Danza Final (arr Longfield)

From Wind Repertory Project
Alberto Ginastera

Alberto Ginastera (trans. Robert Longfield)


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Subtitle: From Estancia


General Info

Year: 1941 / 2009
Duration: c. 2:25
Difficulty: III (see Ratings for explanation)
Original Medium: Orchestra
Publisher: Boosey & Hawkes
Cost: Score and Parts (print) - $65.00; (digital) - $65.00   |   Score Only (print) - $7.50


Instrumentation

Full Score
C Piccolo
Flute I-II
Oboe
Bassoon
B-flat Soprano Clarinet I-II-III
B-flat Bass Clarinet
E-flat Alto Saxophone I-II
B-flat Tenor Saxophone
E-flat Baritone Saxophone
B-flat Trumpet I-II-III
Horn in F I-II
Trombone I-II
Euphonium
Tuba
Piano
Timpani
Percussion I-II-III

(percussion detail desired)


Errata

None discovered thus far.


Program Notes

An estancia is a large Argentinian cattle ranch. In his ballet, Alberto Ginastera depicts the hustle and bustle of a busy day on an estancia. The story is centered around a love triangle between a city boy who falls in love with a beautiful ranch girl. Unfortunately, she dismisses him as unworthy in comparison to the other more masculine gauchos (horsemen) who work on her father’s estancia. However, the city boy follows her to the ranch, determined to prove himself.

A malambo is a quick and vigorous Argentinean folk dance in which male dancers compete to demonstrate their agility and machismo. The dance itself is a series of “anything you can do, I can do better” moments after which the “winner” is the last man standing. In the final movement of Estancia, Ginastera utilizes the malabo to present the city boy competing with the gauchos for the heart of his beloved ranch girl.

- Program Note by the Westlake High School Wind Ensemble concert program, 21 December 2013


The first half alternates between deranged tick-tock material used as introduction and transitions and a nervous dance melody. The second half is a driving, percussion-jangled toccata, sometimes shrill but always compelling through its propulsive perpetual motion.

- Program Note from publisher


Estancia, (Argentine Spanish: “Ranch”) is an orchestral suite and one-act ballet by Argentine composer Alberto Ginastera that, through its references to gaucho literature, rural folk dances, and urban concert music, evokes images of the diverse landscape of the composer’s homeland. The work premiered in 1943 in its four-movement orchestral form and in 1952 as a ballet.

The Estancia ballet, somewhat more than half an hour in length, tells the story of a city boy in love with a rancher’s daughter. At first, the love affair is one-sided, as the girl finds the boy spineless, at least in comparison with the intrepid gauchos. By the final scene, however, the hero has won the girl’s heart by outdancing the gauchos in a traditional contest on their own terrain.

The ballet was commissioned in 1941 by American dance impresario Lincoln Kirstein for the troupe American Ballet Caravan. The work was to have been choreographed by George Balanchine, but the dance company disbanded in 1942, before it was able to perform the piece. Estancia did not premiere as a ballet until after World War II. In the interim, Ginastera extracted four dances from the score — Los trabajadores agricolas (“The Farm Workers”), Danza del trigo (“Wheat Dance”), Los peones de hacienda (“The Cattlemen”), and Danza Final ("Malambo") — for use as a concert suite. Estancia is most often heard in its orchestral version, and the concluding movement, inspired by the flamboyant malambo dance of the Argentine gauchos, has become one of Ginastera’s most popular works.

- Program Note from Encyclopaedia Britannica


Media


State Ratings

None discovered thus far.


Performances

To submit a performance please join The Wind Repertory Project


Works for Winds by This Composer


Resources

  • Estancia, Encyclopaedia Britannica Accessed 2 March 2016
  • Ginastera, A.; Longfield, R. (2008). Danza Final from Estancia [score]. Boosey & Hawkes: [Oceanside, N.Y.]
  • Smith, Norman E. (2002). Program Notes for Band. Chicago: GIA Publications. pp. 232.