Argentina, Fascism & Music

ART MUSIC AND POLITICS BETWEEN 1930 AND 1945

From the political national context and international events that were significant to this period, there are several ideas to be explored, including the study of the characters positioning in the local cultural sphere and the insertions of prominent composers, especially, the members of Grupo Renovacion (Renovation Group). From these alliances and divergencies, there are inferred conceptual and ideological affinities that support and influence aesthetic choices. It is also important to reflect on the impact of the social and political scopes on this cultural phenomenon, especially during the 30s, when the debate over nationalism started to be re-formulated.

There is a lack of scholarly musicological study in politics and art music in Argentina, this is not necessarily true in the popular sphere, where most artists had an explicit political view; Pugliese, Yupanqui, and Discepolo are examples of composers representing this idea. On the other hand, the ‘educated’ composers appear to be interpellated by politics, or more restrained in openly exposing different ideological choices, at least during the 30s to the 50s. In this case, it would be hard to individualize music from its participation in, what Walter Benjamin called the ‘aestheticization of politics’; nor in the idea of the double function of music by Carl Dalhaus (1978)[1], in its functional efficiency or in the internationalization of individual’s expressivity; neither in the composers as executants of politic propaganda, as Villa-Lobos and Chavez did, each in his way and circumstance. This case, of examining the relationships between music and politics, requires a more intense effort from the documentation and interpretation standpoint, as well as finding a path to bring indirect ideas to more tangible facts. I hope to spark a discussion in this regard.

THE MATRIX OF SUR[2] AND THE FORMATION OF THE ARGENTINEAN CULTURAL FIELD IN THE 20S AND 30S

The magazine Sur (south), directed by Victoria Ocampo, represents one of the most significant intellectual enterprises of the aesthetic and intellectual modernity in Latin America during the 30s. The connections of some of the members of Grupo Renovacion (group renovation), founded in 1929 by young composers who would open space to modernity in Argentinean music, with this important magazine, is an indication of the intellectual affinities, and the alliances in the intellectual field, which was being formed during the decades of the 20s and 30s.

So, Victoria Ocampo brings her foreign illustrious guests to the Castro brother’s string quartet concerts[3]. These visits, which included Keyserling and Waldo Frank, to Tucuman, could be explained by the intervention of Luis Gianneo, a member of Grupo Renovacion, who was resident in this city between 1923 and 1943[4].

Juan Jose Castro, Juan Carlos Paz, and even Ginastera wrote in Sur, some articles, and chronicles about the musical life in Buenos Aires. Victoria Ocampo dedicated articles to Castro in her Testimonios[5] (testimonies) and in Sur. Some members of the Sur circle participated in the meetings of Amigos del Arte (art friends), an entity founded in 1924 by Elena Sansinena de Elizalde, which functioned in the installations of the Van Riel gallery, where the Grupo Renovacion developed most of their activity too[6]. Pettoruti, of the initiators of the, was considered in the 20s a plastic vanguard, made expositions at this gallery, and his works were reproduced in the Sur and designed the logo for the Grupo Renovacion. Enrique Bullrich, music critic and Stravinsky’s friend, participated in the magazine too, he wrote about Stravinsky in issue number 48, of 1938.

To a large extent through the intervention of Victoria Ocampo, Ernest Ansermet, a conductor who premiered important pieces of new music in Europe, traveled to Buenos Aires for many seasons during the 20s, to conduct the Asociacion del Profesorado Orquestal (association of orchestral faculty) Orchestra, and constituted a vital reference for the young generations of composers. He also was part of the group of collaborators at the beginning of Sur, and wrote, in its first two issues, two significant articles; one of them was titled ‘the problems of American composers’, which reflected the concrete possibilities of the American art and how it can transcend from the artificial stages to more local cultural ideas. This field of conceptual and aesthetic concerns was recurrently transited in composition and in music criticism in the following years.

It is also important to mention the musical interest of Victoria Ocampo, which was directed toward the music of her time. She listened to fragments of Pelleas et Melisande and the Chansons de Bilitis in Paris in 1908, she also attended the absolute premier of the Rite of Spring in 1913. She would also give lectures in New York (1931)[7] about Harlem and the discoveries of spirituals, as well as jazz. Victoria wrote the French text for the Sinfonia Biblica (1932) by Juan Jose Castro, who was her partner in the leadership of Colon Theater in 1933, she resigned soon after. She intervened as a narrator of Le Roi by Honegger in 1925, under de baton of Ansermet.

The first visit of Stravinsky to Buenos Aires, in 1936, constitutes an important point in the life of these groups. Victoria participated in Persephone, conducted by Stravinsky. She studied the piece with Francisco Amicarelli, an active pianist in the Grupo Renovacion concerts from its foundation until 1940. Castro conducted the Orchestra of Radio El Mundo, in one of the concerts in homage to Stravinsky, a program completed with works of the Russian composer, to which the composer reacted by sending an appreciation note to the director of La Nacion (the nation), for its publication; he also wrote greetings to Sur. The magazine published a recent Stravinsky’s text about Beethoven, which, would be part of his book on his life chronicles edited soon after[8].

The centrality of Stravinsky’s musical language is considered highly significant for modernity by the Grupo Renovacion. They seem to underestimate, maybe, and partially, because the tragic events that would impact the world soon after had not been triggered, Stravinsky’s explicit sympathy for the Italian regime[9]. Critics sensed this idea through public declarations and private comments done when he arrived in Buenos Aires. An example of this is an article published under the title “Stravinsky is an enemy of democracy”, where it is commented on his opposition to the soviet government and themed the fissures between the avant-garde tendencies in aesthetics and politics. On the other hand, La Nacion praised the literary quality of Gide’s text for Persephone, and it is even said to be in “the presence of a writer with such a spiritual aristocracy:”, despite his ideology, which has been widely controversial.

Furthermore, far from constituting a homogenous body, the figures of the Sur went through the historical and conceptual tensions of the time. Coming, in its essence, from the oligarchic levels of Buenos Aires, the group of magazine founders allowed, for the first time, a more open approach to different intellectual tendencies.

THE INTERNAL POLITICAL EVENTS

The Grupo Renovacion started its activities at the end of 1929. The first season of activities corresponded with the first of a series of coups in national history, September 6 of 1930, so the aesthetic vanguard corresponded with political recession. The decade of the 30s, also known as the infamous decade, with a succession of military and civil governments, was characterized by fraudulent elections, censorship, persecution of intellectuals, nationalistic right-wing ideologies, the strong influence of the catholic church, antisemitism, xenophobia, and decisive support to the Nazi model.

In the intellectual scheme, the tendency was to defend the democratic principles from either liberalism or an open leftist concept. Now, most of the members of Grupo Renovacion had individual opposing attitudes toward the regressive politics of the moment and generated dynamic alliances with other sides of the ideological spectrum of the moment.

One of the few documented events that confirm the position of these musicians is what occurred with Juan Jose Castro. After the revolution of the 4th of June in 1943; promoted by the fascist Grupo de Oficiales Unidos (Group of Officials United) which had Juan Peron as a member, a military dictatorship was established, this was characterized for being profoundly antipopular and begin the bases for the totalitarian regime, which led to the locking of political parties and universities activities, the establishment of obligatory religious teachings in the educational system, and more.

Castro signed a declaration in the representation of a group of intellectuals, against these political tendencies. The document demanded a fundamental solution based on the terms of democracy, legal international standards, and margin obedience to the constitution. Because of these declarations, Castro lost his public positions with Colon Theater and the National Conservatory of Music. In 1945, he was offered to reintegrate these institutions, but he firmly declined and expressed his inalienable position against the regimes.

Interestingly enough, in 1945, Alberto Ginastera was expelled from the faculty body at the Liceo Militar, because he signed a democratic manifesto, which coincided with his winning the Guggenheim fellowship that help him migrate to the United States[10].

NATIONALISM AND UNIVERSALISM

Beyond the critical evaluation that these two terms have in modern times, the debate pertaining to nationalism and universalism was a persistent topic in the Argentinean cultural field. The social actors confirm these concepts and showed how they can achieve significant shapes.

The type of Nationalism that is being developed is better expressed in the aesthetic concepts of Alberto Williams: an engineering social construction directed to unify the recent immigrant masses towards the idea of the nation, in which the incidence of obligatory public education is strong, and this distributes equally the signs of nationality[11]. Music is particularly influential in this ideology, William’s, and many other composers’ creeds, grouped in the Sociedad Nacional de la Musica, founded in 1915, correspond to this truth. This first ideological core would diversify in the 20s, in synchrony with the international changes.

This transition from republican to nationalist concepts created a wave of important events in the development of aesthetic concepts in music and arts; although there were artists who would still strongly pull to the side of tradition and violently opposed any expression of musical nationalism, one of them is Juan Carlos Paz. He denounced constantly the conceptual and aesthetic inconsistencies of the Argentinean musical nationalism, and its supportive role with the influential press and journalists such as Gaston Talamon; he also rejected the lack of professionalism and poor quality in compositions that strongly featured folk influences, which were characterized for excessive sentimentalism to gain followers.

These attitudes represent different frames, on one side, the disputes for the symbolic space of legitimacy in the field, hegemonized the Sociedad Nacional de Musica. On the other hand, the hostile tendencies to modernity and the vanguard are based on institutionalized nationalism. But maybe behind all this, is seen a recurring resistance to the new nationalist discourse, to the appropriation of cultural legitimacy. The neoclassical option was persistent among several of the Grupo Renovacion members.

In 1936, Paz, celebrated the return of Bach with Stravinsky and Schoenberg as, what was considered by him, the supreme resource of concretion, order, and abstraction; this caused even more and bigger confrontations with nationalism. For Paz, dodecaphony resolves the technical problems of expression, as it sets a unique language that is contrary to the aesthetical concepts of the class in power. These ideas, especially those coming from Paz made evident contact with Koellreutter in Brazil, who understood them as an aesthetic segment of the social revolution and was somewhat exposed to the public debate.

Nonetheless, the uses of the local musical elements continued, uniquely by composers from Grupo Renovacion. But Juan Jose Castro criticized the composers whose “mistake is not making Argentinean music, but to believe that they do”. “there won’t be an Argentinean work… essentially Argentinean in all its elements; with profound feelings and a modest hope as the end” when it comes from a composer who has made a living in a different territory/country. He affirmed, in 1945, that there is a long and humble work to do and a painful search for realization without abusing the folk resources. The authentic accent will be found in every note and word, only if the inside process is mature; otherwise, it would be a disguise. “We should not be afraid of European influences” we must learn the art deeply. Let’s not called intuition what ignorance is…” “the identity would emerge because of a reflective and deep process, which includes knowledge, searching, and recognizing. Castro’s works respectfully use local references, processed with balanced and discrete resources derived from Stravinsky and neoclassical modernity. His very known Tangos (1941) are proof of this.

The reference to Europe is included once again in the global program of Sur, which is produced and published in an article entitled “the new formulation of an old dispute, the one of the double relation with the national and with Europe”.[12] Today we would agree that it was about the construction of a dialogical identity, although it seems like a paradox.

On the other hand, like what occurred in the intellectual field during the 20s, the young composers integrated the national content at the forefront of their ideas.

An emblematic work that exemplifies these tendencies is Cantata Martin Fierro, composed in 1944 by Juan Angel Navarro, and premiered in 1948. It corresponds to the times of renovated debates and studies on Ezequiel Martinez Estrada's writings Muerte y transfiguracion de Martin Fierro, which was published in 1948. This book was considered problematic at the time, as well as the music, and there is evidence that after the premiere of the Cantata, the orchestra professors were afraid of punishments and retaliations. The organizers had to rehearse the male chorus in Montevideo and the female in Buenos Aires[13]. This work ensured the exile of the composer, which showed a powerful message through the misfortunes of Martin Fierro, evoked in harass and dark melodies.

THE TANGO OF DEATH

There is no evident global knowledge of stories of the Tango musicians in Europe during the years after WWI, but there were many performers, well trained in bandoneon, violin, guitar, and piano, who populated the old continent, especially in France, Germany, Italy, and Great Britain, with this rhythm from Rio de la Plata. One of them was Eduardo Bianco (Rosario, 1892 – Buenos Aires, 1959), who left sufficient proof to be remembered as a fascist. He dedicated tangos to Benito Mussolini, to King Alfonso XIII and he also frequented Adolph Hitler and other Nazi leaders. Even more: in France, he was accused and investigated to be a spy for fascist Italy who used his orchestra as a cover for such practices; the writer Enrique Cadicamo would alert his countrymates to be careful with the violinist, Bianco because he was an “agent of the Gestapo” (the secret Nazi police)

The author of “Madame Ivonne” told that during the years previous to World War II, many porteño[14] musicians met in La Real, Corrientes, and Talcahuano (settlements in present Argentina and Chile), to interact, and exchange ideas before going to work, this usually happened in cabarets; they red El Pampero, which was, interestingly, financed by the Third Reich’s embassy, just like if Bianco’s influences were in Buenos Aires. Were they Nazi musicians? They would all meet for coffee, but some of them sympathized with the regime, or just admired Mussolini, this is the case of singer Ernesto Fama who was friends with Francisco Canaro: affiliated with the small Partido Fascista (Fascist Party), founded in March of 1932, but dissolved 8 years after; although it was known for organizing rallies and parades with its supporters wearing uniforms, suggesting a march in Rome. Some of the ‘duces’ (leaders) were Humberto Bianchetti y Mauro Marchetti. Who knows why, but Guillermo Patricio Jelly, an important figure in the Alianza Libertadora Nationalista – ALN (Freedom National Alliance) also joined these ‘coffee’ meetings. Another notorious name, who was part of this 'movement' was Julio de Caro, a known tango composer, who was known for not maintaining healthy relationships with his fellow composers, such as Osvaldo Pugliese, who was an important figure in preserving the essence of tango as a genre. Pugliese joined the Communist Party around the time of the Spanish Civil War, this was told to the journalist Arturo Lozza; he also founded the Sindicato Argentino de Musicos (Argentinean Syndicate of Musicians) with other leftist friends, among them Ken Hamilton (Bernardo Noriega[15]), which defended the less favorable artist from any legislation.

There were 5 brothers, musicians, from the right, the Lomuto. One of them wrote the march "4 of June", which sounded during the coup in 1943 when there was not enough impression given by Juan Domingo Peron. Another musician, from the Lomuto brothers, traveled around Europe and the Middle East with Bianco. The journalist Nardo Zanko said that Eduardo Labougle, a plenipotentiary minister in Berlin, also a Nazi, organized a barbecue in homage to the Führer, which happened with part of the leader's cabinet. On this occasion, Bianco's orchestra played, and his bandoneonist, Juan Pecci, was given the responsibility of preparing the food. "Since Hitler was being very attentive to the way Pecci was roasting the three lambs, which by rules had been placed beside the embers, the musician explained that the barbecue is not done with fire but with the heat of the embers; to what the Führer thank by saying that there is always something new to learn". Finally, Hitler started the lunch, and it lasted for three hours, according to Enrique Cadicamo, a musician who participated in this event.

We do not know if Bianco played his tango 'Plegaria' (the Prayer), which was originally dedicated to king Alfonso XIII, but it was known that this particular piece fascinated the Führer; not for its chorus: “Plegaria que llega a mi alma/al son de lentas campanadas,/plegaria que es consuelo y calma/para las almas desamparadas”, ("the prayer that gets to my soul/to the slow rhythm of bells,/ the prayer that is comfort and calm/for the helpless souls"); but for its music, which has some ecclesiastic character, solemn.

It is not known the exact reason this tango from Rosario became one of the most popular among the Wehrmacht[16], but the fact that it was one of Hitler’s favorites is influential to this argument. Also, it is confirmed that Plegaria was known in the concentration camps as "El tango de la muerte" (the tango of death); Paul Celan’s biography supports this information[17], a poet that survived concentration camps. "The prisoners were forced to play Plegaria and for that reason, Celan entitled it the tango of death. This information is also supported by the researcher from Yale University John Felstiner.

Celan wrote the famous poem about the Jewish holocaust, “Muerte en fuga” (Death in fugue-escape), affirms Felstiner; the original title to the poem was Tango de la muerte, which made it somewhat authentic. “Only someone who lived in a Nazi concentration camp could have known what this title meant”, said Felstiner in his biography. Julio Nudler in his book Tango Judio, as well as Jose Judkovski in his book El Tango: Una Historia con Judios, corroborate these stories.

There are also reliable records of the macabre uses of Plegaria in the camps of Janowska, Auschwitz, and Maidanek, among others. The ‘nazified’ version of Plegaria, Das Todestango in German, was recorded by Aleksander Kulisiewicz and published in his album “Songs from the depth of Hell”. It is important to mention that the term ‘nazified’ is used in this context to describe the experiences of a concentration camp survivor, Kulisiewicz, who sang these songs, with his already old voice, in the representation of a voice of hope in the face of despair. On the other hand, the songs, especially Das Todestango, is very sad but also intense, a beautiful and healing combination. This album is preserved in museums dedicated to the Holocaust, in Israel, and the United States and has lately been made available for streaming online.

The most popular version of Plegaria is by Bianco’s orchestra, in Paris, on the voice of Juan Raggi; this was used by Luis Cano, a theater producer, in his work Los Murmullos (the murmurs), which tells the story of the years of horror in Argentina.

Maybe the expansion of this funeral tango by Bianco was a psychological type of operation. The journalist Zalko affirms that Bianco contributed to the successful installation of Buenos Aires music into the splendorous era of the Berliner Cabaret. In 1939, he recorded a lot in Germany, and his sympathy for the Nazi regime gave him a doubtful distinction of playing tangos in front of Hitler and Mussolini. His tango Destino (destiny), recorded in Berlin, in 1939, was dedicated to the [18]Duce, and this was his second time doing such recognition; his tango Evocacion (evocation), composed in 1931, and edited in France was dedicated “to his excellence Benito Mussolini”.

These dedications were not circumstantial, it is obvious, if not he would have done them to Stalin too. Bianco arrived in Moscow the day when the writer Maximo Gorki died, June 18th of 1935, and traveled for six months across most of the Soviet territory. He even was invited to Stalin’s house, who, based on Bianco’s simple comments, “made some noises as he ate soup”; but there is no proof of dedications made to Stalin, even though during this trip Bianco wrote his tango Poema (poem).

Enrique Cadicamo, in his book “La historia del tango en Paris” (the history of tango in Paris), supports with no hesitation that Bianco and his musicians, “worked for the Wehrmacht”, this association and complicity was evident with Pecci, the pianist, and Lomuto, the bandoneonist and guitarist.

The violinist Bernardo Alemany, was part of the orchestra for some periods of its existence. He, who was believed to be born in Buenos Aires[19], but also believed to be born in Poland[20], became popular by playing Argentinean tangos; but Alemany played mostly with his own ensemble, which left numerous recordings, such as the excellent version of Elegante papirusa (Elegant pretty woman) by Tito Roccatagliata. In this ensemble played the Uruguayan bandoneonist Hector Gentile, who was also part of the Argentinean Quartet, which plated for Nazi radio programs addressed to Latin-American. With the protection of Bianco, Alemany was able to reside in Germany until 1940, when he was granted visas to the United States.

Bianco also traveled and played in other countries occupied by Nazi ideologies. In 1942 he recorded one more version for the La cumparsita (the little parade) in The Hague, Netherlands. Curiously, this version served, without anything this nonsense idea, as a prelude or curtain music of the ballet on Don Quixote by Maurice Bejart and Cipe Lincovsky, in the Coliseum. Another historic paradox is that one of the first recordings of the tango Recuerdo (remembrance), by Pugliese (known as a communist after), was done by Bianco, in Paris, at the end of the 20s.

Ricardo Garcia Blaya wrote that “The tango of death” was used to compose other tangos, and produce a movie and a play. The first of those tangos has no lyrics and was unknown by the experts until not long ago, it was composed by Horacio Mackintosh, a musician who left just a few scores, and who we do not know much about. The second was composed by Alberto Novion and recorded by Carlos Gardel in 1922: “No tengo amigo, no tengo amores,/ no tengo patria, ni religión, sólo amargura tengo en el alma/¡juna, malhaya! mi corazón ”... 

In 1928 a different tango, with the same name as Tango de la muerte, was recorded in Warsaw; also, as the Red Army took Stalingrad (modern Volgograd) their band played a piece with a similar macabre theme. 

Alejandro Dolina operetta Lo que me costo el amor de Laura (what the love of Laura cost me), includes a version of the “Tango of death”, and on top of all that, Jose Agustin Ferreyra, a pioneer of nationalist cinema, wrote and directed a film with this same title, possibly inspired in the works of Mackintosh.  

Bianco returned to Argentina after the war, but the tango musicians did not accept him, he was isolated from the national tango scene, and in Europe, his time had diminished. 

Bibliography

Arizaga, Rodolfo. 1963. Juan José Castro, Buenos Aires, Ediciones Culturales Argentinas.
Czackis, Lloica. 2009. "Yiddish Tango: A Musical Genre?". European Judaism 42 (2).

Dahlhaus, Carl. 1978. Schönberg Und Andere. Mainz: Schott.

Felstiner, John. 2011. Paul Celan. Urbana: University of Illinois Pr.

García Blaya, Ricardo. 2018. "Todotango.Com - Todo Sobre El Tango Argentino". Todotango.Com.      http://www.todotango.com/.

Judkovski, José. 1998. Tango, Una Historia Con Judios. DVD. Argentina: 25P Films.

Kulisiewicz, Aleksander. 1979. Songs From The Depths Of Hell. CD. New York, USA: Folkways Records.

Nudler, Julio. 1998. Tango Judío. Buenos Aires: Ed. Sudamericana.

Pickenhayn, Jorge Oscar. 1980. Luis Gianneo. Buenos Aires: Ediciones Culturales Argentinas, Secretariá de Estado de Cultura, Ministerio de Cultura y Educación.

Plesch, Melanie. 1996. "La música en la construcción de la identidad cultural argentina: el topos de la guitarra en la producción del primer nacionalismo", en Revista Argentina de Musicología, 1.

Gramuglio, María Teresa. 1983. "Sur: constitución del grupo y proyecto cultural", en Punto de Vista, 17.

Safir, Margery, and Victoria Ocampo. 1976. "Testimonios: Decima Serie (1977). Buenos Aires". Books Abroad 50 (2): 376. doi:10.2307/40130476.

Safir, Margery, and Victoria Ocampo. 1976. "Testimonios: Primera Serie (1981). Buenos Aires". Books Abroad 50 (2): 376. doi:10.2307/40130476.

Safir, Margery, and Victoria Ocampo. 1976. "Testimonios: Septima Serie (1971-1974). Buenos Aires". Books Abroad 50 (2): 376. doi:10.2307/40130476.

Scarabino, Guillermo. 2000. El Grupo Renovación, Buenos Aires, Instituto de Investigación Musicológica "Carlos Vega", Cuadernos de Estudio N° 3.

Suárez Urtubey, Pola. 1972. Alberto Ginastera En Cinco Movimientos. Buenos Aires: Victor Leru.

Villordo, Oscar. 1993. El Grupo Sur. Una biografía colectiva, Buenos Aires, Planeta.
Nicolodi, Fiamma. 1984. Musica E Musicisti Nel Ventennio Fascista. Fiesole, Firenze: Discanto.

Wortsman, Peter. 1979. Songs From The Depths Of Hell. Ebook. New York: Folkways Records. https://folkways-media.si.edu/liner_notes/folkways/FW37700.pdf.

[1] (Dahlhaus 1978)

[2] Sur was a literary magazine published in Buenos Aires between 1931 and 1970

[3] (Safir and Ocampo 1967)

[4] (Pickenhayn 1980)

[5] Another important magazine

[6] (Scarabino 2000)

[7] (Villordo 1993)

[8] (Sur, 18, marzo 1936:9-19)

[9] (Nicolodi 1984)

[10]  (Suárez 1972)

[11] (Plesch 1996)

[12] (Gramuglio 1983)

[13] (Arizaga 1963)

[14] from Buenos Aires

[15] the real name of an orchestra conductor, impresario, and jazz musician.

[16] the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946

[17] Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew

[18] the duke, the leader. Attributed to Benito Mussolini

[19] New York Times in the issue of August 26th, 1993

[20] the argument presented by Rainer Lotz, biographer of German orchestras, who suggested Alemany was born on the 4th of October, 1909.