¡Feliz cumpleaños, Carlos Chávez!

Join me this afternoon on The Classical Network, as I celebrate the birthday today of Mexico’s foremost composer and conductor. In the wake of the Mexican Revolution, Chávez (1899-1978) appeared like Quetzalcoatl, the creator-deity of Aztec lore, to forge a distinctive sound in Mexican music.

He became director of the Orquesta Sinfónica Mexicana, the country’s first permanent symphony orchestra. He was appointed director of the National Conservatory of Music. Later, he served as director-general of the National Institute of Fine Arts. At the same time, he formed the National Symphony Orchestra, which supplanted the old OSM.

In 1937, he conducted the world premiere of “El Salón México,” the work which essentially launched Aaron Copland into the mainstream.

Chávez himself was one of the first exponents of Mexican nationalism in music, writing ballets on Aztec themes. His most famous work is probably the Symphony No. 2, composed in 1935-36. Known as the “Sinfonia India,” it is based on melodies by indigenous tribes of northern Mexico.

The percussion section originally included a large number of traditional Mexican instruments, including the jicara de agua (half of a gourd inverted and partly submerged in a basin of water, struck with sticks), güiro, cascabeles (a pellet rattle), tenabari (a string of butterfly cocoons), a pair of teponaxtles, tlapanhuéhuetl, and grijutian (a string of deer hooves).

However, when the score was published, the composer sensibly substituted the nearest equivalents commonly used by most orchestras, though he requested that the originals be employed wherever possible. We’ll hear the work this afternoon in the 3:00 hour.

At noon today, The Classical Network will continue its partnership with Gotham Early Music Scene (GEMS), with a concert from Saint Bartholomew’s Episcopal Church in midtown Manhattan. The program of “Italian Jewels” will feature Nina Stern, recorder, Jeffrey Grossman, harpsichord, and Stephanie Corwin, bassoon, in music by Giovanni Battista Fontana, Tarquinio Merula, Arcangelo Corelli, and Antoniio Vivaldi.

It’s music from the Old World and the New, from 12 to 4 p.m. EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.