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August 2 & 3
PROGRAM NOTES

Alberto Ginastera

Malambo from Estancia: Four Dances, Op. 8a

AT A GLANCE

Born: 1916
Died: 1983
Date of Composition: 1943
Instrumentation: Malambo is
scored for piccolo, flute (doubling
piccolo), 2 oboes, 2 clarinets,
2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets,
timpani, percussion, piano
and strings.

“Whenever I have crossed the
pampas or have lived in it for a
time,” wrote Alberto Ginastera,
“my spirit felt itself inundated by
changing impressions, now joyful,
now melancholy, some full of
euphoria and others replete with a
profound tranquility.” As a young
Argentinian composer, Ginastera
was immersed in the kaleidoscopic
variety of music emanating from
his native country. He was able
to cultivate his gifts by study in
the United States with Aaron
Copland, who saw in Ginastera a
potential musical spokesman for
the national music of Argentina.
Which he duly became. In 1941
Ginastera received a commission
from Lincoln Kirstein’s American
Ballet Caravan for a work that Alberto Ginastera — Wikipedia
included both spoken and sung
elements. Estancia was the result,
a ballet based on the lives of
cowboys (gauchos) on the cattle The glittering athleticism of the the gauchos as a competitive
ranches (estancias) of Argentina. Estancia Suite established male ritual. Definitely not stuff for
Although the ballet itself was not Ginastera on the world stage as the timid. Neither is Ginastera’s
staged until 1952, Ginastera lost a powerful voice for Argentine, rowdy foot-stomper, three and a
no time in fashioning a suite of and indeed South American, half minutes of uninhibited sizzle,
four dances that received its music. The suite’s final dance is sparkle and spectacle.
premiere in 1943. a malambo, typically danced by

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