{"id":2206,"date":"2015-07-09T16:07:17","date_gmt":"2015-07-09T23:07:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/?p=2206"},"modified":"2015-07-17T10:54:45","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T17:54:45","slug":"remembering-classical-guitar-composer-carlos-guastavino-1912-2000","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/remembering-classical-guitar-composer-carlos-guastavino-1912-2000\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Classical-Guitar Composer Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000)"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Maria Isabel Siewers <\/em><\/p>\n

Editor\u2019s note: This article originally appeared in the<\/strong>\u00a0<\/strong><\/a>July\u00a02012 issue of Classical Guitar<\/em> magazine<\/strong><\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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CARLOS GUASTAVINO <\/strong>was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. He studied music with Esperanza Lothringer and Dominga Iaffei and later with Athos Palma. A talented pianist, he performed his piano works in London in 1947, 1948, and 1949, invited by the BBC and as a recipient of a scholarship from the British Council. During these years, the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiered the orchestral version of his Tres<\/em> Romances Argentinos<\/em>. Later Guastavino toured the USSR and China, performing his pieces for voice and piano.<\/p>\n

One of the foremost Argentine composers of the 20th century, his production amounts to over 400 works: 150 songs for voice and piano, numerous piano solo pieces, choral works, school songs, and chamber music. His reputation was based almost entirely on his songs. Some of them, for example Pueblito, mi pueblo<\/em>, La rosa y el sauce <\/em>(The Rose and the Willow) and Se equivoc\u00f3 la paloma <\/em>(The Dove Was Wrong) became national favorites. Guastavino has sometimes been called \u201cthe Schubert of the Pampas.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guastavino\u2019s musical style marked a strong contrast with the works of Argentine contemporaries such as Alberto Ginastera, revealing the influence of the European composers Alb\u00e9niz, Granados, Rachmaninoff, de Falla, Debussy and Ravel, but is also inherited from the 19th century Argentine nationalist composers Alberto Williams and Juli\u00e1n Aguirre.<\/p>\n

The poets whose works he set to music include Rafael Alberti, Leon Benaros, Hamlet Lima Quintana, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral and Jorge Luis Borges, among others.<\/p>\n

Guastavino received many important awards, among them the prize from the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Music Council, as recognition of his outstanding creative activity.<\/p>\n

Many famous performers, such as Teresa Berganza, Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, Kiri Te Kanawa, Patricia Caicedo, have included works by Guastavino in their programs.<\/p>\n

Guastavino\u00b4s friendship with several argentine guitarists (Mar\u00eda Luisa Anido, Eduardo Fal\u00fa, Roberto Lara, Horacio Ceballos, and Mar\u00eda Isabel Siewers) contributed to his understanding of the instrument and to the motivation to write for it.<\/p>\n

During a visit to Buenos Aires late in the \u201880s John Duarte met Carlos Guastavino. He was deeply impressed by the composer\u00b4s ascetic personality and expressed it later in the linear notes of the CD Carlos Guastavino\u2014<\/em>Guitar and<\/em> chamber music<\/em>:<\/p>\n

\u201cJars containing chemicals lined the walls of Carlos Guastavino\u2019s small apartment in Buenos Aires, souvenirs of his early studies as a chemical engineer. He lived somewhat reclusively, writing his music between four and 11 o\u00b4clock each morning; his interest in science and his love of music and nature (to both of which he reached with deep emotion) protected him from any sense of loneliness. In his own words: When I realize that<\/em> I have written what I want, I stand, make gestures,<\/em> laugh or cry, and thank God. Music doesn\u2019t grow by<\/em> itself, I don\u2019t carry the responsibility; a part of my<\/em> brain has music<\/em>. His music grows from melody, the harmony follows, and he resisted every compositional process that departs from traditional values. For this reason he was long undervalued by those who believe that new bath water requires a new baby, a thing that saddened him but never deflected him from what he always regarded as the right path. In recent years he has been vindicated by the rapidly increasing number of recordings of his chamber, solo instrumental and vocal music. His path is proving to be no less right from the many who are captivated by music of immediate beauty, \u2018spoken\u2019 with the Argentine \u2018accent\u2019 that is more Italianate and demonstratively expressive than that of any other South American country.<\/p>\n

\u201cMusic reflects the character of its composer, and that of Guastavino is an eloquent example of this. He led a largely solitary social life, but through his music he spoke to more people than do most of those of a gregarious nature\u2014and without compromise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Further John Duarte describes Guastavino\u00b4s pieces for guitar:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe two Cantilenas, Santa F\u00e9 antigua <\/em>and Santa F\u00e9 para llorar<\/em>, carry the name of Guastavino\u2019sbirthplace; the Bailecito <\/em>(a little dance) does notrefer to the Argentine \u2018 handkerchief \u2018 folk dance ofthat name. All three pieces were originally writtenfor the piano, arranged for the guitar with thecomposer\u2019s approval, which was also given toMar\u00eda Isabel Siewers\u2019 arrangements of the three Cantos populares <\/em>(popular songs) for violin andguitar. The first has some feeling of the habanera<\/em>, which influenced the Argentine milonga<\/em>, the secondis a lively gato<\/em>, and the last is overtly romantic.<\/p>\n

Sonata No.1 <\/em>(1967), the \u2018masculine\u2019 one of the three, is dedicated to Guastavino\u2019s brother Jos\u00e9 Amadeo, who died suddenly as the first movement was completed\u2014hence the profound sadness of the Andante. The opening movement is in traditional sonata form; since Guastavino was not a guitarist he didn\u00b4t hesitate to venture into \u2018remote\u2019 keys that are uncommon in the instrument\u2019s repertory.<\/p>\n

Sonata No.2 <\/em>(1969), the \u2018feminine\u2019 member of the group, is dedicated to the Argentine guitarist Roberto Lara. The first movement is strongly influenced by the rhythm and feeling of the zamba<\/em>, a dance in which a man and a woman, carrying and gracefully flourishing handkerchiefs, dance in decreasing circles and finally embrace. Although it contains many elements of recapitulation it is not in conventional sonata form. The second begins in quasi-improvisatory vein, shifts gently into an intimate \u201cparlato<\/em>\u201c(as though spoken) mode, and leads to the brilliant, concluding Presto.<\/p>\n

Sonata No.3 <\/em>(1973) is dedicated to another Argentine guitarist, Horacio Ceballos. Once again, the first movement is \u2018non-standard\u2019 in form, migrating from the opening key of E minor to the tonic-major key of E, in 9\/8 time and dominated by a gently dotted rhythm. It is followed by a deeply expressive Adagio <\/em>and a dancingly, virtuosic and somewhat \u2018folkloric\u2019 Allegro <\/em>in 6\/8 time unabated by the hemiolas that mark so much of South American music.<\/p>\n

Guastavino had intended to write a further series of Cantilenas but his publisher did not like the title, so he changed it to \u2018Las Presencias\u2019 <\/em>(characters); as he said: \u2018it is not easy to find names for over 400 pieces!\u2019. Jeromita Linares <\/em>is the sixth of the Presencias<\/em>, named after an old Spanish lady, a neighbor of Guastavino when he lived in his native, quiet and peaceful Santa Fe. She lived in a very modest rancho, surrounded by poultry and by plants and flowers which grew in old oil cans; as a child Guastavino used to go there to buy eggs. The title of his work in no way implies a portrayal of her character; Guastavino simply loved the phonetic sound of the word \u2018Jeromita\u2019\u2014and no doubt retained fond memories of this lady of his childhood. The work was written as a quintet and it achieves a skilful balance between the guitar and the string quartet. It is in one continuous movement, with a slower section at its heart, and, like so much of Guastavino\u2019s music, is entirely enjoyable without the benefit\u2019 of analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Twenty years have passed since these notes were written. Guastavino\u2019s music lives on not only through transcription by guitarists including V\u00edctor Villadangos, Eduardo Isaac, Carlos Groissman and Mar\u00eda Isabel Siewers, but also through recordings by remarkable singers such as Anna Netrebko , Bernarda and Markus Fink, Jos\u00e9 Carreras, Mario Villaz\u00f3n and Jos\u00e9 Cura, and popular singers like Joan Maunel Serrat , who made Se equivoc\u00f3 la Paloma <\/em>one of the most popular songs in Spanish speaking countries.<\/p>\n

In 2011 Carlos Guastavino, the composer<\/em>, a book written by the argentine musicologist Dr. Silvina Mansilla, was published by Gourmet Musical Editions in Buenos Aires. A long friendship with the composer documented in interviews and a profound analysis of his work allow Dr. Mansilla to offer us here a very accurate portrait of the composer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Maria Isabel Siewers Editor\u2019s note: This article originally appeared in the\u00a0July\u00a02012 issue of Classical Guitar magazine. CARLOS GUASTAVINO was born in Santa Fe, Argentina. He studied music with Esperanza Lothringer and Dominga Iaffei and later with Athos Palma. A talented pianist, he performed his piano works in London in 1947, 1948, and 1949, invited by the BBC and as a recipient of a scholarship from the British Council. During these years, the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiered the orchestral version […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":2208,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","category-classics"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/FullSizeRender2.jpg?fit=479%2C800&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2206\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2208"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/classicalguitarmagazine.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}