Silvestre Revueltas (1899-1940) helped to change the face of music in the Western Hemisphere, particularly in his native Mexico. Freeing himself from European convention, he also approached his own country's folk music in novel ways, often taking it apart and reassembling it. His birth on the last day of the 1800s may have foretold the changes he would bring. Yet there is also the tragedy of early death due to alcoholism. Still, in the short time he lived, Revueltas produced an exciting and often exotic body of work, from the ballet La Coronela to his film score La noche de los Mayas, which one critic said, "Sounds like Stravinsky's Rite of Spring on mescal."