ABSTRACT
The narrative of progress and modernity that gained momentum from the 1960s onwards in Spanish music might at first sight seem difficult to reconcile with the conservative and nationalist nature of the Franco regime. I have discussed how Valls’s and Marco’s defence of the avant-garde coexisted with more traditional points of view. The relationship between conservatism and modernity under the Franco regime cannot be easily explained: at different points in the 40-year history of the dictatorship, celebration of traditional values coincided with attempts to bring a solution to the long-standing problem of turning Spain into a modern country. For example, Ernesto Giménez Caballero, one of the first members of the Falange and an influential theoretician of fascism and fascist art in early Francoism, started his writing career in the 1920s as an avant-garde poet. The Falange itself, which was the prevailing faction during the Civil War and the early years of the regime, shared with other fascist movements a concern with finding a balance between tradition and modernity: in fascism, the ultimate aim of looking back at the past is not merely nostalgia but national rebirth (palingenesis),1 and this certainly applied to 1940s Spain. Looking back at the past during the 1940s included not only the celebration of Spain’s imperial era but also a reversal to extreme physical brutality in order to discipline or annihilate the perceived enemies of Spain – and it was this purge that then made way for the advent of modernity in the 1960s by ensuring that opposition to the regime’s plans was kept to a minimum.2
