In 1942 composer Juan Blanco presented in the Office of Brands and Patents the description and graphic information belonging to an instrument he had invented and which he called “Multiórgano”. It consisted of a set of 12 loops of magneto-phonic wires on each of which was pre-recorded a chromatic scale note sung by the human voice or played by any instrument. Recording on tape didn’t exist at that time. This was a very advanced technical proposal by the time, as it was acknowledged at the International Symposium ""Musical Inventions and Creations: Denial of Utopia" celebrated at Bourges, France, from June 11th-15th 1991, which was attended by J.V.Asuar, G.Bennett, D.Buchla, J.Chowning, C.Clozier, H.P.Haller, S.Hanson, G.Katzer, O.Luening, M Mathews, R.Moog, T.Oberheim, Z.Pongracz, J.C.Risset, O.Sala, P.Schaeffer, M.Subtonick, L.Theremin, O.Tomek, K.Wiggen, I.Xenakis y P.Zinovief and Blanco himself, among others. In that occasion, Blanco presented the original design of the Multiórgano, printed in ferrous prussiate. It was then declared the precursor of the Melotrón, an instrument created and commercialized in 1962. It was to be included in the project of the "International Memory Archives of the Science and Art of Electronic Music" to be sponsored by UNESCO and other institutions from Paris.
During the Festival of Cuban Contemporary Music celebrated in 1959 it was noticed that most of the works composed after Roldán and Caturla suffered from schematic nationalism and adjusted to formulas repeated in each and every work. Leo Brouwer and Juan Blanco, soon followed by Carlos Fariñas, reacted to this condition and began to experiment with post serial and aleatoric techniques while discovering non-conventional ways of instrumental performance at the time they used or invented resources of new musical notation. Blanco, encouraged by the information on the development of electroacoustic music that he received from Alejo Carpentier and later from Luigi Nono had already composed in 1961 his first work in the genre. It was entitled "Música para danza" (Music for dance) and was realized using an audio oscillator and three household tape recorders.
These three composers were joined by the Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra, Manuel Duchesne Cuzán so constituting the basic core of Cuban music’s at vanguard in the 1960’s, whose influence on the Cuban musical creation that followed was deep and radical.
On February 5 of 1964, the first public concert of Electroacoustic music in Cuba was organized by Juan Blanco at UNEAC (Union of Cuban Artists and Writers). He presented his pieces "Estudios I y II" and "Ensamble V". His lecture on “The Technical Revolution in Music” took place before the concert. In July that year Duchesne Cuzán conducted the first at vanguard music concert by the National Symphony Orchestra. The programme included Juan Blanco’s piece “Texturas” for symphony orchestra and tape. Two months later the Colegio Nacional de Arquitectos organizad another electroacoustic music concert with Blanco’s pieces "Estructuras", "Interludio con máquinas" and "Ensamble VI", which was soon to be repeated in Cienfuegos.
For many years Blanco was the only Cuba composer focused on electroacoustic music. He was later joined by:
• Sergio F. Barroso, who began to compose electroaocoustic music in 1969.
• In 1970 Leo Brouwer (1939) composed the work for tape "Asalto al Cielo"; Jesús Ortega (1935) composed "Prólogo", a work for tape and Juan Marcos Blanco (1953) composed "Zafra 70", for tape also.
• In 1972 Carlos Fariñas (1934), together with Sergio F. Barroso, composed the work for tape "Diálogos", and Sergio Vitier (1948) composed "Poema 1" also for tape.
• In 1978 Edesio Alejandro (1958) composed the work for tape "Viet".
In the 1980’s young composers trained by Blanco at TIME (ICAP Electroacoustic Music Workshop) Marietta Véulens, Fernando Rodríguez, Mirtha de la Torre, Miguel Bonachea, José Manuel García and Julio Roloff joined the movement.
Other composers attracted by this aesthetics were: Argeliers León, Juan Piñera, Roberto Valera, José Loyola, Elio Villafranca, Irina Escalante, Mónica O'Reilly, Pedro Pablo Pedroso, Raylor Oliva, Ileana Pérez, Julio García Ruda, Alain Perón, Jorge Maletá and José A. Pérez Puentes.
Beginning with the first concert in 1964, Juan Blanco started a promotion campaign of electroacoustic music. It has included concert seasons in Havana, tours along the country, radio and TV shows, sound environments for exhibitions, hospitals, hotels and in-door and out-door public spaces such as the sound environment for one of the busiest avenues in Havana -La Rampa-, in 1967. Also, multimedia performances, music for dance, theatre, cinema, psychiatry, gymnastics as wells as specialized courses and conferences delivered in universities and cultural centres, together with articles for newspapers and magazines.
In the late 1960’s he began the radio program of an hour a week Revista Musical (later Música Contemporánea) broadcasted by C.M.B.F. Cadena Nacional with preference for electroacoustic music works. Juan Piñera has continued realising the program under a different structure.
By initiative of composers Manuel Enríquez (Mexico) and Juan Blanco (Cuba), the Cuba-Mexico Electroacoustic Music Encounters were held yearly whose venue received every year five guest composers from the other country.
In 1970 Juan Blanco became the advisor for music of ICAP’s (Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples) Department of Propaganda where he created the electroacoustic music for all the audiovisual materials -to the number of 36- realized there. After 9 years of work without retribution he obtained from the Institution the financing for an Electroacoustic Studio to be used for his work, of which he was appointed director, but under the condition he should be the only one to use the facility. After having had to work with audio oscillators and household recorders since 1959 when he composed his first electroacoustic works as well as during his time with ICAIC (Cuban Institute of Cinema Industry and Art), Blanco continued to work with more comfort and better equipment. After a few months and without asking for permission, he opened the studio’s doors to all composers interested on electroacoustics, thus creating the ICAP Workshop of Electroacoustic Music (TIME) where he himself delivered classes. This was the origin of an important group of Cuban electroacoustic composers. Some of them have even obtained important international awards as it is the case of Juan Piñera and Edesio Alejandro whose piece "Tres de Dos" was granted the first award in electroacoustic music at the International Competition of Bourges, France in 1984.
Conceived by Carlos Fariñas, a few years later was created the Estudio de Música Electroacústica y por Computadoras (EMEC) -presently Estudio Carlos Fariñas de Arte Musical (Carlos Fariñas Studio of Musical Electroacoustic Art)- at the High Institute of Arts of the Superior Education Ministry. It is intended for electroacoustic music training to the students during the last years of their careers.
In 1981 Juan Blanco created the International Electroacoustic Music Festival "Primavera en Varadero", celebrated in Varadero Beach and in Havana’s Historic Site since 1998, when the name was changed to "Primavera en La Habana". Its last issue took place in March 2008, whit results reflecting the wide development of Cuban electroacoustic music. Juan Blanco has being the president of them all.
