Una historia de la música espectral española? Transferencias culturales transnacionales en el último cambio de siglo

Abstract

Since the turn of the twentieth century, Spain has experienced a significant flow of intellectual, ideological, and aesthetic values coming from France and in quest of an imaginary musical modernity. Is such transnational logic sufficient for explaining the Spanish composers’ reception of French spectralism at the turn of the twenty-first century, and the way they have adapted its technical achievements for their own practices? We answer this question focusing on three Spanish authors who have approached spectral techniques or attitudes in quite dissimilar ways: José Manuel López, Mauricio Sotelo, and Alberto Posadas. For that purpose, we provide analytical arguments around their oeuvre, their biographical track record, and the surrounding context. In particular, our musical analyses provide diverse genetic clues about their respective creative processes. Evidence lends us to widen the aforementioned—and often clichéd—transnational flow, epitomizing several complexities—and also paradoxes—of Spanish contemporary art music when considered in relation to the current international milieu.