Ginastera, Alberto (Evaristo)

Ginastera, Alberto (Evaristo), greatly talented Argentine composer; b. Buenos Aires, April 11, 1916; d. Geneva, June 25, 1983. He was of Catalan-Italian de-scent. He took private lessons in music as a child; then entered the National Cons, of Music in Buenos Aires, where he studied composition with José Gil, Athos Palma, and José André; also took piano lessons with Argenziani. He began to compose in his early youth; in 1934 he won 1st prize of the musical society El Unisono for his Piezas infantiles for Piano. His next piece of importance was Impresiones de la Puna for Flute and String Quartet, in which he made use of native Argentine melodies and rhythms; he discarded it, however, as immature; he withdrew a number of his other works, some of them of certain value, for instance, his Concierto argentine, which he wrote in 1935, and Sinfonia Portena, his 1st Sym. (which may be identical in its musical material with Estancia). Also withdrawn was his 2nd Sym., the Sinfonia elegiaca, written in 1944, even though it was successfully performed. In 1946-47 Ginastera traveled to the U.S. on a Guggenheim fellowship. Returning to Argentina, he served as director of the Cons, of the province of Buenos Aires in La Plata (1948-52; 1956-58); he then taught at the Argentine Catholic Univ. and also was a prof, at the Univ. of La Plata. In 1968 he left Argentina and lived mostly in Geneva. From his earliest steps in composition, Ginastera had an almost amorous attachment for the melodic and rhythmic resources of Argentine folk music, and he evolved a fine harmonic and contrapuntal setting congenial with native patterns. His first significant work in the Argentine national idiom was Panambi, a ballet, composed in 1935 and performed at the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires on July 12, 1940. There followed a group of Danzas argentinas for Piano, written in 1937; in 1938 he wrote 3 songs; the first one, Condon al drbol del olvido, is a fine evocation of youthful love; it became quite popular. In 1941 he was commissioned to write a ballet for the American Ballet Caravan, to be called Estancia; the music was inspired by the rustic scenes of the pampas; a suite from the score was performed at the Teatro Colon on May 12, 1943, and the complete work was brought out there on Aug. 19, 1952. A series of works inspired by native scenes and written for various instrumental combinations followed, all infused with Ginastera’s poetic imagination and brought to realization with excellent technical skill. Soon, however, he began to search for new methods of musical expression, marked by modern and sometimes strikingly dissonant combinations of sound, fermented by asymmetrical rhythms. Of these works, one of the most remarkable is Cantata para America Mdgica, scored for dramatic soprano and percussion instruments, to apocryphal pre-Columbian texts, freely arranged by Ginastera; it was first performed in Washington, D.C., on April 30, 1961, with excellent success. An entirely new development in Ginastera’s evolution as composer came with his first opera, Don Rodrigo (1964), produced on July 24, 1964, at the Teatro Colon. In it he followed the general formula of Berg’s Wozzeck in its use of classical instrumental forms, such as rondo, suite, scherzo, and canonic progressions; he also introduced Sprechstimme. In 1964 he wrote the Cantata Bomarzo on a commission from the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Foundation in Washington, D.C. He used the same libretto by Manuel Mujica Lainez in his opera Bomarzo, which created a sensation at its production in Washington, D.C., on May 19, 1967, by its unrestrained spectacle of sexual violence. It was announced for performance at the Teatro Colon on Aug. 9, 1967, but was canceled at the order of the Argentine government because of its alleged immoral nature. The score of Bomarzo reveals extraordinary innovations in serial techniques, with thematical employment not only of different chromatic sounds, but also of serial progressions of different intervals. His last opera, Beatrix Cenci, commissioned by the Opera Soc. of Washington, D.C., and produced there on Sept. 10, 1971, concluded his operatic trilogy. Among instrumental works of Ginastera’s last period, the most remarkable was his 2nd Piano Concerto (1972), based on a tone-row derived from the famous dissonant opening of the finale of Beethoven’s 9th Sym.; the 2nd movement of the concerto is written for the left hand alone. He was married to the pianist Mercedes de Toro in 1941. After their divorce in 1965, Ginastera married the Argentine cellist Aurora Natola, for whom he wrote the Cello Sonata, which she played in N.Y. on Dec. 13, 1979, and his 2nd Cello Concerto, which she performed in Buenos Aires on July 6, 1981.

Works

DRAMATIC Opera : Don Rodrigo (1963-64; Buenos Aires, July 24, 1964); Bomarzo (1966-67; Washington, D.C., May 19, 1967); Beatrix Cenci (Washington, D.C., Sept. 10, 1971). B a l l e t : Panambi (1935; suite, Buenos Aires, Nov. 27, 1937; 1st complete perf., Buenos Aires, July 12, 1940); Estancia (1941; Buenos Aires, Aug. 19, 1952). OTHER: Film music. 0 R C H.: Primer concierto argentino (Montevideo, July 18, 1941; withdrawn); Primera sinfonia (Portena) (1942; withdrawn); Obertra para el “Fausto” Criollo (1943; Santiago, Chile, May 12, 1944); Sinfonia elegiaca (2nd Sym.; Buenos Aires, May 31, 1946; with-drawn); Ollantay, 3 symphonic movements after an Inca poem (1947; Buenos Aires, Oct. 29, 1949); Variaciones concertantes for Chamber Orch. (Buenos Aires, June 2, 1953); Pampeana No. 3, symphonic pastoral (Louisville, Ky, Oct. 20, 1954); Harp Concerto (1956; Philadelphia, Feb. 18, 1965); 2 piano concertos: No. 1 (Washington, D.C., April 22, 1961) and No. 2 (1972; Indianapolis, March 22, 1973); Violin Concerto (N.Y., Oct. 3, 1963); Concerto for Strings (1965; Caracas, May 14, 1966); Estudios sinfonicos (1967; Vancouver, March 31, 1968); 2 cello concertos: No. 1 (Hanover, N.H., July 7, 1968; rev. 1971-72 and 1977) and No. 2 (Buenos Aires, July 6, 1981); Popul Vuh (1975-83; unfinished; St. Louis, April 7, 1989); Glosses sobre temes de Pan Casals for String Orch. and String Quintet “in lontano” (San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 14, 1976; rev. for Full Orch. and 1st perf. in Washington, D.C., Jan. 24, 1978); lubilum (1979-80; Buenos Aires, April 12, 1980). CHAMBER: Impresiones de la Puna for Flute and String Quartet (1942; withdrawn); Duo for Flute and Oboe (1945); Pampeana No. 1 for Violin and Piano (1947) and No. 2 for Cello and Piano (1950); 4 string quartets: No. 1 (1948), No. 2 (1958), No. 3, with Soprano (1973), and No. 4, with Baritone, to the text of Beethoven’s Heiligenstadt Testament (1974; un-finished); Piano Quintet (1963); Punena No. 2 for Cello (1976); Guitar Sonata (1976); Cello Sonata (N.Y., Dec. 13, 1979); Fanfare for 4 Trumpets in C (from lubilum, 1980); Serenade for Cello, Flute, Oboe, Clarinet, Bassoon, Horn, Double Bass, Harp, and Percussion (1980). KEYBOARD : Piano : Piezas infantiles (1934); Danzas argentinas (1937); 3 piezas (1940); Malambo (1940); 12 Preludios americanos (1944); Suite de Danzas criollas (1946); Rondo sobre temas infantiles argentinos (1947); 3 sonatas (1952, 1981, 1982); Pequena danza from Estancia (1955); Toccata, arranged from Toccata per organo by Domenico Zipoli (1972). Organ : Toccata, Villancico y Fuga (1947); Variazioni e Toccata (1980). VOCAL: 2 Canciones: No. 1, Cancion al drbol del ovido, and No. 2, Cancion a la luna lunanca (1938); Cantos del Tucuman for Voice, Flute, Violin, Harp, and 2 Indian Drums (1938); Psalm 150 for Chorus, Boy’s Chorus, and Orch. (1938; Buenos Aires, April 7, 1945); 5 Canciones populares argentinas for Voice and Piano (1943); Las horas de una estancia for Voice and Piano (1943); Hieremiae prophetae lamentationes for Chorus (1946); Cantata para America Mdgica for Dramatic Soprano and Percussion, to an apocryphal pre-Columbian text (1960; Washington, D.C., April 30, 1961); Sinfonia Don Rodrigo for Soprano and Orch. (Madrid, Oct. 31, 1964); Cantata Bomarzo for Speaker, Baritone, and Chamber Orch. (Washington, D.C., Nov. 1, 1964); Milena, cantata for Soprano and Orch., to texts from Kafka’s letters (1971; Denver, April 16, 1973); Serenata for Cello, Baritone, and Chamber Ensemble, to texts of Pablo Neruda (1973; N.Y., Jan. 18, 1974); Turbae ad Passionem Gregorianam for Tenor, Baritone, Bass, Boy’s Chorus, Mixed Chorus, and Orch. (1974; Philadelphia, March 20, 1975).

Bibliography

P. Suarez Urtubey, A. G. (Buenos Aires, 1967); A. G.: A Catalogue of His Published Works (London, 1976); F. Spangemacher, ed., A. G. (Bonn, 1984); G. Scarabino, A. G.: Tecnicas y estilo (1935-1950) (Buenos Aires, 1996).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire