Música Del Altiplano: The Recording and Pedagogical Assessment of Two Andean Solo Cello Works for the Sphinx Catalog

Abstract

This study comprises a musical analysis of Puneña No. 2 by Alberto Ginastera and Suite I by Cesar Zambrano, two Andean works included in the Sphinx Catalog of Latin American Cello Works. This critical essay highlights foundational elements helpful for performers’ stylistic understanding of these works. Specifically, the project centers on the identification and explanation of folk elements found in both pieces to aid cellists, teachers, and audiences to be more inclusive in playing, teaching, and discussing traditionally underrepresented music. This is also a project about contrasts. These two Andean pieces, although both nationalist, demonstrate different ways of expressing musical nationalism. Most noticeably, these works use different musical languages: atonal and tonal. This contrast is further illustrated in technical terms as rather different techniques are needed to perform each work. There are further contrasts: one work is by a past composer and the other of a living composer; and, one represents the music of the southern-central Andean Altiplano while the other represents the northern Andean Altiplano. However, both are written for solo cello. As such, these contrasting works demonstrate examples of the Latin American solo cello repertoire's heterogeneous richness.