include the lecture El Lenguaje del músico (1999, El Colegio Nacional). He founded the music journal Talea at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in Mexico City in 1975 and served as its editor in 1975–76. He later founded the music journal Pauta in Mexico in 1982 and served as its editor from 1982–2021.
He was also active in other positions. He founded the improvisational ensemble Quanta in 1970 and performed as its pianist from 1970–73. He worked at the studio for electronic music of the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City in 1970 and the studio for electronic music of NHK in Tōkyō in 1971–72. He was a member of the board of editors of Ediciones Mexicanas de Música from 1979–2021 and a regular collaborator with the Ballet Nacional de México in Mexico City from 1988–2021. He co-founded the Asociación de Amigos del Museo Nacional del Virreinato in Tepotzotlán in 1988 and served as a musical advisor to the Consejo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes in Mexico City from 1990–98 and to the Instituto Cultural Domecq in Mexico City from 1994–98.
He taught music appreciation and 20th-century music at the Casa del Lago Juan José Arreola of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México from 1965–67, where he later served as chair of the department of music of its Dirección de Difusión Cultural from 1974–76. He has taught as a professor of analysis of 20th-century music and composition at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Mexico City since 1970. He taught analysis, contemporary music, harmony, and musical culture at the music school Vida y Movimiento of the Centro Cultural Ollin Yoliztli in Mexico City from 1980–88.
In addition to the works listed below, he composed music for many TV productions and his music has often been used as the basis for dance productions.
SELECT LIST OF WORKS
STAGE:
Passion, Poison, and Petrifaction (incidental music, play by George Bernard Shaw), 1961
Poesía en movimiento (spectacle, direction by Salvador Flores Rivera), 1969
Fröken Julie – Miss Julie (incidental music, play by August Strindberg), 1975
The Fall of the House of Usher (incidental music, play by Edgar Allan Poe), 1977
The Innocents (incidental music, play by William Archibald), 1977
La Jacassière – Fue una historia de amor (incidental music, play by Gilbert Léautier [translated by Gérald Huillier]), 1979
Historias como cuerpos (dance music, choreography by Lidia Romero), fixed media, 1980
Hécuba, la perra (music for puppet show by Hugo Hiriart), 1982
Aura (opera in 1 act, libretto by Juan Tovar, after Carlos Fuentes), soprano, mezzo-soprano, tenor, bass, large orchestra, 1987–88 (a concert suite was arranged as Aura, Paráfrasis orquestal de la ópera)
ORCHESTRAL:
Seis pequeñas piezas para orquesta de cuerdas, string orchestra, 1965
Continuo, piano, prepared piano, small orchestra (4 French horns, 3 trombones, tuba, 4 percussion, strings), 1971
Lyhannh, large orchestra, 1976
Ficciones, large orchestra, 1980
Reflejos de la noche, string orchestra, 1986 (version of work for string quartet)
Aura, Paráfrasis orquestal de la ópera, large orchestra, 1989 (concert suite from Aura)
Clepsidra, large orchestra, 1990–91
Lacrymosa, a la memoria de Gerhart Muench, large orchestra, 1992
Tropo para Sor Juana (sobre el Sanctus de la Misa a Nuestra Señora del Consuelo), large orchestra, 1995
Tres Cantos a Edurne, 2011
CHAMBER MUSIC:
Cinco Piezas, string quartet, 1965
Divertimento, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 5 woodblocks (5 players), 3 shortwave radios (3 operators), 1968
Diacronía (string quartet no. 1), 1969
Kronos, 15 or more alarm clocks (15 or more operators), 1969
Game, 1 or more flutes, 1971
Diálogos, violin, piano, 1974
Antifonía, flute, 2 bassoons, 2 percussion, 1974
Quotations, cello, piano, 1976
Talea, music box, 1976
Trío, violin, cello, piano, 1976
Pieza para caja de música, music box, 1977
Canto del alba, flute, 1979
Dusk, double bass, 1980
Cante, 2 guitars, 1980
Motete a dos voces, music box, 1981
Danza bucólica, music box, 1981
Lamento a la muerte de Raúl Lavista, bass flute, amplification ad libitum, 1981
Nocturno, alto flute, 1982
Marsias, oboe (with 8 crystal glasses), 1982
Reflejos de la noche (string quartet no. 2), 1984 (also version for string orchestra)
Cuicani, flute, clarinet, 1985
Madrigal, clarinet, 1985
Ofrenda, tenor recorder, 1986
Vals, flute, clarinet, string quartet, 1986
Responsorio in memoriam Rodolfo Halffter, bassoon, 4 tubular bells (1 player), 2 bass drums (1 player), 1988
El Pífano: retrato de Manet, piccolo, 1989
Cuaderno de viaje, viola/cello, 1989
Cadencias para el Concierto en si bemol mayor para fagot de Mozart, bassoon, 1990
Las Músicas dormidas, clarinet, bassoon, piano, 1990–91
Danza de la Bailarinas de Dégas, flute, piano, 1991–92
Cinco Danzas breves, flute, oboe, clarinet, French horn, bassoon, 1994
Tres Danzas seculares, cello, piano, 1994
Música para mi vecino (string quartet no. 3), 1995
Sinfonías (string quartet no. 4), 1996
Danza isorrítmica, 4 percussion, 1996
Natarayah, guitar, 1997
Octeto, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 2 French horns, 1997
Siete Invenciones (string quartet no. 5), 1998
Suite en cinco partes (string quartet no. 6), 1999
Fanfarria para un concurso, 4 French horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, tubular bells, bass drum, 1999
Estudio, 4 marimbas, 2000
Tres Miniaturas, guitar, 2000
Tres Bagatelas, violin, viola, cello, 2001
Una Jaula para Sirius, prepared piano, percussion, 2002
Elegía a la memoria de Nacho, flute, piano, 2003
CHORAL:
Homenaje a Beckett (text by José Emilio Pacheco), 3 amplified mixed choruses, 1968
Missa Brevis ad Consolationis Dominam Nostram, mixed chorus, 1994–95 (also shorter version by Carmen Helena Téllez for 4 mixed voices, flute, clarinet, viola, double bass, 1998)
Gargantúa (text by François Rabelais [Spanish translation]), speaker, children's chorus, large orchestra, 2002
VOCAL:
Monólogo (text by Nikolai Gogol [Spanish translation]), baritone, flute, double bass, vibraphone, 1966
Dos Canciones (text by Octavio Paz), mezzo-soprano, piano, 1966
Tres Canciones (texts by Bai Juyi, Li Shangyin [both translated by Marcela San Juan, Gabriel Zaid]), mezzo-soprano, piano, 1983
Hacia el comienzo (text by Octavio Paz), mezzo-soprano, large orchestra, 1984
Tres Nocturnos (texts by Álvaro Mutis, Rubén Bonifaz Nuño), mezzo-soprano, large orchestra, 1985–86
Pañales y sonajas (Lullaby for Elisa), mezzo-soprano, prepared piano, 1999
PIANO:
Pieza para un(a) pianista y un piano, 1970
Cluster, piano (any number of players), 1973
Diafonía, 2 pianos (+ percussion) (1 player), 1973
Cadencias para el primer y tercer movimientos del Concierto en mi bemol para dos pianos y orquesta de Mozart, 1974
Pieza para dos pianistas y un piano, piano (2 players), 1975
Jaula, 1 or more prepared pianos, 1976
Tango del adulterio, 1979
Simurg, 1980
Nocturno en mi bemol Op. 55 núm. 3 (Posth.), 1980
Correspondencias, 1983
Tres Acrósticos nocturnos, 1983
Canon for Jo, 1999
Pieza para piano (sobre un modo balinés), 2003
ORGAN:
Mater dolorosa, 2000
ELECTROACOUSTIC:
Espaces trop habités, fixed media, 1969
Alme, fixed media, 1971
Contrapunto, fixed media, 1972
FILM SCORES (DIRECTOR):
Judea, Semana Santa entre los coras, 1973 (Nicolás Echevarría)
Flores de papel, 1978 (Gabriel Retes; collaboration with Raúl Lavista)
María Sabina, mujer espíritu, 1978 (Nicolás Echevarría)
Niño Fidencio, el taumaturgo de Espinazo, 1980 (Nicolás Echevarría)
Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, 1988 (Nicolás Echevarría)
Cabeza de Vaca, 1991 (Nicolás Echevarría)
Eclipse, 1991 (Nicolás Echevarría)
Vivir mata, 2002 (Nicolás Echevarría)