Brazilian Piano Sonatas: A Heated Debate during the Cold War

Abstract

The “Piano Sonata” lecture demonstrates and discusses both the persistence of neoclassical formal paradigms as well as the diversity of compositional and instrumental approaches utilized in Latin American Piano Sonatas during the twentieth century, such as found in the works of Argentineans José María Castro, Alberto Ginastera, Carlos Guastavino and Roberto G. Morillo; Brazilians Lorenzo Fernândez, Francisco Mignone, Camargo Guarnieri, Claudio Santoro, Edino Krieger, Breno Blauth, Esther Scliar and Marlos Nobre; the Chilean Juan Orrego-Salas; the Mexicans Rodolfo Halffter and Carlos R. Chávez. This lecture introduces a crucial topic of discussion: influences, confluences, dialogues and appropriations of models as practiced by Latin American composers in relation to their American and European counterparts.