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Chapter 16 - Music as Sonic Literature

from Part II - Critical Inroads

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2024

Alejandra Laera
Affiliation:
University of Buenos Aires
Mónica Szurmuk
Affiliation:
Universidad Nacional de San Martín /National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina
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Summary

This chapter makes a case for integrating some musical narratives – both verbal and audiovisual – into the field of Argentine literature. After considering the case of Luis Alberto Spinetta’s 1973 “Cantata de puentes amarillos,” a song generally valued as a poetic achievement, it highlights the historical role of five iconic music works: the Himno Nacional, the national anthem written in 1813 by Vicente López and Blas Parera, which inaugurated a state ritual based on the alleged epic value of personal sacrifice; “Mi Noche Triste,” a tango recorded by Carlos Gardel in 1917, which describes a beloved woman’s absence from the perspective of a suffering male narrator, thus nourishing a topos of gender relations in popular culture; Estancia, a classical ballet composed by Alberto Ginastera in 1941, which displays the nationalist myth of Argentina’s rural authenticity; “Manuelita la Tortuga,” a children’s song by María Elena Walsh, the story of a female turtle who travels to Paris in order to be made beautiful; and Charly García’s “No bombardeen Buenos Aires,” a rock song that in June 1982 proposed a critical view of the Malvinas/Falklands War, contributing to the negative memory of the dictatorship of 1976–83.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

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References

Works Cited

Danius, Sara. “Why Has Bob Dylan Been Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature?” Interview, The Swedish Academy, 2016, www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2016/prize-announcement/.Google Scholar
Demare, Lucas dir. Mi noche triste. Mapol Film, Buenos Aires, 1952.Google Scholar
Dylan, Bob. “Nobel Lecture,” June 5, 2017. Nobel Prize Outreach, https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/literature/2016/dylan/lecture/.Google Scholar
Favoretto, Mara. Charly en el país de las alegorías: Un viaje por las letras de Charly García. Buenos Aires: Gourmet Musical, 2014.Google Scholar
Hernández, José. El gaucho Martín Fierro. Fourteenth edition. Buenos Aires: Martín Biedma, 1894.Google Scholar
La lira argentina o Colección de las piezas poéticas dadas a luz en Buenos Aires durante la guerra de su independencia (1824), ed. Barcia, Pedro Luis. Buenos Aires: Academia Argentina de Letras, 1982.Google Scholar
Lugones, Leopoldo. El Payador. Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 2012.Google Scholar
Sartre, Jean-Paul. What is Literature? Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Triunvirato. “Comunicación del 12 de mayo 1813.” Archivo General de la Nación, Buenos Aires.Google Scholar

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  • Music as Sonic Literature
  • Edited by Alejandra Laera, University of Buenos Aires, Mónica Szurmuk, Universidad Nacional de San Martín /National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina
  • Book: A History of Argentine Literature
  • Online publication: 09 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283069.017
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  • Music as Sonic Literature
  • Edited by Alejandra Laera, University of Buenos Aires, Mónica Szurmuk, Universidad Nacional de San Martín /National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina
  • Book: A History of Argentine Literature
  • Online publication: 09 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283069.017
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Music as Sonic Literature
  • Edited by Alejandra Laera, University of Buenos Aires, Mónica Szurmuk, Universidad Nacional de San Martín /National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Argentina
  • Book: A History of Argentine Literature
  • Online publication: 09 May 2024
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009283069.017
Available formats
×