The Film Music of Argentinian Composer Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983)
FAIN: FA-58364-15
Deborah Schwartz-Kates
University of Miami (Coral Gables, FL 33146-2919)
This study focuses on the unexplored cinematic contribution of a leading Argentine composer who elaborated music for 11 full-length motion pictures. These films earned the composer prestigious awards and exemplified his lifelong concern for integrating scenic action, narrative, and music. Beyond revealing a fresh musical repertoire that casts a canonical Latin American composer in a new light, the film scores illuminate aesthetic connections that interlinked creative figures throughout the Americas. They open a window into the relationship that Ginastera shared with the elder US musical statesman, Aaron Copland, and they reveal the way that these composers constructed parallel images of American landscapes. This topic contributes to a dynamic area of contemporary music scholarship that addresses inter-cultural exchanges of ideas, aesthetics, and values throughout the Americas. The proposed project thus makes a potentially good fit for the NEH Bridging Cultures initiative.