Analisis Campbell Ginastera Sonatas
Analisis Campbell Ginastera Sonatas
Analisis Campbell Ginastera Sonatas
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DISSERTATION
By
Denton, Texas
August, 1991
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A8U
/VO. 3 3 8
DISSERTATION
By
Denton, Texas
August, 1991
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previous one.
a transformation."
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TABLE OF EXAMPLES iv
Subtitles
Introduction 1
Piano Sonatas 8
Symmetrical Constructions 16
Sonata No. 3 49
BIBLIOGRAPHY 59
1X1
TABLE OF EXAMPLES
Example Page
IV
17a. Sonata No. l, first movement, measures 12-15 29
v
37. Sonata No. 3, measure 18 54
VI
TABLE OF FIGURES
Figure Page
1. M.C. Escher, ink drawing, 1967 20
2a. Turitella duplicata 23
2b. Nautilus pompilius 23
3. Dyads of the odd mode 25
VI i
Introduction
1
Lillian Tan, "An Interview with Alberto Ginastera," American
Music Teacher XXXIII/ 3 (1984), 6-7.
Ginastera was also known to reassess what he had
that there are not three, but two. The first I would call
2
Gilbert Chase, "Alberto (Evaristo) Ginastera," The New Grove
Dictionary of Music and Musicians, 20 vols., ed. Stanley
Sadie (London: Macmillan, 1980), VII, 388.
3
Tan, op. cit., 7.
the Ibero-American, namely folk musics brought to the
4
Malena Kuss, Latin American Music: A Short History
(Unpublished, 1980), Introduction.
5
Following the literary lead of historian and poet Ricardo
Rojas (1882-1957), composers in Argentina had in fact
incorporated what they misconstrued to be Amerindian
elements into art music (suppositions that aboriginal music
was pentatonic are not supported by archaeological evidence)
previous to "assert[ing] their cultural identity" by drawing
from elements of the Ibero-American tradition. See Kuss,
op. cit., 6, 36.
7
Melville J. Herskovits, Man and His Work (New York: Alfred
A. Knopf, 1948), 553; cited in Kuss, "Identity and Change,"
17, note l.
guitar chord/ pentatonic scale relationship exemplified
above, but also in a compositional process of symmetrization.
Ginastera sets the precedent for the use of symmetrical
procedures in the first composition he retained in his
catalogue, the ballet Panambl, Op. 1 (1934-37), which
significantly is built on a culturally relevant framework.
The plot of the ballet is of indigenous extraction, based on
a romanticized Guarani Indian legend. In the suite version
of the ballet, Ginastera incorporates a variety of
symmetrical formations within a succession of clear tonal
centers. The symmetry of the work is demonstrated in the
first movement of the suite, "Claro de luna sobre el Parana."
The climax of the movement, the "Canto del Parang" in the
horns, is centered between a succession of tonal areas moving
symmetrically by interval 3 and 4 from the center (Example
1J.8
X 2.
X*
? u r i
p-o-
13
Cerfer
t&vemcnh
a -0-
8
Nancy Gamso, "Panambl, Op. 1 (1934-37)" (Unpublished, 1990),
8-9.
The writing includes the use of symmetrical scales--
whole-tone, which divides the octave into six equal parts,
and octatonic, which divides the octave into four equal parts
(by interval 3). Symmetrical "Z cells" (interlocking
tritones) appear throughout the work, both in hemitonic and
anhemitonic forms.
characteristically Amerindian.10
9
No£ Sanchez, "Alberto Ginastera's Cantos del Tucuman, Op. 4
(1938)" (Unpublished, 1990), 1-2.
10
Kuss, Latin American Music, 35-36.
Titles such as Tres danzas argentinas (1937), Estancia
(1941), and Ollantay (1947) evidence that the majority of
Ginastera's earlier works draw openly from the Ibero-American
and Amerindian traditions. However, even in works where the
cultural reference is not articulated in the title, the
influence is still present. This is clear in the Variaciones
concertantes, Op.23 (1953), where the harp introduces the
initial theme with a literal statement of the guitar chord
(Example 2).
J j 111 J = I
Arp»*' pro) p-Hi J r
=j
a/A Adagio molto espress ivo Js68
Violini I
P
Violini II
1
Viole
1
^ l® Solo
VioloDcclli 1
*' I
-
Contrabassi
BP
} if */ • Zceil •/ *
J6l Tempo giusio Js 1M
rrr /fS >eni
I I I U s«r«.
claimed to have carried the idea for the second sonata in his
12
Alberto Ginastera, Sonata No. 2 for Piano, Op. 53 (Boosey
and Hawkes, 1981), preface.
10
between compound duple and triple meter (here 6/16 and 3/8),
4) .
i Jy f
w=n ;
i
>
—mm
= —
m
dim. psass
II J
\ ^
/Si —rJIZ_L_
j M bw 1
Buenos Aires.
ipf
1
§
*•
•
• = +
»:
3
rT L u
poco cresc. lasuar vibrare
Ptd.
13
Kuss, "Type, Derivation, and Use of Folk Idioms," 177-8.
12
(Example 6).
pp sonoro
m¥ 3z
14
Ginastera, op. cit., preface.
14
15
David Hamrick, "Ginastera' s Cantata para America mdgica:
The New Voice of the Past," unpublished essay, 1990.
15
17
"A symmetry operation can be defined as any transformation
that leaves an object wholly unchanged or unchanged in
certain important respects." Alan Holden, "Symmetry," The
Encyclopedia Americana, 30 vols. (Danbury,Connecticut:
Grolier Inc., 1985), XXVI, 169. One of the most familiar
symmetry operations is the reflection of a person in a
mirror, where the reflected image is an unchanged
transformation of the real person.
16
Symmetrical Constructions
sonorities).
gva-\
'01
i
ip
fir
drawn between the beats in the measure reveal that beats one
(Example 9) .
18
Example 8. Sonata No. 2, first movement, measure 51.
with itself after a half turn around the axis and again after
18
Holden, op. cit., 169.
19
the 6/8 measure brings the two halves of the measure into
one.
pi
20
interval 4.
con fuoco
> J*
19
Holden, op. cit., 172
22
20
Hermann Weyl, Symmetry (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton
University Press, 1952), 68.
21
Holden, op. cit., 172.
23
its pitch classes (0-11, mod 12, where C=0). 22 with the
dyads of sum 0.
o- T F rr
flo » " 1 " ^
Xn-herual
Classes'- ° 1 ta to
-O o LP O
-o-
t*> l|» flo k m \\<&-
3= H*v
22
For principles of inversional complementation, see George
Perle and Paul Lansky, "Twelve-note Composition," The New
Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, ed. Stanley Sadie
(London: Macmillan, 1980), XVIII, 286-96.
25
horizontal rows.
1 3 5 7 9 11
1/11 c-c# C#-D D-D# D#-E E-F F-F#
3/9 B-D C-D# C#-E D-F D#-F# E-G
5/7 A#-D# B-E C-F C#-F# D-G D#-G#
7/5 A-E A#-F B-F# C-G C#-G# D-A
9/3 G#~F A-F# A#-G B-G# C-A C#-A#
11/1 G-F# G#-G A-G# A#-A B-A# C-B
(1/11) F#-G G-G# G#-A A-A# A#-B B-C
23
George Perle and Paul Lansky, op. ext., 292.
26
ft M a O "
o ft ffft o |o " I
_ « je o {
3 1
CtoSS' ' l * " 1 " ' 3 «• t 1 II I
<?. ° ° t" 1|» jlo So
llrO-
but moves freely through the odd sums. Shifts to the even
i .
Som l
n I 1
1 1
'=
sf sf sf
I % $$$$$ s
Vt
w
*\ % % t f=f=
r r,r i u 1 M V——I-V-
v - 5>*n % SornS |
T i*tT
s s
I •f 1 f of f I
4 = # J J J J=
scale itself.
1
/ f
i
24i
am grateful to Dr. Malena Kuss for permission to use her
unpublished analyses of pitch organization in Sonatas 1 and
2 from her forthcoming book on Ginastera's music.
29
7 f/
8
P ll
B S P iF
Sum n
t = t
d- J- •
<SvaJ "T
A similar gesture in measures 12 through 15 of Sonata
Fi tf & — • t£n^ f JL f f
t
>N
a
(^4 * v — - — *i ^ 4- .Jut
JUM » r -
V-a-U- -
b
5^
Both examples from Sonata No. 2 (16b and 17b) illustrate
Although the flourish which opens the sonata is not sum ll,
25
KUSS, unpublished analyses of Sonatas 1 and 2.
30
The examples from the first sonata (16a and 17a), on the
26
Kuss, unpublished analyses of Sonatas l and 2.
31
-f : it O «» 1
* 4L. m
f® it" - »
o
C
l 3 t C. 1 1
f * = -
Ip'iWa-i 0
class
~<5—W-
1 3
n 3E a n
11
3E
27
Pieter C. van den Toorn, The Music of Igor Stravinsky (New
Haven: Yale University Press, 1983), 67-68.
32
the Model B scale.) The fact that the "tonic" triad (9, 0,
examples 16a, 17a and 19 will show them to lie clearly within
r
i J'
I j.— j
3
T
Z i ' to-
sums of complementation.
28
Kuss, unpublished analyses of Sonatas 1 and 2.
33
P cantando
come una cassa mdm
8VQ
sehz'a "pedale
hJf i i
§p m
wb ^ b ^ i h £•:l&tfk b b b^>*b b b ^
(8va).
29
Isabel Aretz, El folklore musical argentino {Buenos Aires:
Ricordi Americana, 1952), 30-31.
36
$ j J1 J ^•mm j ii n} r Vr
P >, k I
30
John Schechter, "Kena," The New Grove Dictionary of Musical
Instruments, 3 vols., ed. Stanley Sadie (London:
Macmillan, 1984), II, 373.
37
23) .
p dolce e pas to
Example 6).
la m. s. un poco in rilievo
I T'^yr- r•"<
p . fe
pp t molto Ugattssmo
Scorrevole J 120
sempre legatissimo
£ ~ n - J T T T T - ^
7 • ' !
' il piu pianissimo possibile e volante, come un sofflo
1
~ sempre legatissimo ' '
"the crickets, the birds and the frogs," and the breath of
I'
ires douxpp
m is
ISpI
Example 28. Bela Bart6k, "Musiques nocturnes," from Out-of-
Doors: Five Piano Pieces (London: Boosey and Hawkes,
1954), measures 2-3. Used by permission.
il 1
42
31
Robert Stevenson, The Music of Pern: Aboriginal and
viceroyal Epochs (Washington, D.C.: Pan American Union,
1960), 147.
43
32
Stevenson, op. cit., 142.
33
Jbid, 147, as quoted from the Mercurio
Pemano no. 101 (22 December 1791), 285-86,
44
34
Ginastera, op. cit., preface.
35
Aretz, pp. cit., 52.
45
B t
^ 4
Similarly, many of the symmetrical events throughout the
flte
molto accentuato
8va~1
48
Example 33b. Sonata No. 2, third movement, measures 14-15.
j§
The piece ends with a C pentachord in the left hand and the
Sonata No. 3
f come chitwrra
wm
(un poco lirico)
I jn j
8va J
w Pf§
t!
Sva
§ p
»
5c
M fel
§6=5=
I
Pentatonic glissandos and clusters such as the ones in
36
The concept of cultural focus on the guitar tuning
introduced by Malena Kuss is outlined in her article
"Cosmopolitanism and Cultural Identity in 19th and 20th-
century Latin American Opera," in Kosmopolitismus and
Nationalismus in der Oper des 19. und 20. Jahrhunderts, ed.
Sieghart Dohring (Laaber: Laaber Verlag, 1990).
56
(Example 40).
5
a tempo
movement.
Feroce J • 152 .
come chitarra
f$~T T f f
&
}\
• -
1
r
/ =
cooo
s.
1 1 | morzatis,
•3 «t3: -f—j H
::
— r t
'ft ±
8va.
8 w i
gliss.
V
8va J
cultural focus.
37
Holden, op. cit., 172.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
59
60
Hanley, Mary Ann. "The Solo Piano Music of Alberto
Ginastera." Part I American Music Teacher XXIV (June-
July 1975), 17-20; Part II American Music Teacher XXV
(September-October 1975), 6-9.