Ariel Ramírez’s Misa Criolla. The Revival of Folk Music in Argentina and Transnational Cultural Movements during the 1960s

Abstract

In the early 1960s, the search for renewal in Argentine native music drove a number of important innovations. One of the most important changes was the attempt to adapt native music to reach wider audiences. This strategy sought to combine the regional aspects of native music with transnational elements.

The Ramírez's Misa Criolla (1964), is a sample of this strategy whose characteristics propose a new kind of listener, modern and sophisticated, and sets an example of “cosmopolitan nationalism”. This article analyzes the essential characteristics of the Misa Criolla, trying to examine how the localism and regionalism of the native tradition related to elements of the transnational circulation.