About the essay Los orígenes de la música y la música primitiva by Alejo Carpentier and about its repercussion on his novel Los pasos perdidos: about an euphonic journey back to the source

Abstract

The popularization of essays and theories that deal with Carpentier and his narrative took place throughout the 60's, 70’s, 80’s and early 90's. After a smooth fever about Carpentier in the recent years of the last century, the interest for the autor reappear with the celebration of the centenary of his birth. However, the number of such interdisciplinary approaches, which have already been made to the musical essays of the author, is, by far, poor and meagre. With this article we proceed, on the one hand, to dissect, analyze and present Carpentier’s unpublished essay Los orígenes de la música y la música primitiva, the importance of which, as a significant part of the musical essays by the Cuban author, has so far devalued by the members of the critical apparatus; and to examine, on the other hand, how the musical essay is used by the author as a programmatical theory for the consolidation of his novel Los pasos perdidos.