(Sp. República Argentina). Country in South America. It has an area of 2,780,400 sq. km and a population of 37·03 million (2000 estimate). Named Argentina (‘land of silver’) because of the gold and silver that now was thought to be concealed along its two great rivers in the north-east (the Paraná and the Uruguay), it was settled in the early 16th century by Spanish conquistadors. Juan Díaz de Solís was the first to arrive, in 1515, but he was killed by the indigenous Amerindian peoples. Sebastian Cabot followed in 1526. A decade later the present capital, Buenos Aires, was founded by Pedro de Mendoza. Little evidence remains of the indigenous population, which probably numbered some 30,000 at the time of the Spaniards’ arrival. In 1810 the population rose against Spanish rule, and in 1816 Argentina proclaimed its independence. The 20th century was characterized by a series of military coups, the first of which took place in 1930. In 1983 the country returned to civilian rule.
The mild and fertile Pampa region in the centre of the country accounts for Argentina’s wealth; the Andes in the west range from dry, hot, northern peaks to sub-Antartic Patagonia; the arid north-west is rich in mineral reserves. The north is covered by sub-tropical forest, known as the Chaco. Mesopotamia, to the north-east, is so called because it is enclosed by the Paraná and Uruguay rivers.
A third of the population lives in Buenos Aires or the surrounding province. Most Argentines are of European, particularly Spanish and Italian, origin, though there are also communities of East Asian immigrants. The population of African descent introduced through slavery during colonial rule has all but disappeared, not least as a result of an epidemic of yellow fever in 1871.
GERARD BÉHAGUE (I), IRMA RUIZ (II, III)
There is scant evidence of musical life during this period. As in most Latin American countries, the earliest efforts to establish a regular musical life in the European sense were made by missionaries, especially the Jesuits whose missions covered the Paraná river area and the La Plata region (Paraguay and Argentina). Music was important in the catechization of the indigenous Amerindian population, but the absence of conventual historians and the disappearance of the music archives of the Jesuits (see Lange) restrict any assessment of music-making during the 16th and 17th centuries. The first missionaries were Father Alonso Barzana, a Jesuit, and Francisco Solano, a Franciscan who was eventually canonized.
The first reference to an organ in the church of Santiago del Estero dates from 1585; the first school of music was founded by Father Pedro Comental (1595–1665). The music taught was mainly plainchant and polyphonic song, and Amerindians and African slaves soon became skilful musicians and instrument makers: there is documentary evidence of locally made European instruments before 1600. Among the best-known music teachers active in the Jesuit missions were the Belgian Juan Vasseau or Vaisseau (1584–1623), the Frenchman Luis Berger (1588–1639), the Austrian Antonio Sepp (1655–1733), the Swiss Martin Schmid (1694–1773), the Spaniard Juan Fecha (1727–1812) and the German Florian Paucke (1719–80). Berger’s activities and influence extended to Paraguay and Chile; Sepp made the mission of Yapeyú one of the most flourishing music centres of the area. The repertory of the missions consisted mainly of sacred music, but secular music was not excluded.
The Jesuits had a remarkable impact during almost two centuries of missionary and musical activities in Uruguay, northern Argentina and Paraguay (Paraná and Gran Chaco), and Chiquitos and Mojos (present-day Bolivia). They taught the indigenous communities the Catholic gospel and its corresponding liturgical music and also encouraged new compositions. At the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, a preliminary inventory of European instruments in the missions numbered more than 1000. Since the 1980s, musicologists and ethnomusicologists of the ‘Carlos Vega’ National Musicological Institute in Buenos Aires have joined forces in the study of mission archives (especially Chiquitos and Mojos), revealing the extent of music-making under the Jesuits. In fact, numerous Amerindian musicians and composers trained by the Jesuits contributed substantially to the musical life of Buenos Aires in the 18th century.
The early 18th century was dominated by the presence of the distinguished Italian organist and composer Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726) who arrived in Argentina in 1717. He was assigned to Córdoba, then the country’s most important cultural centre. None of his works presumably written in the New World has been found, with the exception of a mass for four voices and continuo, of which the manuscript was copied at Potosí (Bolivia) in 1784. With the expulsion of the Jesuits, such musical activities in the area were much curtailed. Studies in the archives of various churches and convents (Humahuaca, Jujuy, Tucumán, Santiago del Estero, La Rioja, Córdoba, Santa Fé etc.) have revealed very few manuscripts of original works.
There was substantial development of theatre pieces with music during the 18th century, partly because almost all official festivities in the viceroyalty required theatrical representations with music. Mission Amerindians are said to have performed an opera on the occasion of the proclamation of King Fernando VI (1746–7). The repertory of the Teatro de Operas y Comedias, in Buenos Aires (1757–61), consisted mainly of tonadillas, a genre fashionable in Spain at the time. A regular orchestra (four violins, a bassoon, two oboes and two horns) was maintained at the Teatro de la Ranchería from 1783 to 1792. The Teatro Porteño (later Teatro Argentino), founded in 1804, presented sainetes, tiranas and similar forms of lyric theatre; Blas Parera (1765–1817), composer of the Argentine national anthem, had several of his works performed there.
With a population of some 24,000, Buenos Aires became the capital of the Viceroyalty of the La Plata river in 1776, and, thereafter, the most important musical centre, activity being concentrated on the church and opera houses. Of the musicians associated with Buenos Aires Cathedral, the maestro de capilla, Father José Antonio Picasarri (1769–1843), was influential in the whole musical life of the city.
The predominant forms of 19th-century Argentine music included opera (directly influenced by Italian models, beginning with Rossini and Bellini), zarzuelas and other stage genres, piano and salon music and, by the end of the century, symphonic music. Most of the indigenous composers of this period were amateur musicians who had to compete with European professional immigrants, primarily Italians; the most distinguished Argentine composers were Amancio Alcorta (1805–62), Juan Pedro Esnaola (1808–78) and Juan Bautista Alberdi (1810–84). Alcorta’s works (piano pieces, solo songs and some church music) reveal the strong influence of Rossini. Esnaola studied at the Paris and Madrid conservatories, and his style was heterogeneous; he wrote church music and orchestral and piano pieces, many based on local dance forms. Alberdi wrote mostly salon pieces and songs.
A large number of salon pieces and operas appeared, mostly in Buenos Aires, during the latter part of the 19th century. The leading composers were Francisco A. Hargreaves (1849–1900), who had his opera La Gata Blanca produced in 1877 and who wrote some of the first piano pieces (Aires nacionales) inspired by traditional and popular music, and Juan Gutiérrez (1840–1906), who founded the Conservatorio Nacional de Música (1880). Both professional and semi-professional musicians of the next generation had closer connections with European music centres. Opera, operetta, the symphonic poem, ballet and solo song were the preferred genres of such composers as Eduardo García Mansilla (1871–1930), who studied with Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg, and Justino Clérice (1863–1908), who wrote successful comic operas for the Parisian theatres.
Concurrently, nationalist feeling was apparent in the works of Alberto Williams (1862–1952), the most prolific and influential composer of his generation, and of Arturo Berutti (1862–1938), who treated Argentine national themes in his successful operas (Pampa and Yupanki). Although an academic composer, Williams tried to create a national style in many of his works, such as the album of Aires de la Pampa for piano, a stylization of gaucho traditional songs and dances. The champion of the indigenous composer, he founded the conservatory of Buenos Aires and edited an important anthology of Argentine composers. His immediate followers included Aguirre and Gilardi. The ‘gauchesca’ tradition became one of the essential elements of Argentine nationalism, embodied in the famous epic poem Martín Fierro (1872) by José Hernández.
Most of the first half of the 20th century was dominated by the nationalist movement, with notable exceptions. Composers drew on various national folk traditions (see §II below), and most of the considerable amount of music produced for all media at this time reveals varying degrees of national concern, from the direct use of traditional and popular sources to a more subjective assimilation of folk material. Some composers, such as Juan Bautista Massa (1885–1938), active in the city of Rosario, and Carlos López Buchardo, used national sources directly. Ugarte, Ficher, the brothers Juan José, José María and Washington Castro, and Gianneo achieved a more cosmopolitan expression through the adoption of some contemporary European techniques but at the same time maintained a subjective Argentine character.
The inauguration in 1908 of the new Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires (cap. 2487), provided a strong incentive for the continuation of opera production. Early 20th-century Argentine opera composers, who found in Italian verismo a suitable expression for their nationalist attitude, included Pascual de Rogatis, a student of Williams, Enrique M. Casella (1891–1948), active mainly in Tucumán, Arnaldo D’Espósito (1907–45) and Felipe Boero. Boero’s opera El matrero (1929), to a libretto based on the gaucho folk tradition, utilizes some folksong themes and an effective pericón, a typical gaucho dance, and is considered by many to be the quintessential Argentine opera.
During the 1930s the nationalist movement waned. Juan Carlos Paz, a founder of the Grupo Renovación (1929) and the Agrupación Nueva Música (1944), denied musical nationalism any value and favoured expressionism instead; by the 1930s he had already become a strong supporter and practitioner of dodecaphonic and serial techniques. Several of his works of the 1950s (e.g. Continuidad, 1953) are applications of total serialism. He wrote an important book, Introducción a la música de nuestro tiempo (1952), which provides insight into Argentine music of the period; his influence as a composer and a theorist in Argentina has been considerable.
A notable nationalist composer writing in a neo-romantic style is Carlos Guastavino (b 1912), whose works include numerous solo songs and choral pieces (26 Canciones populares argentinas) that have reached an international audience, chamber and symphonic works (such as the Sinfonía argentina and Tres romances argentinos) and a series of popular piano pieces. In Jeromita Linares (part of a series called Presencias) for guitar and string quartet (1965), Guastavino drew, albeit in a subtle manner, on national folk sources.
The stylistic development of Alberto Ginastera (1916–83), one of the leading Latin American composers, was exceptional. His style evolved from an obviously nationalist orientation in the 1930s and 40s (in such works as Impresiones de la Puna, the ballets Panambí and Estancia, the series of Pampeanas) to a neo-classical idiom in the 1950s (Piano Sonata, Variaciones concertantes etc.). In the 1960s he turned to a highly personal manipulation of atonal and serial techniques and developed a meticulous preoccupation with timbres (Cantata para América mágica, Piano Concerto, Violin Concerto, the operas Don Rodrigo, Bomarzo and Beatrix Cenci). In some works, such as Estudios sinfónicos op.35 (1967), he combined serial and microtonal textures with fixed and aleatory structures. His activity as director of the Latin American Centre for Advanced Musical Studies at the Buenos Aires Instituto Torcuato di Tella (1963–71) greatly benefited many young Latin American composers.
In opposition to the prevailing nationalist current, a number of composers active in the 1940s and 50s sought an abstract style through neo-classical and post-Webern serialist idioms, for example Roberto García Morillo (b 1911) and Roberto Caamaño. In such works by Morillo as Tres pinturas de Paul Klee (1944) or Music for Oboe and Chamber Orchestra (1965), there is no trace of nationalist implication. Caamaño, professor of Gregorian chant at the Institute of Sacred Music, Buenos Aires, has cultivated a dissonant neo-classical style and a serialist style, in both instrumental and sacred choral works.
A group of talented avant-garde musicians, with varied aims and means, appeared during the 1960s. It included Tauriello, Alcides Lanza (a resident of Canada), Davidovsky (a resident of the USA), Kagel (a resident of Germany, particularly active in electronic and aleatory music), Armando Krieger and Gandini. In works of the 1960s such as Música III (1965) for piano and orchestra, Tauriello adhered to several procedures of new music, including electronics, aleatory and sonic collages. For several years he directed the permanent orchestra at the Teatro Colón, and he has written two operas, one of which, Les guerres picrocholines, to a libretto based on Rabelais’ Gargantua, was commissioned for the Fifth Inter-American Music Festival, held in Washington, DC, in May 1971, though it was not produced then. Lanza has held many fellowships and awards since 1957 (he was Guggenheim Fellow, 1965). He became interested in electronic music at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center and has also been successful in dealing with contemporary orchestral and vocal techniques. Gandini, also an accomplished pianist, has employed a post-Webern serialism, microtonalism and aleatory forms. His Fantasía impromptu for piano and orchestra (1971), an ‘imaginary portrait of Chopin’, is a novel ‘study of fragmentation and superimposition’ based on Chopin’s characteristic stylistic elements. Krieger, who has made a career as a pianist and conductor, has also cultivated a post-Webern serialist style, together with aleatory techniques. All these composers were at various times fellows of the Centre for Advanced Musical Studies in Buenos Aires, and many of them have gained an international reputation.
Another significant composer of the 1930s generation has been Alicia Terzian (b 1934). Since the 1970s talented musicians have appeared in various cities, although many Argentine composers, performers and conductors have taken up residence abroad because of their conviction that their country could not offer a suitable musical environment. However, throughout the 20th century several associations were formed to support Argentine music. Particularly significant were the Asociación Argentina de Compositores (1915, first known as Sociedad Nacional de Música); the Associación de Jóvenes Compositores de la Argentina (1957), allied with the publishers Editorial Argentina de Música and Ricordi Americana; the Agrupación Euphonia (1959, later renamed Agrupación Música Viva), the Consejo Argentino de la Música, and the Unión de Compositores de la Argentina (1964). The Fundación Encuentros Internacionales de Música Contemporánea (founded and, since 1968, directed by Alicia Terzián) has greatly contributed to the dissemination of contemporary Argentine music throughout the world.
Among the great Latin American capitals, Buenos Aires now enjoys a musical life of unique importance by virtue of its many theatres, orchestras and choral associations, and its good educational institutions. In addition, frequent contact with visiting foreign composers, musicologists or performers has afforded local musicians a comprehensive view of the contemporary musical world.
Distinctions within traditional Argentine music are based on both musical and non-musical historical criteria and arise according to whether the music is that of a pre-Hispanic indigenous group (for further discussion of the music of Amerindians in Argentina see Latin America, §I) or is Creole, that is of Spanish language and musical heritage, occasionally with some indigenous features. The main differences lie in the presence or absence of European influences in the music and texts of songs and the degree to which societies and groups themselves share the cultural institutions of the majority. The imposition on the indigenous population of the Spanish language and of Roman Catholicism and its religious calendar prepared the ground for the development of a rural Creole culture, creating the environment for Creole music traditions, which later absorbed other incoming population influences. At the same time, in terms of language and religious belief, some pre-Hispanic indigenous cultures survived into the 20th century. In the 20th century the musical map was inevitably altered, and significant changes occurred due to the migration of population from rural to urban areas, the partial adoption of Protestantism by some indigenous groups and the increased popularity of Creole music. The Amerindian–Creole dimensions of traditional music, instrumentaria and dance vary according to region.
Ethnomusicological research has been carried out at the Instituto Nacional de Musicología (INM) since 1931. The research of the institute has included the analysis and classification of Creole music; the investigation of Amerindian indigenous music from 1965; and popular music (see §III, below), including the tango, from 1972. The INM has significant documental archives, including sound recordings and manuscripts of all areas of music.
Argentina, §II: Traditional music
(Jujuy, north-west Salta, Santiago del Estero, Catamarca, Tucumán, La Rioja). In this region, which largely follows Andean farming and shepherding patterns, the pre- and post-Hispanic cultural dynamic has been complex. The existing mosaic of Amerindian ethnic groups has been affected by a series of intervening influences, ranging from the Incas between 1480 and 1533; Spanish influence from 1543; Roman Catholic missionaries from 1580; and European cultural trends from Lima, Peru, until 1776. At the same time, constant movement across the northern border with Bolivia, maintained to the present day by those searching for work in the mines or in sugar-cane processing, has played its part. As a result, a combination of musical practices has evolved that uses tonal systems from various origins (e.g. the Diaguitan tritonic, Inca pentatonic and other scales adapted from European scales). Ceremonial or festive occasions combine both indigenous and Spanish cultural elements and coincide with those in particular areas of Peru, Bolivia and Chile.
The tritonic Diaguitan system, originating in the Calchaquí valley with the Diaguitan people who inhabited north-west Argentina at the time of the conquest, is present in the bagualas and coplas characteristic of this area. As a result of racial and cultural mixing, these songs, in duple or triple time, often accompanied by a Caja (snared frame drum), have acquired estribillos (refrains), or octosyllabic coplas, verse forms of Spanish origin. Their main characteristics are the kenko (a portamento or mordent, sometimes associated with falsetto) and counterpoint between men and women. As they have spread unevenly northwards, some of these coplas and bagualas sung collectively in two parts, or individually, have acquired a livelier tempo (ex.1).
Tritonic music of different origin is found further north, in pieces for corneta or caña (erke in Peru), a pre-Hispanic transverse trumpet, used on religious occasions. It is also found in some pieces for Erke or erkencho, a post-Hispanic clarinet, played primarily during Carnival celebrations, the player accompanying himself with the caja.
Traces of the pentatonic system of the Incas survive in the Huayno dance played by bands of sikuris (fig.1), in music for the quena (Andean open-notched flute) and in the carnavalito dance. The combined influence of the tritonic and pentatonic systems led to the adoption of the hexatonic range. This can be heard in the Vidala (triple time) and in the vidalita (duple or triple time; see Baguala), carnival songs sung in parallel 3rds, or in unison, with caja accompaniment. There is further evidence of Andean influence in the division of Spanish quatrains by the insertion of local verses (or short refrains called estribillos). Some vidalas also include motes (pentasyllabic quatrains or sextets), which further condition the music structure. When both the caja and the guitar (the most widely played national instrument) are played together as accompaniment, the harmony of the vidala is centred on a major key and its relative minor, on which the song invariably ends. The vidala has specific characteristics in Santiago del Estero; within the Quecha-speaking area, song texts may be in Quechua or bilingual with Spanish.
Also particular to this province are popular liturgical songs, sung by women rezadoras (chanters). Typical to Santiago are the violin (also found in Salta) and the bombo (large drum), which together with the guitar and bandoneón, the key instrument of tango from Buenos Aires (see Bandoneon), make up the present-day village dance bands. The violin and bombo are also used to play the marches of the Misachicos, processions in honour of a saint or a Virgin, also popular in the furthest north-west region. These processions end at the church with sung prayers (the Padrenuestro and the Ave María), rogations or songs of praise, which begin as a solo by the rezadora and continue in unison. Unlike other vidalitas, the vidalita chayera or Carnival vidalita, sung in many provinces, is lively and is sung in unison in mixed procession accompanied by cajas and guitars.
Argentine dances illustrate well the indigenous Amerindian-Creole opposition in traditional music. Indigenous dances of the north-west include huaynos and carnavalitos, danced animalistic fertility pantomimes, such as those of the suris (Rhea americana), which often precede processions, and the ronda circle dances. Rondas are performed by mixed instrumental groups involving erkencho and either caja, flauta or quenita. Creole couple dances, such as the chacarera, escondido, bailecito, cueca, zamba and the most widespread of all rural dances, the gato, are each accompanied by song. Originating in urban dance halls and spreading to the countryside, music and texts have been adapted to form local versions (e.g. by the addition of estribillos to the bailecito, cueca and zamba). There are also many versions of the special dances called adoraciones for the Christ Child at Christmas time.
In Jujuy, the sikuri bands are made up of several pairs of siku (bamboo panpipes) of varying sizes, matraca (cog rattle), cymbals, bombo and one or two other drums or redoblantes (double-headed drum). Other traditional instruments are played in various combinations at musical performances for Christmas, Easter, festivities for patron saints, ceremonies related to vital life-cycle events, Carnival celebrations, the mingas (communal rural work) and the señaladas (ritual branding of livestock). These instruments include the anata (or tarka in Bolivia), the pinkullo and the post-Hispanic Charango (a small guitar with five double strings and a soundbox usually made from the shell or carapace of the tatu or quirquincho, the armadillo). The European musical system is evident in the intervals and in the harmonies (IV–V–I), mainly in strummed guitar chords, and in the major and minor modes, or combinations of both. However, many such traditional instruments have gradually been replaced in popularity by resounding brass instruments, under the influence of bands from Bolivia who travel forwards and backwards across the border.
Argentina, §II: Traditional music
(Formosa, Chaco, north-eastern Salta, north-eastern Santiago del Estero, north-west Santa Fé). Due to its late colonization at the end of the 19th century, the Chaco has an Amerindian population of approximately 84,000. Its Creole population is more recently established, and as a result it lacks a traditional music with distinguishing characteristics. Some 71,000 people are Mataco, or Wichí and Toba Indians, and the remaining 13,000 or so belong to the Chorote, Chulupí or Nivaklé, Pilagá and Mocoví groups. The inter-ethnic cultural exchange that took place as a result of enforced and temporary co-existence in the sugar mills was followed, during the first half of the 20th century, by the activities of Protestant (Anglican and Pentecostal) missions, which prohibited and thus further undermined ancient musical practices, leading to the disappearance of these and of the accompanying rituals.
Around 1950 the Toba founded the United Evangelical Church, of Pentecostal origins (which later reached the Mataco). Some features of traditional musical and religious practices have been interwoven or disguised within the evangelical ritual. In the past, collective, but not mixed, dances were inextricably linked to homophonic songs sung by the dancers; dances were held at night with the object of forming couples by the end of the dance (ex.2). The shaman controlled atmospheric phenomena, hunting, fishing and illnesses by means of song (ex.3), sometimes accompanied by the sonajero de calabazo (gourd rattle), or cascabeles (metal hawk bells) in the case of the Mataco (fig.2). Among the most important communal musical occasions were the fiesta de la algarroba and the initiation rites at puberty of both boys and girls. In female rites, older women sang accompanying themselves with palo-sonajero de uñas (a stick rattle made of animal hooves). (See Paraguay, fig.1.)
Songs, dances and almost all instruments were specific to one sex or another, a characteristic that could not be maintained in Christian rituals. At night, young people got together to sing and dance, generally in a circle. Young Mataco or Wichí, Chorote and Pilagá bachelors played the trompa (jew’s harp) or the musical bow (fig.3). The Toba and Pilagá played the nwiké (rustic one-string mango lute; fig.4) or the Andean flautilla (little flute), with the hope of being chosen by their loved one. Creole music is present in the form of types of music brought from neighbouring areas: mainly Paraguayan polkas and Andean bagualas.
The western border of the Chaco area, towards the foothills of the Andes, is inhabited by an ethnically mixed group of Chiriguano-Chané; who arrived from Bolivia at the beginning of the 20th century. This group displays Guaraní and Arawak cultural vestiges together with influences of the Chaco and Andean regions. In the aréte aváti, a fusion of the maize festival with Carnival, celebrated as a moment of reunion between the living and the dead, circles of men and women dance holding hands. The constant presence of flutes and drums bears witness to the dissemination of musical forms from eastern Bolivia. The Andean influence is represented by pentatonic instrumental melodies, such as those of the pingúio (pinkullo), and by Creole dances, such as chacareras and bailecitos. Chiriguano-Chané instruments are anguaguásu, anguarái and michirái, a family of double-headed drums; turumi, their particular violin; temímbi guásu and pingúio, flutes without air duct; and temímbi ie piasa, a side-blown flute; all of these instruments are played by men.
Argentina, §II: Traditional music
(Misiones, Corrientes, Entre Ríos). The indigenous population in this area, the Mbyá, live in the province of Misiones and came originally from Paraguay at the beginning of the 20th century. They have rejected any form of evangelization, and thus the basic principles of their culture have survived intact, although they have incorporated some use of European instruments. The Mbyá communicate with their gods, Ñamandú, Tupã, Karaí, Jakairá, through communal song and dance. Both sexes participate in daily rituals at dawn and sunset; in annual rituals, such as Ñemongaraí (the ‘festival of first fruits’); and during funerals. The only men who sing are the Pa’i (religious leader) and his helper. For their part, the women usually repeat musical phrases two octaves higher, marking the rhythm with their sacred instrument, the takuapú, a stamping tube. Texts are brief, except in the initial phase sung in monotone by the Pa’i and in improvisations. The men’s mbaraká, a gourd rattle, has gradually been replaced by a five-string guitar, also called mbaraká, which plays a rhythmic and harmonic role (fig.5). Another instrument that has been incorporated is the three-string rebec called ravé (ex.4). The Mbyá women play a type of panpipe (mimby retá), with seven loose pieces of cane which are shared by two players in different combinations, according to each melody.
Creole music has been adopted in the form of local versions of couple dances that arrived from Europe during the first half of the 19th century: the waltz, the schottische, the polka and the mazurka. The rhythmical melodies, often with sung verses, are played by accordion and guitar. The accordion arrived in the area around 1890 with immigrant colonial farmers from Europe. Modified to take account of local music, it has become the established instrument, largely replacing harp and violin. Examples of local creativity are two coupled dances: the polka of Corrientes and its highly successful 20th-century successor, the popular chamamé. The chamamé, which has absorbed elements of polka correntina, achieved nationwide coverage in the 1970s through the work of urban folk groups. It is danced in cheek to cheek embrace, except during the men’s zapateo (heel and toe footwork). This dance is often sung, sometimes in two voices in parallel 3rds, a traditional form of this region, and in bilingual Spanish-Guaraní verse. The music uses hemiola, with a basic 3/4 rhythm, and a melodic 6/8 rhythm; it is rooted in the sound of the accordion, which in local conjuntos (bands) is joined by the bandoneón, incorporated to play counterpoint, and the double bass or contrabajo.
Argentina, §II: Traditional music
(Córdoba). This was a larger area in pre-Hispanic times. The early extinction of the Comechingón Indians means that the indigenous music of Córdoba has not survived. The jota cordobesa is the only creole music genre that can be recognized as peculiar to this region. In the last 50 years cuarteto has evolved to become a characteristic musical movement (see §III, 4 below).
Argentina, §II: Traditional music
(Mendoza, San Juan, San Luis). The Cuyo region belonged to Chile until 1778, and it continued to identify culturally with Chile until the beginning of the 19th century. For this reason, its musical genres are similar to those of central Chile. One characteristic dance is the cueca, Chile’s national dance, the origins of which, like the zamba, are to be found in the Peruvian zamacueca. The cueca is more lively in rhythm than the zamba; it is sung to guitar accompaniment, generally in a major key. Another important dance is the gato, with its own particular choreography. The tonada is the main vocal genre. According to Carlos Vega, it has peculiar melodic characteristics and reveals an unusual lightness for the modulation. Usually sung by two voices in parallel 3rds, it is accompanied by guitars, which play preludes and interludes often in elaborate style.
Argentina, §II: Traditional music
(Buenos Aires, La Pampa, south of San Luis, Santa Fé and Entre Ríos). The dances of this area, such as the ranchera, gato, vals and malambo are all lively in character. In contrast, the songs of this enormous plain, such as the milonga (unrelated to the dance of the same name), the estilo and the cifra, where the verses in Hispanic décima form are constantly divided into ten-line stanzas, are melancholic and intimate. For all music the guitar is the predominant instrument, accompanied in various sized groups by the accordion, the bandoneón and harmonica, which play the melodies for the dances. The milonga has been the most popular genre since the mid-19th century and maintained its popularity in the 20th century thanks to the efforts of the traditionalist movement and the payadores, the popular musicians of the River Plate region. It is sung as a solo with guitar and, with the cifra, forms part of the payadas de contrapunto, an improvisatory contest during which two singers challenge each other to a singing duel on various subjects. The estilo, sung as a duet in parallel 3rds, with guitars, has spread throughout most of Argentina. The ranchera is also widely danced by couples in entwined style. It preserves elements of the European mazurka, from which it originates, but its melodic line has acquired other characteristics, and it is common for its text to be of humorous content. The malambo, originally associated with the gauchos, the horsemen of the plains, is a dance for men; accompanied by the guitar, it is danced alone or in competition with other dancers.
Argentina, §II: Traditional music
(Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz). Until 1884 this area was a battleground of one of the longest conflicts in the south of the Americas. The present-day indigenous population of 40,000 consists of Mapudungun or Mapuche (‘people of the land’), originally from Chile and still found in southern Chile. In the north and south are Tehuelche families. The sacred songs of the Mapuche are sung by women. In the annual celebration of the Nguillatún, a collective prayer for fertility, health and well-being (also called nellipún or kamaruko), the most important expression is tayil. Tayil was also performed during the now extinct ceremonies of female initiation; it is still performed before or after the veranada, the herding of flocks to higher grazing land, and at funerals (Robertson-DeCarbo, 1976; Robertson, 1979). The dances known as amupurrún, shafshafpurrún, rinkürrinkupürrún are led by a female ritual leader who also sings and plays the kultrún (a hollow kettledrum in which pebbles are placed; it is usually hand-held and hit with a single stick; fig.6); the dances are performed either by women or by both men and women, in separate or mixed formations. The puelpurrún or lonkomeo is a men’s dance, in five parts of varying length, marked by the withdrawal and return of the dancers. Each part of the dance is characterized by a different rhythmic pattern played on the kultrún. This instrument differs from the feminine version in that it is larger, rests on the ground and is struck with two sticks. Almost all the instruments are played by men. During the dance the tayilqueras sing the tayil, which corresponds to the kimpeñ of each of the dancers, understood as the voiced expression of the soul shared by members of a patrilineage.
Songs sung by men and women that have no connection to ritual are called ülkantún. In addition to instruments already mentioned, the Mapuche play the pifïlka, a long end-blown whistle carved out of wood which plays a single note, as well as the trutruka, a very large long end-blown trumpet (2·5 to 6 metres), which has a resounding sound. The Mapuche have gradually incorporated Creole couple dances from the surrounding culture. Neuquén receives influences from the Cuyo and Pampa regions, while other provinces are influenced by the Pampa.
There is little written information available on Tehuelche music, but it seems likely that the settlement of Mapuche in that area since the 18th century impinged on Tehuelche socio-cultural structures. This has resulted in a mixed culture with predominantly Mapuche characteristics.
The beginnings of Argentine popular music can be dated to about 1890, when the tango emerged in Buenos Aires. Until the 1970s, three main areas of popular music were recognized: tango; ‘folk’ music (urban versions of rural genres of Creole origin, also categorized as nativist music); and rock nacional. Since then, the boundaries between these distinctions have become more complex as these musics have interacted and musicians have crossed over, playing more than one genre. Two other popular phenomena, cuarteto and bailanta, also deserve mention.
This dance has become the musical identity of Argentina for the world at large. The Tango emerged in the port and slums of Buenos Aires and the La Plata river area during a period when the population swelled, with 6 million immigrants (Italians, Spaniards, East Europeans) entering the country between 1870 and 1930. Whether instrumental or sung, the tango remained a dance until the end of the 1950s, when, due to social change, it was displaced among the younger generation in favour of foreign music, leaving tango largely as the music of older generations. Tango has enjoyed recurrent revivals, none of them major, the last and most important of which is the present one, which has given rise to countless dance classes, including an extra-curricular course at the University of Buenos Aires. At first there were many different types of tango that were played and danced in different social environments. Later on, the genre consolidated, acquiring a definite character. The only genres that can be considered true predecessors of the tango are the habanera and the milouga.
The history of tango has passed through three main stages. The first, between approximately 1890 and 1920, is called La guardia vieja (the Old Guard). During this period tango developed from a marginal dance associated with brothels, its language the lunfardo of the arrabal (the immigrant ghettos), to gradually gain acceptance among the middle and upper classes due to its international fame, notably its sensational impact in Paris and Europe (1910). The second stage, between 1920 and 1958, is called La guardia nueva (the New Guard). This most important stage comprised a period of consolidation in the 1920s and 30s, and the ‘golden age’ in the 1940s. The third stage, beginning in 1958, is called La guardia tercera (the Third Guard). This period began with innovations by the founder of ‘new tango’, Astor Piazzolla, and his Octeto Buenos Aires and culminated with the worldwide success of the Tango Argentino show (1983–94).
The first stage of this movement revalued traditional rural Creole genres, brought to the cities by migrants, for an urban public. It helped introduce recordings of folk music to various provinces during the 1930s, their success preceded by intense background work between 1915 and 1935 by the traditionalist impresario Andrés Chazarreta. Notable ‘folklorists’ included Antonio Tormo, Patrocinio Díaz, Martha de los Ríos, Margarita Palacios, Manuel Acosta Villafañe, Hilario Cuadros, Osvaldo Sosa Cordero, Julio Argentino Jerez and Edmundo Zaldívar. A second innovative stage, taking ‘folk’ music further from its roots in musical terms, took place in Buenos Aires, running parallel to the decline of tango at the end of the 1950s. It coincided with an influx of migrants from the provinces to the city searching for work at a time of economic expansion. Various musicians contributed to produce what became known as the ‘boom del folklore’ (1960–70). Atahualpa Yupanqui (Héctor Roberto Chavero), of rural origin and disposition, re-created most of the Creole repertory and sang his own deeply poetical and at times political messages, for which he was imprisoned. Other musicians from the provinces, such as the seminal groups Los Hermanos Abalos, Los Chalchaleros, Los Fronterizos, and the soloists Eduardo Falú, Ramón Ayala, Ariel Ramírez (notable for his zambas and Creole Mass), Gustavo Leguizamón, Suma Paz, Jorge Cafrune, charango player Jaime Torres and Mercedes Sosa, are examples of this period. The 1960s and 70s were prolific years in terms of aesthetic experimentation, with zamba, chacareras, cuecas, bailecitos, vidalas, milongas, estilos etc. popularized by hundreds of non-professional groups and solo vocalists, their work stimulating the creation of hugely popular national folk festivals. The 1980s saw the emergence of new composers, but on the whole folk music was being overtaken by the success of rock nacional.
While the folklore boom subsided, rock nacional, a social and musical movement, was developing. From the beginning, Argentine rock was a fusion of different musical styles, related in different ways to pop and jazz, with an underlying Argentine sensibility. Argentine, Latin American, North American country and folk music, heavy metal, reggae, nueva canción, Brazilian bossa nova, tango and, above all, rock and roll all had an influence on it. The initial important phase was between 1965 and 1970 when the pioneers included musicians Litto Nebbia and Luis Alberto Spinetta. In 1970–75 new groups and soloists with different characteristics and messages emerged. Rock changed again during the military period 1975–81: orchestrations and harmonies became more complex. Serú Girán became one of the most important groups, its leader, Charly García, favouring lyrics dealing with social issues, their message enhanced by accompanying music. The playing of electronic instruments developed beyond the experimental stage. The climax of a national rock boom came in 1982, as a result of the total censorship of songs in English by the military government due to the war in the South Atlantic with the United Kingdom. García, Nebbia, León Gieco and Spinetta consolidated their position on the music scene, and new artists such as Fito Páez, Juan Carlos Baglietto and Adrián Abonizio emerged. Rock nacional had great significance during this time for many young people: during a period of great political repression and when young male conscripts were being sent off to fight in the war, many lyrics were opposed to the government position. Some musicians still gravitated towards tango and folk music. More recently bands have tended to follow and adapt imported models such as pop, reggae, ska, techno etc., with some composers and performers of fusion music more difficult to classify.
The cuarteto emerged in the province of Córdoba in 1943. It moved beyond its borders during the 1980s when it became the taste of the popular dance halls of Buenos Aires and its suburbs. While it owes its origin and name to the music of the Cuarteto Leo (voice, piano, accordion and violin), it later acquired the status of a musical genre, with the development of broader definitions and different performance styles. The characteristics of cuarteto are the predominance of a solo singer, binary rhythm, a rigid and schematic rhythmic-harmonic structure and usually a minor mode. It was spurned for many decades because it was considered ‘common’, although paradoxically it has recently acquired a certain snob value among middle and upper classes.
The bailanta, a dance and also the term used for the Buenos Aires dance halls where migrants from the provinces met to dance, went through a similar process to the cuarteto. It is one of the most significant phenomena of the record industry in terms of sales. At its highpoint, during the period 1989–92, approximately 200 groups dedicated themselves to playing this type of Latin American ‘tropical music’. The preferred genres were the cumbia (Colombia), the guaracha (Cuba), the merengue (Dominican Republic) and the Argentine cuarteto.
and other resources
G. Fúrlong: Músicos argentinos durante la dominación hispánica (Buenos Aires, 1945)
A.T. Luper: The Music of Argentina (Washington DC, 1953)
F.C. Lange: ‘La música eclesiástica argentina en el período de la dominación hispánica: una investigación’, Revista de estudios musicales, v (1954), 17–171
F.C. Lange: La música eclesiástica en Córdoba durante la dominación hispánica (Córdoba, 1956)
M.G. Acevedo: La música argentina durante el periodo de la organización nacional (Buenos Aires, 1961)
V. Gesualdo: Historia de la música en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1961)
G. Chase: A Guide to the Music of Latin America (Washington DC, 1962)
H. Dianda: Música en la Argentina de hoy (Buenos Aires, 1966)
H. Otero: Música y músicos de Mendoza (Buenos Aires, 1970)
R. Arizaga: Enciclopedia de la música argentina (Buenos Aires, 1971)
N. Echeverría: El arte lírico en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1979)
F.C. Lange: ‘La música culta en el período hispano’, Historia general del arte en la Argentina (1983), 249–333
R. García Morillo: Estudios sobre música Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1984)
J.M. Veniard: Los García, los Mansilla y la música (Buenos Aires, 1986)
J.M. Veniard: La música nacional Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1986)
V. Gesualdo: La música en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1988)
R. Arizaga and P. Camps: Historia de la música en la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1990)
V.R. Lynch: Cancionero Bonaerense (Buenos Aires, 1883/R)
E. Fischer: ‘Patagonische Musik’, Anthropos, iii (1908), 941–51
R. Lehmann-Nitsche: ‘Patagonische Gesänge und Musikbogen’, Anthropos, iii (1908), 916–40
M. Gusinde: Feuer Indianer (Mödling, 1931)
C. Vega: Panorama de la música popular argentina (Buenos Aires, 1944)
C. Vega: Los instrumentos aborígenes y criollos de la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1946)
E.M. von Hornbostel: ‘The Music of the Fuegians’, Ethnos, xiii (1948), 61–102
I. Aretz: El folklore musical argentino (Buenos Aires, 1952)
C. Vega: Las danzas populares argentinas (Buenos Aires, 1952)
I. Aretz: Costumbres tradicionales argentinas (Buenos Aires, 1954)
J.H. Steward, ed.: Handbook of South American Indians (New York, 1963)
C. Vega: Las canciones folklóricas de la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1965)
Las canciones folklóricas de la Argentina/Antología, ed. Instituto Nacional de Musicología (Buenos Aires, 1969) [incl. discs]
J. Novati: ‘Las expresiones musicales de los Selk’nam’, Runa, xii (1969–70), 393–406
C.E. Robertson-DeCarbo: ‘Tayil as Category and Communication among the Argentine Mapuche: a Methodological Suggestion’, YIFMC, viii (1976), 35–52
L. Sierra: Historia de la orquesta típica (Buenos Aires, 1976)
I. Ruiz: ‘Aproximación a la relación canto-poder en el contexto de los procesos iniciáticos de las culturas indígenas del Chaco central’, Scripta ethnologica, v/2 (1978–9), 157–69
E.S. Miller: Los tobas argentinos: armonía y disonancia en una sociedad (Mexico City, 1979)
C.E. Robertson: ‘Pulling the Ancestors: Performance Practice and Praxis in Mapuche Ordering’, EthM, xxiii (1979), 395–416
J. Novati and others: Antología del tango rioplatense (Buenos Aires, 1980) [incl. discs]
I. Ruiz and others: Instrumentos musicales etnográficos y folklóricos de la Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1980/R, 2/1993)
I. Ruiz: ‘La ceremonia Ñemongaraí de los Mbïá de la provincia de Misiones’, Temas de etnomusicología, i (1984), 45–102
I. Ruiz: ‘Etnomusicología’, Evolución de las ciencias en la República Argentina, ed. Sociedad Científica Argentina, xi: Antropología (Buenos Aires, 1985), 179–210
I. Ruiz: ‘Los instrumentos musicales de los indígenas del Chaco central’, Revista del Instituto de Investigación Musicológica Carlos Vega, vi (1985), 35–78
A. Chapman: Los Selk’nam: la vida de los onas (Buenos Aires, 1986)
O. Marzullo and P. Muñoz: El rock en la Argentina: la historia y sus protagonistas (Buenos Aires, 1986)
I. Ruiz and G.V. Huseby: ‘Pervivencia del rabel europeo entre los Mbïá de Misiones (Argentina)’, Temas de etnomusicología, ii (1986), 67–97
P. Vila: ‘Argentina’s Rock Nacional: the Struggle for Meaning’, Latin American Music Review, x/1 (1989), 1–28
L. Waisman: ‘Tradición, innovación e ideología en el cuarteto cordobés’, Texto y contexto en la investigación musicologica: Buenos Aires 1996, 123–34
I. Ruiz and others: ‘Argentina’; A. Cragnolini: ‘Bailanta’; L. Waisman: ‘Cuarteto’, Diccionario de la música española e hispanoamericana (Madrid, 1999)
Folklore musical y música folklórica argentina, Fondo Nacional de las Artes QF 3000–3005 (1966–7) [incl. notes]
Música etnográfica mataco-chorote, coll. J. Novati and I. Ruiz, Qualiton QF 3008 (1972) [incl. notes by J. Novati and I. Ruiz]
Selk’nam Chants of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, Folkways FE 4176 (1972) [incl. notes by A. Chapman]
Selk’nam Chants of Tierra del Fuego, Argentina: ii, Folkways FE 4179 (1977) [incl. notes by A. Chapman]
Música y cosmovisión wichí, videotape dir. I. Ruiz and M.A. García, Instituto Nacional de Musicología y Telescuela Técnica (Buenos Aires, 1996)