The book was the culmination of more than a decade of detective work that took White around the country and the world and put into his hands many of Caturla's personal documents that had never been made public. It also brought him into contact with some of the last surviving friends and relatives of the composer.
"To this day, I wonder, why was it me?" White, 74, said one recent morning at his Roslyn home, puzzled that no one before him had attempted such a project.
Surely, Caturla's brief life - he was killed by a gunman in 1940 at age 34 - had all the elements of a good story, he said.
Handsome, fiery and creative, Caturla snubbed social conventions and scandalized his upper-class family when he left home at 17 to live with Manuela, his uncle's African-Cuban housemaid.
Although his father, a lawyer, persuaded him to attend law school, Caturla loved music first, White said. Caturla was particularly taken by the rhythms of Africa and the Caribbean, and he joined a young generation of Cuban artists intent on incorporating ethnic influences into the national culture.
At the same time, White said, Caturla espoused a rising political ideal that called for the liberation of the downtrodden.
Following his muse, Caturla went to Paris in 1928 and studied music with famed mentor Nadia Boulanger.
"She said he was a raw talent, and she didn't know what to do with him," White said.
Upon returning to Cuba, Caturla worked his way into a career as a circuit judge while composing music, founding an orchestra, and developing a friendship with avant-garde writer Alejo Carpentier. White met Carpentier's widow as he researched the book, and she provided him with valuable correspondence between the two men, he said.
