Havana, Cuba. - «I am eternally curious. Nothing can be achieved in the field of culture without curiosity». This is what researcher; editor; musician and Professor Radames Giro categorically told me. Such statement can be verified, just by checking out the indefatigable and passionate creator’s work through several decades.
Accompanying guitarist, Radames Giro - born in Santiago de Cuba, in 1940 - served in the late 1960’s as deputy director of the National School of Music, under the National School of Arts. He started the publication of books about music at the Cuban Book Institute.
Half a century avails his trade as experienced publisher - on labels such as Pueblo y Educacion; Arte y Literatura, Letras Cubanas and Museo de la Musica - both in management and purely professional posts. Such work entitled him to the decoration in 1999 with the National Edition Award for the work of a lifetime.
Since the publication in 1986, of his study titled Leo Brouwer and the guitar in Cuba, Radames Giro has built a solid bibliography, including more than a dozen published books, namely Vision panoramica de la guitarra en Cuba, El Filin of Cesar Portillo de la Luz and Musica Popular Cubana.
The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Music in Cuba unquestionable stands out in the list of his works. It was published in four volumes, in 2007 and 2009, and won two major awards: the Juan Marinello Center’s 2002 Research Award, and the 2007 Prize of Scientific Critics.
In this interview, the thorough researcher reviews several moments of his professional life. He comments on his books already published and on others in preparation; reflects his work as researcher and as editor. The dialogue unveils, I assure you, the eternally curious Radames Giro.
When and why did you become interested in researching on Cuban music?
“Since my term as deputy director of the National School of Music, in Cubanacan, I began to take notes of everything that interested me related to music. I'm talking about 1966. In 1967, at the suggestion of Professor of Music History, Jose Maria Bidot, I compiled the outcome of these studies in a dossier that grew year after year and was the basis of my Encyclopedic Dictionary of Music in Cuba. As for the motivation, it was my unquenchable curiosity and the importance I attach to the destination of the books that I write. That is to say for students, journalists and teachers.”
What would be the communicating vessels between your work as musician, teacher and editor and your interest in research?
“As for what binds these three fields of work, the truth is I have never separated them throughout my life. Everything is overlapped one way or another in my daily work, and one thing leads to the other. The musician and the professor took me to research and this one to editing.”
What has been the greatest challenge you have faced in your research work?
“The greatest challenge I have ever faced as researcher has been that I never belonged to any institution whose fundamental mission was research. It is worth saying that I had to do it in the free moments spared by my job as editor. It was very hard, if we take into account the books I have written, and that I never had the facilities and resources that an institution of that kind would have provided me. Everything was on my own.”
Undoubtedly, the Encyclopedic Dictionary of Music in Cuba is a monumental piece of work. How could you individually undertake a work that required am full team of authors to make it?
“I admit that when I finished the Dictionary ... I could hardly believe it. I must say, in all fairness, that my partner in life, Isabel Gonzalez-Sauto was the one that gave me the definitive momentum to end what can be called a monumental work. Some have said that a man alone could not do a work like this. But it was done. So, could you or could not you? What that really means is that any limitations, which every work has, were due to that. In that sense, some may be right, because neither a man, nor a team, or an institution can cover everything on their own. Perhaps something was missing or was in excess. But the thoroughness, seriousness, systematicity, consulted sources and the rightfulness of analysis or assessments are not quantifiable factors. They are qualitative factors only attributable to the scientific nature of the researcher-musician, who in this case are the same person, although I am not a college graduate, due to the vagaries of fortune. However, thanks to that, our revolutionary process gave me the chance to train within and with it. I am self-taught and graduate of the University of Cuban Revolution, which never asked me for a degree to require my services, although some people think that only certified knowledge has value. But you know what you know, as simple as that.”
There are titles in your bibliography that approach emblematic figures of popular and "cultured" music. What prompted you to study such a wide spectrum?
“The need to fill gaps in the knowledge on national and foreign figures and thinking mainly of students, made me study personalities in all fields of music, including figures as fascinating as Brazilian Heitor Villalobos. Music is only one and I do not concur with those who say that there is good and bad music. The one that counts is the good one for me. That's why I've devoted myself to all kinds of music, because everything interests me.”
Let's talk about your work as editor of art and, especially, of music books. What are the premises that sustain the trade of specialized book editor?
“October 30 2019 will mark 50 years of having joined the Book Institute. I have all devoted all of them to the subject of your question. Actually, I am the founder of art books edition (painting, architecture, ballet, music), which were, until my first retirement, the heart of my professional life. I used to lead a team of editors, the best of that institution. The first book I published was the Oxford Dictionary of Music, which became an invaluable contribution to the knowledge of universal music. Then I published technical books on harmony, counterpoint, orchestration, music history, and biographies of musicians. We dealt with everything in the field of arts that could be needed by students, professors, journalists and every fairly educated individual that needed the information. Understandingly, the job has been arduous and exciting. That is the only way one could have been engaged for so many years in the same job.”
Has your work as editor enriched or hindered your research work?
“I can say without hesitation that my work as editor has enriched my work. The editor must be a passionate reader, eternally curious and that curiosity is translated not only into research, but also in the search for books that should be published, and most of all, in the encouragement that must be given to the authors. The exchange between editor and author, and the consultation of the sources foster research and are reflected in the final outcome. For a researcher, it is fortunate to be an editor if he or she truly feels culture as a fundamental necessity. There cannot be a cultured individual without reading.”
What other issues or figures of music would you like to study in the future?
“I no longer plan to study any other figure. I do have the purpose of writing, let's say, a final book on the history of Cuban popular music. I am now working on a testimony given to me by Harold Gramatges and on a book about the musical controversies in the 1940’s and 1950’s.”
How would you assess your work? What would be the lights and the shadows?
“That is the hardest of all your questions. Self-assessment, how to define my work? What are its lights and shadows? Those questions are really for the critics. I can tell you that I do not regret anything I have written. I would have only liked, of course, to have done better. If I take into account the impact that my major work has had, including the success of my dictionary, it should be enough to make me happy. However, I am a critic of myself, sometimes harsher than many people think and I admit I do not have enough vanity to be vain. It pleases me, however, when someone tells me that my work has been useful for his/her studies. And the ultimate criticism is that of those who copy you and do not quote you.”
Translated by Pedro A. Fanego
