Cotapos Baeza, Acario (1889–1969)

Acario Cotapos Baeza (b. 30 April 1889: d. 22 November 1969), Chilean composer. Born in Valdivia, Chile, Cotapos was one of the group of authors, poets, composers, architects, and visual artists known as Los Diez, the first group to comprise the Chilean cultural avant-garde. Initially selftaught, at the age of twenty-seven Cotapos moved to New York to study. For the ten years following, he counted among his associates Edgard Varèse, Aaron Copland, Henry Cowell, Ernest Bloch, and Darius Milhaud. In 1927, with Varèse and others, Cotapos founded the International Composers Guild, one of the first organizations with a mandate to perform new music. In 1927, Cotapos left New York for Paris and Madrid, where he composed a number of important works. Returning to his homeland in 1940, he served as secretary of the National Conservatory from 1940 to 1946. He was supervisor of the Instituto de Extensión Musical of the University of Chile from 1949 until his death in Santiago. His musical output includes works for voice, piano, orchestra, and chamber ensembles. Much of his music, characterized by a free and independent spirit, tends toward the dramatic and monumental.

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Revista musical chilena (April 1961).

John Vinton, ed., Dictionary of Contemporary Music (1971).

Samuel Claro Valdés and Jorge Urrutia, Historia de la música en Chile (1973).

Gerard Béhague, Music in Latin America: An Introduction (1979).

Samuel Claro Valdés, Oyendo a Chile (1979).

Samuel Claro Valdés et al., Iconografía musical chilena, vols. 1 and 2 (1989).

Additional Bibliography

Aharonián, Coriún. "Un extraño señor llamado Acario Cotapos." Revista Musical Chilena 44 (January-June 1990): 114-117.

Merino Montero, Luis. "Jorge Urrutia Blondel y Acario Catapos: Reflexiones sobre dos facetas de la música chilena." Boletín de la Academia Chilena de Bellas Artes 2 (1989): 129-162.

Merino Montero, Luis. "Nuevas luces sobre Acario Cotapos." Revista Musical Chilena 37 (January-June 1983): 3-49.

                                            Sergio Barroso