Allison Weiss

Spanning nearly six decades, the life of Carlos López Buchardo (12 October 1881 – 21 April 1948) coincided almost perfectly with the rise and decline of Argentine musical nationalism. Composer of piano, vocal, and orchestral works, his innovation of an uniquely-Argentine musical idiom was most clearly demonstrated in the genre of song. His entire output of songs for voice and piano is catalogued with information about their text, dates of composition, publishers, vocal ranges, and performance history. Where possible, each catalog entry includes a literal translation. Of the 62 songs attributed to López Buchardo, 45 are discussed in greater detail in chapters that address the following: the songs in French and Italian, the songs with folk music origins, the songs based on poems of love and betrayal, the songs written for and about children, and the songs reflective of his civic and administrative duties. One chapter is devoted to the lost songs and other vocal works and the final chapter addresses aspects of Lopez Buchardo’s musical style.

The life of Julián Aguirre (b. October 12, 1868, Buenos Aires; d. August 13, 1924, Buenos Aires) coincided almost perfectly with the gradual rise of a project, sponsored by upper class intellectuals and politicians, to strengthen cultural institutions and consolidate Argentina’s cultural identity in the face of sweeping economic, demographic, and political change. Best known for his piano and orchestral works, Aguirre’s innovation of a “uniquely-Argentine” musical idiom was also recognized in the genre of song. In this thesis, I explore how certain frameworks used in translation studies can help describe what I view as the principal work of Aguirre as composer: the innovation of strategies to translate “source texts” (i.e. musical genres such the art song, musical structures found in folk music, emotional themes found in literature and poetry, visual images from the countryside) into “target texts” (i.e. Argentine art songs for voice and piano) that could be understood by concert-going audiences, in other words, to mediate culture in service of a communicative act, which increasingly served the nation. Translation theories of action and adaption combined with the power of nationalized emotional themes help to explain how cultural agents (i.e. commissioner, composer, performer, listener, scholar, publisher) make choices that demonstrate their beliefs about the acquisition of power, both expressive and social, through music. Accordingly, my analyses focus on the qualities of Aguirre’s songs that were most easily decoded by local listeners as well as the textual, musical, and emotive characteristics that imbued them with an elusive but recognizable “spirit of originality”.