The Transfigured Guitar of Alberto Ginastera Sonata for Guitar, op. 47
(2022)
author(s): Silvia Escamilla Jiménez
published in: KC Research Portal
This research takes as a starting point the Alberto Ginastera's Sonata for Guitar, op. 47 (1976) The Sonata represents, within Ginastera's musical trajectory, an example of synthesis of his work, due to the variety of compositional and motivic material that he manages to link. Its interest relies in the way in which avant-garde compositional techniques, such as serialism or twelve-tone technique, are mixed with folklore rhythms and popular elements typical of Argentine traditional music.
It offers the opportunity to verify in his compositional practice the theoretical approaches on music that the composer had presented in his previous works. Discovering the origin of the thematic and rhythm sources of the Sonata for Guitar by Ginastera is an invitation to inquire in the valuable atmosphere of Argentine folklore.
Since its premiere, the Sonata has attracted increasing interest for its innovative contributions to contemporary music. The result is a tribute to the guitar, the Argentine folk music and the avant-garde music. As far as the guitar as an instrument is concerned, in it the composer explores a great variety of innovative resources that verify its suitability to transmit the contents of contemporary music, while at the same time pays off the debt it had with Argentine folklore, present in its rhetoric and symbolically evoked, but now transfigured into a reality.
Finally, this research presents some connections between this guitar piece and the String Quartet No. 1, op. 20, that Ginastera composed more than twenty years before.
The Palestinian music-making experience in the West Bank, 1920s to 1959: Nationalism, colonialism, and identity
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Issa Boulos
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
Research by Issa Boulos.
Before 1936, musical practices in Palestine relied heavily on colloquial poetry, especially in rural communities, which constituted most of the population. During the first half of the twentieth century, Palestinian music evolved as a reflection of the social, cultural, and political evolution of Palestinians. Palestinian music-making evolved exponentially resulting in the expansion of various folk tunes into shaʿbī songs, the creation of the Palestinian qaṣīda song genre, new compositions of instrumental music for traditional and Western music formations, the establishment of choirs and children music programing, and active engagement in composing in the styles of the dominant Egyptian genres of the time as well as muwashshaḥāt.
In 1948, the vast majority of Palestinians were displaced, and musicians found themselves at the frontier of implementing new political and cultural visions in the countries of Jordan, Lebanon and Iraq. Therefore, the continuation of the musical narrative in the West Bank did not seem attainable. By the early 1950s, Palestinian musicians and intellectuals developed a vocabulary that reflected the topography, scenery, culture, dialects, and history of al-Mashriq, one that is independent of Egypt’s. Their input, intuition, experience, and convictions of various Palestinian musicians helped to make the music scene in Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan what they are today.