Carlos Guastavino - Las Puertas de la Mañana (Canciones Argentinas)

Carlos Guastavino (1912-2000)

Las Puertas de la Mañana

Ulises Espaillat, tenor
 Pablo Zinger, piano




When I read poetry that touches me,I become very agitated, my whole body contorts, I vibrate totally, and tears appear in my eyes. It's very strong! I then take the manuscript paper and write the notes. The melody comes easily; everything is very quick; I cannot stop...it's as if I were possessed; suddenly, when I become aware that I found what I wanted, I stand, make gestures, walk, go in circles, laugh or cry, and give thanks to God. The music comes by itself. I am not responsible: one part of my brain has music.

--Carlos Guastavino, in conversation with Carlos Vilo

The songs of Guastavino were brought back home with him by Frederick Fuller in the 1940s but have been slow to gain general recognition in this country despite the ready appeal of melody and rhythm. Perhaps that has been part of the difficulty. They have tunes that can be remembered and hummed, verse structure with beginning and end, and sentiments that are often frankly nostalgic. They are not lacking in expressive delicacy, but when, as in the first of the Cuatro Canciones Coloniales, ''After the rain'', the subject invites some kind of Debussian impressionism in the piano part, the melodic line for the voice remains far closer to Italian song than to French. In the post-war years such things would have been labelled reactionary. By this time the label has washed off and we can enjoy the songs for what they are.

They are, for instance, good songs for singing. The writing for voice is that of a composer who sings in imagination as he writes, and so it lies comfortably, encouraging expressiveness without recourse to modernist extremes of vocal range or anti-vocal intervals and dynamics. Ulises Espaillat, a tenor from the Dominican Republic, takes due advantage: we hear a voice which can spend quite a high proportion of the time singing pleasantly at a mezzo forte in the upper-middle register where his tone is at its most attractive. At a forte as in the last song (''My throat'') of the Siete Canciones a rather dry quality comes into play. He is not entirely steady either (uneven vibrations, for instance, in both of the main title-words of La rosa y el sauce). A finer tone is brought to the songs, or to the eight included in his recital by Raul Gimenez (Nimbus (CD) NI5107). Yet Espaillat has the heart of them in his system. He catches the dreamy, midday atmosphere of Cita, the affectionate longing of Pueblito, mi pueblo and makes a lovely effect in that most haunting of songs, Se equivico la paloma. He is well accompanied by Pablo Zinger, and the recorded sound is clear and well-balanced.'

-- Gramophone (1/1994)

 Track List

Cuatro Canciones Argentinas
1. Desde que te conocí 1:41
2. Viniedo de Chilecito 1:56
3. En los surcos del amor 2:38
4. Mi garganta 0:59

Cuatro Canciones Coloniales (León Benarós
5. Cuando acaba de llover 3:19
6. Préstame tu pañuelito 2:38
7. Ya me voy a retirar 3:42
8. Las puertas de la mañana 2:59

9. Piececitos (Gabriela Mistral) 2:51
10. Cita (Lorenzo Varela) 2:55
11. Se equivocó la paloma (Rafael Alberi) 2:29

Siete Canciones (Rafael Alberti)
12. Jardín de amores 2:21
13. ¡A volar! 1:26
14. Nana del niño malo 1:28
15. La novia 1:07
16. Geografía física 2:17
17. ¡Al puente de la golondrina! 2:05
18. Elegía 3:38

19. La rosa y el sauce (Francisco Silva) 2:40
20. Pueblito, mi pueblo (Francisco Silva) 3:02

Total: 49:09

Carlos Guastavino was born in Santa Fe Province, Argentina. He studied music in Santa Fe with Esperanza Lothringer and Dominga Iaffei, and in Buenos Aires with Athos Palma. A talented pianist, he performed his piano works in London in 1947, 1948, and 1949, invited by the BBC, and as a recipient of a scholarship from the British Council. During these years, the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiered the orchestral version of his Tres Romances Argentinos, under the baton of Walter Goehr. Later, in 1956, Guastavino toured the USSR and China, performing his pieces for voice and piano.

One of the foremost Argentine composers of the 20th century, his production amounted to over 500 works, most of them songs for piano and voice, many still unpublished. His style was quite conservative, always tonal and lusciously romantic. His compositions were clearly influenced by Argentine folk music. His reputation was based almost entirely on his songs, and Guastavino has sometimes been called "the Schubert of the Pampas." Some of his songs, for example Pueblito, mi pueblo, La rosa y el sauce ("The Rose and the Willow") and Se equivocó la paloma ("The Dove"), became national favorites. Unlike most other composers, at any time or place, Guastavino earned enough from his royalties and performing rights that he really had little need for other income.

Guastavino's musical style marked a stark contrast with the works of his 20th-century Argentine contemporaries such as Alberto Ginastera and reveals the influence of European composers such as Albéniz, Granados, Rachmaninoff, Chabrier, Falla, Debussy, and Ravel, but also is clearly inherited from the luminaries of 19th-century Argentine nationalist composers, such as Alberto Williams, Ernesto Drangosch, Francisco Hargreaves, Eduardo García Mansilla and Julián Aguirre. Aguirre’s delicate and intimate piano writing is an especially evident influence on Guastavino. Guastavino's stylistic isolation from the modernist and avant-garde movements going on around him, and the self-consciously nationalist content of his songs made him a model for Argentine popular and folk musicians in the 1960s.

Guastavino published more than a hundred and fifty songs for voice and piano, numerous piano solo pieces, choral works, school songs, and chamber music. The poets whose works he set to music included Rafael Alberty, Leon Benaros, Hamlet Lima Quintana, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, and Jorge Luis Borges, among others. A small number of his songs are settings of his own texts. His works for orchestra included Divertissement; fue una vez, commissioned by Colonel de Basil for his original Ballet Russe and premiered at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires, in 1942; and Suite Argentina which was performed in London, Paris, Barcelona, and Havana by the Ballet Español of Isabel Lopez. He also wrote three Sonatas for guitar.

Guastavino received important awards and recognition, such as the Municipal Prize from the city of Buenos Aires for his chamber songs, a prize from the Justice Ministry of Argentina, Prize of the Cultural Commission of Santa Fe Province for his songs, “Vosotras” magazine Prize for his “Canción de Navidad”, and a Prize from the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Music Council as recognition of his outstanding creative activity.

Many famous performers, such as Teresa Berganza, Martha Argerich, Gidon Kremer, José Carreras, Kiri Te Kanawa, Patricia Caicedo, Bernarda Fink, Jorge Chaminé, Agathe Martel, and Karina Gauvin, have included works of Guastavino on their programs.