Page "José Pablo Moncayo" Paragraph 2

According to Salvador Contreras, Carlos Chávez created a composition course at the National Conservatory.

Although Roberto García Morillo points out the year 1930, most sources agreed that this course started in 1931.

According to Robert L. Parker, this new composition class was originally called Class of Musical Creation and later, Composition Workshop ; Chávez had some colleagues as pupils, such as Vicente T. Mendoza, Candelario Huízar and Revueltas, and “ there were four students under twenty years of age: Daniel Ayala and Blas Galindo ( both pure blooded Indians ), Salvador Contreras and José Pablo Moncayo .” Jesús C. Romero suggests that Chávez conducted a selection process among young students of the conservatory before admitting anyone and relates that Daniel Ayala was chosen thanks to his “ incipient renown as composer, Salvador Contreras, for his violin skills, and José Pablo Moncayo, on account of his ability to do sight reading at the piano .” Furthermore, Romero reports that Blas Galindo was admitted the following year together with five other students.

It seems that the new composition course attracted many students, their number increasing year after year, but only four of them attended the final examination.

These four diligent students were Moncayo, Contreras, Galindo and Ayala.

An article written by Galindo confirms his admittance to the course in 1932, together with seven other students.

The article offers a detailed account of the training received at Chávez ’ s workshop.