Abstract
Through a close examination of the composition, premiere, and subsequent performances of Rafael Aponte-Ledée’s mixed-media piece Presagio de pájaros muertos (1966), this article interrogates the entanglement between sound, politics, technology, and interdisciplinarity at one of Latin America’s most influential music institutions in the twentieth century: the Centro Latinoamericano de Altos Estudios Musicales (CLAEM). Moreover, the article situates musical avant-garde and experimental practices at CLAEM in the context of the Center’s material and ideological interactions with the Centro de Artes Visuales (CAV) and the Centro de Experimentación Audiovisual (CEA). Drawing on unprocessed and scattered archival materials, oral histories, and music analysis, the article first addresses Presagio’s text in relation to both local and international politics, thereby positioning it within the ever-growing interest in conceiving political artworks across the Instituto Torcuato Di Tella (ITDT)—the umbrella institution for each of the three centers—and the artistic milieu of Buenos Aires more broadly. Proposing a synchronic assessment of the history of CLAEM’s Electronic Music Laboratory, the article secondarily analyzes ways in which electronic music composition was conceptualized, particularly in its relation to political activism.