Ariel Ramírez

Misa Criolla was one of the first masses not in Latin shortly after the Second Vatican Council permitted use of the vernacular in Catholic churches.[2][5] The Washington Post wrote that the Misa Criolla is "widely regarded as a stunning artistic achievement, [that] combined Spanish text with indigenous instruments and rhythms".[5] It led to album sales numbering in the millions internationally.[5] Ramírez once told The Jerusalem Post how Misa Criolla was inspired by a visit to Germany after World War II.[5] While there, he had an encounter with two of 5 sisters (siblings, not nuns), who had regularly risked their lives bringing food to prisoners of the Nazis in their neighbourhood, which led him to consider writing "a spiritual piece". This would eventually become the Misa Criolla.[5]

The Misa—a 16-minute Mass for either male or female soloists, chorus, and traditional instruments—is based on folk genres such as chacarera, carnavalito, and estilo pampeano, with Andean influences and instruments. Ramírez wrote the piece from 1963 to 1964, and it was recorded in 1965[11] by Philips Records, directed by Ramírez himself with Los Fronterizos as featured performers (Philips 820-39 LP, including Navidad Nuestra, remastered in 1994 and released by Philips as CD 526 155). It was not publicly performed until 1967 in Düsseldorf, Germany, during a European tour that eventually brought Ariel Ramírez before Pope Paul VI. Other notable recordings feature the solo voices of George Dalaras (1989), José Carreras (1990), and Mercedes Sosa (1999). Plácido Domingo recorded the Kyrie (the first movement of the Misa) with Dominic Miller on guitar (2003). On 12 December 2014, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it was performed in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome at the invitation of Pope Francis, with Patricia Sosa as the soprano soloist and conducted by Facundo Ramírez, son of the work's composer, who had conducted its first performance in St. Peter's Basilica exactly fifty years before.

While not sharing the same worldwide success, Alfonsina y el mar enjoys great popularity in Latin America and Spain, being one of the most well regarded songs in Argentinian folk music. The piece pays homage to poet Alfonsina Storni, evoking her tragic suicide in 1938, when she threw herself into the sea at La Perla beach in Mar del Plata, and the poem she wrote as a goodbye message, I Am Going to Sleep. Artists of the stature of Mercedes Sosa, Nana Mouskouri, Violeta Parra, Alfredo Kraus, Avishai Cohen and José Carreras (with Pasión Vega) have made recordings of the song, as well as many other popular singers including Shakira, Ane Brun, Miguel Bosé, Andrés Calamaro and Paloma San Basilio.

Other major compositions by Ramírez include the Cantata Sudamericana (again with text by Félix Luna, 1972) and another mass, the "Mass for Peace and Justice" (Misa por la paz y la justicia, 1981), with liturgical texts by Félix Luna and Osvaldo Catena, which is also quite famous.[2] He wrote more than 300 compositions during his career.[4] With Luna he created the Mercedes Sosa hits Mujeres Argentinas (Argentine Women), which documented women fighting for their freedom, and Cantata Sudamericana (South American Cantata).[5]

Along with the Hamlet Lima Quintana, Ramírez also composed the music for Spanish film director Carlos Saura's TV film Los Cuentos de Borges: El Sur, which is based on the short story El Sur by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges.[12]