Musical Debate in the Magazine Cine Cubano: Vanguard and Reverberations of Post-Stalin Socialist Realism

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Published: 2026-02-16
Keywords:
Cine Cubano magazine, musical avant-garde, socialist realism, Cuban Revolution, film music

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Dr. Ivette Céspedes Gómez
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro image/svg+xml
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7933-7698 (unauthenticated)

Abstract

This article offers a critical reassessment of the musical discourses that circulated in Cine Cubano, a journal conceived both as a mouthpiece for the work of the Cuban Institute of Cinematographic Art and Industry (ICAIC) and as a guide to Cuban cultural policy. Drawing on an analysis of articles published between the 1960s and 1970s, it examines the aesthetic tensions between musical avant-garde and rear-guard currents and their resonances in film composition. The discussion is situated within the context of the socialist thaw, cultural polemics, and the international experiences that influenced Cuban musicians—especially the Polish model and the Warsaw Autumn Festivals. The study explores how the composers addressed in these debates defended or challenged new techniques, and how these positions interacted with national identity and with conceptions of the relationship between music and the moving image. Cine Cubano functioned as an institutionalized discursive arena in which stances were negotiated and, at the same time, musical avant-garde expressions in Cuba were legitimized.


Editorial History:


Received: November 15, 2025


Accepted: January 8, 2026

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Article Details

Issue

Vol. 26 No. 2 (2025): Dossier: Music Journalism in Latin America: Cultural Processes and Interdisciplinarity, Part 2

Section

Dossier
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Author Biography

Dr. Ivette Céspedes Gómez, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro

Cuban musicologist. PhD in Music from the Program in Music at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro. She was awarded a PDSE-CAPES scholarship for a research internship at the Complutense University of Madrid (2022–2023). She earned an MA in “Management of the Historical-Documentary Heritage of Music” from the University of Havana (2017). She worked as an assistant editor for the Revista Brasileira de Música (2018–2019). She has worked as a musicologist at the Lyceum Mozartiano of Havana (University of the Arts) and as a specialist in the music archive of the National Museum of Music. Her research focuses on avant-garde music and socialist realism, music in film, and Cuban song. She is a member of the International Musicological Society (IMS), the IMS Regional Association for Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Music and Newspapers Working Group, where she serves as the webmaster of its website.

How to Cite

“Musical Debate in the Magazine Cine Cubano: Vanguard and Reverberations of Post-Stalin Socialist Realism”. 2026. Revista Argentina de Musicología 26 (2): 12-36. https://www.ojs.aamusicologia.ar/index.php/ram/article/view/553.

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