The Latin American Music Center announces a lecture by
DEBORAH SCHWARTZ-KATES
Associate Professor of Musicology
University of Kansas
The Film Music of Alberto Ginastera: A (Sneak) Preview of the Sources
and Their Significance
Wednesday, July 27, 4:30pm, Sweeney Hall
Although contemporary music scholars consider Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983) one of the most eloquent musical spokesmen of the Americas, they have yet to explore fundamental aspects of his creative career. One such unfamiliar subject involves the composer's eleven film scores, which have received scant critical attention in the scholarly literature. These motion pictures remain largely unknown since the visual film footage resides in Buenos Aires and the music manuscripts are housed at the Paul Sacher Stiftung in Basel, Switzerland, where Ginastera bequeathed his musical legacy.
Through a series of persistent on-site investigations and long-term collaborations with Argentine cultural and academic institutions, Professor Schwartz-Kates obtained research copies of ten out of the eleven films under investigation. She then contacted the Paul Sacher Stiftung and successfully reconstructed the sources, bringing film and score back together again. This lecture presents the preliminary results of her research, illustrated with selected excerpts from Ginastera's motion picture production. It suggests that studying the film music not only fills in a map of the composer's uncharted territory, but serves as a site for exploring new critical issues in Ginastera scholarship.
Deborah Schwartz-Kates is an Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Kansas. She earned her master's degree from Indiana University under the direction of Professor Juan Orrego-Salas, and she completed her doctorate at the University of Texas, where she studied with Gerard Béhague. Her interests focus on post-colonial Latin American art music, ethnomusicology, national identity, and film music.
Professor Schwartz-Kates has authored the article on Alberto Ginastera in the revised edition of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians . Her work has also been published in The Musical Quarterly , Die Musik in Geschichte und Gegenwart , The New Grove Dictionary of Opera , The Yearbook for Traditional Music , The Latin American Music Review , and ECHO: A Music-Centered Journal . Currently, she is under contract for her forthcoming book, Alberto Ginastera: A Guide to Research ; she also has a second book manuscript in preparation.
Professor Schwartz-Kates has received grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Paul Sacher Foundation. During the fall 2004 semester, she conducted research on Ginastera's film music in Basel, Switzerland, where the composer's manuscripts are stored.
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