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.[1]
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.[2]
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".[3] 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.[1]
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.[4] 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).[5]
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.
ISBN978-0-520-23655-4.
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.
ISBN978-607-16-0951-9.
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.
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.
ISBN978-3-205-78767-9.