Carlos Guastavino (born 5 April 1912 in Santa Fe, Argentina; died 28 October 2000 in the same city) was one of the most significant Argentine composers of the twentieth century. Alongside Alberto Ginastera, he is regarded as the foremost representative of Argentine art music of his generation, though — unlike Ginastera — he pursued a decidedly traditional, melodically driven compositional style and remained largely unaffected by the international avant-garde.
Life and Training
Guastavino received his first piano lessons in Santa Fe from Esperanza Lothringer and Dominga Iaffei. After initially beginning studies in chemical engineering, he was awarded a scholarship in 1938 to attend the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires, where he continued his piano studies under Germán de Elizalde and additionally took composition lessons with Athos Palma.
During the 1940s, Guastavino achieved his first significant recognition, notably through the ballet Fue una vez (1942), commissioned by Colonel W. de Basil for his Ballets Russes and premiered at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires (the score is now considered lost). His Suite Argentina likewise attracted international attention and was performed by Isabel López’s Spanish ballet company in London, Paris, Barcelona, and Havana.
Despite occasional criticism from the press and avant-garde colleagues for being “old-fashioned,” Guastavino enjoyed enormous popularity among audiences and performers throughout his life. He was able to live on royalties from his works, in part through the Argentine performing-rights organization SADAIC. He spent his final years back in his native Santa Fe, or in nearby San José del Rincón, where he also died.
Compositional Output in Overview
Guastavino’s extensive body of work — he himself spoke of over 400 compositions — comprises primarily piano pieces, art songs (canciones), chamber music, choral works, and a small number of orchestral compositions. Central to his piano output are the Diez Cantilenas Argentinas (composed 1953–1958), alongside the Piano Sonata in C-sharp minor (1947) and the early character pieces Bailecito and Gato (both 1940).
The Guitar Works
Although Guastavino himself was not a guitarist, his compositions for the instrument occupy a distinctive and highly regarded place within his output:
- Three Guitar Sonatas (composed between 1967 and 1973) form the core of his original guitar repertoire. Sonata No. 1 (1967) is dedicated to his brother José Amadeo, who died suddenly while the first movement was being composed — a circumstance that accounts for the profound sorrow of its Andante movement.
- Jeromita Linares (1965), for guitar and string quartet, is among his best-known chamber works. Its title refers to an elderly Spanish-descended neighbor from Guastavino’s childhood in Santa Fe, from whom he used to buy eggs as a boy; the piece itself, however, carries no programmatic reference to her character — the composer simply liked the sound of the name. The work belongs to a larger collection titled Las Presencias (“The Presences,” or characters), which had originally been planned as a continuation of the Cantilenas series but was published under a new title at the publisher’s request.
- Several pieces originally composed for piano were arranged for guitar with the composer’s approval, including the two Cantilenas Santa Fe Antigua and Santa Fe para llorar (both named after his birthplace) and the Bailecito. The three Cantos Populares for violin and guitar, arranged by María Isabel Siewers, likewise received Guastavino’s sanction.
These works today form part of the standard repertoire for numerous classical guitarists and have been documented, among others, in a widely acclaimed two-volume Naxos recording (“Guitar Music of Argentina”) performed by Victor Villadangos.
Significance
Guastavino is regarded in Argentina as one of the most beloved art-music composers of all time, whereas internationally — apart from singers specializing in Latin American repertoire and classical guitarists — he long remained comparatively little known. In recent decades, however, international interest in his work, particularly his songs and guitar compositions, has grown noticeably.
