La invención de una música nacional. El gaucho y la pampa en las composiciones de Williams y Berutti

Abstract

The negative perception of the gaucho and the pampas as symbols of the barbaric will be reversed slowly at the end of the XIXth century, in the face of the negative effects of immigration. The 1890 crisis, which put faith in the endless liberal progress of the “men of the '80s” to the test, will be blamed not only on capitalism but mainly on the masses of immigrants. When the aristocracy of Buenos Aires realizes that immigration is not the civilizing factor it was supposed to be, they will turn to the original inhabitant of the pampas. The gaucho will go from undesirable and dangerous to the bearer of the true virtues of the country. That is also why in the two decades that go from the crisis to the Centennial we can see the invention of the gaucho as a symbol of the national identity. “The Deserted Shack” from Alberto Williams, and the opera Pampa from Arturo Berutti are evidence of this phenomenon.