Federico Leguizamón and the Poem-Score: Reading and Chant in the Vocal Rendering

Abstract

In the poetry of Argentine writer Federico Leguizamón (San Salvador de Jujuy, 1982), a strong connection with contemporary musical culture becomes evident. His vocal performances and texts draw on cumbia, reggaetón, Andean folk expressions, Argentine rock, and bolero. In live presentations, such as the 2010 Rosario International Poetry Festival, Leguizamón experiments with his voice by layering different rhythms onto his texts. This process allows him to revise, cross out, and rewrite his poems, which evolve over time. He alternates between recitation and reading and, at times, accompanies his voice with a tambourine to mark the beat. These practices bring to light tones, timbres, volumes, and rhythms that lead us to ask: How do music and voice intertwine? What do they transform, erase, or reaffirm within the texts? How is musical combinatorics incorporated? The notion of the score is also questioned in these vocal performances, as a form of rhythmic and sonic inscription. The analysis begins with the 2010 performances and continues with the publication of these texts in The sounds of la galaxia (2014, Gigante), leading up to a certain crystallization in Cantos del desierto y la montaña (2020, Neutrinos). The hypothesis proposes that Leguizamón’s work is permeated by musical punctuation linked to DJs’ digital techniques, such as sampling, delay, mashup, and reverberation.