Carpentier, Alejo

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(b Havana, Dec 26, 1904; d Paris, April 24, 1980). Cuban writer. He worked as a journalist from 1922, writing not only political articles but also music and theatre criticism, and with Roldán he organized the first concerts of new music in Havana. After his imprisonment for having founded a minority party (1927), he turned his attention to the arts. He lived in Paris for a time, meeting Varèse and working with him on the abortive dramatic project The One-all-alone. On his return to Cuba in 1940 he was appointed director of the Cuban Broadcasting System and taught at the University of Havana. During the Batista period he lived in Venezuela, returning after the Revolution to serve as director of the Editora Nacional, and as cultural attaché and ambassador in Paris. As a writer on music he promoted the new trend of musical nationalism based on Afro-Cuban sources and the Cuban Grupo de Renovación Musical. His publications not only contributed greatly to the knowledge of Cuban musical traditions but also put forward an influential account of the true nature of Latin American and Caribbean musics. His novel ...