Alberto Ginastera: Danzas Argentinas Op.2 for piano solo

Alberto Evaristo Ginastera (1916-1983) was - along with Brazilian  composer Heitor Villa-Lobos - one of the leading names in 20th century Latin American music. Like Bartók and the famous Brazilian modernist, he was renowned for largely drawing on the national folk music heritage as a compositional element.

Ginastera was born in Buenos Aires of Catalonian and Italian parents. Beginning his music studies at a very early age, at twelve he entered the Williams Conservatory (former Buenos Aires Conservatory of Music). His further studies took place at the Superior National Conservatory of Music - where he studied piano, cello, composition and conducting. He then joined the Military Lyceum San Martín, as a young professor.

Ginastera's first compositions date from his early youth. The Piezas Infantiles for piano were written when he was 22, and won first prize in a competition. In 1941, Ginastera joined the faculty of the National Conservatory in Argentina. In the following year he would receive a grant from the Guggenheim Foundation to visit the United States. However,  he postponed the trip until 1945 - the year when the composer ran afoul of  the Perón regime by signing a petition for civil rights, and as a result  lost his  appointment at the Military Academy, among others.  He would only regain his posts  after the dictator  was ousted, in  1955.

Taking up the Guggenheim Fellowship, he spend the years 1946 to 1948 in the United States - where he he visited the composition programs at The Juilliard School and Columbia University in New York

City, as well as Harvard, Yale, and the Eastman School, in Rochester.  In addition, he also took part in Aaron Copland's composition class at Tanglewood. Ginastera would then become close friends with the latter, and the trip was to largely influence his further works.

On his return to Argentina, Ginastera joined the teaching staff of the National Conservatory, and later became dean of the Faculty of Musical Arts and Sciences of the Catholic University. Apart from that, he founded - along with other Argentine composers - the Composers League in Buenos Aires. Later, he would also found the  Latin American Centre for Advanced Musical Studies at the Torcuato di Tella Institute.

Ginastera's first opera - Don Rodrigo - received immediate acclaim as of its première in 1964. In 1964, his second opera - Bomarzo -  was premièred in Washington in 1967; the production in Buenos Aires was, however, banned for political reasons, and not staged until 1972.

During the composer's tenure of the Latin American Centre for Advanced Musical Studies (1963-1971), he introduced internationally acclaimed composers to Argentina. Messiaen, Nono, Dallapiccola and Xenakis were among his invited guests.

The composer's production in the late 1960's was stifled not only by the problems with the  repressive government in power in those years in Argentina, but also by marital issues with his first wife,   Mercedes de Toro. He then decided to retire to Switzerland after decades of teaching in his own country; this, added to his divorce and second marriage to cellist Aurora Natola, gave Ginastera his second wind. His last years - before a relatively early death in 1983, at the age of 67 - were among the most prolific.

Among his numerous academic activities, the composer was a member of UNESCO's Conseil International de la Musique, member of the National Academy of Fine Arts in Argentina and Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was also the Dean and Honorary Professor at the School of Music, Sciences and Arts of the Argentine Catholic University (Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina Santa María de los Buenos Aires), and Professor at the La Plata University. The year of 1968 saw Yale University award him an honorary doctorate.

Ginastera's compositional style developped from overt nationalism to a flexible application of the serialist principles proposed by Schoenberg. The composer himself grouped his works in three periods : 1) Objective Nationalism (1934-1948); 2) Subjective Nationalism (1948-1958); and Neo-Expressionism (1958-1983).

The years of the Objective Nationalism saw Ginastera establish his original reputation as a nationalist composer, due to the output of short-form pieces and suites characterised by creative allusions to Argentine folk materials; influences of Bartók, Stravinsky and De Falla could also be noticed therein. However, the composer's perfectionism and meticulosity led him to withdraw a number of them - including the Concierto Argentino and the Sinfonía Porteña. Three of his most prominent works - granting the composer immediate international acclaim - belong to this period; namely, the ballet  Panambi Op. 1 (1934-1937), Danzas Argentinas Op. 2 for piano (1937), the ballet Estancia Op. 8 (1937) and Ollantay: Three Symphonic Movements Op. 17 (1947). The Piezas Infantiles for piano (1934) - withdrawn by the composer and therefore, without opus number - are also included in this first phase.

From the late 1940's to the late 1950's - comprised by the Subjective Nationalism - Argentine popular tradition still featured in Ginastera's works. However, unlike the straightforwardness with which Argentine folk elements had been employed in his first period, in this second period Ginastera explores them mainly for symbolic purposes. Contrast in rhythmic patterns, alternation between tension and relaxation and the melodical aspect are still important; nevertheless, now they are found  embedded in a structure of modern compositional techniques - including early 20th century serialism, apart from experimentalism and indeterminacy. As Neal puts it:

Although he eventually borrowed sonorities and procedures from the serialist and experimentalist movements of the ensuing decades, he did so selectively and undogmatically, synthesizing with ever-increasing sophistication and discretion the echoes of his native Argentina with the expanding compositional palette of the avant-garde¹.

From this second period of Ginastera's career as a composer are some of his most important works – among others, the Rondo sobre Temas Infantiles Argentinos Op. 19 (1947), the Piano Sonata No. 1 Op. 22 (1952) and the Pampeana No. 3 Op.24 for orchestra (1954).

Ginastera's neo-expressionist period sees the nationalist element in his compositions lose its predominance, making room for more explicit modern music characteristics. Dodecaphony is actively employed – along with microtones and politonality – and the composer's unique contribution to serial techniques consists in the thematic employment of different chromatic sounds, adding to progressions of different intervals. On the works from this third period, Ginastera himself would state that “there are no more folk melodic or rhythmic cells, nor is there any simbolism”². Nevertheless, as Dabul points out:

There are […] constant Argentine elements, such as strong, obsessive rhythms, meditative adagios suggesting the quietness of the Pampas; magic, mysterious sounds reminding the cryptic nature of the country³.

From this period are the operas Don Rodrigo (1963-1964), Bomarzo (1966-1967) and Beatrix Cenci (1971) ; the Popol Vuh for orchestra Op. 44 (1975–1983, left incomplete at the composer's death) ; the Cello concerto No. 1 Op. 36 (1968) and the Cello concerto No. 2 Op. 50 (1980-1981); the Glosses sobre Temes de Pau Casals for string orchestra, Op. 46 (1976) and the Glosses sobre Temes de Pau Casals for full orchestra Op. 48 (1976-1977).

The piece under analysis today is the Danzas Argentinas Op.2 for piano solo. Written in 1937, it is comprised by three dances – namely, the Danza del Viejo Boyero Op.2 No.1; the Danza de la Moza Danosa Op.2 No. 2 ; and the Danza del Gaucho Matrero Op. 2 No. 3.

The Op. 2 No. 1 features a politonal structure – the left hand plays only black keys, while the right plays only white keys – with E phrygian being the predominant mode. A catching melody is drawn with the use of rhythm and texture. At the end of the piece, the criollo culture is represented by the chord E-A-D-G-B-E – the same chord produced by the guitar open strings in standard tuning.

The Op.2 No. 2 is a dance in 6/8 time. In the first section, chromatic inflexions are used to create tension and release. In the second part, the harmonization based on intervals of fourth and fifth is used to produce an impression of expansiveness, representing the vast area covered by the Argentine pampas. The last section retrieves the theme from the first section, yet in a more complex harmonization based on intervals of third.

Finally, the Op.2 No.3 is a dance written in a structure close to the rondo structure (ABACDACD). Sharp dissonances are used to create a turbulent aura. The thematic material is woven by chromatic passages in sections A and B and tonal passages in C and D, with a majestic chord progression in D. An arresting coda in ffff dynamics and a fantastic glissando close the dance.

The turbulent atmosphere and the intensity of the Danzas Argentinas unfold in the bold, dazzling and captivating interpretation of acclaimed German concert pianist Andreas Woyke. Enjoy!

References: 

1. Books: 

ALEGANT, Brian. The Twelve-Tone Music of Luigi Dallapiccola. New York, University of Rochester Press, 2010.

LEBRECHT,  Norman Lebrecht.  Companion to Twentieth-century Music. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1992.

LEE, Douglas. Masterworks of 20th^-Century Music: the Modern Repertory of the Symphony Orchestra. New York, Routledge, 2002.

SCHWARTZ-KATES, Deborah. Alberto Ginastera: a Research and Information Guide. New York, Taylor & Francis, 2010.

2. Dissertations and Theses:

CALLEJA, Marianela: Ideas of Time in Music: A Philosophico-logical Investigation Applied to Works of Alberto Ginastera (1916–1983). Studia musicologica Universitatis Helsingiensis, 24. (Ph.D. thesis.) Helsinki University, 2013.

3. Websites:

DABUL, Elena. Alberto Ginastera. Available at http://ostinato.tripod.com/ginastera.html. Retrieved 07/10/2014.

NEAL, J. Alberto Ginastera: Artist Biography. Available at

http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alberto-ginastera-mn0000739363/biography. Retrieved 07/10/2014.

SCHWARTZ, Steve. Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). Available at http://www.classical.net/music/comp.lst/ginastera.php . Retrieved 07/10/2014.

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1 Neal, J. Alberto Ginastera: Artist Biography. Available at http://ostinato.tripod.com/ginastera.html . Retrieved on 07/10/2014.

2 Dabul, Elena. Alberto Ginastera. Available at http://www.allmusic.com/artist/alberto-ginastera-mn0000739363/biography . Retrieved on 07/10/2014.

3 Dabul, Elena, op.cit.