Carlos Guastavino, born in Santa Fe Province, Argentina, was one of the for… Read Full Bio ↴Carlos Guastavino, born in Santa Fe Province, Argentina, was one of the foremost Argentine composers of the 20th century. His production amouts to over 200 works, most of them songs for piano and voice. An accomplished pianist with an intense gift for melody, Guastavino wrote very effectively for his instrument. His style is quite conservative, always tonal and lusciously romantic. His compositions are clearly influenced by Argentine folk music. His reputation is based, virtually entirely, on his songs, which are qickly becoming part of the standard vocal repertoire.

Guastavino's musical style, firmly rooted in the late nineteenth-century Romantic Nationalist tradition, marks a stark contrast with the works of his contemporaries, such as Alberto Ginastera (1916-1983). Guastavino's stylistic isolation from the modernist and avant-garde movements going on around him, and the self-consciously nationalist content of his songs made him a model for Argentine popular and folk musicians of the '60's.

Guastavino studied music in Santa Fe with Esperanza Lothringer and Dominga Iaffei, and in Buenos Aires with Athos Palma. A talented pianist, he performed his piano works in London in 1947, 1948, and 1949, invited by the BBC, and as a recipient of a scholarship from the British Council. During these years, the BBC Symphony Orchestra premiered the orchestral version of his “Tres Romances Argentinos”, under the baton of Walter Goehs. Later, in 1956, Guastavino toured the USSR and China, performing his pieces for voice and piano.

Guastavino’s style is clearly inherited from the luminaries of nineteenth-century Argentina's nationalist composers, such as Alberto Williams, Francisco Hargreaves, Eduardo García Mansilla and Julián Aguirre. Aguirre’s delicate and intimate piano writing is an especially evident influence on Guastavino.

Guastavino's output includes: more than a hundred and fifty songs for voice and piano, numerous piano solo pieces, choral works, school songs, and chamber music. His poets include: Rafael Alberty, Leon Benaros, Hamlet Lima Quintana, Atahualpa Yupanqui, Pablo Neruda, Gabriela Mistral, and Jorge Luis Borges among others. A small number of his songs are settings of his own texts. His works for orchestra include “Divertissement; fue una vez”, commissioned by Colonel de Basil for his original Ballet Russe, and premiered at the Teatro Colón, in Buenos Aires, in 1942; and “Suite Argentina” which was performed in London, Paris, Barcelona, and Havana by the Ballet Español of Isabel Lopez. He has also written three Sonatas for guitar.

Guastavino has received important awards and recognitions throughout his life, such as the Municipal Prize from the city of Buenos Aires for his chamber songs, a prize from the Justice Ministry of Argentina, Prize of the Cultural Commission of Santa Fe Province for his songs, “Vosotras” magazine Prize for his “Canción de Navidad”, and a Prize from the Organization of American States and the Inter-American Music Council as recognition of his outstanding creative activity.

(Source: Fundación Ostinato / http://ostinato.tripod.com)

Se equivocó la paloma
Carlos Guastavino Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

Se equivoco la paloma
Se equivocaba
Por ir al norte fue al sur
Creyo que el trigo era agua
Se equivocaba
Creyo que el mar
era el cielo
se equivicaba

se equivocaba
se equivocaba
Que las estrellas rocio
que la calor la nevada
se equivocaba
se equivocaba
se equivocaba
Que tu falda era tu blusa
que tu corazón su casa
se equivocaba
se equivocaba
Ella se durmio
en la orilla

Tu en la cumbre
de una rama

Overall Meaning

The lyrics of Carlos Guastavino's song Se Equivoco La Paloma are about the mistakes that the dove made. The dove made several mistakes while flying around, primarily because it lost its sense of direction. It ended up traveling south when it intended to go north, mistaking the wheat fields to be water and the sea to be the sky. The dove also mistook other things such as stars for dew and heat for snow. It also mistook a blouse for a skirt and a heart for a home. All the while, the dove kept making these errors, suggesting that it was lost.

The last stanza of the song takes a different turn, with the singer talking about how the dove slept on the shore while the person to whom he's singing to slept on a branch. The lyrics are metaphorical, with the dove perhaps representing someone who has lost their way or has made a mistake, while the person on the branch may be someone who is steadfast and unmoved, watching the world go by.

Line by Line Meaning

Se equivoco la paloma
The dove made a mistake

Se equivocaba
She was mistaken

Por ir al norte fue al sur
By going north, she went south

Creyo que el trigo era agua
She thought the wheat was water

Se equivocaba
She was mistaken

Creyo que el mar era el cielo
She thought the sea was the sky

se equivicaba
She was mistaken

se equivocaba
She was mistaken

Que las estrellas rocio
She mistook the stars for dew

que la calor la nevada
She mistook heat for snow

se equivocaba
She was mistaken