‘The rending call of the poor and forsaken street crier’

Roberto Kolb-Neuhaus reinterprets the topical element in works by the Mexican composer Silvestre Revueltas. Against the background of monocultural nationalist interpretations, he reveals a social engagement of the composer, arguing that ‘the compositions that do resort to a kind of cultural representation through topical composing do so in order to musically embody a political message rather than an identitary one (such as Mexicanness).’