Latin American art music of the first part of the 20th century was eclectic, although the nationalist trend continued in the early decades. In Mexico, nationalism can be traced in the work of such composers as Manuel M. Ponce, Silvestre Revueltas, and Carlos Chávez, the major Mexican composer of the century. Chávez came to the forefront in the period after the Mexican Revolution, when a new search for national identity fostered an Indianist movement in the arts. In the ballets El fuego novo (1921; “The New Fire”) and Los cuatro soles (1925; “The Four Suns”) and in the orchestral Sinfonía India (1935–36), the composer evoked Indian music and aesthetics within a decidedly modern musical framework. Revueltas drew from the popular and folk music of contemporary Mexico while employing harmonies, rhythmic techniques, and orchestration characteristic of 20th-century art music.

The Caribbean basin developed its own musical expressions of nationalism. Cuban afrocubanismo (the rediscovery of Afro-Cuban culture and its music by poets, artists, and musicians) became the most suitable source of national expression for Amadeo Roldán and Alejandro García Caturla, the outstanding 20th-century representatives of nationalism in Cuba. Afro-Cuban instruments, rhythmic structure, and folklore in general were at the basis of their works, but their style was characterized by bold modern polytonal harmonies and imaginative polyrhythmic and orchestral effects. The best-recognized cultivator of musical nationalism in Puerto Rico was Héctor Campos-Parsi. In Venezuela, Juan Bautista Plaza utilized the música criolla of his country—including the joropo, vals, and merengue—and experimental composer Gustavo Matamoros, who took inspiration from American composer John Cage, created sound installations and soundscapes. Contemporary techniques, counterpoint, and Latin American influences were evident in the work of cellist and composer Paul Desenne.

In the Andean region, nationalistic traits in art music vary with trends in folk music. In Chile, for example, where folk music had limited indigenous influence, most 20th-century composers embraced European contemporary trends rather than musical nationalism. Typical in that respect was Domingo Santa Cruz, the most influential person in Chilean musical life from the 1920s to the 1960s. Guillermo Uribe-Holguín was Colombia’s most articulate nationalist composer. In Ecuador, Segundo Luis Moreno, a folklorist, and Luis Humberto Salgado wrote many works with a marked Indianist tendency. Nationalist Bolivian composers combined Indianist elements with a Romantic orientation; an example is Simeón Roncal, who wrote very popular stylized cuecas for the piano.

Several generations of Peruvian composers attempted to develop a national identity in their music by resorting to the characteristic pentatonic melodies and rhythmic formulas of highland Indian music. The Indianist trend (indigenismo) was followed by Daniel Alomía Robles, Manuel Aguirre, and Teodoro Valcárcel, the most successful of the nationalists. Even the Belgian-French composer Andrés Sas and the German-born Rodolfo Holzmann, skilled in the current international techniques, wrote many works that incorporated melodies based on Peruvian folk music traditions. Holzmann’s student Peruvian Celso Garrido-Lecca had a long and varied career in which he experimented with many musical styles.

The progenitor of Argentine national music in the early 20th century, Alberto Williams, exerted a fundamental influence in his country by relying on the music of the gauchos (cowboys of the pampas, or plains). This gauchesco tradition was evident in his Aires de La Pampa (1944; “Songs of the Pampas,” a collection of more than 50 piano pieces). Juan José Castro and Luis Gianneo drew on the folk music and folklore of specific Argentine provinces. But Alberto Ginastera established himself in the 1940s as the leader of the national movement in Argentine music, which continued to be based on the gauchesco tradition. Others in Argentina, such as Roberto García Morillo and Julián Bautista, cultivated neoclassicism. Some Uruguayan composers of the period, such as Luiz Cluzeau Mortet and Eduardo Fabini, also based compositions on gauchesco and other mestizo elements.

Like Ginastera, Heitor Villa-Lobos of Brazil was a truly international figure. Prolific and imaginative, he composed for many media and in many genres, and he developed a unique, eclectic style in celebration of the musical soul of his country. Other Brazilian nationalist composers of the period were Camargo Guarnieri and Francisco Mignone.

Although musical nationalism dominated Latin American art music in the early 20th century, the trend had its opponents. Some composers openly reacted by adhering to the latest international techniques and aesthetics. Examples include the Argentine Juan Carlos Paz, the most radical figure of his generation, and the Mexican Julián Carrillo, an early proponent of microtonality (i.e., the use of pitches that fall between the standardized notes of the Western scales). It seems clear that some composers sought international recognition through the intrinsic quality of their works, not through their relationship to indigenous music. The approaches were not mutually exclusive: many nationalist composers cultivated varying styles in works that combined national and international stylistic elements.

The late 20th century and beyond

Latin American composers by and large followed international trends in the 20th century. In Mexico, Rodolfo Halffter at different times expressed the neoclassic aesthetic, then used polytonality, 12-tone techniques, and serialism. (Both 12-tone and serial techniques entail a means of ordering pitches or other aspects of musical construction, such as rhythm or dynamics.) He influenced several of his students in the same direction, including Jorge González Ávila, Joaquín Gutiérrez Heras, and Mario Kuri-Aldana. Avant-garde techniques of the 1960s were used by Manuel Enríquez, Héctor Quintanar, Mario Lavista, and Julio Estrada, to name a few. Subsequent generations of Mexican composers have cultivated electroacoustic media in combination with traditional ones, as in the cases of Francisco Núñez, Arturo Márquez, Ana Lara, and Gabriela Ortiz.

In Cuba, José Ardévol began to experiment with atonality and serialism after 1957; he profoundly influenced succeeding Cuban composers, most significantly Juan Blanco and Leo Brouwer. Blanco was particularly significant in the development of electronic music in his country; Brouwer was one of the most original figures of the Cuban avant-garde and an innovative writer for the guitar. Aurelio de la Vega, a longtime resident of California and one of the best-known Cuban composers of his generation, successively used a free atonal language, serialist techniques, electronics, open forms, and aleatory (chance) procedures, always in a personal and creative manner. Also noteworthy is the work of New York-based Cuban composer Tania León.

The Panamanian Roque Cordero holds a special place in Latin American composition of the late 20th century. After 1946 he wrote his most significant works in a serialist idiom, without rejecting traditional formal designs or rhythmic patterns reminiscent of Panamanian folk and popular music.

Of the Andean nations, Peru and Chile have seen the most significant participation in contemporary art music. In Peru, César Bolaños and Edgar Valcárcel particularly represented the progressive avant-garde in the 1960s and ’70s. In Chile, art music composition during the second half of the 20th century comprised a wide range of styles and genres. Juan Amenábar and José Vicente Asuar initiated the first experiments in electronic music in 1954. Juan Orrego-Salas earned the widest reputation outside his country. Gustavo Becerra-Schmidt, an unusually imaginative craftsman, cultivated serialist methods in the 1950s while maintaining classical formal concepts, then introduced aleatory techniques into some of his works of the 1960s and ’70s. Other Chilean composers who used serial techniques include Eduardo Maturana, Fernando García, León Shidlowsky, and Miguel Aguilar-Ahumada. In Colombia fewer composers have written in a contemporary musical language; among them are Fabio González Zuleta, Luis Antonio Escobar, and Jacqueline Nova. Mesías Maiguashca is the only Ecuadorian composer of his generation who pursued experimental aesthetics.

Argentina, particularly Buenos Aires, fostered the most dynamic musical life in late 20th-century Latin America. The Latin American Centre for Advanced Musical Studies at the Di Tella Institute, directed from 1962 to 1970 by Ginastera, promoted contemporary compositional techniques. He wrote his major works in the 1960s and ’70s, including the operas Don Rodrigo (1964), Bomarzo (1967), and Beatrix Cenci (1971), all considered examples of musical post-Expressionism in their use of sexually and emotionally charged themes. Other Argentine composers, representing a variety of styles, include Roberto Caamaño, Hilda Dianda, Francisco Kröpfl, Alcides Lanza, and Gustavo Santaolalla. Some prominent Argentines were active elsewhere, notably Mauricio Kagel, a resident of Germany; Mario Davidovsky, active in the United States; and Luis Jorge González, a resident of the United States. In addition, trends such as neo-Expressionism, post-serialism, and the use of electroacoustic media have had many followers, including Alicia Terzián, Horacio Vaggione, Oscar Bazán, and Osvaldo Golijov.

The most representative composers of contemporary compositional trends in Uruguay were Héctor Tosar, León Biriotti, Antonio Mastrogiovanni, Graciela Paraskevaídis, and Daniel Maggiolo.

In Brazil eclecticism prevailed, as seen in the works of César Guerra-Peixe, Cláudio Santoro, and Edino Krieger. The 1960s brought about radical changes with the São Paulo “Música Nova” avant-garde group, which included Gilberto Mendes, Rogério Duprat, and Willy Corrêa de Oliveira. Salvador, in Bahia state, became a dynamic centre for new music in the 1960s through the efforts of Ernst Widmer, who taught composition to a significant group that included Lindembergue Cardoso, Jamary Oliveira, and Paulo Costa Lima. Also noteworthy is the interdisciplinary work of California-based Brazilian composer and theorist Paulo Chagas.