“Malambo” by Alberto Ginastera
Argentinian composer Alberto Ginastera
His father was of Catalan stock (as was Pablo Casals), and his mother was from an Italian background. It is no surprise, therefore, that his music exhibits both Spanish (Catalan) and Italian traits, as well as the characteristic specifically Argentinean features. (The family used the pronunciation “Jee-na-stare-ah,” not with an “H” sound at the beginning, for the name “Ginastera.”)
After WWII, Ginastera fell out of favor with the Perón government because of his criticism of the neo-Fascist government and his own more liberal political sentiments. After being removed by the Peronistas from his job as professor of music, he came to the United States and, although he was already a mature, established composer, studied with Aaron Copland. Copland had a significant influence on Ginastera’s musical ideas. Gradually, in the fifties and sixties he moved toward a more radical, even avant-garde, style. His early nationalism was replaced by a style influenced by Stravinsky and Bartók among others at about the time he studied with Copland. Eventually, he turned to serialism and also incorporated other contemporary cutting edge techniques of that time. His international reputation grew, and he was the recipient of many honors. However, his personal life grew to be full of turmoil, and in the late sixties he divorced his first wife, Mercedes, and eventually remarried, to cellist Aurora Natola. The couple moved to Switzerland and lived in Geneva until the composers’ death in 1983 at the age of 67.
Malambo is a very old type of dance from around 1600, and was always danced by men, especially gauchos—it was never danced by women. It is highly rhythmic and very energetic, and was danced by gauchos, wearing gaucho boots. The Malambo was a sort of “cowboy” tap dance, with occasional rhythmic boot heel stomps punctuating the rapid motion of the feet. Ginastera’s Malambo, Op. 7 (1940), for piano, was followed in 1941 by his ballet, Danzas del Ballet Estancia, which is in four movements: I. Los Trabajadores Agricolas (The Land Workers), II. Danza del Trigo (Wheat Dance), III. Los Peones de Hacienda (The Cattle Men) and IV. Danza Final (Malambo). This last movement is an orchestral reworking of the material in Malambo, Op. 7, somewhat expanded, and with a few more “boot heel stomps” thrown in. The result is one of the most exciting of all 20th-century orchestral pieces. The obsessively repetitive rhythm is very infectious, and one gets caught up in it much as one would get caught up in a landslide or an avalanche; it is inevitable, and sweeps away everything before it. This music takes us back to the most primitive essence of the pampas and its gauchos!
To try gaucho grilling on your own, try out this cookbook!
