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Art & music Music The most important components of traditional Argentine music are the gaucho folk song and folk dance; Native American music from the northern provinces; European influences; and, to a minor extent, African music. The tango, which developed in Buenos Aires and became a favorite ballroom dance throughout much of the world, is perhaps Argentina's most famous contribution to modern music. Astor Piazzolla, a prolific 20th-century tango composer, bandleader, and performer, incorporated jazz and classical influences in his works. Symphonic music and opera are important features of cultural activity. The National Symphony Orchestra is based in Buenos Aires, and the opera company of the city is housed in the Colón Theater, built in 1908. The Colón opera has achieved an international reputation for excellence. Famous throughout the world, The National Symphonic Ochestra’s music and the Teatro Colon’s operas are equally important to Argentines—who every week of the year vie for seats and even sit in the aisles to attend performances. Leading figures in the classical music field are three brothers, José María Castro, Juan José Castro, and Washington Castro, all conductors and composers. Alberto Williams, the founder of the Buenos Aires Conservatory, was the best known of all Argentine composers. Alberto Ginastera is well known for his symphonic, ballet, operatic, and piano music, which is popular throughout the world. Rock Stars, jazz greats, and internationally famous blues singers fill stadiums and draw hundreds of thousands to music festivals year round. Salsa, merengue, and samba are alive and well in Buenos Aires, joyously sung, danced, strummed, and beat by artists from the Caribbean, Brazil, Mexico and Argentina. Indigenous Instruments
Tango's History A symbol of Argentina, tango, in all its variants and through all its authors, has the ability to move people from the most diverse cultures. Both its music and its history show an essential part of Argentine idiosyncrasy’. Along with a rich heritage of provincial traditional folk music, the Tango, developed in Buenos Aires—its dance form a descendant of the French Apache—is Argentina’s most famous contribution to the world’s music. The early XXth century singer Carlos Gardel, and the composer Astor Piazzolla, XXth Century prolific composer, are the Tango’s almost mystically celebrated and revered stars. Undoubtedly, tango holds a privileged position in the representation of the Argentine abroad. While, basically, it is known as a dance and a music which can be sung, tango also contains a particular language (lunfardo), certain usages and customs, and even a characteristic philosophy identifying tango people. At an international level, in order to distinguish it from so many other forms that appear in dance halls, it is known as Argentine tango. It was this which gave rise to all the other forms. Lunfardo: "...although the public school, by strengthening national language (Spanish), prevented a linguistic muddle more typical of a free port than of a new and glorious nation, it could not keep some voices of Italian origin (derived from Genoese, Neapolitan, Furbesque) from starting to flow through the compadrito's lips..." Lunfardo, a mixture of European and Criollo features is ultimately an Argentine language. The birth of tango took place towards mid-19th century, with the formation of dwelling conglomerates around the young city of Buenos Aires. Those who lived there, peasants from inland, European immigrants and some disadvantaged porteños (born in Buenos Aires) made up a new social class. Perhaps as a way of identifying themselves as a group and of feeling they belonged in their new home, they began to create cultural expressions derived from this mixture. This was the start of tango, characterized by its extremely closed codes, which were only accessible to the working classes.
Due to this impossibility of understanding by other audiences, the diffusion of tango was difficult and was basically approached through dance, which was earlier than tango itself in its most characteristic musical format (let alone sung tango, which arrived much later). It is clear that tango culture, understood as some particular usages and customs, is earlier than tango as an artistic expression. Salon dances involving a man and a woman embracing were the precedent for tango, which was refined until it became what has long been known as tango. Somebody said: -Tango is something else than a soft wave turned into music, it is the deepest dance in the world -, and he who spoke these words was not Argentine. The truth is that it must be acknowledged that it represents the last step in the universal dance evolution as regards dances of mixed couples. What started with dance was eventually coming of age in the expert hands of great men, who, inspired in the popular melting pot, captured the richest part of the Buenos Aires culture in their compositions. Themes always refer to the ordinary man and his problems, the city and memories. Thus, tango becomes a portrayal of Buenos Aires and its people. For this reason, undoubtedly, since the best of the Buenos Aires culture is carried in each song, tango gained ground abroad. Literature Argentine literature was born with some particular features which make it similar to and different from other literatures. In the same way, different styles found their peculiar path within the pages of Argentine letters. Argentine literature, originally a derivative form of Spanish literature, took on a markedly nationalistic flavor in the 19th century. The poem Fausto (1866), by Estanisláo del Campo, is a gaucho version of the Faust legend; Martín Fierro (1872), a narrative poem on gaucho life by José Hernández, is considered by many the national epic of Argentina; and finally, the sociological essay Facundo (1845; translated 1868), by Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, is a study of how the rural life of the Argentine Pampas helped shape the national character. Twentieth-century Argentine literature has produced the celebrated Shadows in the Pampas (1926;translated 1935), a novel by Ricardo Guiraldes; Hopscotch (1963; translated 1966), a novel by Julio Cortazar; The Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976; translated 1979), a novel by Manuel Puig; and the stories of Ernesto Sábato. Eduardo Mallea, a novelist who wrote on existentialist themes, and Jorge Luis Borges, internationally renowned for his fantasies, are major contemporary figures. The best-known poet is Leopoldo Lugones, who wrote both symbolist and naturalist verse. Famous Painters and sculptors Painting in the 19th century was dominated by gaucho themes and scenes of town life. Prilidiano Pueyrredón was the principal artist of the period. Painters of the 20th century include the realist Cesareo Bernaldo de Quirós; Benito Quinquela Martín, painter of port life in Buenos Aires; the cubist Emilio Pettoruti; and Raul Soldi. The works of the sculptor Rogelio Yrurtia are widely known. Scenes of gauchos dominated painting of the XIXth Century. Prilidiano Pueyrredón was the principal artist of his time.
Benito Quinquela Martin ( 1890-1977)
Prilidiano P. Pueyrredon, Escuela Argentina 1823-1870 "El NaranjeroL ", Height 1,536 mts. Width 1,220 mts. Oil on canvas dated 1865. Estimated U$S 30/40000
Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quiros, Escuela Argentina, (1879-1968) "Cabeza de paisano" Oil on canvas. Dimensions: 65 x 50 cm. Libraries and Museums The leading library of Argentina is the National Library (1810) in Buenos Aires, which has about 1.9 million volumes. Originally deeply affected by Spanish literature, Argentina developed a recognizable national style in the XIXth Century: works such as Fausto by Estanislao del Campo, Facundo by Domingo Sarmiento, and Martín Fierro”—thought one of Argentina’s most fundamental and important literary works, because it tells of the rural life of gauchos on the Pampas. The XXth Century produced many wonderful works by Ricardo Güiraldes, Julio Cortázar, Manuel Puig, Eduardo Mallea, Ernesto Sábato y Jorge Luis Borges, recognized internationally for his short stories. Throughout Argentina there are hundreds of historical, archaeological, and fine-arts museums. El Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (The Fine Arts Museum) in Buenos Aires justifiably boasts one of the most important international collections of fine art in the world. Prominent among the many museums in Buenos Aires are the Argentine Museum of Natural Sciences and such private collections as the International Art Gallery. The Museum of La Plata is famous for its collections of reptile fossils. Among myriad possibilities the length of Argentina, some of the most interesting museums preserve the lives of the country’s early settlers.
The Museo de La Plata is a Natural Sciences Museum and, unlike others, includes Men Sciences as Archeology, Anthropology, Etnography, etc. |
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