Alberto Ginastera’s first studies were at the music conservatory in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he was born. He came in 1945 to the United States where he studied with the noted American composer Aaron Copland. Ginastera’s works encompass all genres including concerti, works for solo piano, organ, chorus, chamber music, opera, and orchestra. Like Copland, Ginastera used national folk music, specifically Argentinean folk themes, as the basis for many his works. In his early music, the folk quotations were more or less literal, but as his style progressed the folk material became more and more abstract. In addition to his work as a composer, Ginastera was also an essential figure in the co-founding of the League of Composers that represented the International Society of Contemporary Music, an organization devoted to the performance and appreciation of new music.

Ginastera’s String Quartet No.1 is in four movements, lasting approximately twenty minutes. The first movement is marked Allegro violento ed agitato, and opens with a striking statement by all four instruments bowed and plucked in unison. It is characterized by an insistent eighth-note motor in combination with sustained melodic material. The time signature and beat patterns alternate throughout, creating an off-kilter yet driving feeling. In the second movement, labeled Vivacissimo, the motor feeling returns. However, Ginastera here explores different colors and textures through tremolos, glissandi, plucking, dove-tailing between the instruments and other bowing techniques. The third movement, Calmo e Poetico, is the only slow movement of the work. It begins with ascending notes in the cello, viola, and second violin, before the first violin enters with a sustained melody. The ascending notes return multiple times throughout the movement in different fashions, and Ginastera again shows his ability to create atmosphere and different colors by combining harmonics and glissandi to create an ethereal effect. The fourth and final movement is again quite fast and is permeated by the rustic sound of open strings in all four voices with rhythm again moving between multiple time signatures. Listen for the middle section in which the four players turn to plucking, creating a striking change in texture.

Program Notes are by Kyle Blaha, a candidate for the Doctor of Musical Arts Degree at The Juilliard School and faculty member in the Juilliard Pre-College and Evening Division.