The Paraguayan Harp : From Colonial Transplant to National Emblem 9780739198209, 9780739198193

Citation preview

The Paraguayan Harp

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The Paraguayan Harp From Colonial Transplant to National Emblem Alfredo C. Colman

LEXINGTON BOOKS

Lanham • Boulder • New York • London

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Published by Lexington Books An imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc. 4501 Forbes Boulevard, Suite 200, Lanham, Maryland 20706 www.rowman.com Unit A, Whitacre Mews, 26-34 Stannary Street, London SE11 4AB Copyright © 2015 by Lexington Books All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Information Available Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Colman, Alfredo. The Paraguayan harp : from colonial transplant to national emblem / Alfredo Colman. pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-7391-9819-3 (cloth : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-0-7391-9820-9 (electronic) 1. Harp—Paraguay—History . 2. Harpists—Paraguay— Bibliography. I. Title ML1005.C65 2015 787.9'509892—dc23 2014044608

™ The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/NISO Z39.48-1992. Printed in the United States of America

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Contents

Preface

vii

Acknowledgments

ix

1

A Personal Note

1

2

A Musical Instrument, a Symbol of Identity

17

3

The Setting

31

4

Harps, Harpists, and Luthiers

43

5

The Music of the Paraguayan Harp

63

6

Traditional Music and the Discourses Surrounding Cultural Performances

83

Conclusion

123

Appendix

127

Bibliography

167

Index

179

About the Author

185

v

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Preface

T

ransplanted, transformed, and adapted to the performance practices of Paraguayan traditional and popular music, the Paraguayan diatonic harp has assumed in the twentieth and twentieth-first centuries the status of a national symbol of Paraguayan identity. This process culminated on June 8, 2010, with an official proclamation (Ley 4001) passed by the Paraguayan Congress and signed by President Fernando Lugo Méndez, proclaiming the instrument as instrumento símbolo de la cultura musical nacional (instrument symbolic of the national musical culture). The instrument first attained recognition in the regional music scene through the performances of harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo (1908–1952) in Argentina in the 1930s and 1940s. Over the next few decades the Paraguayan diatonic harp became popular in other parts of Latin America (primarily Brazil, Peru, and Mexico), and later emerged in the “international” music scene as professional harpists started to perform throughout Western Europe and Asia. Once the instrument received regional and international social recognition, Paraguayan musicians of the 1950s and 60s re-adopted the harp into the nation’s traditional, and by now highly commercialized, musical repertoire. With the creation of popular music festivals in the 1980s, the Paraguayan harp, along with the guitar, helped to evoke and recreate aspects of the various traditions and values of rural life in late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century Paraguay—the reconstruction period that followed the Triple Alliance War (1865–1970), a major military conflict among three nations (Argentina, Uruguay, and Brazil) and Paraguay. The war resulted in the decimation of Paraguay’s population and since then both war and reconstruction vii

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viii

Preface

period have become a pivotal factor in the Paraguayans’ sense of their national identity. These traditions and values (love for the land, solidarity, pride) carry with them a deep sense of nostalgia for an idealized time, now perceived as lost. In numerous local festivals in which popular musical expressions were systematically displayed as examples of Paraguayan traditions, it was clear that these were systematically validated through social performance and repetition, expressing a collective fascination with that imagined and ideal past. The Paraguayan harp, along with words and phrases in Guaraní and Jopará (a local language mixing both Guaraní and Spanish), traditional music, the guitar, and regional crafts and food, appeared as an essential component and bearer of the traditions and popular expressions displayed at traditional music festivals. The diatonic harp, Paraguay’s folk instrument par excellence, constitutes a symbol of identity for the various social groups in the country, a role I explore and analyze within the context of the performance and construction of Paraguayan cultural identity. First introduced by Jesuit missionaries in the seventeenth century as an instrument used to accompany liturgical functions, the European Renaissance diatonic harp underwent local transformations and became Paraguay’s unofficial national folk instrument in the early twentieth century, until 2010, when an official proclamation recognized it as the instrument symbolic of the national musical culture. This book focuses on the characteristics and history of the instrument and its repertoire as a representation and embodiment of socioculturally inculcated beliefs and values associated with the notion of Paraguayan cultural identity. Unless noted otherwise, all translations of texts from Spanish or Guaraní into English are mine.

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Acknowledgments

F

irst, I would like to acknowledge the inspiration and mentorship of Gerard Béhague, who from the beginning stages of my doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin expressed a genuine interest in me as a researcher of Latin American musicology and ethnomusicology. Many thanks to my friends Tomás Báez, Diego Sánchez, and Rudi Torga, who guided me through the first stages of my fieldwork and research in Paraguay, making contacts and providing names of local harpists; and to professors Werner Giesbrecht and Werner Franz at the Facultad de Música de la Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay, who offered me a teaching appointment that enabled me to support myself financially during my fieldwork. I would like to thank the following Paraguayan musicians and other professionals who shared with me their music, photographs, recordings, and stories related to the harp and other expressions found in Paraguayan culture: harpists Tito Acuña, Dionisio Arzamendia Párriz, Luis Bordón, César Cataldo, Odilón Dávalos, Prisciliano Fernández Fleitas, Papi Galán, Tony Genes, Lorenzo González, Mariano González, Raquel Lebrón, Ismael Ledesma, Marcos Lucena, Abel Sánchez Giménez, Carlos Talavera, and Gerardo Zárate; luthiers Epifanio López, Eligio Monges Báez, Adelio Ovelar, and Mario Ovelar; musicians Yverá Barboza, Angel Benítez, Alejandro Cubilla, Florentín Giménez, Delia Picaguá, Victor Riveros, Luis Szarán, Oscar Nelson Safuán, and Felipe Sosa; anthropologists Bartomeu Melià and Guillermo Sequera; historian Alfredo Viola; journalists Víctor Barrios, Serafín Francia Campos, and Jesús Ruiz Nestosa; and sociologist Gerardo Fogel. I would also like to acknowledge the assistance of the personnel at several institutions in ix

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Acknowledgments

Paraguay: Adelina Pusineri and Raquel Salazar from the Biblioteca Andrés Barbero, the staff at Biblioteca del Museo José Asunción Flores, Biblioteca Municipal, Biblioteca Nacional, and Biblioteca del Colegio María Auxiliadora in Villarrica; Rubén Milessi Gómez from the Museo de Arte Popular, the Museo Monseñor Juan Sinforiano Bogarín; and the staff at the archival offices of local newspapers ABC, Diario Noticias, and Ultima Hora. My heartfelt thanks are extended to Jorge Luis Candia, Stefan Fiol, Diego García, Victoria Giménez, Ana María Gamell, Víctor Lombardo, Demetrio y María Emilia Núñez, Alberto Sosa, and Alfredo Vaesken; as well as to the Festival Mundial del Arpa en el Paraguay and coordinators Marlene Sosa Lugo and Ana María Scappini Ricciardi. I would like to express my gratitude to colleagues and friends who read, critiqued, and offered insightful comments during the writing of the abstract and the book, including Jean Boyd, Jann Cosart, and Timothy D. Watkins. Thanks to my friends and editors Wilma Barker, Christopher Bartlette, Grant Cooper, Maimy Fong, Esther Raizen, Michal Raizen, Ariana Phillips, and Jacob Valadez for assistance in preparing the material and editing the manuscript at various stages. A personal thank you goes to my friends Patrick Barry and Earl Tessmann—”Tacho Guazú”—for sharing their musical scores, photographs, recordings, personal stories, and passion for the Paraguayan harp and its music. Many thanks to Douglas and Rose Clark, Ed and Karen Humphrey, Carlos and Birla Mercado, and the congregation at First Baptist Church Wells Branch (Austin, Texas) for their unwavering encouragement and moral support. I am grateful for the constant encouragement and support of my family in Paraguay, Argentina, and the United States of America. Finally, I express my sincere gratitude to Lindsey Porambo and Lexington Books for publishing this new edition of the first academic book on the Paraguayan harp. SDG.

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1

A Personal Note

M

y childhood memories take me back to Asunción, Paraguay, in the 1970s and 1980s, when I eagerly absorbed the sights and sounds of my environment. One of my most cherished activities was tuning in to daily television and radio shows which, as part of a government-mandated program to construct a national folklore, would dedicate a portion of each show to broadcasting Paraguayan folk and traditional music, sometimes referred to as música nacional (national music). Unaware of the political agenda behind these broadcasts, I grew to appreciate and love Paraguayan folk and traditional music at a very early age. I was especially fascinated by the performances of vocal conjuntos, consisting of two singers accompanied by guitars and harp or accordion, a configuration typical of traditional music in Paraguay. I vividly recall a particular music show, Domingos Folclóricos (Folkloric Sundays), that aired every Sunday at noon on Channel 9 TV Cerro Corá, now the SNT—Sistema Nacional de Televisión (the National Television System). Domingos Folclóricos featured performances by local soloists and conjuntos and choreographies by ballet groups dancing Paraguayan music accompanied by a banda koyguá (a folk music band consisting of two trumpets, two saxophones, two trombones, a tuba, a pair of cymbals, and a bass drum). Hosted by Miguel Angel Rodriguez, a prominent figure in Paraguayan radio and television in the 1970s and 1980s, Domingos Folclóricos later assumed the name Felíz Domingo (Happy Sunday) and aired for about eight years. Local musical groups such as Aníbal Lovera y su conjunto, Los Indios, Ballet Folclórico de Reina Menchaca, Ballet Folclórico Municipal, and vocal soloists such as Betty Figueredo, Alberto de Luque, José Magno Soler, and Félix de 1

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Chapter 1

Ypacarai, among others, made regular weekly appearances on the show. Domingos Folclóricos, with its colorful array of music, costumes, and choreography, had a great impact on me. At my house, the show signaled the time to set the table for Sunday lunch. One of my most beloved role models as a child was my paternal grandfather, Romualdo Colman, who played the guitar. When Abuelo (Grandpa) Romualdo turned seventy, he decided to take lessons from a harp teacher who lived across the street. For the next ten years, Abuelo Romualdo’s new music interest gave him great satisfaction and delighted the entire family. I fondly recall Saturday afternoons at my grandparents’ house, when my family and some members of my extended family would gather under the tall parralera (a vine native to the region) to enjoy a time of laughter and conversation. At some point in the afternoon my grandfather would bring out the guitar or the harp and play some songs for us. Fascinated by the sounds and technique of the diatonic harp, I asked my parents to purchase an instrument and find a teacher for me. A few months later, luthier Adelio Ovelar made a harp for me and Heriberto Leguizamón1 became my harp instructor. I studied under Leguizamón for about three years, and learning to play the harp gave me a creative outlet away from high school, homework, and piano lessons, which were already a part of my regular activities. While pursuing academic studies in music—both in Paraguay, where I earned a piano diploma from a local conservatory (the Escuela Normal de Música), and in the United States, where I received a bachelor’s degree in music with emphasis in church music and piano and a master’s degree in music with emphasis in music history and literature—I continued to listen to new and old recordings of Paraguayan traditional music, which became a home away from home. After completing my master’s degree in 1995, I returned to Asunción, where I taught elementary and high school music classes for two years. Having the freedom to design my own curriculum, I often shared recordings of Paraguayan traditional music with my students as part of our class activities. In 1997 I began my doctoral studies in ethnomusicology at the University of Texas at Austin under the tutelage of Gerard Béhague. Focusing my research interest on Paraguayan music seemed only a natural choice, supported and enriched by my keen interest in issues related to Paraguayan identity and the processes involved in constructing and reinforcing a specific social and national identity. Works by Benedict Anderson, Paul Berliner, Carl Dahlhaus, Clifford Geertz, and Victor Turner inspired me to think critically about the various aspects of symbolism and value applied to social and cultural identity, and I decided to approach the folk and traditional music of Paraguay from that angle.2 The topic of paraguayidad (Paraguayan-ness), and the cultural construction and reinforcement of social identity through music, particularly through the

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A Personal Note

3

Paraguayan diatonic harp, served as a constant throughout my doctoral studies, rendering both the subject and fieldwork experiences both academically and personally meaningful and valuable to me. As I will show, for Paraguayans, paraguayidad and Paraguayan identity are intimately connected and related to “nation,” a term that refers to the country as a culturally produced entity with specific social, historical, and cultural values. The research process was a most educational and humbling experience as I strove to conduct this study with a firm resolution to dissociate myself from personal biases and assumptions about Paraguayan music. This strategy allowed me to bring a scholarly approach to my research—learning how to listen to the traditional music that represents the Paraguayan people and to understand how performers perceive and share the music that they create. In order to assess the degree to which the Paraguayan diatonic harp functions as a unifying symbol of Paraguayan identity, I spent eighteen months (February 2001 to October 2002) conducting extensive research in libraries and newspaper archives, attending and analyzing events (recitals, musical festivals, and other musical gatherings), interviewing harp performers, journalists, and audiences, and familiarizing myself with the particular musical expressions of the various places where I conducted my research. I traveled throughout the Departamento Central and the central portion of the eastern region of Paraguay, where I met harp and guitar players, composers, conductors, journalists, luthiers, music teachers, poets, singers, and friends of such legendary musical figures as popular composer José Asunción Flores, harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo, and folk singer Agustín Barboza. Most of them were pleased to share views, details, anecdotes, and personal reflections on the Paraguayan harp and its music. Subsequent trips to Paraguay in later years provided opportunities to interview musicians and return to traditional music festivals where the harp was showcased.3 About ten months into my long-term fieldwork experience, while reviewing my notes and tape recordings I noticed that the attitude that most people had in regard to the Paraguayan harp and the explanations they offered for viewing the instrument as one of the icons of “national” identity seemed closely associated with the idea of the tekó (the [Paraguayan] way of being), an inherited socially constructed notion taken from the Guaraní cosmovision to explain life, purpose, and tradition. The development of cultural ideas and other constructed notions in twentieth-century Paraguay such as the beliefs and values associated with paraguayidad or the tekó are also a part of a sociopolitical project linking current cultural values to the Spanish conquest and colonial period during which Paraguayan culture was infused with a mixture of Iberian and Guaraní social customs, values, and beliefs. As we will explore in chapter 2, love for the

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Chapter 1

country, its history, territory, and natural resources, are some of the values conveyed in the idea of the tekó. I was not surprised to find that some of the values associated with the Paraguayan tekó could be most commonly expressed through intangible cultural materials, such as language, legends and stories, and traditional music) and tangible materials such as clothing, crafts, food, and musical instruments. Within the large body of expressions of the local cultural traditions, the popular regard for the Paraguayan diatonic harp and other “national” tangible elements of identity, such as the handmade ñandutí (a folk art weaving tradition practiced in the town of Itauguá), the chipá (a corn starch and cheese bread typical of Paraguay), and the tereré (a typical yerba mate—iliex paraguaiensis—cool drink), is part of the social imagination process of adapting material objects into local cultural expressions. For most present-day Paraguayans these material objects constitute icons of identity and concrete ways to express their paraguayidad. For instance, as we will see in chapter 6, at the annual Festival del Takuare’ẽ held in November 2001, the performance of the Paraguayan harp was the subject of long remarks and extended praise by the master of ceremonies before the name of the harp performer was even announced. Welcoming the remarks with ovations, the audience was informed of the achievements of Paraguayan harpists from the past who performed abroad, suggesting that since both instrument and performer represent and identify the country and its traditions abroad, both the harp and the figure of the harpist must be praised at home. At a recital organized by the Conservatorio Nacional in July 2002, the Paraguayan harp was introduced as an instrument that in addition to being used in the performance of traditional Paraguayan music could practically play any type of “international” musical repertoire, reinforcing a socially constructed idea that the “national” instrument identified with Paraguay and Paraguayans was a folk-music instrument capable of performing music from other regions with a uniquely “Paraguayan” flavor. As we will further see in chapter 4, the activities of luthiers and harpists, as well as the various discourses reinforcing the role of the harp as an icon of paraguayidad, were all part of a sociocultural process that took place in the twentieth century, transforming the instrument inherited from the seventeenth-century European Jesuits into the instrument that has become known since the late 1950s as the arpa paraguaya (the Paraguayan harp). Neither the invention of the arpa paraguaya nor its cultural place and meaning has been questioned by present-day Paraguayans. Instead, there is a widespread tendency to accept it as a cultural fact and as part of the collective Paraguayan folk traditions. Listening to traditional music broadcasts by local radio stations, attending various folk music festivals and recitals, visiting record stores in Asunción, and exploring commercial web sites selling Paraguayan traditional music and musi-

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A Personal Note

5

cal instruments during my long-term fieldwork and subsequent trips to Paraguay, I noticed an air of exoticism and myth was still attached to the harp. I say “still attached” because since the commercial promotion of Paraguayan and other Latin American traditional music in Europe in the 1950s, the Paraguayan harp has been unfortunately referred to and regarded as an instrument of “Indian” or Guaraní origin. For example, while browsing the Internet, I found a French web site dedicated to Andean and Latin American music with information on contemporary individual performers and ensembles residing in Europe.4 One of the featured performers, Jean Rambaudi, is shown playing a Paraguayan diatonic harp. Rambaudi’s personal information indicates that through the instruction of his Paraguayan harp teachers, the performer was able to capture “the soul of the musical tradition” of Paraguay, and that of the “Guaraní culture,” which through the “singing of birds and the sounds of the Yguazú Falls,” has enriched the instrument, musically speaking.5 The idea of a Paraguayan indigenous harp or the phrase “the Indian harp from Paraguay” is not a French or European invention, however. Argentine folk singer and composer Atahualpa Yupanqui [Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburo (1908–1992)] was one of the first musicians to use the phrase arpa india (Indian harp) in a song of his authorship and in reference to the Paraguayan instrument. Shortly after Pérez Cardozo’s death, Yupanqui dedicated a poem, La canción del arpa dormida (The Song of the Sleeping Harp), to the memory of the great harpist. The poem was set to music by Paraguayan composer Herminio Giménez (1905–1991) and soon became one of the most frequently performed guaranias in Paraguay and Argentina. Yupanqui’s poem includes two phrases of great interest, mitã guazú and arpa india. Mitã guazú (big boy) is a physical description of Pérez Cardozo, who according to close friends, was a big man with the heart and the innocence of a child.6 The phrase arpa india (Indian harp) has stirred some controversy, as the Paraguayan diatonic harp is not of Indian origin. Nevertheless, Paraguayan journalists and performing groups have used the term to convey and sell a constructed exoticism related to the traditional music of Paraguay. An excerpt from the poem reads, Acunando un sueño se nos va la vida y el viajero parte para no volver, Hoy el arpa india se quedó dormida como una guarania que no pudo ser. [Cradling a dream life flees and the traveler departs, never to return, The Indian harp fell asleep today like guarania that could not be.]

While most musicians, especially professional harp performers and folklore specialists, avoid the phrase arpa india in association with the Paraguayan harp, Rudi Torga, General Director of [the Office of Folklore]

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Chapter 1

Research and Cultural Support of the Ministry of Education and Culture ([Oficina de] Investigación y Apoyo Cultural del Ministerio de Educación y Cultura), has used the phrase in the introduction to Roquelino Insfrán’s published method for the harp (1999), a publication that will be discussed in chapter 6. Commenting on the history of the harp in Paraguay during the times of the Jesuits (between the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries) Rudi Torga wrote, With no doubt, rhythmic instruments motivated Indians the best. The harp, [introduced] by father Anton Sepp [was] learned to be played and constructed. Along with the guitar and the fiddle, the harp was the most moving instrument. By the time the Jesuits were (sic) expelled the harp had (sic) already become a big [musical] instrument, [a] requested performing soundproducing object. At the same time [the Indian] learned to construct it with wood from our forest, imitating on the strings the sounds of nature. For this reason it would be called “Indian harp.” (Insfrán 1999:6)

Although highly criticized by composer and researcher Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo (1988:219), the term arpa india as applied to the Paraguayan harp has also been associated with another similar phrase, arpa guaraní (Guaraní harp). Like the former phrase, the term arpa india has elicited heated objections in various circles. Some folklore specialists indicate that it is an error to designate the Paraguayan diatonic harp india or guaraní since the instrument never became assimilated into the musical practices of Guaraní communities during or after colonial times. While residing in Argentina, Paraguayan poet and composer Federico Riera (1915–1976) wrote Asunción, a guarania that he designated canción paraguaya (Paraguayan Song), the text of which uses the phrase arpa guaraní. This composition has become highly popular among vocal and instrumental soloists and conjuntos. The controversial phrase appears in the second verse of the song: Asunción sos más dulce desde lejos en el arpa guaraní (Asunción, you are even sweeter from afar [and] on the Guaraní harp). Despite the controversy surrounding the phrase the song continues to enjoy popularity.7 In addition to the use of the phrase in songs, the fascination with the idea of the Paraguayan harp as an arpa india seems to be due to several factors. In 2007 during a personal conversation with Argentine harpist Lorenzo París (b. 1937), who in 1950 had met Félix Pérez Cardozo in Mar del Plata (Argentina), I learned that at the beginning of his musical performances, the Paraguayan harpist used to introduce his instrument as the [Paraguayan] arpa india. París also indicated that the harp strings used by Pérez Cardozo were made by the Arpa India factory in Buenos Aires.8 Finally, in 2011 during a video conference with Paraguayan harpist Mariano González (b. 1954), I also learned that the harps made for Félix

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A Personal Note

7

Pérez Cardozo in Asunción, were crafted at the Arpa India workshop, owned by luthier Epifanio López (1912–2001).9 As we will discover in the following chapters, however, even though the diatonic harp was, in fact, used by the Guaranís who lived at the Jesuit missions during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries for musical practices related to the Catholic liturgy, the instrument did not become a part of the musical traditions associated with the Guaraní communities living in Paraguay during colonial or modern times. The prevalent contemporary need to justify the relevance of the Paraguayan harp as more than “just a folk instrument” is also connected to the notion that virtually any type of music can be played on the harp. As we will see in chapter 2, most Paraguayans desire to be locally, regionally, and globally recognized as both individuals and as part of a distinct group of people with specific traditions and values that are believed to be somehow embodied in the harp and its music. During personal conversations, Paraguayan sociologist Gerardo Fogel and Jesuit priest and linguist Bartomeu Meliá agreed that the notion of the tekó has informed and reinforced this attitude.10 While these scholars explained this particular attitude as a type of socially produced inferiority complex, they also recognized it as an intrinsic part of the daily social life in present-day rural and urban Paraguay. The large majority of friends and performers that I interviewed explained to me their views on various historical or current issues, or referred to their social and musical experiences as part of that which Paraguayans consider ñande rekó (our place, habitat, or dimension of existence), which is a variant of the idea of the tekó, and as part of another socioculturally acquired value known as ñane mba’e (our thing or our tradition). On more than one occasion, when trying to probe what lay behind such explanations, I was told y . . . así somos los paraguayos (so . . . that’s the way we Paraguayans are).

ON HARPISTS In the local tradition, musicians make the distinction between two types of harp performers: arpero popular (popular harp player), a type of jongleur or bohemian musician from old, and arpista or arpista profesional (professional harpist), a performer, teacher, and recording artist. At times, the subcategory arpista de técnica estilizada (harpist of stylized technique) is used to describe an arpista profesional who has received some type of musical or conservatory training in the country or abroad. Arpista profesional also implies the development of particular performance techniques stemming from the individual performer’s unique

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Chapter 1

interpretation and technical skills. In order to produce a specific type of sound or effect, every harpist adds a personal improvisatory touch to the standard ascending or descending arpeggios, rapid scale passages, melodic material, harmonic progressions, accompaniment, and rhythmic emphasis that characterize Paraguayan traditional music performed on the diatonic harp. Although details and biographies of some arperos and arpistas profesionales are given in the appendix, it is also necessary to understand the type of cultural work that contemporary arpistas do by playing the harp and by designating some genres and styles as more important than others, and also the way in which Paraguayan music is integrated in the life of these performers. While some harpists see their performing practice as a way to earn a living, most of them believe that by playing the harp and by performing traditional music they are not only preserving a local tradition, but that they are also fulfilling their “patriotic duty” of celebrating the values associated with paraguayidad. This particular view of harpists and other folk music performers as preserving a particular tradition is accepted and encouraged by the general public, especially by the members of the working and middle classes, who are the main consumers of Paraguayan traditional music. The invention of the “patriotic duty” of musicians as bearers of Paraguayan tradition is a phenomenon of the 1950s and 1960s. After the commercially successful musical tours that various Paraguayan conjuntos (some of them under official sponsorship of the Paraguayan government) enjoyed throughout Western Europe, Asia Minor, and East Asia, other Paraguayan musical groups at home were formed to follow in the steps of these “successful” conjuntos. Although commercial musical “success” in the Paraguayan traditional music scene was and still is evaluated by number-one hits or records promoted and broadcast by local radio and television stations, the term also implies the recognition, that a Paraguayan song or a performer has received abroad. For the general Paraguayan public, the fact that a musician has traveled abroad, to a few or or several countries to perform or record traditional, commercial, or “pop” music, signifies the immediate and unquestionable achievement of the performer as an artist of local, and now “international” reputation, as a serious individual, and as a citizen displaying a high level of paraguayidad. While it is impossible to determine whether all traditional music groups created after the mid-1960s had solely a commercial agenda, or if some of them had the “patriotic” intention of promoting Paraguay and its music, it is clear that as a result of the creation and promotion of Paraguayan traditional music conjuntos the diatonic harp and its music became known abroad, a fact that was received and interpreted by Paraguayans as an indication of the significance that the instrument possessed. Now as an

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imagined icon of paraguayidad, the arpa paraguaya was not only fitted to perform Paraguayan traditional music at home or abroad, but also Andean waynos, Argentine tangos, Brazilian carnival marches, Caribbean guajiras, Mexican boleros, and Venezuelan joropos, as well as folk songs that represented the European or Asian countries where the Paraguayan harp was performed. Harp players choose their musical repertoire to suit the festival, recital, or venue at which they perform. After speaking extensively with various harp performers during my fieldwork, I concluded that although musicians promote a specific type of repertoire or traditional music genre, it is the general public that determines the level of respect accorded to the various genres and styles. After meeting with various journalists and hosts of traditional music radio shows, I also learned that unlike in the past, the present-day promotion of Paraguayan music and musicians on radio and television is not mandated by the government, but dictated by their commercial sponsors. Since the 1960s, when touring Paraguayan conjuntos started to perform traditional music from Latin America, the phrase música internacional (international music) was adopted by performers to refer not only to some of the musical repertoire from other parts of Latin America but also folk music from other world regions, as well as pop and commercial music. Since the Paraguayan harp allowed the performer to play numerous “international” songs involving a small degree of chromaticism (sharps being achieved by pressing the top of the strings with one hand while plucking with the other) and since foreign audiences seemed captivated by the performance of an “exotic” and “Indian” instrument that could play familiar music, Paraguayan arpistas were motivated to explore this repertoire. During a visit with harpist and luthier Abel Sánchez Giménez (1934– 2012) in Asunción, we discussed some of the current issues and general views related to the repertoire of música internacional. Sánchez Giménez reminisced about his many years of touring with several conjuntos throughout Europe, Egypt, Israel, and Iran, indicating the amazement displayed by audiences and patrons when he performed Paraguayan traditional harp compositions such as Pájaro campana and Tren lechero. His most rewarding performing experiences took place in the early 1970s, when he was invited to give a series of private harp recitals for the Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (1919–1980), and his wife, Princess Farah Diba. Sánchez Giménez also noted that other non-Paraguayan compositions, such as the Argentine tango La Cumparsita, Johann Strauss’s Blue Danube, the song Edelweiss, and the allegro from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G-minor, were part of a rich musical repertoire that the Paraguayan harp was capable of playing for the delight of a more select public abroad.

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After I discussed with him in more detail the nature and goal of my research on the Paraguayan harp, he offered to perform a few pieces for me. Expecting to hear an impressive rendition of a traditional song by one of the greatest maestros of the Paraguayan harp, I placed my notebook by my side and I leaned back on my chair. He took one of the three harps on display in his living room and told me con este instrumento puedo tocar música clásica, la cual le da categoría al artista (with this instrument I can play Classical music, which gives class to the artist). The console of the diatonic harp looked different. Sánchez Giménez had placed the mechanic levers used for classic and Celtic harps on his instrument. With these, the Paraguayan harp could achieve a higher degree of chromaticism, to play more challenging repertoire, and to be quickly tuned to any tonal area. Sánchez Giménez played La cumparsita, part of the allegro from Mozart’s Symphony No. 40 in G-minor, and the Neapolitan song Santa Lucia. My several requests to hear him play Paraguayan traditional music were ignored. Instead, I received a lecture on the origin of the diatonic harp, which Sánchez Giménez placed around the ancient Hebrew King David, and a few more selections of música internacional. Sánchez Giménez noted that besides teaching harp to a select group of students and building harps, he very much enjoyed playing music at home daily. While the majority of arpistas support themselves by performing with conjuntos or as solo artists, some of them are hired to record with other musicians or teach harp. However, an increasing number of arpistas also work in non-musical careers. I met harpists and other traditional music performers who were carpenters, clerks, electricians, jewelers, and store-owners. All of them considered the performance of Paraguayan traditional music to be part of their daily lives. They indicated to me that their technique and repertoire, including current música internacional, were informed by listening to other harpists and to what the public consumed through radio and television at the time. Their promotion of Paraguayan music is received by the public as part of a general view, according to which the celebration and preservation of tradition, such as the harp and its music, points to some of the values associated with the notion of paraguayidad.

ON IDENTITY, PARAGUAYIDAD, AND TEKÓ Having used terms such as “identity,” “paraguayidad,” “tekó,” and “traditional music” in this introductory section, I find it necessary to define these notions in the way will be utilized in this work. A more detailed discussion of these notions will be provided in chapter 2.

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When the notion of identity is used officially, mainly by the government and its offices (the Vice-Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Education and Culture, the Ministry of Tourism, among others), it carries the idea of a group of people recognizing that they belong to a specific past and present time and a geographical space. It also implies the desire of that group of people to share who they are by engaging themselves in the performance of certain traditions, such as speaking both Spanish and Guaraní, recognizing the history of the country and the inherited IberianGuaraní values, and displaying a high regard for the national territory and its natural resources. Although the first systematic construction of a Paraguayan identity was part of the political projects of the governments of dictator José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia (1766–1840) and president Carlos Antonio López (1792–1862) in the nineteenth century, the twentieth-century governments of the Liberal and Colorado parties did not enforce a specific cultural agenda targeting a Paraguayan identity.11 Instead, they relied on systematic elementary and secondary education, promoting Guaraní grammar and Paraguayan history as part of a curriculum aiming to reeducate Paraguayans through the views expressed in the textbooks of historians such as Luis Benítez, Justo Prieto, Rafael Eladio Velázquez, and others, who had received official endorsement and funding.12 Part of the official discourse was to create the sentiment of an undivided nation where citizens would willingly pledge allegiance to the core values of the constitution: libertad, unión, e igualdad (freedom, union, and equality) and to the economic, educational, defense, and social projects of the governments in power.13 Even though they established schools and constructed roads throughout the country, and approved agricultural and technological plans, most Paraguayan governments of the twentieth century were tainted by widespread financial and political corruption, serving and benefiting themselves from the national coffers and available resources, and putting the country into immense external debt. Through government discourses and the particular projects of the Liberal and Colorado political parties, mainly between the 1920s and the 1970s, Paraguayan identity, that is, the notion that Paraguayans are a group of people that belong to a specific geographical territory with a specific history, became, indeed, a constructed idea, reinforced by the creation and promotion of local traditions (music, folk dances, crafts, food), and accepted as part of the essence of paraguayidad, a notion embraced by the majority of the members of the working and middle classes. Because of the sociocultural inculcation of this notion, it is not surprising that “Paraguayan identity” was and still is perceived by arpistas and other traditional music performers as part of paraguay-

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idad. During casual conversations with arpistas, I noticed that identity and paraguayidad were used synonymously in reference to a relationship between an ideal set of beliefs and values and an ideal historical past. That “ideal historical past” is placed between the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, a time of reconstruction after the Triple Alliance War (1865–1870), and a time when most of the folk stories and traditions were invented and inculcated. The “ideal beliefs and values,” referred to by many harp performers are embodied in the phrase “los valores de la gente sencilla” (the values of the simple folk), and interpreted as referring to friendship, honesty, and solidarity, all of them ideas found in the tekó. With some exceptions, most present-day harp performers believe that they are the bearers of a long-standing Paraguayan musical tradition, which has the power to promote and disseminate some of the [past and contemporary] sociocultural values associated with paraguayidad: regard for the land, historical memory, and the Guaraní language. Nevertheless, arpistas are not concerned about the short-term cultural impact that they may have; they believe that as long as they continue to do their work, the individual and systematic performance of traditional music will yield its fruit over time. Closely connected to the idea of Paraguayan identity, the notion of paraguayidad has been articulated by the state through the promotion of beliefs and ideas related to the historical past, the geographical territory, the systematic instruction in and spoken use of the Guaraní language, and the creation and promotion of popular traditions, exemplified in the “officialization” of religious festivities, folk music, and dance. Beginning in the late 1950s and until the mid-1980s, the state promoted artistic, musical, and popular expressions associated with paraguayidad. Among these “officialized” expressions, the para-liturgical activities (dance, fair, food, games, music) connected especially to the festivities of San Blás (Saint Blas, Catholic patron saint of Paraguay) on February 3, Kuruzú Ara (the feast of the Cross) on May 6, San Juan (Saint John the Baptist) on June 21, and the Virgen de Caacupé (The Virgin Mary of Caacupé); and the choreographic productions offered by the newly created Ballet Folclórico Municipal (The Municipal Folkloric Ballet) and the folk music performances of the Banda Folclórica Municipal (The Municipal Folk Music Band), were of paramount significance in the construction and reinforcement of popular expressions. Paraguayans take such expressions to be long-standing cultural traditions. As noted above, arpistas and other traditional music performers use the distinct terms “identity” and paraguayidad interchangeably, to explain through a series of collective ideas and actions that reflect what and who Paraguayans are. Generally speaking, arpistas do not verbalize what Paraguayan identity or paraguayidad are, what they should be, or how they should be perceived; however, at traditional

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music festivals they or other members of the musical conjunto may choose to say a few words before performing. At these times, some of them offer a short speech reinforcing the idea that the Paraguayan harp in itself is a symbol of identity because of its musical and cultural significance. By “musical” significance they refer to the Paraguayan and “international” repertoire harpists played on the instrument. By “cultural significance” they refer to the positive reception the instrument enjoyed abroad in the 1930s and 1940s, mainly through the performance career of Paraguayan harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo, and between the 1950s and 1980s in Latin America and in Western Europe. Irrespective of the explanations that most arpistas and the general public may offer in regard to paraguayidad, it is crucial to recognize that this socially constructed idea, first inculcated by the state, has served as one of the main means of propagating invented traditions such as folk music festivals. Though connected to the idea of paraguayidad, the notion of the tekó has not on the face of it been directly inculcated by the state. It is difficult to determine with precision since when, to what extent, and through what means the state has used the socially embedded idea of “being [a good] Paraguayan” to promote a specific official agenda. Nevertheless, it is clear that a “Paraguayan way of being” has been used by governments to construct and reinforce attitudes, ideas, and traditions that depict Paraguay as an ideal place, where people live freely enjoying the economic progress achieved by common labor. It is also true that through the systematic instruction of Guaraní at elementary and secondary schools, other ideas and values encompassed in the notion of the tekó, such as rekó (place or home), tekojojá (solidarity), teko-katueté (pride), teko-ogaiguá (family), tekopotĩ (honesty), tekopyty (friendship), and others, were used to explain the need to create a Paraguayan society seen as a “big family,” where internal criticism was not needed and therefore not allowed. Since most harpists grew up in the countryside, where mainly Guaraní and Jopará were spoken, it is not surprising that they would identify themselves with the idea of the tekó, or that they would disseminate it, and consequently reinforce it, through daily conversation, stories, or even musical performances. The idea of the tekó is deeply embedded in the mind of the Paraguayan, and as we will discuss next, not only are tekó and paraguayidad considered by many to be equivalent, but representations of the tekó abound in the poetry, music, song, and dance presented at events such as music festivals and other performances of Paraguayan traditional music. The association of sociocultural values with Paraguayan traditional music, seen by the general public as a reflection of paraguayidad or as an agent reinforcing Paraguayan identity, is a phenomenon that emerged in the twentieth century. Culturally speaking, the diatonic harp has become

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a symbol of Paraguayan identity through a social process of materialculture appropriation and adaptation, a phenomenon not of course unique to Paraguay. The adaptation of a particular musical instrument as an extension of sociocultural values and beliefs or as a symbol constructing and reinforcing identity, has been documented in works such as those by Paul Berliner on the mbira from the Shona people of Zimbabwe (1978), Kevin Dawe on the the lyra-laouto ensemble in Crete (1996), Regula Qureshi on the North Indian sarangi (1997), and Thomas Turino on the urban mestizo charango in Peru (1984), among others. These case studies have shown how aesthetic and symbolic elements of culture, as well as aspects of social and cultural identity can be embedded and portrayed in and through the performances of musical instruments. As a musical instrument used throughout the twentieth century in the performance of Paraguayan traditional and popular music, the diatonic harp was assimilated into the body of popular expressions, particularly instrumental and song performances that have come to exemplify paraguayidad at various social levels. This assimilation process has been highly influenced by the positive reception of the instrument abroad, often as a manifestation of a commercial push to exoticize the Paraguayan harp.

NOTES 1. Heriberto Leguizamón is an internationally known harp performer; his father, Lorenzo Leguizamón, is a national musical icon among harp players and the general public. 2. The specific works I refer to are Benedict Anderson’s Imagined Communities (1983 and 1991), Paul Berliner’s The Soul of Mbira (1978), Carl Dahlhaus’ Between Romanticism and Modernism (1980), Clifford Geertz’s The Interpretation of Cultures (1973), and Victor Turner’s The Forest of Symbols (1967). 3. While my long-term fieldwork research was conducted from March 2001– September 2002, other research trips to Paraguay took place in July–August 2004, June–July 2005, June–July 2007, November 2007, July–August 2009, July–August 2010, October 2010, and June–July 2011. 4. See http://lesamisdepablo.free.fr/zic.htm (accessed 14 July 2014). 5. Part of the text indicates, Jean Rambaudi, impassioned for many years of [performing] the traditional music of the Andes, chose the harp, the instrument through which he could best translate this poignant sentiment that he reads [sic] in the Latin American folklore. With [harpists] Aparicio González, Lorenzo Leguizamón, Rito Pedersen, Silvio Moras Orué, and others, of which the list would be long, he [Rambaudi] penetrates the soul of the musical tradition [of Paraguay], the Guaraní culture, the poetic richness of which, from the singing of birds to the sound of the falls of Yguazu, he was able to express through the instrument while passing through the nostalgia of the times of the Jesuit missions. See http://lesamisdepablo.free.fr/zic.htm (accessed 14 July 2014).

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6. Agustín Barboza, who worked in Buenos Aires with Pérez Cardozo, comments on the nature and generosity of the performer: “[Félix] era grande en todo sentido. A su físico elegante y llamativo se sumaba la sencillez, la cordialidad, la generosidad y más que nada una solidaridad con el prójimo.” (Barboza 2000:39) [[Félix] was big in every sense. To his handsome and elegant physique one could add his simplicity, kindness, generosity, and above all, his solidarity with his neighbor.] Until this day, the affectionate nickname is respectfully applied to the performer and often mentioned when the memory of Pérez Cardozo is evoked during recitals and music festivals. 7. The general public does not see a major conflict with the phrases arpa india or arpa guaraní. 8. Lorenzo París, interview by author, Asunción, November 3, 2007. 9. Mariano González, interview by author, Skype interview, November 25, 2011. 10. Bartomeu Melià, interview by author, Asunción, July 26, 2002, and Gerardo Fogel, interview by author, Asunción, August 12, 2002. 11. While the Partido Liberal (previously known as Centro Democrático) was organized on July 10, 1887, the Partido Colorado (Asociación Nacional Republicana) was founded on September 11, 1887. The Partido Colorado endorses a nationalist, republican (recognizing a “Republic”), agrarian, popular, and democratic political agenda. The Partido Liberal (currently, the Partido Liberal Radical Auténtico) endorses a nationalist, democratic, pluralist and poly-class ideology. 12. Luis G. Benítez, Historia de la cultura en el Paraguay. (Asunción: El Arte S.A., 1966); Justo Prieto, Paraguay, La Provincia Gigante de las Indias—Análisis espectral de una pequeña nación mediterránea). (Buenos Aires: Librería El Ateneo Editorial 1951); Rafael Eladio Velázquez, Breve Historia de la cultura en el Paraguay (Asunción: Editora Litero Técnica, 1966). 13. The ideas of freedom, union, and equality are also expressed in the text of the national anthem.

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2

A Musical Instrument, a Symbol of Identity

THE PARAGUAYAN HARP

T

hough no documentary evidence exists to identify the exact point at which the Paraguayan diatonic harp became closely associated with popular music, it is clear that by the nineteenth century the instrument had become a part of the soundscapes of Paraguay and the Río de la Plata region. As we will see in the following chapter, after the expulsion of the Jesuits from Paraguay in 1767, the transplanted, late-Renaissance European instrument, once connected to liturgical musical practices, was gradually transformed in its physical appearance and reinvented in its function to accommodate the musical practices of the popular musicians of the time. Although the harp remained one of the instruments used in the Catholic liturgy during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries in Paraguay, its role in the church diminished as the instrument was incorporated into the realm of popular music. Further hindering the attempt to reconstruct a continuous chronology of the diatonic harp’s development into its current role as an instrument of popular expression, is the fact that libraries and archives containing documents and references in regard to the various aspects of the cultural life of nineteenth-century Paraguay were lost during the Triple Alliance War. Nevertheless, local lore makes reference to arperos (popular harp players) and guitarreros (popular guitar players) who traveled at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth throughout the various towns in the eastern region of the country, playing folk songs for diverse social gatherings, often in exchange for coins or food. The contemporary pairing of 17

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guitar and harp in the performance of Paraguayan traditional music, a convention that emerged in the first quarter of the twentieth century, was not necessarily a common practice among nineteenth-century arperos and guitarreros. The arpero, for the most part, was an independent performer, traveling from town to town: a minstrel who played the harp and sang. Even among popular performers, the term arpero carried a negative social connotation, implying a bohemian lifestyle characterized by vagrancy and drunkenness. This particular social view began to change after the astounding commercial success of harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo during the 1930s and 1940s in Argentina. Pérez Cardozo’s accomplishments inspired other twentieth-century Paraguayan harpists such as Luis Bordón, Digno García, and Lorenzo Leguizamón to travel abroad performing as part of a conjunto or as solo artists, showcasing the country’s unofficial emblem of paraguayidad, a culturally developed concept associated with something explained as Paraguayan identity. Following in the footsteps of these performers, a large number of harpists have continued to actively perform in Paraguay, Latin America, Western Europe, the Middle East, and Asia. In fact in the twentieth century, through the dynamic interaction of instrument, performer, and society, the diatonic harp became an integral part of the body of cultural expressions associated with Paraguayan traditions and folklore. As we will observe in this chapter and the next, the arpa paraguaya as the symbol of local identity par excellence is a product of the social imagination of twentieth-century Paraguay. In order to shed some light on the possible connections between the harp and Paraguayan identity, let us turn to the concept of paraguayidad.

PARAGUAYIDAD AND PARAGUAYAN IDENTITY Understanding that identity is the ground of action, constructed through a splitting between that which one is and that which is the other (Hall 1991), and existing in a constant state of flux or transit, in a continuum between being made and unmade (Melià 2000), let us consider how a Paraguayan identity has been reinforced in the social imagination of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Paraguayans. Presently, most upper-, middle-, and working-class Paraguayans assert their sense of social and cultural identity through the espousal of a collective outlook known as paraguayidad (Paraguayan-ness). After many conversations with local historians, sociologists, anthropologists, journalists, and musicians, as well as friends, I gathered that, in general, this outlook encompassed the high regard and recognition of at least three distinct aspects: the geographical territory—explained as el territorio nacional, the history of Paraguay as a nation expressed with the possessive nuestra historia, and the sharing of

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certain social, spiritual, and cultural values—very often designated lo nuestro (what is ours). These values, in turn, seem to be closely connected to the tekó (the way of being), a culturally embedded and socially imagined concept taken from the cosmovision of the ancient Guaraní group, an expression that I have chosen to explain as a “Paraguayan way of being.” Paraguayidad, then, is a culturally constructed idea that intends to reflect a sentiment of “Paraguayan identity,” a politically and socially inculcated notion. Nevertheless, for most Paraguayans, both paraguayidad and “Paraguayan identity” are synonymous ideas. Looking through the lens of Paraguayan geography, social values, and history, the concept of paraguayidad encompasses what in essence constitutes all things Paraguayan. I am not implying that this is an absolute and exclusive model. Rather, it illustrates one way of understanding a social process that constructs, affirms, and transmits a Paraguayan identity. In addition to this “way of being” (tekó), Paraguayans also recognize the place where they exist and the expressions (beliefs, traditions, values) associated with that existence. In the cosmovision of the Guaraní, that place of existence was the tekohá—literally, the place where people exist and operate, culturally speaking. At the same time, the Guaraní interpreted the tekohá as the place to be, the place of being, or the place where people are who they are (Melià 1997). I believe that a part of this cultural world or cultural arena known as the “Paraguayan” tekohá is the teko-katú, which is the agreement between what is thought and what must be done in order to be, or as the cultural context in which people give meaning to their actions. It is, precisely, in the teko-katú where certain cultural ideas that are distinctly Paraguayan become manifested, thus portraying and explaining the attitude and lifestyle of most present-day Paraguayans. Although the initial concept of a Paraguayan nation, which began in 1811 with the proclamation of independence from the Spanish Crown, was promoted by a Paraguayan intellectual elite, the twenty-first-century notion of the term “nation” embraced by most Paraguayan citizens, appears, on the surface, to be devoid of political associations, reflecting instead the idea of a group of people engaging in dialogue with a rich history and well-defined cultural and social values. In my view, most Paraguayans explain the concept of nation as the relationship among three interlocking ideas: the tekó, the tekohá, and the tekorã (literally, the way of being, the place of existence or the cultural system, and the place and the people we will become), which I will discuss further below. “Paraguayan identity” should be then understood in three ways: first, to signify the social and political agents that define and promote an identity in transit; next, to explain identity in the context of imagination as a social force (Appadurai 1996); and third, as a way in which people can experience a sense of cultural belonging with a specific political and ideological significance

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(Tomlinson 1991). While in the concept of paraguayidad we may find local traditions reflecting and promoting a certain degree of “Paraguayan uniqueness,” in practice, we may also find that “Paraguayan uniqueness” ingrained in daily life. Performed in the collective social imagination, this “Paraguayan uniqueness” refers to various sociocultural practices such as speaking or singing songs in Guaraní or Jopará—a locally developed language mixing Guaraní and Spanish; the musical elements found in the Paraguayan polca and the guarania; the performance of traditional music at specific geographical locations identified with popular tradition, the musical practices associated with traditional guitar and harp songs; and the consumption of regional food and drinks. While Paraguayan sociologists and anthropologists explain Paraguayan identity as a constructed idea, people from the working and middle classes have come to understand Paraguayan identity as synonymous with being a “good Paraguayan,” an individual who displays his or her paraguayidad. In the minds of many Paraguayans, being a “good Paraguayan” entails the acquirement of certain cultural knowledge and the espousal of particular beliefs and practices. In response to my inquiries regarding the current perception of what or who is a “good Paraguayan,” the majority of people interviewed in the course of my fieldwork provided examples of specific ideas and practices which exemplify it in their minds. 1 Among these examples or attributes were a good understanding of Paraguay’s historical past, a demonstrated knowledge of elements associated with the Guaraní culture (e.g., the daily use of the spoken Guaraní language [ñane ñe’ẽ], and the employment of plants and herbs as home remedies), Paraguayan folk traditions (ñanemba’é), a love for the land expressed through a knowledge of its geography and an appreciation for its natural resources, a belief in a monotheistic doctrine (tekopave’y) expressed through the association with Catholic institutions and ritual practices (tekopave’y mba’é), and an emphasis on specific social values (friendship—tekopyty, family—tekó-ogayguá, solidarity—tekojojá, pride— teko-katueté, and honesty—tekopotĩ).2 While most present-day Paraguayans consider the conception of the colonial mestizo as having paramount significance in the development of Paraguay as a nation, there still prevails, to some degree, an attitude of intellectual and social prejudice in regard to the concept of mestizaje in that it implies a direct link between the contemporary Paraguayan and the Guaraní culture. Generally speaking, people acknowledge that the practice of mestizaje brought into place the Paraguayan, an intelligent individual who still suffers the social consequences of being the product of two conflictive cultures: the Guaraní and the Spanish.3 Although the construction of a Paraguayan identity has historically taken place in the shadow of the negative views expressed by the upper social classes and

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the political elite in regard to the concept of mestizaje, the very same process of mestizaje, which has played a fundamental role in the development of Paraguayan culture, has also been consistently associated with the devaluing of the Guaraní Indian and, consequently, of the mestizo.4 Unfortunately, people from the countryside, especially those who fluently speak Guaraní or Jopará, are still considered less sophisticated and intellectually inferior by the upper and middle classes. Immigrants from the countryside to the capital or other major cities in search of financial stability often undergo a detachment from their agrarian origins, adopting a vantage point of superiority vis à vis their campesino (an individual from the countryside) friends to whom they refer as koyguá, a Guaraní term used at times in social circles to refer to an individual regarded as uneducated and unfit for progress.5 From the 1940s to the 1970s, even speaking the Guaraní language carried a negative social connotation among members of the upper and middle classes living in the capital. During that time, those groups associated the practice with illiteracy and social regression. Despite these negative connotations, however, songs and poetry in Guaraní were cultivated and flourished among intellectuals. In the 1980s, a reform in the education system mandated the instruction of Guaraní grammar in public and private schools, and since the 1990s, elementary school teachers have been required to develop lesson plans and teach in both Guaraní and Spanish. The fact that the socio-cultural stigma of the mestizo origin continues to permeate the various layers of Paraguayan society highlights the dichotomy between the collective desire for immersion in Paraguayan uniqueness, defined by the language (Guaraní/ Jopará) and the folklore, on the one hand, and, on the other, the desire to become globally accepted as well as more educated and refined from a foreign (i.e., European) perspective.

FROM “HARP” TO “PARAGUAYAN HARP” Historically speaking, the development and performance practice of the diatonic harp in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Paraguay is best understood as consisting of four significant stages in the instrument’s development: “before and after” harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo and a “before and after” harpist Luis Bordón. Although Pérez Cardozo and Bordón were not the only harpists who cultivated the instrument in the course of their musical careers in the region, the fact that both performers achieved commercial success abroad was seen in Paraguay as an indication of the unquestionable popularity and social recognition of both harp and harpist, later understood as a symbol and transmitter of things “Paraguayan.” In fact, this particular identification is still prevalent, since for

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most present-day Paraguayans, the national, regional, or international commercial success of performers—as measured by record sales, appearances on radio and television shows, solo recitals, and musical tours—is considered a clear indication of local, regional, and, with the advent of the Internet, global recognition. The majority of Paraguayans believe that when due to his positive achievement, contribution, or work, a compatriota is recognized abroad (as, for instance, an educator, intellectual, musical performer, or sportsman), such international recognition immediately signifies that both the individual and the country represented have been accepted by outsiders, and that consequently, because of such “patriotic acts,” the individual should be lauded at home. This was certainly the case with Paraguayan harpists Félix Pérez Cardozo and Luis Bordón. During the period before Féliz Pérez Cardozo (from the latter part of the nineteenth century into the 1930s), arperos cultivating traditional music, mostly in the countryside, were regarded as lower-class musicians, often seen as societal outcasts. Although Pérez Cardozo himself was trained in the arpero tradition, his 1931 trip to Buenos Aires changed the popular perception of the harp performer forever, as his commercial success in Argentina brought recognition to the diatonic harp and elevated the status of the harp performer to that of an artist. In addition to his success abroad, Pérez Cardozo, with the help of Paraguayan luthier Epifanio López, introduced changes in the construction of the diatonic harp, threading the strings through the middle and lower portion of the console and adding four extra bordonas (bass strings) to the instrument. By emphasizing melodic passages in the left hand and by introducing original sound effects such as the bordoneado (walking bass), the two-finger “Paraguayan” tremolo, and short melodic glissandos, Pérez Cardozo also modified the harmonic and rhythmic accompaniment patterns of typical Paraguayan traditional music. Pérez Cardozo, who was regularly featured during the 1930s and 1940s on live radio shows in Buenos Aires, recorded Argentine and Paraguayan traditional music with various conjuntos, performed at elite restaurants and confiterías, and toured extensively throughout northern and central Argentina. His folklore-inspired pieces composed for solo harp, among them Llegada, Mi despedida, and Tren lechero, have become staples of the Paraguayan traditional repertoire. Pérez Cardozo’s original compositions and arrangements for the harp of popular tunes such as Pájaro campana and Carretaguy, reflect the ability of the composer-performer to interpret some of the most accomplished onomatopoeic pieces and idiomatic writing for the instrument, the main function of which, until that time, was the accompaniment of Paraguayan vocal music conjuntos. Pérez Cardozo’s innovations in the Paraguayan harp technique and performance practice are most evident in his arrangement of Pájaro

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campana (The Bell Bird), one of the most celebrated and most frequently performed instrumental polcas on the Paraguayan harp. Attaining regional and international recognition through Pérez Cardozo’s arrangement, Pájaro campana (also known as Guyrá campana [guyrá = “bird”] or Guyra pú [pú = “sound”]) is an onomatopoeic composition based on an anonymous motivo popular (popular [musical] motive).6 Pájaro campana describes the call or sound made by the bird of the same name—Pájaro campana (procnias nudicollis)—which was recognized as the national bird of Paraguay in 2004. Since the call of the male bird seems to be answered by the female bird a fifth higher, the composition is based on repetitive melodic passages of intervals of fifths and sixths. Generally performed in three sections and in verse-refrain form, the repeated melodic motive (C–F–C–E) and harmonic pattern (I–V–I) offer multiple possibilities for thematic variations Pájaro campana has become such a favorite for the Paraguayan harp that harpists are frequently compelled by popular demand to play the piece as an encore at recitals and music festivals. In addition to arrangements of Pájaro campana for the diatonic harp, the host of renditions for piano, guitar, and voice serve as testimony to the widespread popularity of this composition. Both Pájaro campana and Pérez Cardozo’s original onomatopoeic composition Tren lechero (The Milk-Run Train) demonstrate the technical accomplishments and sound-effect innovations (bordoneado, short glissandi, trémolo paraguayo) introduced and developed by the performer Pérez Cardozo. In the period immediately after Pérez Cardozo’s success accompanying traditional and popular music from Argentina and Paraguay and showcasing the harp through the performance of solo instrumental pieces, other Paraguayan harp players followed his example, performing with Paraguayan conjuntos throughout Argentina, Brazil, the Andean countries, the Caribbean, and Central and North America. Not only were Pérez Cardozo’s performance style and technique emulated, but his compositions and arrangements of traditional tunes were widely performed and used by other harpists as models for other original pieces also based on folk musical elements. Pérez Cardozo’s musical accomplishments are still considered a source of inspiration and the model of success for other Paraguayan harpists. The performer’s humble beginnings, his commercial success in Buenos Aires, his innovations in the construction of the instrument, and his multiple compositions and arrangements are seen by local musicians and the general public as factors that have validated the Paraguayan diatonic harp and established the Paraguayan harpist as a serious artist capable of successfully exploring and playing the repertoire of another musical tradition—that of Argentina. For most Paraguayan harp performers, Pérez Cardozo stands out as an individual who transcended

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the seemingly limited role dictated by his training in the arpero tradition and attained tremendous success as a widely recognized artist. “Before” Luis Bordón, a period spanning from the 1930s through the late 1950s, the Paraguayan diatonic harp typically accompanied vocal music conjuntos performing Paraguayan, Argentine, and other Latin American traditional repertoires, and was occasionally featured as a solo instrument during recitals and shows. Around this time, the Paraguayan diatonic harp was known abroad by a variety of names generated in a commercial attempt to exoticize the instrument, among them arpa india, arpa nativa, arpa criolla, or simply, arpa. In 1959, harpist Luis Bordón, who had been living and performing in Brazil for several years, used the expression arpa paraguaya in reference to an original composition for a recording project, which also received the cover title Harpa paraguáia (Paraguayan harp).7 Not only was Bordón the first to employ the phrase arpa paraguaya in reference to a composition or to the diatonic instrument built in Paraguay, the harpist was also the first Paraguayan performer to release an LP record exclusively devoted to solo instrumental traditional music for the harp and to offer solo recitals featuring the diatonic harp. After Luis Bordón’s milestone Harpa paraguáia solo recording and recitals for solo harp, the Paraguayan diatonic harp came to be known in Paraguay and abroad as the arpa paraguaya. In addition to its role as an instrument accompanying vocal music conjuntos, several arpistas profesionales such as Nicolás “Nicolasito” Caballero (b. 1949), César Cataldo (1951– 2012), Raquel Lebrón (b. 1954), and Ismael Ledesma (b. 1962), followed in Bordón’s footsteps, launching careers as solo performers and recording artists, as well as composing new works for the instrument. Although other prominent Paraguayan harp performers and composers, contemporaries of Luis Bordón such as Cristino Báez Monges (1930–1987), Santiago Cortesi (1913–1992), Digno García (1919–1984), Lorenzo Leguizamón (1925–2006), and Abel Sánchez Giménez (1934–2012), performed extensively with their traditional music conjuntos throughout Europe and Asia between the 1950s and 1980s, Luis Bordón stands out as the first performer to introduce and designate the diatonic harp made in Paraguay as arpa paraguaya, the first Paraguayan harpist to give solo recitals of Paraguayan and Latin American traditional music in Brazil, and the first Paraguayan harpist to record Brazilian carnival music, boleros, and tangos—genres and styles later referred to in Paraguay as música internacional. Other milestones in the history and development of the Paraguayan diatonic harp include Dionisio Arzamendia’s introduction in Asunción in 1951 of a new performance style that featured the harpist’s simultaneous singing and playing as part of a conjunto; the contributions of harpist and singer Digno García who, with his wealth of original compositions, was one of the first performers to travel extensively throughout Europe and

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Asia as part of the Trío Los Paraguayos in the early 1950s, bringing Paraguay’s emblematic instrument into the European performance circuit; the first solo performance of traditional music in a formal academic setting given by harpist Abel Sánchez Giménez in the early 1970s in Asunción; Mariano González and Adelio Ovelar’s experiments with the production of semitones by the addition of levers to the Paraguayan harp, as well as the introduction of the llave or brass ring by Nicolás Caballero and Papi Galán; and the innovations applied to the construction of the instrument, particularly the addition of strings by harpists and luthiers Dionisio Arzamendia and Abel Sánchez Giménez in the 1980s and 1990s. The production of chromaticism by the pressing of the strings with the pads of the fingers or by mechanical means such as rods, llaves, and levers, has allowed Paraguayan harpists to explore an international repertoire comprised of traditional and popular music from European and Latin American countries. In the local social imagination, the inclusion of this international repertoire has elevated the instrument to a position of higher social regard and musical appreciation at home and abroad. This view has also been reinforced by the numerous arrangements and recordings released by Paraguayan arpistas profesionales who have regularly included “international” music as part of their performance repertoire. Not only does the performance of música internacional—including music from films— establish the arpa paraguaya as a “serious instrument” and designate the arpistas profesionales as world-class artists in the minds of the Paraguayan people, but it serves to reinforce in the collective sentiment that the Paraguayan harp and the Paraguayan harpist are capable of attaining success anywhere, performing any type of repertoire, solidifying the popular perception that the instrument’s musical versatility, especially when featured abroad, makes it an icon of Paraguayan identity.

THE PARAGUAYAN HARP, PARAGUAYIDAD, AND IDENTITY The social function and emblematic role of the Paraguayan harp needs to be examined in light of the already complex and often ambivalent views that Paraguayans express in regard to their cultural identity. Indeed the function and the role of the instrument continue to inform an ongoing and dynamic dialogue between the Paraguayan harp and traditional music, articulating and reinforcing aspects of that cultural identity. Applying Connerton’s analysis, suggesting that when evoking recent and distant memories our images of social spaces create for us the illusion of rediscovering the past in the present (1989), I observed that when Paraguayans celebrate their paraguayidad and their cultural identity through music festivals, they indeed “rediscover” past beliefs, traditions,

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and values in the present. In doing so, they recapture the Guaraní idea of searching for the tekorã, which historically has been perceived, at least in the Guaraní cosmovision, as a type and shadow of the yvy marane’ỹ (literally, “the [idyllic] land of no evil,” or, for practical purposes, “the place where we will be who we want to become”). Indeed, the driving force behind the search for a Paraguayan identity or this “culture that we will become” (Melià 1997) could be explained as a practical, yet imagined association with the historical concept of yvy marane’ỹ, that mythical land—”paradise”—created in the imagination of the precolonial Guaraní, who were constantly migrating and searching for a better soil and living conditions. This is not to say a direct link exists between the articulation at traditional music festivals of popular expressions that reflect the identity of present-day Paraguayans and the cosmovision of the Guaraní community prior to the arrival of the colonists in the sixteenth century.8 Rather, I am suggesting that a parallel exists between the sociocultural experience of the Guaranís and their search for the yvy marane’ỹ, and modern-day Paraguayans in search of an identity, explained as the place, the people, and the culture that they are to become. Although the performance of the teko-katú (the physical demonstration of paraguayidad through social customs and material representations of Paraguayan culture) motivates most Paraguayans to seek out a better place of being (the tekorã), their collective performance of those traditions encompassed by the teko-katú also points to a continuous historical line of social and cultural practices developed in the twentieth century that, by repetition, has reinforced a Paraguayan identity through time. The diverse artistic and popular expressions found in Paraguayan folklore, including traditional music, dance, and instruments such as the diatonic harp and the guitar, are indeed part of the tekó and the teko-katú of the Paraguayan. In the same way as Turner (1967) sees ritual and symbols as a means to communicate “cultural texts” and meaning, Melià identifies three “trees of symbols” as the lens through which one can view Paraguayan culture (1997). These “three trees” are concepts found in the tekó and in the teko-katú of the Paraguayan: ore poriahú, ñane ñe’e, and koyguá. Melià’s analysis is significant because, as we will see, this lens reflects how these concepts could be translated and exemplified in the specific case of the festival Encuentro con Emiliano. The notion of ore poriahú (we the poor) refers to the idea of an individual or a group of individuals who regard the land as a socio-geographical space and as a labored space of existence. It highlights the values of a once larger agrarian community that has constituted a major segment of Paraguayan society and placed a high value on the soil as an organism that produces life and creates a commodified living space.9 Although it is accompanied by a sense of pride, sometimes referred to as poriahú ryvatã

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(the satisfied, or contented poor), ore poriahú also implies that rich people (upper-class society or, sometimes, those in political power) should not contribute to the lot of mboriahú (the poor) by means of economic pressure in the form of levying high taxes or creating new taxes, the denial of government funds to benefit agricultural projects, and political corruption. Ñane ñe’ẽ (our speech, or our word) refers to the Guaraní language, which not only offers a practical tool for oral communication, but also represents one of the main sociocultural values inherited from the Guaranís.10 The word koyguá, translated literally, reflects the idea of a farmer, or an individual who lives in the countryside and works the land. The idea of the koyguá can also encompass the previous two concepts: being poor (ore poriahú) and speaking Guaraní (ñane ñe’ẽ). Because the koyguá enjoys the land and its natural resources, his life could be perceived as free from excessive worry about the future. The concepts of ore poriahú, ñane ñe’ẽ, and koyguá have been articulated and recreated in most popular events associated with popular music, beginning with the concerts in the 1920s by Aristóbulo “Nonón” Domínguez’ (1896–1930) known as Ciclo de Aires Nacionales and continuing with subsequent folk music festivals throughout the twentieth century. In fact, most traditional music festivals that I attended in the course of my fieldwork included dances, songs, poetry, and short plays that reflected the significance which Paraguayans assign to these and other symbols of a Paraguayan identity. Festivals of traditional music in Paraguay have created arenas in which sociocultural aspects of a Paraguayan identity have been continually displayed and reinforced. Through the recreation and performance of specific traditions such as instrumental and vocal music as well as dance, a strong notion of social identity has been systematically ingrained in individuals participating as performers or audience. The repertoire performed at festivals expanded to include newly composed Paraguayan polcas and guaranias, which have since come to be viewed as part of the core Paraguayan traditional and folk repertoire. This new repertoire received the general designation of “folkinspired” songs with synonymous phrases such as folclore de proyección, música de inspiración folclórica, and música de proyección folclórica. Drawing on Erlmann’s reflection on world music as a new aesthetic form of the global imagination (1990), I believe that Paraguayan traditional music of “folk inspiration” can also be regarded as an aesthetic manifestation of the local imagination and as both a process and a means of capturing the present socio-historical moment, and reinforcing the promotion of an idealized Paraguayan cultural identity. In that context, we can highlight the annually celebrated Encuentro con Emiliano in Guarambaré, Paraguay, which, since its conception and as part of the Festival del Takuare’ẽ, has served as a milieu for the exempli-

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fication of the most popular and traditional of all artistic manifestations associated with Paraguayan identity and folklore. It is no coincidence that popular musician and poet Emiliano Rivarola Fernández, after whom the music festival is named, is regarded by many Paraguayans as the personification of the ideals and values found in the Paraguayan tekó, primarily because Fernández was, indeed, a koyguá poriahú, speaking, composing, and singing in ñane ñe’ẽ. Drawing a parallel with Stokes’s view of meaning (1994), I suggest that in the Encuentro con Emiliano, music and the other various artistic and popular expressions associated with the festival are socially meaningful due to the myriad ways in which people recognize their social identity and constructed spaces (Giddens 1991), and the boundaries that separate them. No doubt the diverse Paraguayan traditions (vocal music, galopa dancing, poetry reading, games, and typical foods) associated with the Encuentro con Emiliano provide a geographical and social space where people give those traditions meaning as expressions of their paraguayidad and cultural identity. Noting that culture seems to be historically reproduced by action (Sahlins 1988) and sometimes historically altered by action (Melià 1997), I suggest that Paraguayan social and cultural identities have not only been produced and altered by social action, but have also been articulated and reinforced in social arenas—festivals of popular music—in which people have affirmed the various elements of their paraguayidad defining their cultural identity. In the mid-twentieth century, this dynamic was already observed by Paraguayan historian Justo Prieto, according to whom Paraguayan identity has always followed a path of searching for perfection, while interacting with land, race, and society (1951). This point also corresponds to the perception of Paraguayan sociologist Ramón Fogel, according to whom cultural identity and Paraguayan self-confidence imply that people accept and are satisfied with who they are (Añazco 1997). Fogel, however, discusses a strong counterforce, which works against the selfassurance that accompanies the assertion of cultural identity. He believes that there exists in present-day Paraguay a type of social mobilization rooted in the rejection of Paraguayan culture, and that most Paraguayans, as was the case in the early twentieth century, still desire to become “civilized” by adopting foreign norms and values in order to become citizens of the new global community. In fact, searching for ways to define his identity within the global community, the present-day Paraguayan still suffers from a certain self-doubt or an inferiority complex that appears to be a contradiction of the proud and content and koyguá, a concept associated with the tekó. To some extent, the social phenomenon of simultaneous acceptance and rejection of Paraguayan culture could be indicative of the constant dynamic shifting and rearranging of Paraguayan identity. This does not necessarily present a contradiction, however, since pre-

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cisely such a dichotomy constitutes a fundamental characteristic of the notion of tekó, which encompasses taking pride in one’s teko-katú while seeking out the cultural “perfection” of the tekorã. As we will see in chapter 5, the sociocultural value currently applied to the Paraguayan harp and to musical genres or songs as cultural symbols of identity has been actively promoted by the official discourse through government decrees, the endorsement of publications, and the sponsorship of music ensembles, with the aim of reinforcing a Paraguayan identity informed by a nationalistic agenda. Since the majority of people consuming Paraguayan traditional music come from the working and middle classes, they do not reject the nationalistic tone of the official musical agenda; after all, these social classes are open to the idea of endorsing certain traditional genres, songs, and composers that may represent their sentiment. Based on folk genres and idioms, newly composed popular music, designated by local folklore specialists as folklore de proyeción has also played a fundamental role in the affirmation of Paraguayan identity. Thus, newly created “folk-inspired” music has not only enriched and expanded the Paraguayan popular music repertoire, it has also served as a means of promoting dialogue and interaction among the official, academic, commercial, and media domains, which have found in the popular discourse—mainly music festivals—a source of information for their various goals and projects. Although this active interaction of the various discourses vis à vis the popular discourse can be perceived as artificial or manipulative, the production and endorsement of the various local folk traditions, including performances of the Paraguayan harp, have been well received by a general public that by and large has disregarded official and commercial agendas and welcomed the repertoire, composers, and performers that in the social imagination represent who and what the people are.

NOTES 1. These ideas were expressed by people from the working class attending traditional music festivals, organizers of musical events, musicians, journalists, and young middle-class professionals with whom I interacted. 2. My discussion in the context and use of these ideas and terms indicate the strong connection between the present-day Paraguayan and the ancient Guaraní nation. 3. Anthropologist Miguel Chase Sardi comments that, “In our land of mestizos we generally honor with pride [and] with valid reason the Spanish father, but reject with shame the Indian mother, [who is] respectable and worthy as the first. The majority of the people and the pseudo-intellectual Paraguayans display an ambivalent racism, in which, as it has been demonstrated by Cadogán, ‘we sing

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epic praises to the imaginary Guaraní ‘race’ and [yet we] allow Indians of flesh and bone to die of starvation, syphilis, and tuberculosis by the roads of progress’” (Virella 1998:12). 4. Melià notes, “It has been said to the Paraguayan that he is mestizo, although numerically [speaking], biological miscegenation was never [a] determinant [factor]. The concept came along with an ideology of sub-valorization for the Indian; therefore no one wanted to be identified, ever, with the ‘Indian’ because of all that has been affirmed by colonialist about him—dirty, lazy, stupid, non-baptized. At the end of the day, [the Paraguayan] does not want to be mestizo either, due to the quota of Guaraní this [concept] implies. Although miscegenation seems to eliminate differences, in fact, it creates them” (Añazco 1997:105). 5. In Paraguay, the Guaraní term koyguá is sometimes associated with the Spanish term campesino, in reference to the social class working the land. It does not imply the concept of mestizo, nor an ethnic group, as in other regions in South America. The term campesino is sometimes used pejoratively by other social classes to denote an individual who is poor, illiterate, and unsophisticated. 6. In regard to the authorship of Pájaro campana or Guyrá campana, Dionisio Arzamendia (2003:336) indicates that Ampelio Villalba, who was already playing a version for guitar of this anonymous composition, introduced the motivo popular to Félix Pérez Cardozo. Nicolás Riveros (1995:167) suggests that harpist José del Rosario Diarte may have been the composer of the tune, since he first played it accompanied by guitarists Ampelio Villalba and Carlos Talavera and since both Diarte and Talavera confirmed this information at different times to researcher Juan Salazar Villagra. Nevertheless, Cardozo Ocampo (1989:145) suggests three other possible composers: flautist Eloy Martín Perez from Guairá, conductor and composer Bernardo Mosqueira from Carapeguá, and guitarist Carlos Talavera from Caazapá. 7. Since the recording was produced in Brazil, the name of the song and the cover title of the long play were released in Portuguese. 8. The colonial Guaranís not only found in the Jesuit missions a place of safety, but also a place of solace where they believed to have encountered the physical manifestation of the yvy marane’ỹ, where the tekorã was indeed attainable. The expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767 and the mandatory colonial socio-biological mestizaje did not completely extinguish the culturally inherited Guaraní idea of the yvy marane’ỹ. In my view, the idea morphed to become an intrinsic attribute of the Paraguayan who, throughout history, has been seeking his identity and his placement within the regional—and now global—community and searching for that idealized place of existence, the tekorã. 9. One of the ultimate status symbols for Paraguayans is the ownership of a piece of land, which shows a degree of social accomplishment and financial stability. 10. Meliá suggests, “Speaking the [Guaraní] language well or badly, Paraguayans feel that they posses in this communication system something that is the matrix of their way of thinking; not only do Paraguayans speak Guaraní, but they are spoken by the Guaraní, a language through which they receive intellectual categories and expressions that interpret their world” (Melià 1997:107).

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3

The Setting

GEOGRAPHICAL AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

L

ocated at latitude 23˚S, longitude 58˚W and surrounded by Argentina, Bolivia, and Brazil, the Republic of Paraguay is one of the two landlocked countries of South America. Occupying 406,752 sq. km (157,048 sq. miles), the country is divided naturally by the Paraguay River into two major regions that offer contrasting climate and landscapes. While the eastern portion of the country has fertile soil, hills, and wooded areas, the western region, or Chaco, is arid and contains empty plains and some forested areas. With almost six and a half million people, the majority of the population is concentrated in the eastern region. Asunción, founded in 1537, is the capital and the largest city in Paraguay. The country is divided into nineteen departamentos or geographical regions. While 95 percent of the population of the country is of mestizo ancestry (Spanish and Guaraní blood), the other 5 percent is comprised of a small number of indigenous communities and immigrant descendants of various ethnic groups. While most of the descendants of German, Japanese, Russian, and Ukranian immigrants tend to be located in Southern Paraguay, the majority of Russian-Canadian Mennonites inhabit the western region. These and the various surviving indigenous groups—Aché, Guayakí, Maká, Mbya-Guaraní, and others—are not completely integrated into the rest of Paraguayan society but live in fairly self-contained communities. Although the various indigenous groups do not commonly play the Paraguayan harp, some individual members of the Japanese and Mennonite communities have adopted the instrument in order to perform popular 31

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music. The form of the Paraguayan government is democratic and the official languages of the country are Spanish and Guaraní. Various hypotheses have emerged in reference to the origin of the word “Paraguay.” For some historians and Guaraní specialists, the term Paraguay appears to have derived from the combination of two words: Payaguá, the name of an Indian group, and y, “water,” in Guaraní. A second theory suggests the combination of the terms “crown” and “water,” thus implying a “crowned body of water,” the Paraguay River. The visual essence of this explanation is very much in line with the nature-oriented mentality of the Guaraní language as it evokes an image of the Paraguay River with palm trees crowning its banks, or the depiction of the inhabitants of the region at the beginning of the Spanish conquest: Guaraní Indians wearing feathered crowns. Others prefer to connect the word “Paraguay” to a regional bird known as paraqua (ortolida paraqua), but most Paraguayans today tend to associate the name of the country with that of the famed sixteenth-century Guaraní chief, Paraguá.1 The first historical accounts of Paraguay and the Río de la Plata area— the Atlantic coastal region bordering Uruguay and eastern Argentina— come from chronicles, letters, and documents written by missionaries, explorers, and travelers between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.2 After the first major expeditions conducted in 1515 by Juan Díaz de Solís (1470–1516) and in 1520 by Fernando Magalhães (1480–1521) to the Río de la Plata region, accounts from the sixteenth century make note of two other Iberian expeditions as the first to reach the territory of presentday Paraguay. Alejo García (d. 1525) carried out the first expedition in 1524, traveling across Paraguay by foot in search of a route to Peru. The second expedition took place in 1527, when Sebastián Gaboto or Cabot (c. 1484–1557), a Portuguese explorer, navigated for the first time the upper waters of the Paraná and Paraguay Rivers. In 1534 the Spanish Crown conferred on Don Pedro de Mendoza (1428–1495) the title of Adelantado del Río de la Plata (General Explorer of the La Plata River) and commissioned him to explore and exploit the new Spanish dominions. This vast portion of land included the territories lying between the Equator to the north, parallel 36˚57’09’’ (lying to the south of Buenos Aires), the meridian of Tordesillas from the Amazon Delta to the present-day state of São Paulo in Brazil in the east, and the Andean system, to the west, where Juan de Almagro and Francisco Pizarro were granted similar privileges. On August 15 1537, Captain Juan de Salazar y Espinoza (1508–1560) established a fort under the name of Casa Fuerte de Nuestra Señora Santa María de la Asunción (Fort House of Our Lady Saint Mary of the Asunción). The Fuerte de la Asunción received a major political transformation in 1541, when the Cabildo—the precursor of a municipal entity—was established, and the fort itself was turned into a city. With this change

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33

Asunción became the center for operations and explorations in the continuing conquest of the region.3 Although Adelantados favored absolute powers, the viceroyalties established by the Crown were to become the entities that, as direct representatives of the Spanish King, were the supreme authority in the New World. Viceroys administered all matters concerning government, legislature, justice, economy, and ecclesiastic and military forces. From 1542 to 1776, Paraguay depended politically on the Viceroyalty of Peru and, from 1776 to 1810 on the newly created Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata. Another significant administrative body was the Audiencia, one of the most important institutions of government control on the continent. Functioning as a supervising office, the Audiencia exercised control over the administration of the dominions in all aspects. The Audiencia de Charcas ruled over Paraguay until 1776, after which the Audiencia de Buenos Aires exercised control until 1810 (a year prior to Paraguayan independence). In 1537, the Spanish explorer Juan de Ayolas (1510–1538) reached the outskirts of the Peruvian Andes and gathered gold and silver from the Samacosis and Sibicosis Indians. A year later, after proceeding north on the Paraguay River, he founded the Fuerte de la Candelaria, where he ordered Captain Domingo Martínez de Irala (1509–1556) to wait for him for about six months. While returning to Candelaria, Ayolas and his men were assaulted and killed by the Mbyás and the Payaguás. After the sixmonth waiting period, and unaware of Ayola’s fate, Martínez de Irala decided to retreat back to Asunción for provisions. In the meantime, the Spanish overseer Alonso de Cabrera had arrived in Buenos Aires carrying the historic Real Cédula of September 12, 1537, a document giving explorers the responsibility for electing a new governor in the event of the death of the current official. This constituted a major landmark in the political life and future of the Province, as it was now able to elect its own authorities. The Royal Cédula was implemented and Domingo Martínez de Irala was elected governor by an almost unanimous vote. Besides Pedro de Mendoza and Domingo Martínez de Irala, sixty-three different governors ruled Paraguay from 1537 to 1811, when Bernardo de Velasco y Huidobro (c. 1765–c. 1822), the last governor under Spanish rule, surrendered to revolutionaries, who proclaimed Paraguay’s independence. Martínez de Irala is regarded by historians as a major figure in the sociopolitical and cultural development of colonial Paraguay. His goal of uniting the indigenous population and Spaniards resulted in one of the major colonial social projects, the biological and sociocultural mestizaje that historians and sociologists see as the birth of the Paraguayan. Martínez de Irala’s numerous achievements during his time as governor of Paraguay included the allocation of land to the inhabitants of Buenos Aires and Luján (a city about 10 kilometers north west of Buenos Aires), who relocated in Asun-

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ción, and the establishment of churches, cemeteries, and the convents and monasteries of various orders including Franciscans, Mercederians, and Hieronymites. While many of the natives labored under the encomienda system,4 others were taken to Asunción and employed on various city projects. In addition to the appointment of mayors and judges, Martínez de Irala fortified the town and designed its coat of arms, which is still used today. When, in 1539, the Guaranís planned to attack and murder all the Spaniards living in Asunción and surrounding areas, Martínez de Irala defeated the insurrection and ordered capital punishment for the principal instigators. Recognizing the power of the governor, the Guaranís gave the Spaniards as many women as they wanted in exchange for the pardon of those who had been sentenced to death.5 Historians such as Rafael Eladio Velázquez consider this particular event as the beginning of the mestizaje process. Velázquez also concluded that the provincial rural areas of colonial times were fertile soil for the illegitimate unions between Spanish officials and yanaconas and naborias. The mestizaje process seems to have resulted not only from a friendly alliance between Guaranís—specifically, the Carios group—and Spaniards, but also from the absence of European women and the constant attacks caused by the malones, fierce Indians from the Chaco region (Velázquez 1966:25). The main mestizaje areas in Paraguay during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were Tapuá (the present-day districts of Luque, Limpio, and Mariano Roque Alonso), La Frontera (present-day Ysaty, Lambaré, Nemby, San Antonio, and Villa Elisa), and Tapyhipery (present-day San Lorenzo, Capiatá, and Pirayú). The small number of African slaves in Paraguay was also a factor in Paraguayan mestizaje. Historical sources attest to the presence of blacks in Tavapy and of mulatos and free zambos (individuals of Indian and Black descent) who resided in Emboscada and Villeta during the eighteenth century and were later regrouped to the newly organized Tavegó or Villa del Salvador during the nineteenth century.6 Until the time of Paraguayan independence in 1811, mestizos and criollos generally shared the same sociopolitical status. While this was not true in other Spanish dominions, the social status for mestizos was ratified by Philip IV’s Royal Cédula of December 31, 1662, which gave approval to the practice of mestizaje in Paraguay and freed the mestizos under the encomienda system from having to pay taxes. By the eighteenth century, the fusion of races in Paraguay had become a well-accepted practice and a current norm. In order to delineate the inextricable connection between the development of general musical practices in South America and the socio-historical processes which gave rise to a concept of a Paraguayan cultural identity, let us first examine the significant role that sacred music has played since the beginning of the exploration of the New World and the expansion of the Jesuit presence on the continent.

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THE ADVENT OF THE HARP Sacred music played a significant role in the New World from the beginning of its exploration. The promotion of sacred music as a means of education and catechism can be traced back to the early sixteenth century. In 1523, Pedro de Gante founded a music school for the training of natives in New Spain (present-day Mexico) and in 1554, Juan Pérez Maturano received royal permission to publish a music book discussing canto de órgano y canto llano (polyphony and plainchant) (Furlong 1969:166). Throughout the sixteenth century, European musical practices and liturgical repertoire spread throughout the main political centers of the continent. In the Viceroyalties of Nueva España, Nueva Granada, and Alto Perú; in the Audiencias of La Plata and Charcas; and in the Capitanía of Chile, cathedrals and churches established schools for the training of natives in liturgical singing. Since the presence and influence of the Jesuits are of paramount significance to the development of music in the entire Río de la Plata area, including Paraguay, let us examine some details of their history and activities in the region. On August 14, 1534, Iñigo Lopez de Recalde (1491–1556), also known as Ignacio de Loyola (Ignatius of Loyola), founded the Societas Iesus (The Society of Jesus), a missionary and educational religious society approved by Pope Paul III in 1540 and entrusted with the evangelization of India and the Far East. A year after the establishment of the Jesuit Order, Manuel de Nóbrega and six other Jesuit priests were commissioned to preach the Gospel throughout the Portuguese dominions of the New World. Establishing centers of evangelization along the coast of present-day Brazil, the Jesuits traveled to the west and to the south of São Paulo. In 1607, the Superior General of the Order created the Jesuit Province of Paraguay for the purpose of evangelizing the Guaraní Indians. The Guaranís lived together in small groups under the rule of a cacique, or chieftain, in the region of present-day southeastern Paraguay, southwestern Brazil, and northeastern Argentina—a relatively small region within the vast territory of the province which spanned much of the southern portion of the continent encompassing present-day southeastern Bolivia, southwestern Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. Jesuit missionary work in South America became more difficult and hazardous in the early seventeenth century when slave hunters, among them some bandeirantes paulistas, began to capture natives for servitude, despite opposition from both Church and Spanish secular authorities.7 In 1537 Paul III had promulgated a Papal bull condemning indigenous slavery in the New World. By 1540, the year of the Jesuits’ organization, the Spanish Crown had also dictated laws in defense of the natives, proscribing any kind of human trading. Members of indigenous communities who

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escaped slavery became part of the encomienda system, which relegated a certain number of Indians to the service of the richest European families (encomenderos) in the New World. Unfortunately, the encomienda practice often resulted in the abuse and exploitation of the Indians.8 By 1610, slave hunters had destroyed the first two Jesuit settlements of the Province of Paraguay and had captured more than twenty thousand Indians. Partly as an effort to save the Guaranís from slavery and encomienda exploitation, the Jesuits established reducciones (missions) in uninhabited regions.9 These settlements eventually included more than thirty towns and came to be known as the Guaraní Republic (McNaspy 1982:10). Ten years after the organization of the Jesuit Province of Paraguay, the number of missionaries assigned to it had grown from 7 to 113. The reducciones, each of which operated under the authority of two or three Jesuit priests, were politically semi-autonomous with respect to secular political authority, and offered refuge to between two thousand and four thousand Guaraní Indians. The Provincial Superior, appointed by the General of the Society in Rome, administered the theological and social affairs of the Province and responded to the General’s inquiries and directives. Although Jesuits had forbidden Europeans to live in the missions, traveling merchants periodically received permission to periodically visit the communities to trade or sell merchandise. In order to verify the reports from and evaluate the progress achieved in the missions, Spanish governors, bishops, and the Provincial Superior frequently visited them for inspections.10 In much the same manner as a European monastic community, the Jesuit reducción performed most of its daily functions with music. At dawn the community, preceded by trumpeters playing a fanfare, walked to the church where mass was celebrated with singing and instrumental music.11 In Jesuit schools, Guaraní children studied Latin, science, and the arts. Instruction and daily affairs were conducted by law in Guaraní, the official language of the reducciones; no other languages were allowed, even among European missionaries. Because of the emphasis on proper musical training, students were expected to observe several hours of daily instrumental and choral practice.12 When Diego de Torres, the Province’s Superior, visited the Guaraní reducciones in 1613, musical performances and dance festivals were offered as a welcome celebration. At the Reduction of San Ignacio Guazú, Father Roque González de Santa Cruz received Diego de Torres with decorated archways, instrumental airs and dances, and the singing of Marian motets by the choir. Ten years later, González de Santa Cruz traveled to perform with some of his musicians to Asunción, where religious festivities took place celebrating Ignatius of Loyola’s canonization. By the second quarter of the seventeenth century, the Jesuit Province of Paraguay included the districts of Tucumán, Buenos Aires,

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and Paraguay. These districts were overseen by the Audiencia de Charcas and operated under the authority of the Viceroyalty of Peru. Although Chile had been part of the Jesuit Province since its establishment, it was separated and promoted to a Vice-Province in 1635. The Jesuit missions were located in three main regions: Itatín, Paraná, and Uruguay. The Itatín region, located east of the Paraguay River (in the present-day Brazilian State of Rio Grande do Sul) had four missionary settlements, which eventually had to be moved and consolidated into one town because of constant struggles with the Bandeirante slave hunters. The Paraná missions, situated in the present-day Province of Misiones in Argentina, and the present-day Departments of Itapúa and Misiones in Paraguay, included the missions of San Ignacio del Paraguay, Encarnación del Itapúa, Corpus Christi, Nuestra Señora del Acaray, Santa María La Mayor del Yguazú, San Ignacio del Yavevyry, and Nuestra Señora de Loreto. Each of these Jesuit missions protected refugee Indians living in the Guayrá reducciones, east of the Paraná River in central southern Paraguay. Due to continuous attacks by the slave hunters, the missions of Nuestra Señora del Acaray and Santa María La Mayor del Yguazú, near the Yguazú Falls area, eventually relocated further south. The Guaraní Indians from Santa María were initially integrated into the towns of Encarnación del Itapúa and Corpus Christi, but were later moved toward the Uruguay River and organized a new mission named Santa María La Mayor. East of the Uruguay River the Jesuit missions included the previously established towns of Concepción, San Francisco Xavier, Asunción del Acaray, San Nicolás, Candelaria, Mártires, Apóstoles, San Carlos del Caapy, Nuestra Señora de los Santos Reyes del Yapeyú, and the newer missions in the Tapé mountains: Santa Teresa, San Joaquín, Jesús, María, San Cristóbal, Santa Ana, Natividad de Nuestra Señora, San Cosme y San Damián, San Miguel, San José, and Santo Tomé.

VOCAL AND INSTRUMENTAL MUSIC IN THE JESUIT MISSIONS Since the harp was widely used in both liturgical and secular contexts in Medieval and Renaissance Spain, the transfer and adoption of the European Renaissance instrument into the New World musical practices as a liturgical—and later secular—instrument, was not necessarily a novelty for colonists, priests, or music teachers. Indeed the use of the harp in both sacred and secular musical spheres in Medieval and Renaissance Spain was continued by colonists and missionaries in the New World, who introduced and cultivated the instrument throughout the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, thus rendering the harp—a versatile instrument

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that would serve to enrich both liturgical practices and social life—an integral part of the continent’s musical landscape. As Schechter (1992) has demonstrated, the [diatonic] harp’s physical configuration, as well as the performance practices associated with the instrument at the Spanish Court, derived from the musical traditions cultivated in the British Isles.13 Harps were used as part of liturgical services and for entertainment at Spanish royal courts and theaters throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and were adopted by the Royal Chapel of Madrid and the Cathedrals of Toledo, Salamanca, Avila, and Valencia (Zabaleta 1964:4). Rimmer (1963) and Milligan (1968) share the view that the majority of South American rustic harps exhibit physical similarities to those from seventeenth-century Spain, suggesting that the instrument had changed little over time.14 Documentary evidence shows that the diatonic harp was associated with the accompaniment of liturgical singing in Jesuit missions, primarily functioning as a continuo instrument. Studies by Stevenson (1959:204) and Ayestarán (1965:75) have established that following European practice, the harp was used in a basso continuo role in the New World during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Nawrot (2000:45) also indicates that several musical inventories suggest the sharing of the continuo part between the organ and the harp in some missions. In addition to the welldocumented used of the instrument in liturgical music, references not associated with missionary activity also offer insights into the presence and use of the harp in towns ruled by the Spanish Crown in the New World. In fact, the arrival of the harp seems to have predated that of the Jesuits. The earliest reference to the presence of the harp in Paraguay dates back to the sixteenth century. Martín Niño, one of Pilot Sebastian Gaboto’s crewmen, was referred to as a harpist (Cardozo Ocampo 1972:237) and in an account dated 1590, Hernando Suárez de Mejía described the auction of a harp in the Río de la Plata region (Furlong 1945:131). Along with the Catholic practices introduced by the Jesuits at the beginning of the seventeenth century, a new educational system was taking root in the missions. As part of this new system, classes were offered in Guaraní grammar (developed by the Jesuits), agriculture, crafts, and music. Indians and missionaries gathered daily for prayer and catechism, and music was used regularly during Masses and major feasts. Music instruction at the Jesuit missions included singing, instrumental lessons, dancing, and the training of future instructors. Music was such a significant element in the thirty Guaraní missions established in 1609 that Provincial Diego de Torres sent the following communication to the founders of those establishments, Priests José Cataldino and Simón Maseta: . . . as soon as possible, with gentleness and taste, gather the children (of the Indians) every morning to learn doctrine . . ., to read and to sing. And if

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teacher Melgarejo finds a way to make flutes to teach them how play, let it be so, trying to teach well someone who is a[n adult] man already, so that he may be a teacher. (Furlong 1969:174)

In 1618, four European Jesuit musicians—Pietro Comentali (1591–1664), also known as Pedro Comentale, from Naples; Claude Royer (1582–1648) from France; together with two from the southern Low Countries: Jean Vaisseau (1583–1623), also known as Juan Vaseo; and Louis Berger (1587– 1639)—sailed to the New World in response to a petition by the Provincial Superior for music teachers. Louis Berger seems to have been a skillful singer and string player. In 1629, Father Nicolas Duran Mastrilli, who by then had become Provincial Superior, described Berger as the first music instructor in the Jesuit missions and a fine cittern player. His reputation spread beyond the Andes mountains and, in 1631, by the request of the Provincial of the region, Berger traveled to Chile to teach music. After a successful period of music instruction in Chile, Berger died in Buenos Aires in 1639 on his return to Paraguay. Prior to Berger’s untimely death, the Jesuits of Peru had asked the renowned music instructor to teach violin and, although the request had received approval, Berger was not able to make the journey.15 Vaisseau and Berger lived and worked at the same time. While Berger seems to have been the first instructor of music in the southern region of present-day Paraguay, the area between the Paraná and Paraguay rivers, Vaisseau seems to have been the first music teacher in the region delimited by the Paraná and Uruguay rivers, now the Argentine province of Misiones. In 1691, the instrumentalist, singer, and composer Anton Sepp von Reinegg arrived in South America. Father Sepp, originally from the Tyrolean town of Kaltern, had served as singer at the royal court in Vienna, and brought with him not only instruments and musical scores but also the current trends in European contemporary composition as well. In 1692, a year after his arrival, Sepp reported the success in the training of future music teachers, among them, six instructors in trumpet, three in theorbo, four in organ, thirty in chirimía (a double-reed instrument), eighteen in cornetto, ten in bassoon, and eight singers. In the same report, Father Sepp referred to the accomplishments of some of his students, among them a lutenist and a harpist.16 Between June 1691 and 1693, Sepp based his activities in Yapeyú (Nuestra Señora de los Santos Reyes del Yapeyú), one of the main musical centers of the missions. Yapeyú was located in what is today the Argentine province of Corrientes. Besides musical instruction, Sepp also coordinated the development of a workshop where natives made copies of European instruments. Some years later, in a letter discussing the musical activities of the region, Father Matias Strobel referred to Anton Sepp

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as the first European musician to introduce to the region instruments such as harps, trumpets, trombones, panpipes, oboes, and the organ.17 Finally, though related to the Jesuit missions in Moxos (Southern Bolivia), the Relación de las Misiones de los Moxos de la Compañía de Jesús en la Provincia del Perú, el Año 1713 also indicates the construction of musical instruments for liturgical purposes. In this account, Father Alfonso Messia indicates the construction of several instruments for liturgical purposes, among them the harp (Nawrot 2000:91). During the second half of the seventeenth century, the city of Córdoba (located in north-central Argentina) became one of the principal musical centers in the region. Accounts from 1641 through 1685 discuss the activities of four very prominent musicians in Córdoba: López Correa, organist; Tomás de Figueroa, music director Andrés Pérez de Arce, music teacher; and Salvador López de Melo, organist. In 1717, another European figure, the Italian composer and organist Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726), who had joined the Jesuit Order as a novice, arrived to study theology at the University of Córdoba, joining the list of musicians who ushered the province into an era of musical preeminence. Both Lauro Ayestarán (1962) and Guillermo Furlong (1945:114–21) agree that this gifted musical figure and his body of works represent the pinnacle of the development of sacred music in the Jesuit missions. Documentation from these studies provides ample evidence to suggest the regional prevalence of the diatonic harp, as well as other instruments, in both the sacred and secular musical milieus of Paraguay and the Río de la Plata region between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries. Nevertheless, the scarcity of information in regard to specific repertoire, performers and performance practices, and descriptions of the instruments must be acknowledged. Let us now turn to the organological characteristics of the instrument and the various contributions made by arperos, arpistas, and luthiers.

NOTES 1. R. B. Cunninghame Graham offers these explanations and cites the work of Pedro de Angelis, Colección de Obras y Documentos, as a source explaining some Guaraní terms used during colonial times (Cunninghame Graham 1988:23–24). 2. In addition to referencing available original sources, this section draws primarily from two prominent texts by Paraguayan historians Luis G. Benítez (1966) and Rafael Eladio Velázquez (1966), and the multi-author collection of essays edited by Ignacio Telesca (2011). 3. After the Iberian fever for gold and silver began to dissipate, Buenos Aires was turned into the major regional political center and, when in 1776 the Spanish Crown created the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata, Paraguay became its province.

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4. The encomienda system was an economic, social, and juridical institution by which an Indian or a group of Indians paid the Spaniards—the encomenderos— the corresponding tribute to the king. Usually, the payment was accomplished through labor in two different ways, mita and yanacona. When a whole community became part of the encomienda system, it was transferred to a pueblo, where the Indians were evangelized and assigned to houses and working fields. They would only leave the settlement to fulfill their working shift quota—mita—and the assignments indicated by the encomenderos. These Indians were called mitayos or mitarios. Other Indians coming from smaller communities or captured individually were transferred to the cities and houses of Spaniard families. They received the denomination of originarios or yanaconas and they were expected to live at the haciendas of the encomenderos and work for them. In exchange for their labor, Spaniards were expected to protect and evangelize the Indians, as well as to train them in the use of arms for the defense of the Crown’s territories. A variation of the encomienda was the frequently practiced naboria, by which an Indian child would be given by his parents to a Spanish or criollo (children of Spanish parents born in the continent) family for service. In exchange, the new family provided food, clothing, and education (Velázquez 1966:24–25). 5. Paraguayan historian Esperanza Gill states, “. . . [Martínez de Irala] only punished the main conspirators [but] forgave everyone else, who as a token of gratitude gave the Spaniards as many women as they desired, Irala being the one who most supported such unions with word and example” (Gill 1987:17–18). 6. Loc. cit., p. 26. 7. In search for gold and slaves, the bandeirantes paulistas were Portuguese explorers located in the São Paulo region. 8. By 1610, slave hunters had destroyed the first two Jesuit settlements of the Province of Paraguay and had captured more than twenty thousand Indians. 9. Although the Spanish term reducción could be literally translated into English as “reduction,” it may best be understood as “community” or “mission.” In this context, the Spanish verb reducir may be interpreted as “to gather into mission settlements.” 10. Clement McNaspy notes that, “The internal government of each mission town was provided by the chiefs or caciques, the elected cabildo, and the chief magistrate who was appointed by the governor on the Pastor’s recommendation. In these remarkably organized settlements, the Jesuits provided for all the spiritual and material needs of the Indians, training them to practice not only the Christian faith, but numerous trades and crafts as well. . . . Some became tailors carpenters, joiners, builders; others became stonecutters, blacksmiths, tile makers; still others became painters, sculptors, printers, organ builders, copyists, and calligraphers” (1982:10). 11. “As the men marched forth to work in the morning, they were headed by a band of instruments; they tilled the soil to a musical accompaniment, and in the same manner they felled trees and erected buildings; they ate their midday meal to music, and in the evenings they returned to their villages headed by a band.” (Fulop-Miller 1930:286). 12. In Indígenas y Cultura Musical de las Reducciones Jesuíticas Vol. 1 Guaraníes, Chiquitos, Moxos, Piotr Nawrot (2000) presents a detailed historical study of music

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and musicians at the Guaraní missions with emphasis on those from Chiquitos and Moxos, present-day southern Bolivia. Nawrot’s publication includes four additional volumes with examples of liturgical music from these missions. 13. During the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, English harp minstrels performed in southern Spain, where nearly six hundred joglares or minstrels served at the court of Catalonia-Aragón (Schechter 1992:17). 14. In his manuscript, GB-Och Music MS 1187 (ca. 1695), which gives details on instruments of London’s main luthiers and performers, James Talbot (1665– 1708) provides a thorough description of a seventeenth-century Spanish harp (Schechter 1992:28). Not only could this description be applied to the harps of seventeenth-century Spain, but also to those instruments found in the various Latin American folk traditions; namely, those of Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. 15. The Provincial of Peru requested the presence of Berger to establish the practice of violin music, and in 1634 that request was carried out. 16. Part of the text indicates, “The extent of the industriousness of the Indians is unconceivable [amazing]. Among my neophytes, I have Paica, who makes all types of musical instruments and plays them with admirable skill. In general, music is what characterizes the genius of the Indians. There is no instrument, whatever it might be, they could not learn in such short time, and they do it so delicately and skillfully, that I could admire [those who become] the most able teachers. At the new Reduction I have a young boy who is twelve years of age, [and] who without stumbling or uncertainty plays on the harp any air, [even] the most difficult one, which requires more study and practice for other musicians” (ibid.). 17. Part of the letter, dated June 5, 1729, states, “. . . the Indians owed these arts to the Jesuits . . ., especially to the R[everend] F[ather] Antonio Sepp, of the Province of Germany; he was the first to introduce [at the Reduction of Yapeyú] the harps, trumpets, trombones, pan-pipes, flutes, and the organ, conquering with [all] this an imperishable name” (ibid., 183).

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4

Harps, Harpists, and Luthiers

P

resent-day Paraguayan harps are the result of local modifications and adaptations of the Renaissance instruments brought from Europe and constructed by mission Guaraní Indians based on those European models. After the expulsion of the Jesuits in the third quarter of the eighteenth century, some mission Indians kept the professions they had acquired in the reducciones, settling in towns outside the missions as part of the colonial project of mestizaje. While some of these educated Guaraní Indians worked in these colonial towns as blacksmiths, carpenters, instrument makers, and similar kinds of artisans, other mission Indians seemed to have returned to their forest habitats. Most cities and towns other than Asunción (strategically located on the east bank of the Paraguay River) were established in the part of the area where fertile soil facilitated the development of agriculture and cattle herding. The rich soil of the Región Oriental was conducive to the growing of sugarcane, corn, cotton, and tobacco, which are still cultivated today in plantations throughout the region. From the last quarter of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century, the Guairá area, located in the central portion of the Región Oriental around the city of Villarrica, produced a significant number of artists, intellectuals, luthiers, and musicians.1 Indeed, a large number of twentieth-century Paraguayan historians, intellectuals, luthiers, musical performers, and writers have come from this area. Such is the case with performer and composer Félix Pérez Cardozo, the first Paraguayan harpist to gain extensive local and regional recognition, and Epifanio López (1912–2001), a luthier

43

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who established the first guitar and harp workshop in Asunción in the twentieth century. As was common in other areas of Latin America, artisans, luthiers, and musicians from the Guairá region transmitted their knowledge and skills by oral tradition.2 Diatonic harps built in Paraguay still seem to share some common traits such as shape and height with diatonic European harps from the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Although most of the instruments from the Jesuit period have been lost, a few have been preserved in churches and museums throughout the region. Two harps located at the churches of San Rafael and Santa Ana, part of the Jesuit missions in Chiquitos, Bolivia (Szarán 1996:41, 43), appear to have been built in the missions around the eighteenth century, as their physical characteristics resemble other diatonic harp models developed in Paraguay and nearby during that time and throughout the early twentieth century. A comparison between the harps from the San Rafael and Santa Ana Jesuit missions, shown in Figure 4.1, and the harps made in 2003 by luthier Constancio Sanabria in Asunción, pictured in Figure 4.2, shows striking dimensional similarities.3

Figure 4.1. Diatonic harps at Santa Ana (left) and San Rafael (right). Chiquitos, Bolivia. Photograph by Jesús Ruiz Nestosa

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Figure 4.2.

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South American oak and pinewood harps made by Constancio Sanabria.

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Figure 4.3.

Diatonic harp made by Adelio Ovelar in 1982.

THE PARAGUAYAN DIATONIC HARP: CHARACTERISTICS The distinctive parts of the Paraguayan diatonic harp include the cabeza (head) or consola (console) where the clavijas (pegs) for the strings are placed; the tapa armónica (harmonic cover or board) attached to the caja [de resonancia] (sound box or resonance box), sometimes referred to as the caja armónica (harmonic box); and the columna (forepillar or column), sometimes referred to as the mango (handle) or brazo (arm), supporting and connecting the console to the resonance box. In 1982 I received a Paraguayan diatonic harp as a gift from my parents and grandparents. Adelio Ovelar, owner of Fábrica de Arpas y Guitarras Santa Cecilia, had made the instrument, shown in Figure 4.3, that same year. This harp has thirty-six nylon (fishing line) strings, weighs about eight kilograms, and has the following dimensions: the soundbox measures 42 cm. (across the base) × 6 cm. (across the top) × 1.33 m. (length), the console is 73 cm. long, and the arm is 1.38 m. long. Ovelar used cedar wood for the soundbox, the console, and the arm of the instrument, and Canadian pinewood for the resonator. He placed guitar tuning pegs on the console, and with the exception of the resonator, he painted the instrument black. This particular harp is tuned in F major, with the tonic indicated by red strings and the dominant by blue or black strings. Though much neglected in recent years, the harp has maintained a high sound quality. In July 2000, I visited Adelio Ovelar’s workshop, at which time he was finishing about a dozen harps to be shipped to Japan.

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He indicated to me that the demand for his instruments had increased since the 1990s, both in Paraguay and abroad. In present-day Paraguay, even though the demand for harps has increased considerably, the instruments are made in artisanal workshops. Though the word fábrica (factory) is used to refer to the various workshops located in the capital, each instrument is personally crafted, painted, and sometimes decorated with stylized carvings by harp luthiers. In August 2002, while visiting the harp workshop of Mario Ovelar in San Antonio, Paraguay, I was able to observe the process of making each one of these parts. Ovelar indicated that it takes him about fifteen days to build a diatonic harp, including the manual crafting of each part, assuming that all weather-related factors remain relatively stable. The time it takes to complete an instrument varies greatly according to weather conditions since the workshop is partially exposed to the elements, and rain and humidity can have a great impact on the manufacturing process. The description below details the construction process of the harp as explained by Mario Ovelar. Caja [Armónica] ([Harmonic] Box) A long and thick piece of cedar wood (cedrela fissilis) is cut lengthwise in two halves to make the sides (or lomo, literally “loin”) of the harp. Next, four, or sometimes three, thin layers of cedar wood, which have been cut to make the back of the instrument, are glued together and added to the sides. Small thin pieces of wood (taquillas, literally, “shoe heels”) are glued to the interior of the instrument to secure the sides and the pieces that make the back of the harp. Sometimes a rope is tied around the body of the instrument to secure the glued pieces of wood. Two small legs are attached to the back portion of the caja, which has a rounded hole at the bottom. Finally, the box is set aside to dry. Although harp players traditionally perform standing with the instrument placed on a chair or box, some makers attach two thin iron legs to the bottom of the caja. These legs, which add a considerable amount of weight to the instrument, can be retracted into the body of the instrument and taken out during performances, much like the endpin of a cello or bass. Tapa [Armónica] ([Harmonic] Resonator) The tapa [armónica] or resonator, which constitutes the upper façade of the caja, functions as a resonating surface for the instrument. Following the grain of the wood, thin strips of pine wood (Pinus silvestris), measuring approximately 80 × 20 cm. each, are fashioned from small precut pieces. Since pine trees are foreign to Paraguayan soil, the wood is imported

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from Canada and Germany. Each type of pinewood has a distinctive hue: Canadian pinewood is characterized by its yellow color, while German pine has a lighter tone. Since long pieces of pinewood are not available on the local market, the most common practice for making the resonator involves a laborious process by which seventeen thin trapezoidal panels of varying size are glued together with warm cola de pescado (fishtail glue) and left to set for several days in a dry environment. The final result is a thin seamless piece of pinewood in the shape of an elongated trapezoid. High-quality wood and a precise cut are crucial to achieving good resonance for the instrument. Glued lengthwise down the center of the tapa is a long thin piece of cedar wood called the escala (scale), which serves to anchor the lower part of the strings to the instrument. The strings are wound around small bolts made of metal, wood, or bone, which are inserted into corresponding holes along the top surface of the escala. Whenever a string needs to be replaced, these bolts can be removed. A relatively modern addition to certain models of the Paraguayan diatonic harp is another set of bolts made of wood or metal, which are placed vertically next to the string holes. Semitones or half steps are created when the player presses the string against these bolts, thereby increasing the tension of the string. Cabeza or Consola (Head or Console) The cabeza or consola, which fits on one end into a groove at the top of the caja, consists of four pieces of wood cut around a plantilla (pattern): two thin pieces (each 12 mm. thick) are glued to two thicker pieces of cedar wood, which can be embellished with decorative carvings. At the bottom of the space between the two sides of the cabeza, a fifth piece of wood is inserted, along the length of which holes are made. Ovelar refers to it as the escala, a term that denotes a set of predetermined distances for the placement of strings, which are threaded through the holes. The placement of these holes is perhaps the most crucial step in ensuring the proper function of the instrument; hence, great precision on the part of the luthier is required to achieve the correct distance between the holes and, consequently, the strings. Bass strings, for example, are slightly more separated than those of the upper registers. Once threaded through the holes of the upper escala, the strings are pulled through the hollow center of the cabeza and attached to pegs that are mounted in a staggered fashion on alternating sides along the upper edge of the cabeza. The general practice for making these tuning pegs, which formerly consisted of iron rods, involves modifying standard guitar pegs to properly fit the distances predetermined by the plantilla. According to Paraguayan luthier Lino Ruiz Diaz, harp maker Pablo Ramírez seems to have been the designer of what became the standard type of the Paraguayan harp neck (Ortíz

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1979:15). Using a plantilla, Ramírez employed two halves of laminated wood to make the cabeza of the harp. While I was visiting with harpist Dionisio Arzamendia Párriz in January 2004, he indicated to me that luthier Epifanio López, inspired by several conversations with harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo in the late 1940s, was the first luthier to experiment with the idea of making holes in the center of the lower side of the harp console.4 Apparently Pérez Cardozo, who liked to play forcefully and loudly, experienced constant difficulties with strings breaking due to the lack of stability in the former configuration of the tuning rods, which—at the time—were simply mounted on the bottom edge of the console without an additional escala. Although I believe that López was the first person to implement this innovation, whoever is responsible for it produced an instrument with equally and proportionally centralized pressures on the cabeza or consola. This particular feature makes the Paraguayan harp unique in its construction, light weight, and appearance. Brazo or Columna (Arm or Forepillar; Column) A long and thick piece of cedar wood is cut and then attached between the cabeza and the bottom portion of the caja on top of the tapa. Usually, this piece has the shape of a column or cylinder. The brazo can also be ornamented with elaborate carvings such as leaves, flowers, geometrical figures, or the silhouette of a slim Indian woman. Strings Strings are made from nylon or copolymer fishing line of various colors. Most makers and performers prefer to use a red color for the tonic strings, blue or black colors for the dominant strings, and clear strings for the other pitches. Bordonillas and bordonas (relatively thinner and thicker bass strings, respectively) are placed from the middle to the lower register of the instrument. Eligio Monges Báez, harp maker and owner of Fábrica de Arpas Melodía (Melody Harp Factory) in Asunción, demonstrated for me the process of making the bordonas.5 A nylon fishing line was stretched and placed on a wooden surface attached to an electric spindle, which extended the string to a preset length marked on the bottom of the device. When the stretched string produced the desired pitch, a second fishing line was coiled around it tightly, resulting in a thick ribbed string known as the bordona.

PARAGUAYAN HARPS IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY Paraguayan diatonic harps built during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were made primarily of timbó wood (Enterolobium

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contortisiliquum), a type of tree native to Paraguay and northern Argentina (Arzamendia 2003:15). The final product involved a combination of various types of wood. After the timbó tree was cut and dried, its core assumed a paper-like texture and could be easily removed to create a hollow body. Without major modifications, the trunk of the tree became the soundbox of the harp, the back of which was secured with a piece of wood from the Tajy or Lapacho tree (Tabebuia nodosa). The console was made either from the Guajayvi tree (Patagonula americana) or Arasã tree (Guava, Psidium pommiferum). Often, the thick branches of these trees would naturally develop into a shape similar to that of a harp console. This being the case, builders would pare down the branches to the size and shape that they had in mind. Hot thick wires were used to make holes on the console, known in Guaraní as akã (head), where the pegs were mounted, and on the tapa armónica or hová (cover) where the strings were attached at the base. In a similar way, hot thinner wires were used to pierce the pegs made from the hard wood of the Yvyrapepé tree (Holocalix balansae). The column (jyvá) made of wood from the Urunde’ymi tree (Astronium balansae), initially carved in a long rectangular shape, later took on a more cylindrical form. The weight of this harp was nearly forty kilograms (about eighty pounds). Strings were made of animal gut, horse skin, and leftover electrical wires found in railroad stations, and tuning keys could be made of iron or brass (Arzamendia 2003:15–17). During my visit with harpist Tito Acuña at his house in San Antonio, Paraguay, I was shown an old diatonic harp made of timbó wood. The instrument, which belonged to his father, was made in the 1950s by the harpist and luthier Cristino Baéz Monges. Acuña indicated that Báez Monges invested about six months in the making of this particular harp. This instrument has thirty-six strings attached to wooden tuning pegs placed on the left side of the console, which is composed of several layers of thin wood. The semirounded back of the harp is fashioned from six long pieces of timbó wood, which, along with the cover, give a heptagonal shape to the instrument, resembling the back of the colonial harp from San Rafael in Chiquitos, Bolivia, seen in Figure 4.1.

PARAGUAYAN HARP LUTHIERS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY The first known harp builder in Asunción was Epifanio López, who built diatonic harps for most of the musicians who traveled abroad during the period of the instrument’s increasing international popularity and growing interest in the performance of Paraguayan popular music. López was born in Cerrito, a small compañía (a section or area within a town) of

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Hy’aty, presently known as Félix Pérez Cardozo, near the city of Villarrica, capital of the Guairá department.6 In 1932, López was drafted into mandatory military service and left Cerrito. On his way to Asunción, he met Féliz Pérez Cardozo, a friend and former classmate from Hy’aty, who suggested that López move to Asunción upon completion of his service to establish a guitar and harp factory. By this time, Pérez Cardozo, who owned a harp made by López, had already gained a reputation as an accomplished harp performer. A few years after López’s military service, which included fighting in the Chaco War with Bolivia (1932–1935), he followed the advice of Pérez Cardozo and moved to Asunción, where he established himself as a guitar and harp maker. In 1949 Féliz Pérez Cardozo, who at the time was living and performing in Argentina, visited López and discussed with him the possibility of increasing the number of strings on the diatonic harp. Pérez Cardozo, who was working on an arrangement of Pájaro campana (The Bell Bird), one of his most celebrated concert pieces, suggested that López expand the traditional thirty-two-string configuration of the diatonic harp to include four extra strings in the instrument’s lower register. These extra strings would allow him to play a descending melodic line known as a bordoneado (walking bass) with the left thumb while the right hand played chords. López agreed to build a harp with the extra strings, and most harp builders since then have maintained the thirty-six-string configuration born from the Pérez Cardozo–López collaboration. If not the very same instrument, a similar one also built by López for Félix Pérez Cardozo was on display at the Museo de Arte Popular (Museum of Popular Art) in Asunción during my fieldwork. I visited the museum and was able to examine the instrument which, according to curator Rubén Milessi Gómez, was the harp that Félix Pérez Cardozo played until the time of his death and which, indeed, has thirty-six strings made of gut and horse skin, and tuning pegs made of wood. López not only established the thirty-six-string prototype of the diatonic harp, he also introduced other noteworthy modifications in the construction of the instrument. As previously mentioned, Dionisio Arzamendia credits López with the addition of a set of holes along the underbelly of the console, through which the strings are threaded, pulled through the hollow center of the head, and attached to guitar pegs mounted on top of the console. This mechanism, working in tandem with a long thin piece of bone that López placed on top of the lower escala to support the other end of the strings and create the right amount of tension, serves to ensure precise distances between the strings, the result of which is a well-tempered instrument with distinctive timbres in the different registers. López was also responsible for replacing the old wood and iron tuning pegs with modified guitar pegs. Although Juan Max Boettner visited López in the 1950s and interviewed

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him for a publication that included photographs of the harp construction process, the researcher did not include a detailed explanation of the steps involved (Boettner 1997:250). In July 2000, I had the opportunity to meet Epifanio López. Although he had already retired from the construction of guitars and harps, he enjoyed sitting in his workshop, surrounded by old machinery, harp and guitar plantillas (patterns), and scraps of wood. I was delighted to hear anecdotes about Félix Pérez Cardozo, as well as López’s time of service during the Chaco war.7 I was presumably the last scholar to have a conversation with him. Just a few months later, he became very ill and died a year afterward. López transmitted his knowledge and skills to his sons and to harp luthiers Timoteo Rojas and Rafael Gamarra. Following the Paraguayan diatonic harp building tradition established by Epifanio López are several prominent contemporary luthiers, among them Dionisio Arzamendia (b. 1931), Adolfo Bernal “Papi Galán” (b. 1939), Oscar Maldonado (b. 1962), Epifanio Monges (b. 1945), Adelio Ovelar (1950–2009), Mario Ovelar (b. 1962), nephew of Adelio, the Sanabria brothers, and Abel Sánchez Giménez. This group of harp builders has continued to develop innovations in the form and function of the instrument, as several of them have made their own modifications to López’s prototype. Both Arzamendia and Sánchez Giménez, for instance, have increased the number of strings on the instruments they make. While Sánchez Giménez has added two to the standardized thirty-six-string model designed by Félix Pérez Cardozo and Epifanio López, Arzamendia has added four. Both harps, with thirty-eight and forty strings respectively, offer possibilities to composers and performers wishing to utilize the expanded range of the instruments. In the late 1970s, harpist and composer Mariano González paved the way for a new school of performance practice when, for the first time, he applied small metal levers (palancas) to the diatonic harp, adding the possibility of manually changing the tonality of the instrument without retuning all the strings. Luthiers Adelio Ovelar and Abel Sánchez Giménez conducted González’s innovative experiment. Since then other builders have also incorporated levers into the construction of their harps and now it is not uncommon to find such instruments at music festivals. This innovation has sparked a debate among performers who prefer the traditional diatonic harp and those who prefer the new hybrid type of instrument, which can produce half steps in all keys. Although traditional Paraguayan music is mostly diatonic, some performers seem to prefer Paraguayan harps with levers that facilitate the rapid retuning of the instrument. Among contemporary harp builders, the Sanabria family of Asunción has a reputation for fine craftmanship extending back several generations. The tradition began with Agustín Sanabria (ca. 1900–89) who, along

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with his brother Aureliano, built guitars and diatonic harps in the early 1960s. Soon their older brothers Nicolás and Emigdio, and their youngest brother Salomón (ca. 1920–2002), moved to Asunción to establish a chain of guitar and harp factories. The Sanabria brothers were originally from Yukyry, a town located in the central western region of Paraguay. Constancio, Lidio Agustín, and Antonio, sons of Don Agustín, followed the practice of their father and established independent factories. Gustavo,8 son of Constancio, has also followed the luthier tradition begun by his grandfather Agustín. Sanabria’s harps share similarities with those built by other makers and are made of Canadian pinewood (Pinus silvestris) and either cedar wood (Cedrela fissilis) or South American oak wood (Amburana cearensis). South American oak wood harps are among the finest and most expensive instruments (see Figure 4.2). The factory has a permanent display of portraits and artistic photographs of some of Sanabria’s distinguished clients, among them Sharlene Hawkes, Miss USA 1984,9 Japanese recording artists Hirohiko Honda and Mika Agematsu,10 and some local professional harp players.

PARAGUAYAN HARP TECHNIQUES The Paraguayan diatonic harp serves as a melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic instrument. Although its primary function was and still is to provide a harmonic and rhythmic foundation to conjunto music, short melodic passages—usually in parallel thirds or sixths—may ornament or interact with vocal lines by imitation, juxtaposition, or the introduction of new material. When the harp is featured as a solo instrument, it is not unusual to find the instrument accompanied by one or two guitars. This type of accompanying ensemble affords the harpist the freedom to perform virtuosic passages using both hands, without having to provide harmonic or rhythmic foundation. There are no rigid performance guidelines in regard to what harpists can or cannot do. When it comes to technique or playing style, it seems that, in most cases, Paraguayan harp players are extremely inventive, often observing and borrowing ideas from one another. The majority of Paraguayan harpists play both melody and accompaniment using a combination of the pads of the fingers and the fingernails. When the right hand plays melodic passages, the left hand usually accompanies with broken chords. The right hand typically plays the melody in octaves, harmonizing it by adding intervals of thirds, sixths, or a combination of thirds and sixths within the octave. Occasionally the right hand will play chords either as a bridge between melodic sections or as accompaniment when a singer or another instrument is involved.11 Ascending

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and descending melodic passages in octaves are usually played by the right hand with fingers 1 (thumb) and 4, the addition of parallel thirds and sixths to the octaves is usually achieved with fingers 4 and 3 or 1 and 2 and, when parallel sixths are played by themselves, most harp players use fingers 4 and 1, as is shown in Example 4.1.

Example 4.1. Ascending and descending passages: a) parallel octaves, b) parallel octaves with additional thirds and sixths, c) parallel sixths.

While the right hand plays chords or a melodic passage, the left hand usually accompanies with an ostinato bass pattern (see Example 4.2).

Example 4.2.

Traditional ostinato accompaniment for the left hand.

When arpegios (broken chords) are played, both hands alternate playing with the finger pattern 4-3-2-1 (see Example 4.3).

Example 4.3.

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Arpegio pattern for both hands.

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Both hands can also play these arpegios in parallel motion (see Example 4.4).

Example 4.4. Arpegios in parallel motion.

Trino, trémulo, trémolo paraguayo (Paraguayan Tremolo) A distinctive feature of the Paraguayan harp technique introduced by harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo is the trino, trémulo, in which the right hand uses a rapid continuous back-and-forth motion of fingers 2 and 3 against the strings. 12 The tremolo is usually performed in parallel thirds with the fingernails, producing a constant and sustained sonority.13 Although the use of a double tremolo in parallel thirds is the most common practice among harp players, double tremolos in parallel fourths, as well as a single tremolo with one finger, are also used by some performers. Bordoneado As previously mentioned, the left hand generally provides accompaniment by playing broken chords in octaves, as well as arpegios in combination with the right hand. At times, the thumb of the left hand quickly returns to the strings, emphasizing the bass line and producing a punctuated staccato effect. This distinctive characteristic of Paraguayan harp music is known as bordoneado and is used in a type of energetic walking bass where the bordonas and bordonillas (bass strings) are located. The use of bordoneado in Paraguayan harp music seems to have been introduced by Félix Pérez Cardozo for his arrangement of Pájaro campana. To achieve

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this effect, the thumb remains parallel to the other fingers and to the palm, which faces the strings. Then the thumb is placed between two strings with all the fingers serving as an anchor for the hand by making contact with the other strings. As the thumb walks up or down the strings punctuating the bass line, the palm works in conjunction, producing a muffled sound effect (Ortíz 1979:25–26), which results from the quick and consistent rhythmic muting with the palm of the hand after each stroke of the thumb. At times, harpists also use the muting technique to emphasize chords or melodic material within chords in the right or left hands. Glissando Another significant feature characteristic of the Paraguayan harp performance tradition is the ornamentation of the melody through the use of long glissando patterns, which are frequently employed irrespective of the tempo of the piece. In many cases, particularly those involving melodic repetition, the performer plays entire sections in which the melodic line is accentuated with numerous glissandi. Ascending glissandi can be played with a muted effect achieved by placing fingers 2 and 3 a third apart with finger 3 softly touching the strings, thus slightly muting the vibrations produced by finger 2 (Ortíz 1979:28–29). Sometimes short ascending or descending short glissandi are also used to embellish a melodic passage, in which case, the harp player can also decide to use the muting technique. Tuning Systems While some harp makers and performers prefer to tune their instruments in the key of F Major, others choose G Major or E Major. In the first case, the red and blue or black strings correspond to the tonic and dominant pitches respectively.14 If the composition requires another tonal area, most players will retune the strings so that the new tonic corresponds to the red strings and the new dominant to the black or blue strings, making the harp a “movable tonic” instrument. Although nowadays this seems to be the accepted practice among harp players, harpist Dionisio Arzamendia advocates another system, which maintains the original order of the strings. Most of Arzamendia’s harps are tuned in F major. However, pitches A and E always correspond to the black or blue and red strings, respectively. With this system, even if the harp is tuned in another key, the relationship of strings to color remains unaltered. Nowadays, most harps constructed in Paraguay have thirty-six strings and follow the prototype created by López in 1949.

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PERFORMANCE INTERPRETATION SCHOOLS: ARPEROS AND ARPISTAS Although the Paraguayan harp tradition has historically lent itself to an individualistic exploration and development of techniques and playing styles that makes the categorization of performers rather difficult, two distinct schools of harp playing emerged in the twentieth century: the school or tradition of the arpero popular (popular harp player) and the school or practice of the arpista profesional (professional harp player).15 As a type of minstrel or traveling musician encountered during the first quarter of the twentieth century, the arpero popular typically led a bohemian lifestyle, playing music for personal enjoyment and as a means of earning a livelihood. The training of the arpero popular consisted of borrowing, buying, or, in many cases, building a harp and playing it until he felt ready to perform in public. Usually, the player would familiarize himself with harp technique and repertoire by listening to other musicians or by improvising and composing on his own. The arpero, part of an all but dying breed of harp players, would perform with what contemporary harp players refer to as estilo antiguo (old style), characterized by techniques such as the use of only two (1 and 2—thumb and index finger) or three (1, 2, and 3—thumb, middle, and index) fingers for the melody in the right hand, a waltz-like accompaniment pattern in the left hand known as estilo valseado (waltz-like style), and a high degree of tension in the right hand. The tension in the right hand was achieved by “grabbing” the strings, thus emphasizing the melody and producing a loud and harsh type of sound. Arperos played their instruments and sang at various social gatherings and at the calesitas (carousels) of improvised fairs associated with Catholic religious festivities at different times during the year. Among famous arperos, José del Rosario Diarte (1884–1949), José Dolores Fernández “Loló Arpero,” (fl. 1900–1920), and Agapito Morínigo, most commonly known as “Tacho-í” (ca. 1910–1993) are perhaps the best remembered. The second playing school is referred to as arpista profesional (professional harpist). Arpistas profesionales receive their musical training through oral tradition and instruction by other harp players. By playing and listening to performances in formal or informal settings, they also develop their own techniques and performance style. This style is reflected in various performance features, among them the increased dynamic range used during performance, emphasis on melodic articulation, the choice between simple or elaborate accompaniment patterns, the addition of dominantseventh and secondary dominant chords to enrich the harmonic language, and experimentation with accentuation or rhythmic variations. In addition to accompanying conjuntos and giving solo recitals, some arpistas

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profesionales have excelled as composers and harp instructors, local and international recording artists, and even harp luthiers. Féliz Pérez Cardozo (1908–1952), Dionisio Arzamendia Párriz (b. 1931), Luis Bordón (1926– 2006), Digno García (1923–1984), Lorenzo Leguizamón (b. 1920), Tito Acuña (b. 1952), Nicolás “Nicolasito” Caballero (b. 1949), César Cataldo (1951–2012), Raquel Lebrón (b. 1954), Mariano González (b. 1954), Ismael Ledesma (b. 1962), Marcos Lucena (b. 1963), and others such as Santiago Cortesi (1913–1992), Abel Sánchez Giménez (1934–2012), Rito Pedersen (b. 1948), Albino Quiñónez (b. 1927), Teresita Rivas (b. 1954), Miguel Angel Valdéz (b. 1955), Francisco Giménez (b. 1960), Martín Portillo (b. 1970), and Marcelo Rojas (b. 1976) are prominent figures in a long line of arpistas profesionales. Currently, a new generation of Paraguayan harpists such as Jimmy Alfonso (b. 1992), Edil Ramón Bobadilla (b. 1982), Sixto Tadeo Corbalán (b. 1984), Juan Jorge Corbalán (b. 1991), Blas Flor (b. 1977), Marcelo Ojeda (b. 1981), Christian Ramón Portillo (b. 1994), and Kike Pedersen (b. 1984) actively perform and experiment with new compositions. The first generation of these arpistas profesionales traveled extensively throughout Western Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, performing with folk music conjuntos between the 1950s and 1980s. Since then, though more sporadically, a new generation of performers has traveled and performed in Europe and Asia, mainly in Japan. As result of this musical exchange, for which travel and tours by Japanese to South America is partly responsible, a considerable number of Japanese performers of the Paraguayan harp have been studying, concertizing, and establishing schools devoted to the instrument throughout Japan.16 Adopted and adapted into the traditional musical vocabulary of the Paraguayan folklore, the diatonic harp developed in its function, construction, and various performance techniques through the work of luthiers, arperos, and arpistas. Harp luthiers still consider themselves the recipients of a type of tradition and knowledge that connects them with the past and contributes to the perception of a Paraguayan identity embodied and epitomized by the instruments that they make. While popular arperos are still seen as unsophisticated individuals and nostalgic figures from the past, arpistas profesionales are recognized as distinguished musical artists for their achievements as arrangers, composers, performers, recording artists, and harp instructors. The musical longevity of the everexpanding arpista profesional tradition can be examined from three angles: the wide range of repertoire chosen by individual performers, the various approaches to the musical interpretation of that repertoire, and the performers’ formal musical training. As for repertoire, while some professional harpists have concentrated their efforts on performing the traditional music of Paraguay and Latin America exclusively, others have explored the possibility of performing

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pop, rock, and light-classical music—also denominated música internacional—on the diatonic harp. A number of innovations led to the expansion of the harp’s harmonic vocabulary to suit this repertoire. Until the 1950s, the repertoire consisted primarily of traditional diatonic music, and chromatic pitches were achieved solely by pressing the top of the selected string, thus creating the desired tension. That practice changed when harpist and luthier Abel Sánchez Giménez placed small bone and wooden rods on the point where the strings and the tapa armónica meet. This invention facilitated the production of half steps or semitones. In the mid-1960s, using a tuning fork, harpist Nicolás Caballero discovered a way to press the strings in order to produce half steps. This principle motivated him to develop the concept of a llave, a small and thin piece of brass attached to a ring and placed between fingers of one or both hands. Perfected by Papi Galán in the 1980s, the llave with an elongated flat upper surface was used to produce half steps by pressing the device against the string with the back of the fingers, a method that required a great deal of virtuosity and finesse. Some conservative harp performers have opted to adhere to the original manual method of producing half steps, while others simply play occasional sharped or flatted notes as naturals. In the late 1970s, Mariano González added mechanical levers to the console of the diatonic harp. This development allowed playing in any key without the need to adjust pegs and retune the entire instrument. This innovation, which can be found on Paraguayan harps constructed today, has had the greatest impact on the versatility of the instrument, allowing artists to branch out from the traditional repertoire of the Paraguayan diatonic harp to other musical genres and styles. After the 1950s, as a result of the Western musical training of local composers and the influence of other Latin American musical genres, the harmonic language used for Paraguayan polcas and guaranias came to include sequential passages from the relative minor of the tonic key. Compositions also incorporated a series of dominant-seventh chords, quick modulations between major and minor tonalities, and various formulaic ending cadences already present in the popular music from other regions and musical traditions. Innovation in regard to harmonic sequences was not a new concept in the performance of Paraguayan traditional music, as Paraguayan musicians living in Buenos Aires around the 1930s were influenced by the harmonic vocabulary and performance practices associated with the tango. Consequently, Paraguayan polcas, in a departure from the traditional V–I rallentando-like closing cadence, began to exhibit the energetic bouncing V–I–[V–I] cadence typical of the tango. With time, attributes of other Latin American musical genres and styles such as bossa nova and bolero found their way into the harmonic language of both guaranias and Paraguayan polcas.

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Since the 1950s music literacy has come to signify a certain status for professional Paraguayan harp players. Most of them received their formal musical training abroad, mainly in Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Europe, while touring with musical groups or after establishing residency in a major city. Such is the case of Digno García, who studied in Mexico and Belgium; Nicolás Caballero, who received training in Paris and Madrid; and Dionisio Arzamendia, who studied in Cuba, Hungary, and Paris; and others. In 1954, harpist Santiago Cortesi, who performed and lived in Buenos Aires for almost two decades, returned to Paraguay and initiated with great success what is now considered the first Paraguayan harp pedagogy tradition. Following in Cortesi’s footsteps, other professional harpists dedicated themselves to teaching and, in recent years, to the production of instruction materials. Collective resolve to embrace the diatonic harp as a symbol of identity in Paraguay appears to be inextricably linked to the reception and success of the instrument abroad. To construct the broad context behind the musical milieu that fostered the advent of the contemporary arpista profesional and the ample harmonic vocabulary and versatile performance practices employed by Paraguayan harpists today, we must take a step back and examine the genres and staple repertoire which constitute the foundation of the Paraguayan harp performance tradition. NOTES 1. Artemio Franco Preda asserts that the rich cultural tradition of the Guairá area dates back to colonial times. The writer offers a sociocultural analysis and explores the contributions of official and private institutions, political and military figures, educators, medical doctors, historians, poets, musicians, and journalists who have worked actively in the Guairá region during the past four centuries (Franco Preda 1972). 2. Material from this section has been drawn from two previously published articles in the Folk Harp Journal. See Alfredo Colman, “The Paraguayan Diatonic Harp,” Folk Harp Journal 145 (2009): 14–20, and “The Paraguayan Diatonic Harp— Performance Techniques,” Folk Harp Journal 148 (2010): 26–30. 3. Photos of colonial harps in Chiquitos courtesy of Jesús Ruiz Nestosa. 4. Dionisio Arzamendia Párriz, interview by author, Asunción, January 6, 2004. 5. For many years Eligio Monges Báez (b. 1935) worked together with his brother, Cristino Báez Monges (1930–1987), a renowned harp performer and luthier in Asunción. The difference in their last names is due to an error made during the recording of their birth certificates. 6. The name of the town was officially changed in recognition of renowned harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo, who was born in Hy’aty. 7. His wife joined in the conversation and added more details to the stories. Smiling, she indicated to me quiero contar[te] como es porque él es muy modesto (I

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want to tell [you] how it is because he is too modest). Epifanio López, interview by author, Asunción, June 6, 2000. 8. See http://www.arpasgsanabria.com.py/ (accessed 14 July 2014). 9. Sharlene Wells Hawkes was born in Asunción and lived in Paraguay during her father’s tenure as the United States ambassador. Hawkes was crowned Miss America in 1985 and performed the Paraguayan harp during the pageant. See http:// www.missamerica.org/our-miss-americas/1980/1985.aspx (accessed 14 July 2014). 10. Hirohiko Honda (1951–2008) was a Japanese dentist who, after a short tourist visit to Paraguay in the early 1990s, decided to take harp lessons from local performers. Mr. Honda, also a composer, visited Paraguay regularly and presented recitals of Paraguayan harp music frequently. His harp teachers included some of the most renowned harp performers in the country, among them Tito Acuña, Luis Bordón, César Cataldo, Lorenzo Leguizamón, and others. Born in Japan, Mika Agematsu (b. 1982) is a renowned Paraguayan harp soloist. In addition to performing Latin American music, Agematsu is known for her performances and recording of film and international music. See http://www.agematsu-mika.jp/ top.html (accessed 14 July 2014). 11. In Mundo Folclórico Paraguayo Vol. 1, composer Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo identifies twenty-five different types of harp rhythmic accompaniment in the Paraguayan polca, a musical genre that will be discussed in the next chapter. Cardozo Ocampo collected these rhythmic patterns from Paraguayan harpist Nicolás Barrios (Cardozo Ocampo 1988:222–24). 12. Dionisio Arzamendia Párriz, interview by author, Asunción, January 6, 2004. 13. In Latin American Harp Music, Alfredo Rolando Ortíz explains in detail the characteristics and practice methodology of this technique (Ortíz 1979:22–24). 14. The standard practice among harp builders is to designate red as the distinguishing color for tonic strings and blue for dominant strings, but depending on the resources available to each particular luthier, the dominant strings can also be found in black. 15. In order to provide insight into the musical activities of Paraguayan harpists, an appendix includes biographical information on a selected group of arperos and arpistas profesionales. 16. Among the most distinguished Japanese Paraguayan harp performers, Mika Agematsu, Hirohiko Honda, Masanori Makino, Toshiko Sandoval, and Lucía Shiomitsu, have actively performed and recorded in both Japan and Paraguay.

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The Music of the Paraguayan Harp

REPERTOIRE AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS

T

he phrase música paraguaya encompasses the vocal, instrumental, and dance music of diverse musical genres produced in Paraguay and cultivated by all social groups. For traditional and folk music performers, the Paraguayan polca rhythm1 in 6/8 with sesquialtera rhythmic characteristics (ritmo sesquiáltero) appears to be the defining feature that renders a specific musical composition “Paraguayan;” for others, it is the particular combination of guitar and harp that lends the unique “Paraguayan” character to folk music. Yet others assert that música paraguaya is defined by the combination of these performance practices and the use of Guaraní or Jopará texts in vocal music. In this case, performance practices signify the general instrumental or vocal qualities characterizing two distinctive styles: kyre’ỹ (lively or playful) and purahéi asy ([as in the style of a] song of intense emotion [produced by a sentiment of longing, melancholy, nostalgia, mourning, or romance]). All of these elements, in combination with sociocultural practices and local traditions, work in tandem to give the traditional music of Paraguay its distinctive “Paraguayan” character. The diatonic harp plays the accompaniment or solo renditions of polcas paraguayas2 and guaranias, specific genres within the large body of musical expressions in Paraguay. When featured as part of a conjunto, the harp accompaniment consists of steady harmonic and rhythmic patterns as well as occasional melodic interactions with the vocal or instrumental lines. Since the 1940s, following the performance practice developed by Félix Pérez Cardozo in Argentina in the previous decade, Paraguayan 63

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harp players have expanded their repertoire to include traditional songs from other parts of Latin America as well as some internationally recognized popular compositions. Before examining the salient traits of specific Paraguayan musical genres, we must first indicate the general musical features that characterize the traditional music repertoire.3 Paraguayan traditional music shares some similarities with the musical traditions of other Latin American countries; namely, a mainly diatonic harmonic vocabulary, and the use of short melodic phrases. The traditional music of Paraguay is tonal, with whole-step melodic motion and infrequent use of chromaticism. Melodies may skip in intervals of thirds, fourths, or sixths before continuing to move by whole steps. A distinctive feature of Paraguayan music is the ubiquitous melodic syncopation found between the last beat of a measure and the first beat of the following that creates the impression that the melody is lagging behind the beat. Although the melody is expected to end on the tonic, depending on the rhythmic characteristics of the composition, the last phrase can at times end on the third. The Spanish influence on Paraguayan traditional music can be felt both in the harmonization of the melodic line using parallel thirds or sixths and in the use of the Andalusian cadence.4 Most traditional Paraguayan compositions use the 6/8 meter with sesquialtera or hemiola rhythmic characteristics.5 Other rhythmic effects common to Paraguayan traditional music include the rapid exchange between compound duple or simple duple and triple meters, as well as a more sparingly used pattern consisting of the pairing of eight beats (two groups of four, known as cuatrillos) against the six beats of the 6/8 compound duple meter. Compositions are usually vocal songs (or instrumental versions of these) in verse-chorus form. Either a short instrumental introduction and a bridge or recurrent instrumental interludes are performed before and between stanzas. Pieces frequently end with a rallentando-like effect in which the harp and guitar emphasize the tonic area by playing ascending broken chords at a very slow tempo in three or more octaves, a practice that, since the 1940s, most performers have opted to replace with a fast and vivacious ending style borrowed from the Argentine tango (V–I).

THE PARAGUAYAN POLCA AND THE GALOPA As the most cultivated and representative of all Paraguayan musical forms, the polca paraguaya is a song and dance genre in compound duple (6/8) meter featuring a lively rhythmic drive with sesquialtera or hemiola characteristics. Its name derives from the transplanted Bohemian polka that became very popular in Paraguay during the second half of the nineteenth century; however, the Paraguayan polca’s stylistic features do not

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correspond to those of the European dance. The short melodic phrases are highly syncopated, usually connecting the last beat of a measure with the first of the following one. This singular characteristic of the Paraguayan polca has been designated sincopado paraguayo (Paraguayan syncopation), which has the aural effect of a playful anticipation of the beat (Boettner 1997:205). In general, tonal harmonies utilizing parallel thirds or sixths frequently following a I–V–I–IV–I–V–I harmonic progression accompany the melodic line. Bolstering the steady rhythmic propulsion characteristic of the Paraguayan polca is a typical accompaniment pattern consisting of broken chords usually performed on the Paraguayan harp or the guitar. One of the first documented references to the term polca appears in El Semanario (The Weekly), the main newspaper published during the presidency of Carlos Antonio López (1790–1862), first president of Paraguay. According to an article published on November 27, 1858, a band was hired to play polcas and mazurcas as entertainment for a crowd celebrating the opening of vice president Venancio López’s new estate (op. cit.:199). Despite the article’s mention of the polca in its adapted spelling, no conclusive evidence exists to link the polcas played at the López residency to the 6/8 Paraguayan polca as it is known today. Surviving anonymous polcas from the late nineteenth century such as Campamento Cerro León, Guaimí pysapẽ, Mamá cumandá, Ndarekói la culpa, Polca ka’ú, and [El] Solito, feature the distinctive compound duple meter with syncopated melodies. On the other hand, some polcas composed in the mid-nineteenth century such as Dalmiro Costa’s Gran polka militar ‘El 10 de Noviembre’—a piece composed for and dedicated to President Francisco Solano López (1827–1870) exhibit the musical characteristics of a European polka, which may indicate that the Paraguayan and European versions are somehow related. Boettner links the Paraguayan polca to the gato dance, supporting his argument by quoting musicologist Carlos Vega, who indicated that the Spanish Gato Mis-Mis dance, later referred simply as the gato in Argentina, was already known in Peru in 1780 (Boettner 1997:199). Moreover, Boettner notes that the Italian traveler Giovanni Pelleschi visited Humaitá (in southern Paraguay) in 1880 and recorded names of various dances in his diary, among them the gato.6 Example 5.1 shows an excerpt of a Paraguayan polca for harp composed by Marcos Lucena. Closely connected to the origin and the development of the Paraguayan polca, the galopa is a dance that also uses a lively rhythm in compound duple meter with sesquialtera or hemiola rhythmic elements. The name galopa derives from the European salon dance the gallop that was first introduced to South America in Montevideo, Uruguay, around 1849 (Ayestarán 1953). Boettner indicates that before Paraguayans adopted the term polca in the second half of the nineteenth century, the term galopa was used in reference to this already existing dance in 6/8 (1997:198). The

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Excerpt of a Paraguayan polca for harp composed by Marcos Lucena.

distinction between the polca and the galopa remains hazy, although some explanations have been offered in an attempt to differentiate between the two. Galopas seem to have a closer association to folk and traditional dancing with the accompaniment of a banda típica or banda koyguá (folk band), an ensemble comprising two trumpets, two saxophones or clarinets, two trombones, a tuba, a snare drum, and a bass drum with two crash cymbals on top. While the polca consists of one continuous musical section, the galopa is a polca divided into two sections. The second half of the galopa presents significant variations in the rhythmic patterns played by the percussionists. Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo (2005:70–71) believes that the galopa and the polca kyre’ỹ are intrinsically similar in spirit. Example 5.2 shows the basic rhythmic patterns and the two sections of the galopa. Inspired by the vivacious musical tradition of the galopa dance, Cardozo Ocampo’s original composition Galopera (The Galopa Dancer) has become one of the most internationally recognized songs from Paraguay. Galopera

Example 5.2. Galopa sections and basic rhythmic patterns.

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encapsulates the melodic, harmonic and rhythmic features found in the traditional instrumental and vocal music repertoire of Paraguay. Since other Paraguayan folk music ensembles do not typically use percussion instruments, the galopa, when accompanied by a band, appears to be the only genre within the Paraguayan folk tradition that exhibits a systematic use of percussion. Galopas or Fiestas de la galopa constitute popular gatherings and usually take place outdoors in connection with a Catholic festivity or a social occasion. In order to fulfill a promesa (religious vow), galoperas (female galopa dancers), dressed in traditional attire, perform dance steps in a circle while balancing cántaros (clay pitchers) or glass bottles on their heads. Watkins explains that, “the symbolism of water [carried in the cántaros] and fruit [which may also be carried on baskets by the galoperas] and the sensuous motions of the dancers, . . . seem to identify this dance as a type of disguised fertility ritual” (2008:380). Since the late twentieth century, an annual concurso de galopas (galopa [dancing] contest) takes place in early September in Yvysunú, Guarambaré, as part of the Catholic feast of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary (celebrated in Paraguay on September 7) and as part of the musical activities centered on the Festival del Takuare’ẽ [Music] Festival of the Sugarcane) also in Guarambaré. Curiously, when a Paraguayan polca with the rhythmic characteristics of the two sections of the galopa dance is played by a banda típica, the performance style of the piece is described as a polca-galopa. Opinions on the complex subject of polca classification are far from unanimous. Having studied the rhythmic characteristics of the Paraguayan polca, Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo (2005:69–71) classifies at least four distinctive subcategories within the genre. In addition to the polcagalopa he mentions the polca syryry (dragging polca), characterized by a more relaxed pace than the average polca; the polca kyre’ỹ (lively or playful polca); and the polca popó (jumping polca) or jeroky popó (dancing and jumping polca). Szarán (1997:392) mentions two further subcategories: the polca sarakí (playful polca), a fast-paced instrumental polca, and the polca jekutú (plunging polca), named after the choreography of that particular dance, which includes the stomping of feet. Ruiz Domínguez (2000:163) adds the polca corrida (running polca), perhaps a Spanish designation and rendition to the term polca syryry, and the polca valseada (waltz polca), danced with a waltz-like motion. Composer Florentín Giménez (1997:117), fundamentally disagrees with the classifications proposed by Cardozo Ocampo and Szarán, maintaining that the Paraguayan polca and the purahéi ([Paraguayan] song), are géneros intermedios (in-between genres)—stages in the development of two main forms of musical expressions: the guarania and the kyre’ỹ. He labels the polca as a subgenre with a slower rhythm than the kyre’ỹ, which for Giménez is the appropriate term to describe the lively rhythmic compositions in 6/8, commonly referred to as the

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polca, found in Paraguayan traditional music. Nevertheless, in a study of the Argentine chamamé, a popular genre from the northern Province of Corrientes closely connected in style and history to the Paraguayan polca, anthropologist Rubén Pérez Bugallo (1996:198) indicates that the chamamé, the Argentine zamba, and the Paraguayan polca all seem to share a common origin in Iberian-Peruvian musical traditions. Lending credence to this theory is the fact that before the creation of the Viceroyalty of Río de la Plata in 1776, Paraguay was part of the Viceroyalty of Alto Peru, and the mandatory commercial route of the times established by the Spanish Crown was Lima-Potosí-Asunción. Asunción, which became the civil and religious center of the Río de La Plata area after Buenos Aires was destroyed in the late sixteenth century, became a receptive milieu for the cultural and religious influence of the Iberian Peninsula as mediated by Peruvian practices. While the Spanish fandango and other Iberian dances were adapted and incorporated into the performance of other musical forms found in the region, it is possible that the origins of the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic characteristics of the [later designated] Paraguayan polca and the Argentine chamamé lie in the introduction of the fandango through the Alto Peru-Paraguay cultural route. (loc. cit.:19,178). When Paraguayan polcas are presented as vocal music, compositions are usually, though not exclusively, performed at a slower pace and referred to as polca-canción (though sometimes they are simply referred to as polcas). Major themes found in Paraguayan polca texts may include descriptive onomatopoeic titles, romance, nature, name and descriptions of town, nostalgia for home and mother, and epic subjects, as well as compositions celebrating political parties and clubes de fútbol (soccer associations). Some of these themes are also common to those found in other Latin American musical genres, and although the language and poetry construction might appear similar, Paraguayan lyricists, besides describing local traditions, views, and ideas, may also include words and phrases in Guaraní. Various initiatives to replace the name polca with a Guaraní or Spanish term have been unsuccessful, as the present denomination is deeply embedded in the popular tradition. While composers Remberto Giménez (1898–1977) and José Asunción Flores (1908–1972) have endorsed the Guaraní word kyre’ỹ (lively, playful, witty), composer and band conductor Luis Cavedagni (1858–1916) and guitarist Agustín Pío Barrios (1885–1944) used the term danza paraguaya (Paraguayan dance) to refer to the [polca] instrumental and dance form. Composer Juan Carlos Moreno González (1916–1983) uses the Guaraní word techagaú (nostalgia) for the polca-canción, while others prefer canción paraguaya (Paraguayan song) or purahéi ([Paraguayan] song) (Boettner 1997:198). In 2007, Florentín Giménez (b. 1925) proposed the Guaraní term pupyasy (from pupy [world of sound] and asy [sentiment]), which the composer believes to be a more

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accurate description of the musical characteristics of this genre known as Paraguayan polca (2007:265–70). Some of the most frequently performed traditional instrumental Paraguayan polcas and their urban renditions7 in the harp repertoire are Carretaguy, attributed to arpero José del Rosario Diarte; Misionera by Fernando Bustamante; Despertar nativo and El arpa y la danza de mi tierra by Luis Bordón and Oscar Nelson Safuán; Isla Sakã by Santiago Cortesi; Cascada by Digno García; Malvita by Herminio Giménez; Caturí Abente by Prudencio Giménez; Arpapu rory by Lorenzo Leguizamón; the arrangement of Pájaro campana, Llegada, Mi despedida, and Tren lechero by Félix Pérez Cardozo; El boyerito by Enrique Samaniego; and Piririta by Alejandro Villamayor. In addition to pieces composed originally for solo harp, the most requested instrumental versions of polca-canciones and galopas include 3 de Mayo by Julián Alarcón; Colorado, 18 de octubre and Pájaro choguy, anonymous; Galopera by Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo; Felicidades by Cirilo R. Zayas; and others.8 Looking back at the colonial and post-colonial performance practice of the locally-developed song and dance genre later known as Paraguayan polca and its acceptance as a representative traditional musical genre in the early to the mid-twentieth century, it is clear that its continued popularity into our era has resulted from numerous musical and social agents. Among these, the establishment of both private and official music festivals celebrating popular and traditional Paraguayan culture and the influence of the media and the recording industry have been the main factors supporting the cultivation and dissemination of Paraguay’s most distinctive musical form. These and other factors will be discussed in chapter 6.

THE GUARANIA The Guarania is a vocal and instrumental urban musical genre created in 1925 by composer José Asunción Flores (1904–1972).9 Born in Asuncion, Flores received his musical training at the Banda de Música de la Policía de la Capital (Music Band of the Asuncion Police Academy).10 Flores played trombone and studied under renowned teachers, including Italian immigrant musicians Eugenio Campanini (1887–1955), Salvador Dentice (1882–1949), and Nicolino Pellegrini (1873–1933), as well as Paraguayan composer Gerardo Fernández Moreno (1900–1946). In 1915, while taking violin lessons from Fernando Centurión (1886–1938) at the Gimnasio Paraguayo, he composed Manuel Gondra, his first Paraguayan polca.11 At a band rehearsal, Flores experimented with an arrangement of Ma’erápa reikuaasé (Why Do You Want To Know[?]), a popular Paraguayan polca

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attributed to composer Rogelio Recalde. Concerned about the correct notation of Paraguayan music, Flores thought that using a slower tempo for this arrangement would facilitate the accurate performance of its phrase accentuation and syncopation. The experimental tempo and its resulting aural effect inspired Flores to produce other compositions with a similar rhythmic pace and style. Thus, in 1928, he composed Jejuí, for violin, cello and piano; and Kerasy and Arribeño resay, for wind, brass, and percussion instruments.12 Flores later applied the term guarania to the musical genre. Some sources attribute the composer’s adoption of the term to a line found in a poem by Guillermo Molinas Rolón (1892–1945) entitled Canto a la raza (Song to the [Guaraní] Race), 1910.13 This poem had a great impact on Flores, who was influenced by the notion, current at the time, that the ideas and philosophy of the ancient Guaraní community and its role in the colonial mestizaje process were essential to Paraguayan identity, and believed that the term guarania captured the essence of the Paraguayan sentiment in music. Other musicians embraced the rhythmic innovations pioneered by Flores, which resulted in the composition and dissemination of numerous other guaranias. Due to political circumstances after the Chaco War with Bolivia, Flores left Paraguay and moved to Buenos Aires where he organized and directed a music ensemble, the Orquesta Manuel Ortíz Guerrero, that performed and recorded both Paraguayan and Argentine traditional music. In 1936 he returned to Paraguay to teach music in public schools and to conduct the newly created Orquesta Folclórica Guaraní (the Guaraní Folk Orchestra). Flores’s stay in Paraguay was cut short when, due to his Communist political symphaties, he was asked to resign from his various positions and was sent into exile. With the collaboration of his close friend and poet Manuel Ortíz Guerrero (1894–1933), Flores produced some of his most celebrated guaranias, among them Buenos Aires, salud, 1933, a salutation to the city that gave Flores political asylum from 1936 to 1972 after his expulsion from Paraguay; India, ca. 1930, a reflection on the attributes and qualities of an exotic Guaraní girl; Ne rendápe ajú, ca. 1930, a song of a traveler who dreams of returning to his beloved; Panambí-verá, ca. 1930, that mixes themes of nature and romance; and Paraguaype, ca. 1932, that describes the emotions felt while walking through the Paraguayan capital. In the 1950s Flores experimented with the incorporation of the guarania into the symphonic tradition, premiering and recording in Buenos Aires and in Moscow his three guaranias sinfónicas Pyharé Pyté, 1930–1954, for vocal soloist, double chorus and orchestra; Ñanderuvusú, 1957, a ballet inspired by the Guaraní legend of Creation; and María de la Paz, 1961: a cantata dedicated to the city of Hiroshima and its inhabitants. Two government documents have established the guarania as an official Paraguayan musical genre and acknowledged José Asunción Flores as one

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of the most significant Paraguayan composers. The first, signed by President Higinio Morínigo on July 24, 1944, designated the composition India with text by Manuel Ortíz Guerrero and music by José Asunción Flores, as the guarania nacional.14 The second, signed by President Juan Carlos Wasmosy on August 25, 1994, established Flores’s date of birth (August 27), as the Día Nacional de la Guarania (National Day of the Guarania). Although the guarania shares similar melodic and harmonic features with the Paraguayan polca, its slow tempo makes possible longer musical phrases, as is shown in Example 5.3, a guarania composed by Marcos Lucena. In addition to its tempo, its melodic accentuation and rhythmic syncopation are also highlighted by the sincopado paraguayo (Boettner 1997:205).

Example 5.3.

Excerpt of a guarania for harp composed by Marcos Lucena.

Though originally conceived as an instrumental genre, the guarania quickly became known as a vocal one. Both Cardozo Ocampo (2005:72– 73) and Giménez (1997:126) believe the style of the guarania is strongly connected to that of the purahéi asy (mournful song), a genre cultivated by nineteenth century popular musicians, and that the guarania revitalized this earlier practice.15 The live broadcast of popular regional music from radio stations in Buenos Aires—the main center for the promotion of the arts during the early to mid-twentieth century—as well as the development of the recording industry, helped to disseminate the guarania in Argentina and Paraguay, and later in other Latin American countries. Throughout the 1940s and 1950s other Latin American musical genres and styles, such as the bolero and the bossa nova, influenced the harmonic language and vocal performance practice of the guarania.16 Since the late 1950s the singing style has become more mellow and breathy, with a predominantly straight-tone style of vocal production varied by the use of vi-

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brato effect at the ends of phrases. Guaranias are usually performed today with the guitar and the Paraguayan diatonic harp; however, ensembles of various instrumental combinations may accompany. Most guarania texts emphasize romance and nostalgic themes with a high degree of emotion. Nevertheless, since Luis Bordón’s arrangement of India for his 1959 Harpa Paraguáia recording, instrumental versions of guaranias showcasing the harp as a solo instrument have been featured regularly in folk music festivals, recitals, and recordings, making the Paraguayan harp the instrument par excellence for the performance of guaranias. The instrument’s melodic and harmonic capabilities provide ample possibilities of playing delicately while accompanying a vocal soloist or improvising during introductory musical passages and interludes. In addition to those by Flores, some of the most frequently performed and recorded vocal guaranias include Anahí, with text and music by Osvaldo Sosa Cordero; Lejanía, with text and music by Herminio Giménez; Mi dicha lejana, with text and music by Emigdio Ayala Báez; Mis noches sin ti, with text by María Teresa Márquez and music by Demetrio Ortíz; and Recuerdo de Ypacaraí, with text by Zulema de Mirkin and music by Demetrio Ortíz.

THE VALS OR VALSEADO Locally adapted during the nineteenth century, the European waltz quickly grew in popularity throughout Paraguay and the region. The genre is referred to in Paraguay by two variants of its name: vals and valseado. While the two terms can be used interchangeably to refer to the genre, “vals” tends to designate the dance genre while valseado is an adjectival form that usually refers to the use of the genre’s characteristic triple meter when used in other genres. Cardozo Ocampo asserts that the vals was developed in Paraguay as both a dance and a song form with some distinctive features differing from the traditional European waltz. He supports this position by describing two features of the valseado paraguayo: first, the Paraguayan version of the dance includes the alternating movement of the feet from one side to the other and then back to the center and, second, guitar strumming is traditionally used to accompany the rhythm (Cardozo Ocampo 1988:52,117–120). Paraguayan valses generally present short repetitive melodic phrases, standard harmonic progressions (I–V–I–IV–I–V–I), and a steady triple meter accompanied by harp and guitars. Example 5.4 shows a typical valseado accompaniment pattern for the harp. The most popular Paraguayan vals or valseado is the internationally renowned Desde el alma, composed by Rosita Melo (1895–1981).17 Although not as famous, other valses originally composed for the Paraguayan harp

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Example 5.4. Valseado accompaniment pattern for the harp.

include Ansiedad by José Saravia, Besos de amor by harpist Abel Sánchez Giménez, Esperar by Roquelino Insfrán, Luna llena by Digno García, Tu olvido by Vicente Epina, and Nati by harpist Dionisio Aguayo. In addition to traditional repertoire, contemporary harp players sometimes perform a selection of waltzes by Johann Strauss as part of a potpourri of international music. The Paraguayan vals has also entered the realm of academic music as part of the Paraguayan zarzuelas (operetta-like musical works) written by composers such as Juan Carlos Moreno González (1911–1983) and Florentín Giménez, as well as other vocal compositions by Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo and José Asunción Flores (Giménez 1997:131–32).

THE RASGUIDO DOBLE Developed in the early twentieth century as a song genre, the rhythmic foundation of the duple-meter Paraguayan rasguido doble (literally, double strumming) is an adaptation of the candombe and habanera patterns. The term rasguido doble derives from the type of strumming pattern performed by the guitar, which emphasizes two golpes (strums) of sixteenth-notes (or one sixteenth-note followed by an eighth-note) on the first half of beat one. As in the case of the Paraguayan polca and other traditional genres, parallel thirds or sixths may accompany the melodic line, musical phrases are short and syncopated, and harmonies are tonal in nature, as shown in Example 5.5. While Cardozo Ocampo (2005: 72) and Szarán (1997:406-407) trace the origin of the rasguido doble to the habanera, Giménez (1997:128-30) argues that it must be considered a distinctive genre with unique rhythmic characteristics that was adapted and incorporated into the local musical language in the first quarter of the twentieth century. The Paraguayan

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Example 5.5.

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Typical rasguido doble pattern for the harp.

rasguido doble shares some rhythmic similarities with other Latin American genres such as the Argentine milonga and the Uruguayan candombe. Although the rasguido doble is not as popular as the Paraguayan polca, its performance at local music festivals and its inclusion in recordings constitutes a welcome novelty in the Paraguayan musical vocabulary. A few of the most frequently performed rasguido doble compositions include Despierta mi Angelina, with music and text by Emiliano R. Fernández; Pancha Garmendia, a compuesto text by Narciso R. Colmán—known as Rosicrán—with music by anonymous composer; Rojas Silva rekávo, with text by Emiliano R. Fernández and music by Julio Sánchez; and Un cielo de ñandutíes, with text by Rolando Niella and music by Oscar Cardozo Ocampo. The genre has also been adapted and employed by composers of academic music, among them Juan Carlos Moreno González (1916–1983) and Manuel Frutos Pane (1906–1990) for their 1956 two-act Paraguayan zarzuela, La tejedora de ñandutí.

THE COMPUESTO The compuesto is a Paraguayan story-telling genre set to popular or traditional music.18 A counterpart to other descriptive balladry practices found throughout Latin America and originating in the Iberian romance tradition, it became highly popular in Paraguay during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. As the composition of new compuestos has declined, the genre survives mostly through the performance of the older pieces, usually featured as part of local music festivals. The compuesto is centered on a dramatic, epic, or tragic suceso (event). Compuestos can be performed in 6/8 (compound duple) meter using the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic features of the Paraguayan polca, or in simple duple meter,

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in the style of rasguido doble (double strumming). Usually of anonymous authorship and generally structured in coplas (four-line verses) or décimas (ten-line verses) with a refrain in the middle or at the end of the text, the compuesto is sung in Guaraní or in Jopará. The traditional ensemble that performs compuestos includes two singers accompanied by guitars, harp, and accordion. The instruments provide an introduction as well as musical interludes between stanzas, but are very rarely featured as solo instruments during performances. Compuesteros (performers of compuestos) usually receive their musical training through oral tradition, and although most of them travel to the capital, Asunción, for work purposes or occasional musical presentations, they appear to have been influenced very little by urban musical practices. Some compuesteros perform individually, accompanying themselves on the guitar, harp, or rabel (spike fiddle). Such was the case with Roquito Mereles (1889–1985), who with the accompaniment of his rabel and along with fellow musician Anselmo Orué (fl. 1940–1960) on the guitar, sang about events related to the Chaco War with Bolivia and current events at the Plaza Uruguaya—a popular venue for social interaction—in Asunción. Another example is that of arpero Agapito Morínigo “Tacho’í” (ca. 1910–1993), whose general musical practices are discussed in the appendix. Two of the most popular compuestos are Guyrá compuesto and Pancha Garmendia. Collected by ethnologist León Cadogan (1899–1973), in the Guairá region, the anonymous Guyrá compuesto (“The Compuesto of the Birds”) is a satirical attack on the local authorities of a small town. In the story, a group of birds organize a party that ends tragically. The song comments on the corrupt authorities that punish the innocent and leave the guilty free (González Torres 1998:50–53). Pancha Garmendia is an anonymous setting of a text by the Paraguayan poet Narciso R. Colmán—Rosicrán (1876–1954). It gives an account of the execution of Francisca “Pancha” Garmendia (d. 1869), mistress of Francisco Solano López (1826–1870), president of Paraguay at the time of the Triple Alliance War.

THE MARCHA The march is traditionally used in Paraguay for songs of patriotic and epic nature. Special timbral effects such as the muffling of bass strings on the guitar and the harp are frequently used to evoke the sonority of drum rolls. Some of the stylistic characteristics of Paraguayan marches include the standard I–V harmonic progression and an emphatic binary rhythm. The anonymous instrumental composition Diana Mbayá and Chaco Boreal by Gerardo Fernández Moreno (1900–1946) are among the most frequently performed Paraguayan marchas.19 Popular vocal marchas of patriotic inspiration include Canto de esperanza by Carlos Noguera

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Example 5.6.

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Typical marcha pattern for the harp.

(b. 1950) and Patria querida by Marcelino Noutz (1892–1963), compositions written as part of the Nuevo cancionero movement.20 Example 5.6 shows a typical marcha pattern for the harp.

THE BALADA As a relatively new addition to the Paraguayan harp repertoire, the balada is a song form showcasing the solo instrumental possibilities of the instrument. In general, baladas for the Paraguayan harp tend to be in duple meter—usually in duple simple, but sometimes in duple compound meter as well—exhibiting cantabile melodies, short or long musical phrases, a rich harmonic vocabulary, slow chord progressions, and a relaxed or even slow tempo. A few harp composers and performers have used the balada as a way to further explore the melodic, harmonic, and rhythmic capabilities of the Paraguayan harp, beyond those employed by traditional genres. Some representative baladas for the Paraguayan harp include Gotitas and Sólo dos by César Cataldo; Angeles, Aire oriental, La última danza, Mi historia, and Mi padre, mi maestro, by Ismael Ledesma. Example 5.7 shows an excerpt of a balada for harp composed by Marcos Lucena.

Example 5.7.

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Excerpt of a balada for harp composed by Marcos Lucena.

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THE AVANZADA The avanzada was created and developed in the 1970s by Paraguayan composer Oscar Nelson Safuán (1943–2007). An accomplished guitarist, harpist, and requinto performer, Safuán worked as an arranger and studio musician for Paraguayan traditional music conjuntos and Brazilian música sertaneja groups recording in São Paulo, Brazil. Searching for a way to update the style of Paraguayan traditional music—mainly with reference to genres such as the galopa, the guarania, and the polca paraguaya—Safuán experimented in the early 1970s with the rhythmic structure of the guarania and in so doing discovered a new rhythm when he placed two measures of the fast compound duple meter Paraguayan galopa within one measure of the slow compound duple guarania (Safuán 2006:39). As Example 5.8 shows, the avanzada thus combines the rhythmic pattern of the Paraguayan galopa with that of the guarania in a 2:1 (galopa/guarania) measure ratio, resulting in a hybrid rhythmic structure in compound duple meter that can be applied to both instrumental and vocal music.

Example 5.8.

Basic rhythmic pattern of the avanzada.

According to Safuán, the sources of inspiration for the avanzada were essentially the rhythmic structure of the lively Paraguayan galopa and the melodic and harmonic principles of the guarania. Safuán’s intention with the avanzada was not only to offer a new way to compose Paraguayan music based on the fusion of two distinctively Paraguayan musical genres, but also to further expand the existing harmonic vocabulary of traditional music by adding augmented, diminished, and dominant seventh chords in the new genre. The new genre’s name avanzada reflects the composer’s intention that the genre be understood as an innovative application of advanced techniques to Paraguayan music. Safuán also encouraged the inclusion of acoustic, electronic (electric bass, guitar, synthesizer) and percussion instruments (bongos, congas, shakers) in avanzada compositions. For instance, in Tema Paraguayo, Safuán uses the arpín—an instrument based on the psaltery and conceived by harpist Luis Bordón—acoustic [Spanish] and electric guitars, electric bass, percussion, synthesizer and violins. Although Safuán’s compositions and approaches are cultivated by a limited group of local musicians, their appeal has spread to the main urban centers and festivals of Paraguayan popular music. In addition to Safuán, other Paraguayan composers who have explored the genre include harpists Adolfo Bernal “Papi Galán” and Francisco Giménez, and conductor and trombonist Remigio Pereira (b. 1961). Representative

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instrumental avanzada compositions for the Paraguayan harp include Ciudad andariega, Che rumí, and Mercosur by Francisco Giménez, and Milagro de Dios by Francisco Giménez and Oscar Nelson Safuán. THE NUEVO CANCIONERO Concluding the list of prominent genres constituting the main body of the Paraguayan popular music repertoire, the Nuevo cancionero, for which a typical accompaniment ensemble may or may not include the diatonic harp, has been the center of an ongoing debate regarding whether it should even be considered a separate genre. Developed in the 1970s and 1980s and modeled on the Chilean nueva canción (new song) and the Cuban nueva trova (new song), the Paraguayan nuevo cancionero movement integrated highly politicized texts denouncing social injustice with the existing musical vocabulary derived from the various local musical genres (guarania, marcha, polca paraguaya, rasguido doble), as well as more contemporary genres such as ballad and pop. While some regard the Nuevo cancionero as a musical genre in and of itself, others view it as part of a social movement or a particular musical style that utilizes pre-existing musical conventions as a vehicle for voice of social and political protest. For almost twenty years, texts by Paraguayan intellectuals and poets Augusto Roa Bastos (1917– 2005), Elvio Romero (1926–2004), Rudi Torga (1938–2002), and Carlos Villagra Marsal (b. 1932), to name a few, were set to music by nuevo cancionero musicians such as harpist César Cataldo and singer-songwriters Rolando Chaparro (b. 1965), Maneco Galeano (1945–1980), Jorge Garbett (b. 1954), Carlos Noguera (b. 1950), and others. The various ensembles that embraced the movement employed traditional folk instruments from Paraguay and other parts of Latin America, as well as electric guitar and bass, percussion, and synthesizers. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Nuevo cancionero songs served as the voice of college students and young professionals who witnessed and wished to express concern over the social unrest and political distress of the times. The movement essentially dissolved after 1989, when a coup d’etat overthrew the military government of President Alfredo Stroessner, forcing him into exile. Among the most active nuevo cancionero groups were Sembrador, Juglares, Ñamandú, and Vocal dos. Some of these musical groups still participate in folk music festivals and give concerts benefiting social causes or paying tribute to popular musicians. MÚSICA INTERNACIONAL Under the category música internacional Paraguayan harpists have showcased musical compositions from Latin America and other world regions,

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including popular music and musical themes from motion pictures. Though it can be quite challenging for performers playing a diatonic instrument, Paraguayan harpists have become inventive and resourceful in order to achieve the chromaticism required by some of these international compositions. Occasionally, especially before the development of such innovations as the use of small rods or brass llaves, or the chromatic levers with which Paraguayan luthiers began experimenting in the 1980s, Paraguayan harp performers sometimes adjusted sections of pieces with highly chromatic passages by modulating from a minor tonal area to its relative major, or by the addition of other instruments such as the guitar to play the melodic line. Música internacional performed and recorded by Paraguayan harpists includes Argentine tangos, Brazilian carnival music, the bossa-nova Garota do Ipanema, Christmas carols, the Cuban-inspired habanera La Paloma, Mexican boleros, the Neapolitan barcarolle Santa Lucia, the Venezuelan song Moliendo café, as well as theme songs from movies (such as Chariots of Fire, Lara’s Theme from Doctor Zhivago, The Godfather, Love Story, Romeo and Juliet, and Terry’s Theme from Limelight, to name a few), songs by the Beatles (such as Hey Jude, Let It Be, and Yesterday), and waltzes by Johann Strauss (such as An der schönen blauen Donau and Kaiserwalzer).21 Since 2007, the solo performance of música internacional on the Paraguayan harp has become more prominent due to the World Harp Festival celebrated annually in Asunción. Because one of the goals of the festival is to promote the versatility and status of the instrument beyond the borders of Paraguay, the inclusion of música internacional as part of the program reinforces the social symbolic value of the harp as an authentic Paraguayan musical instrument capable of performing national and international compositions, solidifying its cultural presence in a global musical arena. The musical expressions discussed in this chapter represent the wide spectrum of performance and listening preferences of various age groups and social classes. Although the growing young population of major urban centers in Paraguay may demonstrate a preference for foreign musical expressions, the vast majority of the working, middle, and upper classes in Paraguay, including young people, still identify with popular music, primarily with the Paraguayan polca and the guarania. Such musical genres and instruments such as the guitar and the harp have been and continue to be widely regarded as symbols of national pride and social identity among the various classes.

NOTES 1. Sometimes the 6/8 polca rhythm is also referred as ritmo paraguayo (Paraguayan rhythm) or el ritmo que nos caracteriza (the rhythm that characterizes us).

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2. As in the case of the word “folklore,” which is spelled folclore in Spanish, the word “polka” is also spelled polca in Spanish. 3. Material from this section has been drawn from entries in the Bloomsbury Encyclopedia of Popular Music of the World, Vol. IX Genres: Caribbean and Latin America. John Shepherd and David Horn, editors. London and New York: Bloomsbury Publishing, 2014. 4. Though not a cadence in the strict sense, the Andalusian cadence is a minor descending tetrachord commonly found in Iberian folk music. 5. The sesquialtera rhythm results in an aural ambivalence felt by the listener when the performer combines both duple and triple meters. 6. “Here you must participate in a French cuadrilla or a chotis, a waltz from Milan or in the gato or the national zamba . . .” (ibid.). 7. Hereinafter, the term urban, when used in reference to genres, denotes any musical style of composition and performance modeled after a folk tradition but cultivated in an urban center. Current urban renditions of polca may include the use of an electric bass emphasizing the bass line, the addition of synthesizers producing string and brass sounds, a strong emphasis on text enunciation, and the controlled use of vibrato in the voice. 8. Colorado is the official polca of the Partido Colorado (Colorado Party), the political party that has been in power since 1947. 18 de octubre is the official polca of the Partido Liberal Radical (Radical Liberal Party), the rival political party. 9. While the origin and development of the guarania have been discussed historically and chronologically by Boettner (1997:208–212), Cardozo Ocampo (1988:53–54 and 1989:153–61), and Szarán (1997:239–241), Giménez has advocated a study of the musical genre from the theoretical and analytical points of view (1997:57–123). 10. Created in 1912, this organization constituted one of the main centers for musical instruction and performance during the first half of the twentieth century. 11. Founded by violinist Fernando Centurión in 1913, the Gimnasio Paraguayo (Paraguayan Gymnasium) offered string instrument instruction and fostered the establishment of the Cuarteto Haydn, the first string quartet in the country. In 1934, the institution merged with the Instituto Paraguayo (Paraguayan Institute), originally founded in 1895, to become a new school of fine arts, the Ateneo Paraguayo (Paraguayan Athenaeum), which is still operating. 12. Jejuí is the name of a river in the eastern region of the country. Kerasy (Somnolence) and Arribeño resay (The Tears of the River Dweller) capture the ethos of purahéis asy, a type of melancholy singing style associated with the older, slowpaced rural folk songs. 13. A segment from this poem written in 1910 reads, “and Guarania was also the promised region as a land of dreams, illusion, and life, [a] land that gave birth to the blessed flowers of robust passions and heroic deeds . . .” (Szarán 1997:239–40) 14. The same official document also decrees Cerro Corá with text by Félix Fernández and music by Herminio Giménez as Canción épica nacional (National Epic Song). 15. Discussing the guarania, Cardozo Ocampo indicates “. . . [the guarania] is a daughter of the purahéi asy, since it has its spirit; its rhythm is in 6/8 and it

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has a large variety of sub-rhythms, . . . of course, [the guarania] is [a] forerunner [genre] in our music.” (1988:53–54). On the other hand, Giménez connects the purahéi asy to colonial times and sees in Flores’s musical creativity the redemption of this old practice. The Purahéi asy genre, which survived instinctively in the national being since colonial times as a natural expression of the aborigines and later during the mestizaje process, was not properly perceived by musicians and composers until the [musical] proposal, with the new[ly shed] light, of Maestro José Asunción Flores (1997:126). 16. Since then, the use of dominant seventh chords and the use of the relative major or minor areas of the home key have been systematically incorporated into the performance of new and old guaranias. 17. Desde el alma (From the Soul) rapidly gained recognition in Argentina and throughout Latin America during the first quarter of the twentieth century. 18. Studies and articles on the compuestos have been published by journalist Víctor Barrios Rojas (2011, 2005, 2002), composer and researcher Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo (1988:53, 99–107), and composer and conductor Florentín Giménez (1997:261–292). 19. Diana Mbayá (Reveille) is performed daily at the flagpole in most military institutions. The first part of this composition has been used as the introduction of Campamento Cerro León, an epic Paraguayan polca collected and transcribed by Mauricio Cardozo Ocampo (1988:174–81). Chaco Boreal (Northern Chaco) pays tribute to the Paraguayan soldiers who fought in the Chaco War with Bolivia (1932–1935). 20. Both Canto de esperanza (Song of Hope) and Patria querida (Beloved Country) were used as “call to arms” hymns by the nuevo cancionero movement, which became very popular in the 1970s and 1980s as an agent denouncing social and political injustice. Nevertheless, the musical setting to Patria querida, with text by French priest and poet Marcelino Noutz, comes from the French military march La Madeleine. 21. Solo performances and recordings by Luis Bordón, Nicolás “Nicolasito” Caballero, Lorenzo González, Mariano González, Raquel Lebrón, Martín Portillo, Marcelo Rojas, and Abel Sánchez Giménez stand among the most notable of música internacional as played on the Paraguayan harp.

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ocial and cultural discourses in twentieth- and twenty-first-century Paraguay—in the official, academic/professional, commercial, and popular domains—have consistently demonstrated an interest in traditional music. Since these various cultural domains have reinforced the symbolism attached to the Paraguayan harp as a practical illustration of paraguayidad, this idea has been systematically embedded in the social imagination through the promotion of the instrument as the icon and bearer par excellence of Paraguayan identity. While the official domain has promoted folk music and newly created compositions modeled or based on folk music (música de proyección folclórica or folklore de proyección) in an attempt to create a national folklore and a heightened sense of national identity for the Paraguayan people, professional musicians have pointed to the success of performing artists who have traveled abroad and brought international recognition to Paraguayan traditional music, suggesting traditional music should be cultivated in a more conservative, as opposed to popular, setting, that is, a theater or a concert hall. The commercial domain, which generates economic revenue by marketing traditional music, consists of the small Paraguayan recording industry, daily radio broadcasts of folk music targeting a large audience in the interior of the country, and local restaurants hosting folk music shows mainly for tourist consumption. While these three domains are presented separately in this chapter, in reality they are often interconnected, interacting with and informing one another. The survey and discussion of these domains will focus on official documents and proclamations concerning Paraguayan music, radio and 83

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television programs featuring traditional music, musical methods and academic compositions for the diatonic harp, and musical events, primarily recitals of traditional music in formal settings as observed during the course of my fieldwork and subsequent research trips to Paraguay. The next chapter will discuss the popular music domain and its reinforcement of a Paraguayan identity through the promotion of the harp in the context of music festivals.

THE OFFICIAL DOMAIN: GOVERNMENT PROCLAMATIONS Since the 1930s, official resolutions, proclamations, and policies related to music have been used to promote a nationalistic agenda, targeting various musical expressions and events, among them traditional music repertoire and performances, as well as holidays commemorating musical events. On May 12, 1934, President Eusebio Ayala signed the first of these proclamations, declaring Remberto Giménez’s (1898–1977) musical arrangement of the reconstructed national anthem the official version, a status it still retains. The same document recognized the text of the Paraguayan national anthem as having been written by the Uruguayan poet Francisco Acuña de Figueroa as commissioned by President Carlos Antonio López in the 1840s, and published by the newspaper El Semanario (The Weekly [News]) on December 31, 1853. President Ayala’s proclamation was the culmination of a long search to determine the authorship of the national anthem, the original manuscript for which was lost during the Triple-Alliance War. Another proclamation, signed by President Higinio Morínigo on July 24, 1944, declared the compositions India and Cerro Corá, respectively, to be the guarania nacional and canción épica nacional. Both compositions are still very popular; Cerro Corá is a favorite composition for vocal ensemble performances and India is one of the guaranias performed most frequently on the Paraguayan harp. From the 1960s through the1980s, under President Alfredo Stroessner’s regime, all radio and television stations in the country were required to devote a certain percentage of their daily broadcasts to Paraguayan popular music. Though not an official proclamation, this official mandate promoted a wide-scale popular exposure of folk and traditional music as performed by the soloists and conjuntos officially endorsed and funded by the government. Some of these were awarded recording contracts and performance opportunities, while others, who opposed the government, were subject to harassment and persecution.1 Today, most radio stations broadcast traditional music at the request of the public audience and sponsors.

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A proclamation signed by President Juan Carlos Wasmosy on August 25, 1994 declared August 27th, José Asunción Flores’s date of birth, as Día Nacional de la Guarania (National Day of the Guarania). Another document signed by President Wasmosy on June 11, 1997, designates June 9th as Día Nacional del Arpa Paraguaya (National Day of the Paraguayan Harp). Other official proclamations also signed by President Wasmosy have established August 22nd as Día Nacional del Folclore (National Day of Folklore) and August 30th as Día Nacional del Idioma Guaraní (National Day of the Guaraní Language). Observed as part of the official calendar, these holidays are celebrated through conferences, recitals, and music festivals of popular nature. Four major points, all highlighting the significance of the Paraguayan harp as a symbol of national identity, were detailed in a 1997 petition by the director of the Department of Higher Education and Cultural Promotion to the Vice-Ministry of Culture in regard to the establishment of the Día Nacional del Arpa Paraguaya. This petition, entitled Designación del “Día Nacional del Arpa” presented the harp as the quintessential embodiment of the national musical expression and endorsed the establishment of the holiday as a means of preserving and propagating the significance of the instrument as a national emblem in the popular perception. 2 In addition, the petition designated June 9th, the death date of Félix Pérez Cardozo (d. Buenos Aires, 1952) as the proposed date for the holiday and expressed the hope that the ensuing presidential proclamation would confirm an initiative by international organizations to establish June 9th as the Día Mundial del Arpa (World Harp Day). The last clause of the petition also proposed that the presidential proclamation, in conjunction with efforts on the part of the municipal government, designate a public square for the erection of a national monument in honor of the harp. In the course of my 2001–2002 fieldwork, I observed that while most people were aware of these holidays and the events associated with them from local media coverage, the Día Nacional del Arpa Paraguaya was more or less perceived as an obscure relic of an era of heightened government involvement in the cultural affairs of the nation. Nevertheless, since the establishment of the World Harp Festival in 2007, Paraguayans have been continually reminded of the role and significance of the harp as a cultural symbol. Culminating a long process of systematic musical promotion and a series of petitions given to the various branches of the Paraguayan government President Fernando Lugo Méndez signed an official proclamation (Ley No. 4001) on June 8, 2010 declaring the Paraguayan harp to be the instrumento símbolo de la cultura musical nacional (instrument symbolic of the national musical culture). In addition to its political importance, the designation of the Paraguayan harp as a symbol of national musical culture is highly significant in social and cultural arenas. The general

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public sees that the promotion of the harp as a national or cultural symbol by popular musicians and members of the private sector—a development that could be traced back to the 1997 petition by the director of the Department of Higher Education and Cultural Promotion, a folklore and traditional music specialist, to the Vice-Ministry of Culture—stands as an unofficial cultural manifestation in the context of an official proclamation. The goals and results of the World Harp Festival, the roots of which are the 2010 proclamation and which is celebrated annually in Asunción, will be discussed in the next chapter. Governmental institutions frequently sponsor the dissemination and preservation of material culture. For instance, operating under the supervision of the Department of Folklore, the Museo de Arte Popular (The Museum of Popular Art) collects and displays books, photographs, recordings, and memorabilia that reflect the history of prominent folk music conjuntos. In 2002, I visited the museum and was dismayed to find that, despite the protection of the glass case in which it was displayed, one of the last harps made by Epifanio López for Félix Pérez Cardozo was in very poor condition. In an August 2002 interview, the director of the museum, Rubén Milessi Gómez, expressed to me his concern over the government’s failure to honor its promises of financial support. Indeed, at the time, financial reverberations of the political instability that plagued the presidency of Luis González Macchi could be widely felt, particularly in regard to cultural programs. Five years later, in 2007, the Centro Paraguayo Japonés, a cultural center sponsored by the Japanese government and administered by the Asunción city government, provided a space designated as a temporary harp museum to display the same harp and music memorabilia. This display coincided with the first World Harp Festival in Asunción. A year later, Luis Bordón’s family donated medals, photographs, and other items belonging to the artist to the harp museum. In October 2010, as part of a campaign promoting the harp as a cultural symbol, the Museo del Arpa Paraguaya was created at the Centro Cultural Manzana de la Rivera. The new space also exhibited harps and photographs belonging to Paraguayan harpists. A year later, the museum was dismantled and the collection of instruments and objects located at the Centro Paraguayo Japonés and the Centro Cultural Manzana de la Rivera was permanently moved to the Sala Museo de la Música at the Centro Cultural de la República.3

THE MEDIA DOMAIN: RADIO AND TELEVISION The history of Paraguayan radio and television begins with radiotelegraphy stations operated by the military in the 1910s. In the early 1920s

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the first public broadcast of news and music was aired from the studios of CXZ-27 in Asunción, reaching as far as the town of San Bernardino. In 1924 short-wave broadcasts were aired by the military dispatch at Paraguarí and, shortly thereafter, the first private radio transmitters were placed in four main cities in the eastern portion of Paraguay: Encarnación, Villarrica, San Pedro, and Nueva Germania. Beginning in 1926, ZP1, Radio Cultura Paraguaya (Paraguayan Culture Radio) aired news and music from its studios in Asunción. One of the first live musical broadcasts, from the presidential residency in Asunción, took place at 9:00 p.m. on March 17, 1926. According to newspaper El Orden (The Order), the concert included a performance by Argentine pianist Miguel Morosoli, who was hired in 1920 by the Instituto Paraguayo (Paraguayan [Musical] Institute) as a piano teacher (Szarán 1997:403). In 1927 the government authorized the free import of radio receivers and in 1928 it established the first government-sponsored station, Radio Marconi. In the 1930s several privately owned stations were established, among them ZP1 Radio Prieto, ZP4 Radio Continental, and ZP5 Radio Paraguay. Founded and sponsored by the Franciscan Order in 1936, Radio Charitas was, for many decades, the only station to broadcast live concerts and Paraguayan zarzuelas regularly. From the 1930s through the 1950s Paraguayans commonly tuned into programs broadcast from radio stations based in Buenos Aires, which often featured live performances of Argentine traditional music and tango orchestras. When Paraguayan musicians first traveled to perform and record in Buenos Aires in the late 1920s and early 1930s, they were offered contracts to appear on some of the Argentine daily radio shows. The first generation of Paraguayan performers working in Argentina included, among others, Samuel Aguayo, singers Herminio Giménez and Justo Pucheta, and the conjunto of Diosnel Chase, Ampelio Villalba, and harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo. Paraguayans in Asunción and in the southern region of the country attentively followed these live performances aired by Argentine radio stations such as Radio El Mundo, Radio Belgrano, and Radio Splendid. Saturday and Sunday radio shows, which generally attracted the largest constituency of listeners, often lasted over six hours, airing musical performances presented for live audiences at rented theaters and halls such as the Teatro San Martín in Buenos Aires. In 1941 the Paraguayan government cancelled all radio licenses with the exception of Radio Charitas and implemented a new system of government regulation for newspapers and radio stations. In the 1940s, the only stations permited to operate under the new system of heightened government control, were ZP1 Radio Prieto, ZP3 Radio Teleco, ZP4 Radio Stentor, ZP5 Radio Paraguay, ZP6 Radio Livieres, ZP7 Radio Uruguay, ZP10 Radio Guaraní, ZP13 La Voz del Aire, and ZP20 Radio Universal.

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In 1942 the government created Radio Nacional del Paraguay which, in addition to serving as a conduit for the propagation of the government’s political agenda, devoted a significant portion of its programming to the dissemination of popular and traditional music. In my 2002 visit to the Radio Nacional studios I observed that, while many of the shows aired on the station focused on local and international news and sports, Radio Nacional had maintained a strong commitment to programming that featured Paraguayan popular music on a daily basis. In the 1950s and 1960s, private AM radio stations were created, capitalizing on technological advances that allowed transmitters to increase their signal reach. Since the 1970s numerous FM stations have been established throughout the country. Although most radio stations currently feature international Latin, pop, rock, and alternative music, some of them have committed a segment of their daily programming to traditional and folk music. In a few instances, AM and FM radio stations have been established to promote and broadcast Paraguayan traditional music. Television broadcasting in Paraguay traces its roots to the late 1960s, when Canal 9 TV “Cerro Corá,” was established in 1967 as the first television station in Paraguay, broadcasting news, traditional music shows, foreign movies, and comedy. For more than a decade Canal 9 reigned as the sole television station with daily broadcasts from 5:00 p.m. until midnight on weekdays, and special broadcasts on Saturdays and Sundays beginning at 11:30 a.m. with a thirty-minute segment of previously taped traditional vocal and instrumental music followed by a live musical show. One such show, Domingos Folclóricos (Folkloric Sundays), which later became known as Felíz Domingo (Happy Sunday), featured soloists, conjuntos, and ballet groups performing popular music and dance. Although drawn primarily from a pool of artists who had already gained some measure of recognition performing in Paraguay and abroad, most of the performers were selected by the government—a fact unknown at the time by the general public. Characteristic of these colorful performances were highly choreographed dances with elaborate costumes reflecting the popular conception of Paraguayan “folk” attire. In reality, the attire of dancers and singers did not derive from actual Paraguayan folk customs, but had been adopted by touring folk ballet groups and conjuntos in the 1950s and 1960s who, in an attempt to market their music with a visual collage of regional elements and perceived exoticism, had modeled their costumes after other Latin American folk attire, like that of the Argentine gaucho. Canal 9, complying with the government’s agenda of instilling the Paraguayan citizenry with a nationalistic folklore, capitalized on existing perceptions of what constituted Paraguayan “folk” traditions and presented elaborate displays of traditional Paraguayan music and dance.

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Since the first recordings of Paraguayan traditional music and the advent of live radio shows in Buenos Aires in the 1920s, Paraguayan audiences have generally not differentiated between newly composed music based on folk elements and “authentic” folk or traditional music as defined by Paraguayan folklore specialists.4 Currently, both types of Paraguayan traditional music are referred to generically as música folclórica (folk music) or música de nuestra tierra (music from our land). Among professional musicians and a small number of sophisticated listeners, however, there is a debate centering on the appropriateness to using two distinct categories for Paraguayan traditional music: “authentic” folk, consisting of pieces such as the anonymous Paraguayan polcas Ndarekói la culpa and El solito, and música de inspiración folclórica or música de proyección folclórica, consisting of compositions such as Digno García’s Cascada and Félix Pérez Cardozo’s Tren Lechero, that are based on folk elements and have become an integral part of the accepted body of the traditional music repertoire. The majority of consumers of traditional music have, however, remained indifferent to such a distinction. Created in 1981 as part of the Red Privada de Comunicación (Private Communication Network), a media conglomeration consisting of a television channel, a local newspaper and two radio stations, Canal 13 became the country’s second television station. In the 1990s, private stations such as CVC—Cable Visión Comunicaciones (Cable Vision Communications); Canal 2, now Red Guaraní (The Guaraní Network); Canal 7 Telefuturo; and other cable television companies began to operate, diversifying the industry once dominated by Canal 9. Most television stations currently continue to broadcast shows featuring traditional music, but to a lesser extent than in the past due to rising popular demand and requests by commercial sponsors for pop music, techno-cumbia, hip-hop, and reggaeton. In July of 2001, during the course of my long-term fieldwork, Humberto Rubín Presenta (Humberto Rubín Presents), a daily current events show sponsored by Canal 7 Telefuturo, aired a special program in which composers, performers from various musical styles, and journalists engaged in a dialogue focusing on Paraguayan traditional music and national identity.5 Among the topics discussed was the question of what constitutes “authentic” Paraguayan folk music and whether or not compositions inspired by folk music elements and emerging popular genres incorporating folk elements should be considered a part of the general body of Paraguayan traditional music. Throughout the discussion, certain expressions such as la música paraguaya (Paraguayan music), la música que nos identifica (the music that identifies us), nuestra música (our music), and música nacional (national music) were used in reference to traditional genres, particularly the Paraguayan polca and the guarania. While Humberto Rubín Presenta provided an important arena for the discussion of what constitutes traditional

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Paraguayan music and which qualities render specific musical genres or styles distinctly “Paraguayan,” the nature of the show precluded an indepth exploration of the subject at hand, as the discussion was periodically interrupted by live music performances and by commercial breaks every nine to ten minutes. Some of the diverse group of panelists recognized the widely popular tecno-cumbia paraguaya or cachaca and the new national rock movement as legitimate expressions of Paraguayan culture, while others scoffed at those musical styles, choosing to focus the discussion on la música netamente paraguaya (the exclusively [authentic] Paraguayan music), by which was meant the traditional Paraguayan polca and the urban guarania. Unfortunately, the program ended with several unanswered questions and no follow-up. In August 2002 another television program, aired by Canal 13 Red Privada de Comunicación, featured a panel discussion addressing the very same issues as the July 2001 installment of Humberto Rubín Presenta. El Ventilador (The Electric Fan), a weekly talk show geared toward urban youth viewers, invited musicians, performers, journalists, and a live audience to discuss the ways in which Paraguayan music informs and shapes national identity.6 Although the program appeared frivolous at times, the young audience did manage to convey a general sense of appreciation for Paraguayan popular and folk music as an expression of equal value to foreign musical expressions, much to the disapproval of conservative musicians and journalists who expressed the belief that composers and performers should strive to inculcate the young generation with an appreciation for authentic Paraguayan music sin que se pierda su esencia (without it losing its essence). Of the several radio and television shows featuring Paraguayan music since the mid to late 1990s, Lo Nuestro (Our Thing), Kay’uhápe ([At the Time of] Drinking Mate), and Ñanemba’eté (Our Very Own Authentic Thing) continue to broadcast Paraguayan folk and popular music through the coverage and promotion of religious feasts, festivals, and national events associated with local traditions.7 These shows, all of which appear on both radio and television (Lo Nuestro in Spanish, Kay’uhápe in Guaraní, and Ñanemba’eté in Jopará), regularly showcase the Paraguayan harp, which has been presented as a symbol of national pride and identity, regularly accompanying conjuntos or being featured as a solo instrument.

THE ACADEMIC DOMAIN: PARAGUAYAN MUSIC IN ACADEMIC SETTINGS, HARP METHODS, AND ACADEMIC COMPOSITIONS In addition to attending folk and traditional music festivals and other musical events of popular interest during the course of my fieldwork,

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I was able to attend a series of performances of Paraguayan music in formal academic settings, including concerts by the Asunción Symphony and the Municipal Chamber Orchestra, as well as solo and chamber recitals offered by various performers and musical ensembles. Some of them featured vocal or instrumental music, and a selected few showcased the Paraguayan harp as part of the concert program. Although since its beginnings the OSCA—Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción (Asunción Symphony Orchestra)—has regularly promoted music by Paraguayan composers, since the mid 1990s it has offered an annual series of performances of música paraguaya in addition to its regular concert season.8 A parallel series of free performances sponsored by the municipal government, Conciertos de mi Ciudad (Concerts of My City), takes place during the concert season and usually features the Asunción Symphony performing at various churches, schools, small soccer stadiums, and public spaces such as squares and parks throughout Asunción. A typical program for these Conciertos de mi Ciudad may include compositions such as the overture to George Bizet’s Carmen, a concerto movement featuring a guest soloist, a selection of Viennese waltzes by Johann Strauss, some themes from movie scores (such as The Pink Panther or Gone with the Wind), and a selection of instrumental arrangements of songs by The Beatles. The program often includes arrangements of traditional polcas and guaranias, as well as vocal music and symphonic works by Paraguayan composers. These concerts, which target a large popular audience, are usually very well attended. Prior to the establishment of the OSCA, various instrumental ensembles had also made it a point to promote compositions by Paraguayan composers. After several small chamber ensembles emerged and dissolved in the first half of the twentieth century and various attempts had been made to establish a symphony orchestra,9 the Orquesta Sinfónica de la Asociación de Músicos del Paraguay (Symphony Orchestra of the Paraguayan Association of Musicians) was organized in 1951 by composer and conductor Carlos Lara Bareiro (1914–1987).10 Four years later, in its quest to obtain official recognition, the ensemble assumed the name Orquesta Sinfónica de la Asociación Filarmónica del Paraguay (Symphony Orchestra of the Philharmonic Association of Paraguay) in 1955. Lara Bareiro, a staunch supporter of the promotion and performance of both popular and academic Paraguayan compositions, was forced to resign his position and exiled by the Stroessner regime on June 22, 1955. Prior to departing for Argentina, where he sought political asylum, Lara Bareiro appointed Remberto Giménez as the orchestra’s new conductor. In 1957 Giménez received official authorization to establish the OSCA. Since 1995, the OSCA has presented an annual concert series called Ciclo de Conciertos de Música Paraguaya (Concert Series of Paraguayan Music). The 2002 Ciclo de Conciertos de Música Paraguaya took place

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between March 15th and 25th at the Teatro del Banco Central del Paraguay. The first concert included solo piano pieces and traditional music performed by the symphony and guest soloists. The second concert in the series featured the OCM, the Orquesta de Cámara Municipal (The Municipal Chamber Orchestra), with guest soloists performing instrumental and vocal polcas and guaranias. The final concert of the series of three, included instrumental arrangements of traditional music and symphonic works by composers José Asunción Flores and Herminio Giménez, and featured harpists Luis Bordón and Papi Galán. Accompanied by the symphony, Bordón performed the Paraguayan polcas Despertar nativo and El arpa y la danza de mi tierra, composed by the performer in collaboration with Oscar Nelson Safuán, and Galán performed his arrangement of Félix Pérez Cardozo’s composition Tren Lechero. The theater was packed during the entire series. Although most members of the audience were aware of formal concert etiquette, some departed from the expected behavior, clapping along during the performance of the most well-known Paraguayan polcas.11 Although the clapping seemed to momentarily transform the formal atmosphere of the event, the structured nature of the program and the formal setting of the recital were not conducive to extensive audience participation, which is encouraged and expected in less formal settings such as festivals of traditional music. Since the early 1970s the performance of traditional music has been promoted by institutions such as the Conservatorio Municipal de Asunción (Asunción Municipal Conservatory) and the Escuela de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts School). The Conservatorio Nacional (National Conservatory), established in 1997, has been a cornerstone of the cultivation and propagation of Paraguayan traditional music, offering academic courses, instrumental instruction, and performances. In 2002 the National Conservatory remodeled a small concert hall belonging to the Ministry of Education and made it part of its campus. Since then, various conservatory ensembles and guest soloists have offered weekly performances of academic and traditional music at the Sala de Conciertos Emilio Biggi (Emilio Biggi Concert Hall). In July 2002 I attended one of these events, advertised as an evening of traditional music with guest artists. During the first half of the program, harpist Luis Bordón accompanied by his son, Luisinho Bordón, on the guitar, performed several of the harpist’s compositions and some traditional guaranias. After a brief intermission, Los Hijos del Paraguay (The Sons of Paraguay), a conjunto of three singers accompanying themselves on harp and guitar, sang traditional Paraguayan polcas and guaranias, as well as some traditional compositions from other parts of Latin America. Although the environment seemed extremely formal at times, the diverse audience of students, faculty, and the general public actively participated in the recital by singing and

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clapping during the best-known Paraguayan polcas. As I have found at festivals and other traditional music events, organizers and performers at this recital expressed concern about the preservation and cultivation of a national identity through music. Throughout the evening, I heard from the organizers phrases and expressions such as: el conservatorio nacional está dedicado a la preservación de la música folclórica que nos identifica (the national conservatory is dedicated to the preservation of the folk music that identifies us), la música paraguaya que viajó por el mundo es la que hasta hoy nos representa (Paraguayan music, which has traveled around the world, is what represents us to this day), and la generación joven debe dedicarse al rescate de nuestros valores culturales (the young generation must devote itself to the salvation of our cultural values). As many Paraguayans consider popular polcas and guaranias true representations of paraguayidad and national identity and the agents best able to promote it, such statements seemed to reflect a concern for the local musical traditions displaced by other genres and styles such as tecno-cumbia and reggaeton. After the performance some members of the audience met the musicians to communicate their fascination with the rhythmic energy in the music. While the audience, for the most part, did not seem overly concerned with issues related to national identity, it seemed clear that the general consensus was that the Paraguayan harp was perceived as a symbol of paraguayidad by and for the people. The recounting by musicians and masters of ceremony of the instrument’s warm reception abroad and the uniquely Paraguayan repertoire that the instrument showcased for an international audience articulated this view. Clearly, the collective pride bolstering the harp’s emblematic status was linked to the instrument’s success abroad and the experiences of Paraguayan soloists and conjuntos performing outside the country. My evening at the Conservatorio Nacional left me with the distinct impression that for many Paraguayans—certainly those at the concert—the Paraguayan harp was seen at once as the musical voice of the Paraguayan people, accessible and poignant for the individual listener and as an icon to be observed and admired. Intrigued by that impression, which confirmed my initial assumptions about the instrument, I expanded my quest for discovering the ways in which Paraguayan identity was constructed and reinforced through the harp and its music.

WRITTEN MUSICAL METHODS FOR THE PARAGUAYAN HARP Although most Paraguayan harp players have learned to play through oral tradition, which is explained by most of them either as practicando

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(practicing or playing) or de oído (by ear), in recent years some harp teachers have developed method books for teaching the Paraguayan harp technique and its repertoire. For those involved in developing these, the production and employment of a musical method for the harp points to a higher level of musical proficiency and to a deep commitment and dedication to the music on the part of both instructor and student. This perhaps reflects a view that academic or conservatory training is the only legitimate and effective way to receive musical training or to become a serious musician. In fact, for more than fifty years, official programs in guitar, piano, and voice have been designed by departments of the Ministry of Education and applied systematically in public and private musical conservatories. Students interested in the techniques and repertoire of particular professional or popular guitar or harp performers have, however, continued to seek individual instruction with those performers and have carried on the practice of learning to play the instrument through the oral tradition. Established in 1997 by an official proclamation (Resolución 858/96), the Conservatorio Nacional is the only government-supported music institution to offer a performance degree in Paraguayan harp. Composer and harpist Dionisio Arzamendia Párriz, who served for several years as harp instructor at the conservatory, developed a method entitled Manual didáctico del arpa sin pedales o diatónica—Método en 7 años (Pedagogy Manual for the Diatonic Harp or Harp Without Pedals—7-Year Method), which became for a few years the mandatory textbook for harp instruction at this institution. In 2005, after Arzamendia retired, Adolfo Bernal (“Papi Galán”) became Paraguayan harp instructor at the conservatory, and in 2007 published his Método de arpa paraguaya (Paraguayan Harp Method). In addition to Arzamendia and Galán’s publications, two earlier methods for the Paraguayan harp have been also published: the Método para arpa paraguaya (Method for the Paraguayan Harp) by Armando Ortega, and the Curso de Arpa Paraguaya en Solfeo—Método para aprender el arpa en solfeo ([Musical] Course for the Paraguayan Harp Using Solfège—Method to Learn the Harp Using Solfège) by Roquelino Insfrán. Método para arpa paraguaya Published in 1974 and reissued in the early 1980s, Armando Ortega’s Método para arpa paraguaya includes instructions in Spanish, English, and French. Since Ortega recommends tuning the harp in E major, all exercises and musical transcriptions included in this work are in that key. Ortega uses red strings to designate E as the tonic and blue strings to designate B as the dominant. The method begins with scale and brokenchord exercises. In addition to rhythmic exercises for both hands in 6/8

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and 3/4 meters, Ortega includes some ascending, descending, and glissando exercises. All of these preparatory exercises are related to the first musical transcription, Ortega’s arrangement of 3 de mayo, a Paraguayan polca by harpist Julián Alarcón. Next, he introduces rhythmic exercises and accompaniment patterns for the right hand, as well as preparatory exercises for the Paraguayan tremolo.12 These musical techniques are then incorporated in the transcription of Misiones by arpero José del Rosario Diarte. In preparation for the last musical transcription, Llegada by Félix Pérez Cardozo, the author introduces accompaniment pattern variations using cuatrillos (quadruplets) in the right hand. Llegada is followed by additional technical exercises, illustrating variations on the Paraguayan tremolo and separate and simultaneous arpeggios for both hands. The last section of the method gives instruction for tuning the harp in other keys. This method book is effective due to the proposed sequence of technical exercises and the systematic incorporation of those exercises into the transcription of traditional instrumental pieces. However, both instructor and student must possess a thorough knowledge of music theory and harmony in order to benefit from and maximize the effectiveness of Ortega’s method. Curso de arpa paraguaya en solfeo Published first in 1999 by the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Vice-Ministry of Culture and revised and reissued a few years later as Método del arpa paraguaya and under the sponsorship of the FONDEC (Fondo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes), Roquelino Insfrán’s Curso de Arpa Paraguaya en Solfeo describes the physical characteristics of the harp and provides technical exercises and selected pieces for the instrument.13 Though the book gives F major as the instrument’s principal key, this section also includes directions for retuning the harp to other keys. While the 1999 version, titled Ejercicios preparatorios para aprender a ejecutar arpa por solfeo (Preparatory exercises for learning to play the harp using solfège), presents twenty-two short lecciones (lessons or technical exercises) in the key of F major, using 6/8, 2/4, and 4/4 meters, the revised edition includes four additional exercises and examples of harp accompaniment for the marcha, the vals, the bolero, and the rasguido doble. The lecciones include progressively more advanced exercises with chords, broken chords, scales, accompaniment patterns for both hands, and arpeggios. Minimal instruction is given before each exercise, which suggests that the method can only be taught successfully by the author or someone trained by him. As with Ortega’s method, the student must already have a good knowledge of music theory and traditional harmony to make effective use of this publication.

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Although Insfrán’s method offers a valuable compilation of original compositions and musical transcriptions as well as a fairly comprehensive survey of the different genres of Paraguayan traditional music, as with attempts to transcribe music that is normally passed down through oral tradition, his good intentions are sometimes obscured by notational problems. While the first edition of the method contains arrangements and transcriptions of nineteen pieces for the harp (including seven original compositions by Insfrán), the revised edition presents thirty-eight additional works, including eighteen original compositions by Insfrán and arrangements of a few música internacional pieces such as El cóndor pasa, Happy Birthday, Jingle Bells, and Silent Night. In the prologue to the 1999 publication, Nicanor Duarte Frutos, then minister of education and culture and shortly afterward president of Paraguay (2003–2008), highlighted the particular musical and cultural significance of the method: The Ministry of Education and Culture, aware of its duty of bringing equitable access to a quality education to Paraguayan boys and girls of the twenty-first century, offers to teachers and students this Method of Learning the Harp Using Solfège, by Professor Roquelino Insfrán, who desires to fill a gap in the area. This work has been brought up to date with the times, moving from the intuitive and oral stage to that of musical science and written form (solfège). (Insfrán 1999:1)

Following the prologue is a foreword by Rudi Torga, at the time general director of the Department of [Folklore] Research and Cultural Support, who endorses this viewpoint and applauds Insfrán’s work with the following commentary: With this work opens a new horizon to the harp, because it comes into the universe of musical science to fully reveal its exciting life as our national instrument due to its excellence. (Insfrán 1999:8)

Both the prologue and foreword offer insight into the Ministry of Education and its position regarding the transition from musical instruction through oral tradition to instruction through written academic material. It is clear that the ministry welcomes the “musical development” of a written method in place of the oral tradition as a milestone of cultural and educational progress. Since the majority of the population considers any governmentally endorsed publications to be serious and reliable materials, the foreword and prologue by such high-ranking officials in the Ministry of Education and Culture and the Department of [Folklore] Research and Cultural Support lend this publication an aura of trustworthiness and mark it, in the general perception, as an authentic example of national cultural growth.

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Método de arpa paraguaya Currently a required text for harp students at the Conservatorio Nacional, Papi Galán’s Método de arpa paraguaya has been published in two volumes (1er año introductorio and 2do año introductorio). Galán, who since 2002 has been serving as Paraguayan harp instructor at the conservatory, designed the material as an introduction to a variety of technical exercises, short études, and original compositions. Volume 1 begins with remarks on the significance of the Paraguayan harp, the first of a two-part autobiographical essay (the second half is at the end of the publication), and a general discussion dealing with topics such as the constructional characteristics of the harp, various tuning systems, and practical guidelines stressing proper seating and playing positions. The thirty-one short lessons include self-explanatory technical exercises for separate and both hands. The lessons are followed by short original pieces in which the various exercises are integrated into études. The introductory pages of Volume 2 include a discussion of the performance of the Paraguayan harp in other countries, alternative tuning systems, and details regarding the proper care, maintenance, and storage of the instrument. With the goal of solidifying technique, this volume offers 130 lessons combining technical exercises with short études, including broken chords and arpeggio exercises, examples of melodic passages in parallel thirds and sixths, and four original compositions illustrating and integrating the various lessons through the guarania, polca paraguaya, and vals genres. Finally, a note announces an additional and forthcoming third volume currently in preparation. Galán’s publication appears to be musically and pedagogically solid. Although the method requires the assistance of an instructor, it fulfills its goal of providing a practical guide to learning the Paraguayan harp in the folk tradition through a systematic academic publication. Manual didáctico del arpa sin pedales o diatónica—Método en 7 años Published in 2003, Dionisio Arzamendia’s Manual didáctico del arpa sin pedales o diatónica—Método en 7 años, offers a systematic and comprehensive approach to the instruction and performance of the Paraguayan harp. Endorsed by the Vice-Ministry of Culture, the Paraguayan Authors Association (APA), and the National Conservatory, the publication begins with historical information about the instrument and a biography of the author and his brother, guitarist and conductor José Arzamendia. The author suggests the instrument be tuned in C major, while advocating the use of red strings for E and blue strings for A. Oddly, though the first lessons are in C major, most of the exercises and musical pieces are in F major or its relative, D minor.

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Divided into seven sections corresponding to years or levels of study, the Manual provides an overview of music theory, includes brief discussions of issues related to the harp, and offers exercises for developing technical facility on the instrument. The first level of the Manual contains exercises emphasizing chords, broken chords, short melodic passages, and arpeggios, which are later incorporated into short original pieces composed by Arzamendia. Level 2 presents different types of 6/8 accompaniment patterns for both hands in exercises designated as células rítmicas paraguayas (Paraguayan rhythmic cells). At this level, Arzamendia includes slow 6/8 pieces, galopas, and waltzes. The third level, which introduces technical exercises emphasizing intervals, harmonic progressions, and the Paraguayan tremolo, includes pieces such as Arzamendia’s harp trio arrangement of Sueño de Angelita by harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo. The fourth level incorporates scale exercises in various tonal areas, short études for both hands, and harp duet transcriptions of Llegada and Mi despedida by Pérez Cardozo. It includes three original compositions: the kyre’ỹ Alborada, the guarania No me olvides, and a guarania for harp trio, Rosa de Abril. In the fifth level, Arzamendia intersperses technical and music theory exercises, the traditional Paraguayan pieces Angela Rosa and Coronel Martínez by Pérez Cardozo, and compositions based on various musical traditions from other parts of Latin America, such as a Colombian bambuco, a Peruvian huayno, and a Venezuelan pasaje.14 Arzamendia’s Manual culminates with Levels 6 and 7, which introduce additional technical exercises for both hands, variations on glissando and tremolo patterns, variations on melodic and accompaniment rhythmic patterns in 6/8 meter, and additional pieces from Paraguayan and other Latin American traditional repertoires. Arzamendia’s harp duo arrangement of Cascada by harpist Digno García and his own composition Chochí, both found in Level 7, require a great level of technical and musical dexterity. In a departure from the terminology employed by popular and academically trained musicians, Arzamendia uses either the term galopa or kyre’ỹ in place of Paraguayan polca when referring to traditional pieces in the fast 6/8 meter. Throughout the book, the author emphasizes the diatonic aspect of the instrument, suggesting that performers, instructors, and students should preserve this characteristic of the Paraguayan harp. Arzamendia, who does not encourage the use of llaves, chromatic levers, or other mechanical means of producing half steps, firmly advocates the exclusive performance of diatonic music on the instrument. Of the four methods for the Paraguayan harp discussed in this section, Arzamendia’s Manual is the most comprehensive and accessible, gradually guiding the student through a progressive series of exercises and compositions and providing thorough explanations and a systematic approach to the techniques involved in each exercise. Although basic music

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literacy and a rudimentary knowledge of the instrument are prerequisites for any of the listed methods, Arzamendia’s Manual is most akin to the pedagogical approach for conventional western instrumental instruction.

ACADEMIC MUSIC COMPOSED FOR THE PARAGUAYAN HARP Although the majority of twentieth- and twenty-first-century Paraguayan composers of academic music such as Agustín Barrios (1885– 1944), Emilio Biggi (1910–1969), Luis Cáceres Carísimo (1926–1965), José Asunción Flores (1904–1972), Florentín Giménez (b. 1925), Herminio Giménez (1905–1991), Remberto Giménez (1898–1977), Carlos Lara Bareiro (1914–1987), and a younger generation represented by Daniel Luzko (b. 1966) and Luis Szarán (b. 1953) have written works for solo, chamber, and orchestral ensembles, they have not produced works for the Paraguayan harp.15 While inquiring about this phenomenon, most academic and popular musicians I interviewed indicated that the diatonic nature of the instrument was seen as a musical handicap. Unfortunately, some academic composers of the past associated the Paraguayan harp with the musically illiterate, popular, and unsophisticated—albeit valid—traditions. Nevertheless, most, if not all, Paraguayan academic compositions of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries reflect the influence of folk music elements, such as the use of the polca or guarania rhythms or leitmotivs extracted from popular tunes. Though the Paraguayan harp has traditionally been associated with popular music, a few composers have explored the musical capabilities of the instrument through an academic (“classical”) music approach. While pieces such as Miguel Angel Echeverría’s Mamore’í peguarã (2009), Mariano González’s Camino a Buena Vista (2007), and Marcos Lucena’s Arpegios por la paz (2009) have been conceived for Paraguayan harp and orchestra and inspired by both academic and traditional elements, this section concentrates on two larger multi-movement musical works: Felipe Sosa’s Concierto Op. 35 No. 4 en “Sol Mayor” and Diego Sánchez’s En el cerro de Sapukái. Composed by guitarist Felipe Sosa (b. 1945) and premiered in 2001 by harpist César Cataldo, the Concierto Op. 35 No. 4 en “Sol Mayor” para Arpa y Cinco Guitarras “Homenaje a Félix Pérez Cardozo”—por un mundo ecológico y más humano (Concerto Op. 35 No. 4 in G major for Harp and Five Guitars “Tribute to Félix Pérez Cardozo”—To A More Ecological and Humane World), was the first academic musical work written for the Paraguayan harp as a solo instrument. Dedicated to Dionisio Arzamendia, the piece is organized in the form of an instrumental suite consisting of five continuous movements: Canción, Kyre’ỹ, Guarania, Canción, and Kyre’ỹ. Although

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the melodic lines of the harp are essentially diatonic throughout the piece, instrumental passages played by the guitars provide some degree of chromaticism. The principal musical motif of the second and fifth movements, Kyre’ỹ, quotes the first six measures of Pájaro campana, the popular tune arranged for harp by Félix Pérez Cardozo in the 1930s.16 While this composition maintains the general stylistic features of Paraguayan traditional music, it departs from its traditional foundation by using different tonal areas, chromatic passages, and musical themes developed with the conventions of Western academic composition. Though Sosa’s harp concerto was recorded shortly after its premiere, the composition was not performed again until 2008, when César Cataldo played it at the second annual World Harp Festival in Asunción. Composed for and premiered at the fifth annual World Harp Festival in Asunción in 2011, En el cerro de Sapukái (On Sapukái Hill) by Diego Sánchez Haase (b. 1970) is a piece in three sections for Paraguayan harp and chamber orchestra. Though it remains in the original tonal area of F major throughout and makes use of the traditional diatonic melodic and harmonic characteristics of Paraguayan harp music, at times special effects such as alla Bartók pizzicatti, harmonics, and string articulation changes from fingernail to fingertip touch are indicated. Dedicated to the composer’s mother, who was born in the town of Sapukái, the composition is programmatic in nature. Making use of various timbral effects, the first section paints a sunrise on Sapukái hill, while the second section portrays the arrival of the train—the main source of communication and commercial trade for the town in the mid twentieth-century. Finally, describing a spontaneous popular celebration after the arrival of the train, the third section is based on an original Paraguayan polca with variations. Between sections the harp plays two musical transitions: an extended solo cadenza between the first and second sections, and an accompanied and improvised passage before the final Paraguayan polca. As we have seen in official documents and academic music examples, Paraguayan traditional music has been accustomed to a high level of collective awareness and cultural symbolic value. In the case of the Paraguayan harp, this general social conscience has been systematically reinforced by the notion that not only is the instrument part of the various expressions within Paraguayan folk traditions, but is also as an iconic object capable of embodying “cultural progress” and a high degree of musical sophistication. This notion of “cultural progress” has been guided by the dissemination of official documents, the development and publication of instruction methods, the composition of musical works showcasing the harp as a solo instrument, the alterations and improvements made to the construction of the harp, and the organization of concerts and music festivals.

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THE POPULAR DOMAIN: THE PARAGUAYAN HARP AND TRADITIONAL MUSIC FESTIVALS The history of the traditional music festival phenomenon in Paraguay can be traced to 1927, when pianist Aristóbulo “Nonón” Dominguez (1896– 1930) organized a series of folk music festivals at the Teatro Granados and the Teatro Nacional in Asunción. Dominguez’s intention was to promote folk musicians from the countryside performing traditional compositions and popular tunes, which he presented as aires nacionales (national airs). During these musical events, Dominguez “discovered” and promoted popular musical figures, among them harpists José del Rosario Diarte and Félix Pérez Cardozo, and singers and guitarists Ampelio Villalba and Diosnel Chase. The success of the concerts motivated Dominguez to travel with a group of musicians throughout the interior and the northern Argentine provinces. A historic photograph (Figure 6.1) taken on August 6, 1927, shows Dominguez with his newly formed orquesta folclórica (folk orchestra). The ensemble includes four guitars, a requinto (a type of small guitar), three harps, an accordion, and a gualambau (a musical bow with a gourd resonator). Between the 1930s and 1960s, different ensembles performed traditional, popular, and contemporary music at various venues and events; however, no performances dedicated exclusively to traditional music were again organized in the form of concerts or festivals until the late 1960s.

Figure 6.1.

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The orquesta folclórica of Aristóbulo “Nonón” Domínguez in 1927.

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In 1968, the first Festival Nacional del Folklore (National Folklore Festival) took place in the city of Encarnación, Department of Itapúa, in southern Paraguay. The annual festival was held in Asunción in 1969 and 1970, at which point it was cancelled due to political persecution. During the 1970s university students held two distinct types of traditional music festivals: one with government endorsement, the other sponsored by private donors. The latter was instrumental in the development of the Nuevo cancionero movement mentioned in chapter 4. Considered for several years the main traditional music event in the country, the Festival del Lago Ypacaraí (Festival of the Ypacaraí Lake) was first organized in September 1971. The Paraguayan counterpart to musical events such as the Festival de Cosquín in Argentina or the Festival de Viña del Mar in Chile, the Festival del Lago was celebrated in the town of Ypacaraí until 1984, when for political reasons the event was moved to Argentina. The organizers of the Festival del Lago were seen by the government as social agitators because they were allowing protest songs and featuring Paraguayan and foreign performers who were not officially authorized to sing. Rather than submitting to government censorship or suffering persecution, the organizers opted to relocate to northern Argentina, directly across the river from Paraguay, where the festival carried on for four years in exile. After the military coup d’etat of 1989, the Festival del Lago returned to Paraguay, where it has remained a much-appreciated annual event. Although the extreme commercialization of the festival, with its picturesque lakeside setting, has deterred a significant number of performers and spectators, who since the mid-1990s have chosen to focus their musical interests on other events of a similar nature, the Festival del Lago de Ypacaraí continues to be an important venue for the promotion of traditional music from Paraguay and other South American countries, regularly showcasing touring musical groups from Argentina, Brazil, and Chile. In the 1970s and 1980s the Festival del Lago served as a prototype for the development of similar events throughout the country. Since then, every major city, town, or region has established its own festival of traditional music, frequently using a particular attraction or characteristic of the place to market the festival.17 In addition to these festivals of traditional music, other music festivals accommodating diverse interests appeared in the 1980s, among them the Festival Mandu’arã in Asunción, promoting the Nuevo cancionero; the Festival Internacional de Música Coral in Encarnación, dedicated to the performance of academic and traditional choral works; the Festival Rock Sanber in San Bernardino, promoting local and foreign rock groups; the Festival del Arpa Paraguaya and the Festival Rochas del Arpa in Asunción, created as forums for the performance of traditional repertoire and new compositions for the harp.

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The large number of music festivals led to the 1994 establishment of an official coordinating office, the Coordinadora de Festivales de Música del Paraguay (The Coordinator of Paraguayan Music Festivals) to oversee the continuation and promotion of these musical events. Festivals Exclusively for the Harp Festival del Arpa Paraguaya In 1985 Paraguay Ñe’ẽ organized the first Festival del Arpa Paraguaya, a national musical festival featuring professional and amateur harp players.18 The first annual festival, presented as Homenaje a Félix Pérez Cardozo (Tribute to Félix Pérez Cardozo), took place in 1985 at the Teatro Municipal (Municipal Theater) in Asunción, from November 6 through 9. Each evening featured three performance categories: performances by contestants, performances of new harp compositions, and performances by professional harp players.19 Guest performances by professional players were grouped under specific themes such as El arpa y el sentimiento de patria (Harp and Patriotic Sentiment), El arpa y los animales (Harp and Animals), El arpa y la ternura (Harp and Tenderness), El arpa y el romance (Harp and Romance), El arpa y el terruño (Harp and Home), and El arpa y el paisaje (Harp and [Our] Landscape). The second annual Festival del Arpa in Asunción on July 11, 1987,20 featured two categories: performances by professional harp players and a competition for best new composition. The third and final installment of this series of harp festivals took place on two consecutive evenings in August 1988, including a special tribute to harpist Santiago Cortesi. Unfortunately, lack of interest on the part of sponsors, who had previously committed to supporting the series, brought the festival to an end after its third year. The short-lived Festival del Arpa Paraguaya was not the last of its kind, however, as a similar musical event, the Festival Rochas del Arpa, which had been established in 1987, partially filled the void left by its demise. Festival Rochas del Arpa Established through the initiative of the Alianza Francesa de Asunción (Asunción French Alliance) and the sponsorship of the Monalisa and La Gioconda businesses, the Rochas Harp Festival constituted, for about seven years, one of the main artistic events promoting the Paraguayan harp and its music.21 The name of the festival referred to the perfume Rochas, distributed and represented in Paraguay by La Gioconda, a branch of the Brazilian import agency Monalisa. The festival’s objectives

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included a five-year promotion of harp music performances with the goal of establishing Paraguay as the “world birthplace of the harp,” an international harp performance contest scheduled for 1988;22 and the creation of the Conservatorio de Arpa [Paraguaya] de la Alianza Francesa de Asunción (Asunción French Alliance [Paraguayan] Harp Conservatory).23 The organizers of the event gave the significance of the Paraguayan harp and the musical compositions and performers associated with the instrument as reasons for the establishment of the festival. As a press release put it: With the progressive loss of the [harp] maestros of the second generation, those who were students or contemporaries of Félix Pérez Cardozo, original compositions of great musical value (some of them, equivalent to the best classical [music] compositions) are being forgotten and are in danger of being completely lost. This national heritage is also a heritage for all humanity. For that reason, the refined and exclusive brand of French perfume Rochas, through its representative in Paraguay, the group Monalisa, in conjunction with the Asunción French Alliance, have decided to support for five consecutive years an ambitious promotion program that will establish Paraguay as the world birthplace of the harp.24

The views expressed by the festival committee coincided, and still coincide, with the general perception of the symbolic significance of the harp. The lack of government or private interest in the “national” instrument appeared to have enhanced the festival organizers’ drive to affix a hallmark of distinction to the Paraguayan harp. In spite of the obvious commercial motivation of the sponsors, a sincere concern for the continuation of the harp performance tradition and the promotion of new compositions for the instrument were the impetus for the festival. The reference to some pieces from the traditional and folk music repertoire as equal to “the best” European classical compositions reflects an attempt to assign to Paraguayan popular music the status of “high art.” In fact, the Rochas festival organizers perceived that Paraguayan music for the harp was the work of professional harpists who reshaped folk, popular, and traditional music in order to produce new works according to the highest musical standards. Unfortunately, with time the festival became highly commercialized and exclusive, for this reason drawing criticism from popular harpists and other musicians who were not invited to participate in it. The last Festival Rochas del Arpa marked the end of a decade of continuous harp performances, which began with the first Festival Nacional del Arpa. During informal conversations in the course of my long-term fieldwork, some harp performers fondly remembered the “good old days” of the harp festivals, indicating that such support and general interest for the instrument was, indeed, part of an exciting and happy story that had apparently come to a sudden end.25 Despite their concern, however, the Rochas Festivals were not the last ones.

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Festival Mundial del Arpa en el Paraguay In 2007, the Festival Mundial del Arpa en el Paraguay became the country’s new and official festival promoting the Paraguayan harp and its music. Since then, the Festival Mundial del Arpa en el Paraguay has become the main music event devoted to the performance and promotion of the harp in Paraguay. Though conceived and organized by a group of cultural promoters, journalists, and musicians from the private sector, the annual festival has received official government recognition and sponsorship. The idea of a local music festival emphasizing all aspects of Paraguayan harp music—including musical composition, performance, and instruction—was first discussed in 2006 by Paraguayan harpist Rito Pedersen and cultural promoters Ana María Scappini Ricciardi and Marlene Sosa Lugo. Soon, the projected festival goals and activities were expanded to include harp performers from parts of the world besides Paraguay. By early 2007 the festival was being advertised as an event of national interest and the city of Asunción promoted as the future capital mundial del arpa (“world capital of the harp”). Purposefully excluding the phrase “Paraguayan harp” from the name of the festival, the organizers believed that in addition to showcasing the Paraguayan instrument, the event should include other harps and harpists, with the arpa paraguaya as both musical host of the festival and icon of Paraguayan musical culture. In order to further elevate the status of the Paraguayan harp and its music, the organizing committee also developed a petition to UNESCO, officially requesting the designation of Asunción as “world capital of the harp.”26 By September 2007, a series of educational and musical activities connected to the festival were designed to support such request. In addition to a series of concerts featuring Paraguayan and foreign harpists, the festival committee scheduled lectures and master classes. Other plans included a harp composition contest for the second year of the festival and the creation of a harp museum. While the 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2011 festivals were held in Asunción, the one in 2010 had two sites: Asunción and Encarnación. I was able to attend the 2007 and 2010 World Harp Festivals. On November 2 and 3, 2007, twelve Paraguayan harpists and six foreign artists inaugurated the first presentation of the harp festival at the Teatro Municipal. During each of these evenings, the Paraguayan harp shared the stage for about three hours with its counterparts from France, Mexico, and Venezuela.27 Each musician or ensemble was scheduled to perform three selections, and introductory remarks and a series of speeches reinforcing the value of the Paraguayan harp as an icon of cultural identity extended the time allotted for each day’s events. Since the audience was already accustomed to other local folk and popular music festivals featuring long performances this was not problematic. On the contrary, for some members of the audience, the time and number of musical selec-

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Logo of the World Harp Festival in Paraguay.

tions assigned each participant seemed too short. The festival showcased four Paraguayan youth harp ensembles including the three-hundredmember Conjunto de Arpas de Sonidos de la Tierra, playing transcriptions of colonial and traditional pieces. A Saturday morning master class included lectures by Argentine harpist Lorenzo París, French harpist Myrdhin, and Paraguayan harpists Ismael Ledesma and Marcos Lucena. An admirer of Félix Pérez Cardozo, París shared anecdotes regarding the famous harpist, whom as a child he had met in Mar del Plata, Argentina, and demonstrated harp techniques developed by Pérez Cardozo. While Myrdhin discussed the historical and musical aspects of the Celtic harp

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and shared a few of his own compositions, Lucena offered a lecture on the general history of the harp, and Ledesma gave examples of some of the current composition techniques used by Paraguayan harpists. Throughout the festival, local harp luthiers exhibited their instruments and shared with the public details on their particular construction techniques. Since its inception the event has received the official endorsement and sponsorship of institutions such as the Secretaría Nacional de Cultura, the Dirección General de Turismo, and the Municipalidad de Asunción, and a commemorative stamp celebrating the harp festival was released a year later by the Paraguayan Post Office. Although the support of the various government agencies may suggest the presence of a political agenda, in reality the festival organizing committee has exercised independence and control over budget and activities. Beginning in 2008, the organizing committee added performances of academic music and the premieres of new compositions and dances, the release of new publications (mainly biographies of harp performers), and special tributes to landmark figures in Paraguayan harp music.28 A harp composition contest in three categories (children, youth, adult) was held in 2008 and 2009. The festival has sponsored the release of interviews, biographies, and essays on Paraguayan harpists and other musicians.29 Figure 6.3 shows an outdoor performance of the harp student group Sonidos de la Tierra at the Cathedral Asunción during the 2010 World Harp Festival.

Figure 6.3. The Sonidos de la Tierra harp student group performing at the 2010 World Harp Festival.

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The success attained by the festival, the high cultural status of the Paraguayan harp and its music, and increased public awareness of the iconic value of the instrument motivated the request in 2009 by a group of musicians and journalists to officially designate the Paraguayan harp as the instrument and symbol of [Paraguayan] national culture, resulting in the 2010 presidential proclamation to that effect.

THE PARAGUAYAN HARP IN FOLK AND TRADITIONAL MUSIC FESTIVALS In addition to harp festivals specifically promoting the role of the Paraguayan harp (albeit within the context of other traditional musical expressions), other music festivals celebrating folk traditions are held almost every weekend of the year in various locations throughout the country. Most of these events are similar in conception, lasting six hours or more, and may include instrumental and vocal music performed by professional musicians and amateur contestants, as well as choreographed traditional dances, poetry recitations, and short plays in Guaraní or Jopará. The festivals often serve as a venue for a host of stands serving food and drinks typical of the region, and for the marketing of local crafts, books, and recordings. Four of them were quite appealing from a musical point of view and two of them featured and emphasized the Paraguayan harp in a particular way. Festivals that Feature the Harp Festival del Ñandutí Organized for the first time in 1977 in celebration of the ñandutí weaving, one of Itauguá’s most distinctive local folk art forms (seen in Figure 6.4), this festival of traditional music includes performances by professional musicians and amateur contestants competing for three awards.30 I attended the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth annual Festival del Ñandutí, held in late July 2001 and early August 2002, respectively, at the soccer stadium of the Olimpia sports club in Itauguá. The twenty-fifth anniversary festival, which took place on Saturday, August 3, 2002, showcased twenty-seven vocal and instrumental soloists, conjuntos, choral ensembles, comedians, and dance groups performing from 9:00 p.m. until 4:00 a.m. for an audience ranging from adult spectators to young children. Stands with crafts, compact discs, and refreshments provided a respite from the marathon of performances and a dis-

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Figure 6.4. Ñandutí made in Itauguá.

traction from the bitter cold. The Paraguayan harp accompanied the polca and guarania performances of vocal soloist Hernán Ramírez, the vocal trio Las Maravillas, and the Conjunto of Juan Carlos Oviedo y los hermanos Acuña. The extreme cold curtailed audience participation, prompting most people to huddle over warm mate and vorí-vorí de pollo (chicken soup with cornmeal balls), rather than engage in the animated singing and clapping customary in festivals of traditional music.31 Though the harp was used sparingly throughout the night, its distinctive sound stirred some members of the audience to burst into spontaneous couple dancing, particularly during harpist Tito Acuña’s performance of the Paraguayan polca Campamento Cerro León. The particular combination of Acuña’s version of this composition and the historical meaning behind the piece, which recounts the pride and courage of Paraguayan soldiers facing the Triple Alliance forces, prompted the audience to forget the frigid conditions and to celebrate Paraguayan pride and history.

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Festival Internacional Zeballos con el Folclore Like the Festival del Ñandutí, the Festival Internacional Zeballos con el Folclore (International Festival Zeballos with Folklore) consists of an annual gathering of numerous performers of traditional music. The festival, established in 1996 with the primary goal of providing the Zeballos Cué community with a variety of performances by popular and international artists, takes place outdoors at the Colegio Nacional Las Residentas (The Residents’ National School) in Zeballos-Cué. In addition to the performances of local musicians and dancers, dance troupes from Argentina and Brazil also participate in the eight-hour festival. The audience consisted mostly of children, young adults, and families from the community and neighboring towns. Although the Paraguayan harp was not the main attraction of the festival, its presence breathed life into the gathering. Festival del Takuare’ẽ In 2001 the Festival del Takuare’ẽ (Festival of the Sugarcane) launched its twenty-fourth annual celebration of traditional music and dance. Established in 1977 in the city of Guarambaré, and later as part of the Asociación de Festivales del Mercosur (Mercosur [Folk Music] Festivals Association) and the International Organization of Popular Art, the Festival del Takuare’ẽ has recently, gained a reputation as one of the foremost popular events associated with traditional music in the country.32 This festival is the culmination of an annual selection process by which traveling judges attend smaller-scale festivals in various towns throughout the region and choose contestants to perform in the Festival del Takuare’ẽ. Some of these pre-festivals take place abroad, mainly in Argentina and the United States, specifically Washington, D.C., and New York, where a significant number of Paraguayan immigrants have been living and working since the early 1950s. Organized by the festival committee and drawing a diverse crowd from various sectors in Guarambaré, the event received financial support from FONDEC, or the Fondo Nacional para el Desarrollo de la Cultura (The National Foundation for the Development of Culture), Itaipú Binacional (the Brazilian-Paraguayan hydroelectric consolidation), the government of the Central Department, and several private enterprises.33 The committee was also responsible for the publication of the festival’s annual magazine, which contained articles and information related to the series of events, and a compact disc featuring the live performances of amateur contestants from the previous year. An excerpt from a bulletin handed out at the festival emphasized the cultural and political significance of this event:

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The Takuare’ẽ [Festival] is an event absolutely identified with the country, it is a symbol of cultural resistance against the ill advances of foreign practices, alien to our culture, although, to some extent, they may bring some positive values, truthfully, one must take care with the alien and destructive effects that they also bring. Along with [the other musical] festivals organized in the country, [Takuare’ẽ] contributes in its small way to become the National Defense.34

The views expressed in the festival bulletin echoed those expressed in an article released in September 2000. Promoting the twenty-third annual Festival del Takuare’ẽ, Alfredo Vaesken, member of the festival committee, states: We are very aware that [music] festivals, first organized to promote the continuity of [our popular] TRADITION AND FOLKLORE and not as a platform for other activities, are very positive barriers against all the negative aspects that we receive from foreign influences. . . . Many government authorities do not appreciate or do not comprehend the value of the festivals, even when they relate to good social practices. For instance, the Takuare’ẽ festivals end every show in the early morning hours, without any young drunkard or bum asleep on the streets waiting for the dawn, because they are accompanied by their parents or [because] they go to the festivals with a clear goal and not as common hooligans. In addition, the festivals provide a space to the professional artists who, in this way, make an honorable living. And furthermore, a well-defined and organized festival is the identity of a community. (Press Bulletin, October 9, 2000)—my translation

When I interviewed Vaesken in March 2002, he reiterated these points and bemoaned the lack of interest and support from current government authorities toward the planning and promotion of that year’s festival. At the time, the news media was having a feeding frenzy over some serious cases of corruption involving President Luis Angel González Macchi (1999–2003), a few senators, and other political figures. Vaesken expressed concern that the ensuing fallout would have a detrimental effect on cultural events across the board due to a lack of funding from official and private sources. Despite declining government support for and interest in festivals of traditional music, the festival committee was able to gather sufficient funds to support a large-scale festival. Both evenings of the festival, November 9–10, 2001, were broadcast live by radio stations including Radio Charitas, Radio Nacional del Paraguay, and Radio Cardinal. The first evening of the festival began with a performance of traditional polcas and galopas by a dance group made up of teenagers and young adults from Guarambaré. The dances were accompanied by a local banda típica (folk band), consisting of two trumpets, two trombones, a

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saxophone, a sousaphone, a snare drum, and a bass drum with parallel crash cymbals on top. In addition to traditional dances presented by the Guarambaré group, the Maká Indians performed ritual dances and sang on stage. Disoriented by the configuration of the stage, the Makás had difficulty performing this series of dances, which was ultimately perceived as separate musical pieces. Accustomed to clapping after every musical number, the audience had a difficult time knowing when the Maká dances were beginning and ending. Other expressions such as popular poetry and short theater plays in Jopará and Spanish were included.35 While vocal music dominated the musical agenda of the first evening, the harp made two appearances that night. Sixto Tadeo Corbalán, first place winner for solo harp performance in the 1996 Festival del Takuare’ẽ, was called to the stage with the following introduction:36 As [harpist] Cristino Báez Monges would have said, “playing the Paraguayan harp is not a profession, it is an identity.” If it has thirty-six strings, we go back in time when the harpist had to play on thirty-two strings. José del Rosario Diarte, from San Juan, Félix Pérez Cardozo, the friend from Hy’aty, Carlos Talavera, the harp, the guitar, Carlitos Talavera, it is the inspirational motif to this onomatopoetic sound. Today, thirty-six strings, we could talk about so many harp players, many people who have performed, beginning with Nenequita Cáceres, similarly, the Olympic talent of Albino Quiñónez, the great talents. But we stop in time and space to hear an exceptional man, here every year, as one of the judges, as harpist, as a helper, Luis Carlos Encina Lupo, let’s give him a hand. It is the Paraguayan passport to the world, two harps, mixed duo on the Paraguayan harp, passport and international hymn of Paraguay: the Guyra pón or the Bell Bird.—my translation

This presenter epitomized the art of improvisatory speech typical of announcers at Paraguayan festivals of traditional music. His ebullient introduction, which was laced with terms such as ”Paraguayan harp,” “identity,” and “international hymn,” among others, served to reinforce the prevailing sentiment regarding the symbolic significance of the harp and to pay homage to festival judges as well as to professional harpists who had performed at the festival in years past.37 The second evening of the festival included performances by professional singers, conjuntos, comedians, and visiting folk-dance groups from Argentina and Chile. The evening’s program began with the Guarambaré dance group performing a variety of traditional dances with music and poetry recitation in the background. Some of the ideas and themes represented in this performance reflected pressing social issues; namely political and economic distress, the notorious corruption of the military and police, and the alarming rise in numbers of people living in poverty,

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as well as a collective sentiment of hope for el nuevo Paraguay (the new Paraguay)—a quasi-socialist concept related to the Paraguayan tekó and that captures a collective aspiration for a new nation governed by the principles of social justice, equality of land distribution, and financial stability. The unlikely proponent of social justice and the author of the script for this dance performance was Rudi Torga, at the time Director of the Department of Folklore [Research], a branch of the Vice-Ministry of Culture. The fact that his seeming endorsement of an agenda that would seem to undermine the very establishment he served did not cause major ripples points to a changing political climate, since prior to the 1989 overthrow of Stroessner’s regime, Torga’s script would have been tantamount to treason. Although the political content of the performance’s script was novel, the musical content was very traditional. The first half of the program also included traditional dancing by the group Katupyry, a short political satire, and performances by choral groups and conjuntos.38 The Paraguayan harp appeared at various times throughout the evening accompanying such musical groups as Los Corales, the conjunto of Juan Carlos Oviedo y los Hermanos Acuña, and the Dúo Mongelós-Torales, all of which sang traditional music in Guaraní and Jopará. While Los Corales’ performance was typical for them, infusing traditional music with social commentary, the Dúo Mongelós-Torales and the conjunto of Juan Carlos Oviedo focused on traditional tunes. Among the most memorable moments of the evening were the following performances: Los Corales’ rendition of Ñande rekohá, a song calling for the preservation of Paraguay’s natural resources, and Receta del tío Sam, a musical satire criticizing the current politic maneuvers of the Paraguayan government and its foreign policy toward the United States; and Juan Carlos Oviedo and the Acuña brothers’ performance of Paraguaype, a poem describing the city in the early 1940s, and Regimiento 13 “Tuyutí,” a tribute to a group of soldiers who fought during the Chaco War with Bolivia, the texts for both of which were written by Emiliano R. Fernández. During some of the songs, Oviedo’s conjunto and the Mongelós-Torales duo performed together, exchanging verses and instrumental solos. Throughout the songs, the audience accompanied each one of the performances with rhythmic hand clapping, whistling, and vocal interjections.39 Accompanied by accordion and guitars, harpist Tito Acuña performed an instrumental arrangement of Félix Pérez Cardozo’s Llegada. Wrapping up the first half of the program, the Dúo Mongelós-Torales performed María Escobar, a polca-canción of romantic nature attributed to Emiliano R. Fernández, and Ndarekói la culpa, a traditional instrumental polca of anonymous authorship. Although the Paraguayan harp was not the focus of the program, the assertion of its vital role as a symbol of identity was reiterated through commentary and through the wave of excitement that spread through the

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audience each time the instrument appeared on the stage. When a harp player displayed a high level of virtuosity, particularly during a rendition of well-known instrumental piece or in the accompaniment of vocal performances, the audience would heighten its attentiveness in a way that was not displayed during other performances. For many members of the audience, the presence of the harp bestowed a seal of authenticity upon the Festival del Takuare’ẽ, providing the appropriate and expected medium for the reinforcement of paraguayidad and identity through musical performance. Encuentro con Emiliano Associated with the preliminary annual activities of the Festival del Takuare’ẽ, the Encuentro con Emiliano ([Musical] Gathering with Emiliano), named after popular poet and composer Emiliano R[ivarola] Fernández, constitutes one of the most popular of all traditional music events in the country. Taking place in Yvysunú, Guarambaré, around August 8th,40 at the Monumento a Emiliano (Monument to Emiliano) located at the Quinta Núñez (country house of the Núñez family), the event is a daylong festival with informal performances of traditional music and concession stands with crafts, games, and food. The activities begin around 8:00 a.m. with a mass at the local Catholic church, followed by a desfile folclórico (folk parade) with the participation of jinetes (horse riders) and improvised folk dances performed by members of the community and dance groups. Accompanied by a banda típica, the procession of musicians and the statue of the Virgin of Caacupé (one of Paraguay’s patron saints) parades for three kilometers from the entrance of town to the monumento in Yvysunú. At the Quinta Núñez and the monumento, a calesita (carousel) and a popular fair with games, crafts, and food cater to spectators who come from Guarambaré, Asunción, and nearby towns. At the back of the property, men and women prepare asado a la estaca (beef roasted in a traditional style over firewood), mandioca (yucca root), and other regional food. Although the Encuentro promotes traditional music genres and styles, which tend to appeal to listeners of an older generation, the festival draws a diverse crowd that includes children, teenagers, and young adults. The relaxed atmosphere and informal schedule, the meaningful location, and the various popular elements (music, food, crafts) displayed and celebrated serve as the backdrop for the articulation of different aspects of a common shared identity. I attended the 2002 Encuentro con Emiliano. Organized by the committee for the twenty-fifth annual Festival del Takuare’ẽ, and partially sponsored by FONDEC, the event took place on Sunday, August 4th.

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Broadcast live by Radio Nacional and Radio Charitas, the event included vocal and instrumental performances featuring soloists and conjuntos, poetry recitation in Guaraní, and choreographed traditional dances. In the following traditional speech, Alfredo Vaesken gave a powerful summation of the social relevance of the festival: The [Musical] Gathering with Emiliano is a popular gathering, in defense of Paraguayan-ness. This event does not have sponsors, especially from the government. This popular celebration becomes a common front facing the sociopolitical distress in which the nation lives. This is a communal celebration of who we are and what we like: Paraguayan music.

Vaesken’s remarks were well received and evoked feelings of solidarity among the public, the majority of which belonged to the working class. Although I heard an occasional murmur among the audience in regard to the sociopolitical situation of the time, the general state of frustration all but dissolved in a collective sentiment of nostalgia and empowerment that persisted through nearly eight hours of musical performances. In contrast to other popular festivals of traditional music, this event featured the harp in most of the musical selections. Throughout the morning and afternoon, the diatonic harp accompanied musical groups including Los compuesteros de Carapeguá, Papi Basaldúa and Cantares, and the Conjunto de Juan Carlos Oviedo y los hermanos Acuña. A few minutes before the setting sun signaled the end of the Encuentro around 7:00 p.m., prompted by the exciting rhythmic drive of the Paraguayan polcas, couples from the audience burst into spontaneous dancing.41 Singing compuestos in Guaraní and Jopará, Los Compuesteros de Carapeguá were accompanied by harp, accordion, and two guitars. Their vocal performance style typified the popular mode of singing common in the countryside, characterized by a nasal timbre, open-throat sound production, and enunciation in jahe’ó (crying or lament-like) style. The harp player accompanied most of the songs on the bordonas (bass strings), emphasizing short melodic passages in the low register and improvising melodic accompaniment patterns along with the accordion. Whereas the style of performance epitomized by Los Compuesteros de Carapeguá features no virtuosic instrumental solos, Papi Basaldúa, who performed a variety of traditional compositions in Spanish and Jopará along with his musical group Cantares, displayed a high level of technical virtuosity on the harp during the introductions and interludes of polcas and guaranias. In addition to singing and playing the harp, the versatile performer accompanied the two other members of the group on electronic keyboard, at times alternating between the harp and the keyboard. The singing style of this group reflected the “professional approach” to

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traditional music, featuring precise enunciation of words, sudden crescendos and decrescendos, elaborate three-part harmonies, and straighttone vocal production followed by wide vibrato at the ends of phrases.42 At the end of the festival, the Conjunto de Juan Carlos Oviedo y los Hermanos Acuña—Tito Acuña on harp, and Juan Carlos Oviedo and Digno Acuña accompanying themselves on guitar—performed Paraguayan polcas in Jopará, singing in the purahéi hoyvy (duo singing) tradition with their own blend of popular and professional vocal styles. A favorite in most festivals and concerts, the conjunto’s performance style motivated the audience to participate by singing and clapping during all of their songs. The group’s musical selections included very well-known songs and compositions by popular poets and musicians, especially Emiliano R. Fernández. I was able to attend the Encuentro on two later occasions, in 2005 and 2010. The 2005 festival was similar in scope and nature to the one I had witnessed in 2002. Once more, organizers appealed to the audience with speeches containing a cultural “call to arms,” actors improvised on pieces from popular theater, masters of ceremony referred to the performance of the harp and polcas paraguayas as expressions of authentic paraguayidad. Five years later I returned to the Encuentro with great anticipation. The schedule, activities, and music appeared to be similar to the 2005 and 2002 festivals. In the midst of a procession of dancers dressed with traditional folk outfits and a banda folclórica playing galopas, the arrival of the statue of the Virgin of Caacupé signaled the beginning of the festival. After the celebration of a short Mass on an improvised altar on the steps of the monument the public sang the national anthem. Throughout the morning, the sounds of live music, poetry, and popular theater mixed with the aroma of coffee, mate, and [mate] cocido quemado in the cold air. Bundled up in winter gear and woolen ponchos, the public enjoyed performances by the youth orchestra Sonidos de la Tierra—Guarambaré, the Guarambaré Youth Guitar Ensemble, Lucho Villalba y su conjunto, the Luque Experimental Theater Group, harpists Sixto Tadeo and Juan Jorge Corbalán, Lucho Valdéz y su conjunto, and the Guarambaré Municipal Ballet. Although the atmosphere was already charged with music and celebration, the presence of the Paraguayan harps invited the spontaneous cheering of the audience. As part of the introduction, the Master of Ceremonies improvised a speech in Spanish and Jopará, reminding the audience about the achievements of Paraguayan harpists abroad and reinforcing the iconic value of the instrument as a carrier of “all things Paraguayan.” The Encuentro con Emiliano stands out as the country’s most popular traditional music gathering, the various components of which validate and authenticate the traditions displayed and performed in the course of the event. Participation in the Encuentro helps to assert one’s identity as

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Figure 6.5. Brothers Sixto Tadeo and Juan Jorge Corbalán performing at the 2010 Encuentro con Emiliano.

a Paraguayan by recreating and transmitting traditions “protected” from outside influences. Furthermore, though it does receive some government sponsorship, the Encuentro is mostly a self-supported event, organized by the local people of Guarambaré, who see themselves as promoters of a cultural stronghold against political oligarchy. Tired of unfulfilled promises and political dishonesty, the audience and musicians unite in the performance of what constitutes, for some, a true act of paraguayidad: the celebration of the folk and popular local musical expressions. Indeed, at the Encuentro con Emiliano, the preservation and reinforcement of paraguayidad and social or national identity, is achieved through the repeated performance of social activities seen as “traditional.”43 In the Encuentro, listening to music, dancing, singing, speaking Guaraní and Jopará, eating traditional foods, socializing, and sharing a common space with others engaged in similar activities combine to represent the social kaleidoscope that is Paraguayan culture. Within these myriad activities, the presence of the Paraguayan harp figures dominantly as a symbol of cultural identity, acting as a conduit for the musical language that is common to all age groups and social groups that gather annually in Yvysunú.

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NOTES 1. In addition to a standard traditional repertoire comprised of popular polcas, an official list of traditional music repertoire endorsed by the government included purahéi kele’é (songs to wheedle) and polcas dedicated to the character and achievements of politicians and the military. Accompanied by guitars, harp, and accordion, singers of purahéi kele’é praised President Stroessner, his family, and other political figures in songs such as A nuestro gobernante patriota (To Our Patriotic President), A la primera dama de la nación (To the First Lady of Our Nation), Al gran reconstructor (To the Great Rebuilder), General Stroessner, Gracielita (Sweet Graciela—Stroessner’s daugther), León guaraní (The Guaraní Lion), Líder de la paz (Leader of Peace), and Presidente encarnaceno (Our President from Encarnación). After the 1989 coup d’etat, the particular musical practice of purahéi kele’é was rendered all but obsolete. Currently, most radio stations broadcast traditional music at the request of the public and sponsors or in conjunction with shows scheduled by radio and television impresarios. 2. The complete text of the Designación del “Día Nacional del Arpa” states, “The harp, generally referred to as ‘Paraguayan Harp,’ is the instrument that identifies the national musical expression and [that] for that reason, constitutes a symbol of nationhood. Following this premise, we propose to designate a day as the ‘NATIONAL DAY OF THE HARP’ to strengthen, preserve, and project the significance of the instrument, in the consensus of the popular culture. One of the acclaimed proponents of the Harp, as interpreter and composer of beautiful [musical] pages for the Latin American popular repertoire, was the fellow citizen, from Guairá, Don Félix Pérez Cardozo, who died suddenly on June 9, 1952, in Buenos Aires. Inspired by this fact, we suggest June 9th, of every year as the National Day of the Harp. I request that the designation be [officially] declared by the Executive Power, [so] that it may serve as a precedent to arrange before international organizations the designation of World Harp Day on the same date; and that simultaneously, in conjunction with the Municipal government, a public square may be chosen to erect the National Monument to the Harp.”—my translation— Although the Día Nacional del Arpa Paraguaya has been observed on June 9th, no efforts have been undertaken to build such monument. On June 9, 1999, a group of professional harpists from Asuncion traveled to Hy’aty, Guairá to perform at a festival commemorating the Día Nacional del Arpa Paraguaya. Organized by the Vice-Ministry of Culture and the Association of Paraguayan Harpists, the festival marked the beginning and the end of an initiative to render the Día Nacional del Arpa Paraguaya a holiday of great popular interest. 3. Created in 2004, the Centro Cultural de la República is a national cultural center where the various sections of a nineteenth-century government building have been transformed into museums preserving and displaying objects of Paraguayan material culture. The building, which was conceived to host the nineteenth-century Judicial and Legislature branches of government, served until 2003 as the site of the Paraguayan National Congress. The edifice was built where the old colonial Cabildo de Asunción had been erected by Domingo Martínez de Irala in 1541.

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4. These folk or traditional music elements included features such as short melodic phrases in parallel thirds, repetitive standard harmonic progressions (I–V–I–IV–V–I), and the 6/8 Paraguayan polca rhythmic style. 5. Humberto Rubín Presenta, Telefuturo, July 26, 2001. 6. El Ventilador, RPC Red Privada de Comunicación, August 2, 2002. 7. At the 2004 annual Luis Alberto del Paraná Awards ceremony in Asunción, Kay’uhápe and Ñanemba’eté received the Paraná de Oro (The Golden Paraná) for best shows promoting national music and folklore traditions. This annual ceremony has been informed and influenced by the practices of similar ceremonies in the United States, such as the Emmy and Grammy Awards. 8. During the May-December season, the OSCA performs works by Paraguayan composers, as well as the standard western European symphonic literature. Since its establishment in 1957, the OSCA has become a major proponent of Paraguayan music, regularly performing both traditional and academic works by Paraguayan composers. Conductors Remberto Giménez (1957–1976), Florentín Giménez (1976–1990), and Luis Szarán (1990–present), have devoted their careers to the promotion of what is referred to in the academic circles as música nacional, a body of literature conceived or arranged for symphony orchestra by Paraguayan composers. 9. In 1890, conductor Cantalicio Guerrero (1853–1908) created the Orquesta Nacional (National Orchestra) with forty musicians. The main function of the ensemble was to accompany operas and zarzuelas at the Teatro Nacional. In 1928, almost forty years after the inception of the National Orchestra, violinist and conductor Remberto Giménez organized the first symphony orchestra, giving sporadic performances for a few years. Although a municipal resolution was passed in 1945 with the intent of creating the Asunción Symphony Orchestra, these efforts did not proceed beyond the planning stages (Szarán 1997:345). 10. The recipient of a scholarship from the Brazilian government, Carlos Lara Bareiro studied composition and conducting at the Universidade do Brasil in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. After his graduation in 1950, Lara Bareiro returned to Paraguay and in 1951 organized the country’s first symphony orchestra. Due to his interest in the socialist doctrine and his refusal to abide by the government’s guidelines in regard to the management of his ensemble, Lara Bareiro was branded as subversive and forced into exile in 1955. He settled in Argentina, where he composed, conducted, and taught until his death in 1987. In 1996, the Paraguayan government conferred upon Lara Bareiro, posthumously, the highest national award, the Honor al Mérito Nacional (Honor to the National Merit). 11. In a more informal setting, the audience typically accompanies the music by clapping on the first and fourth beats of Paraguayan polcas. 12. To achieve this particular effect, Ortega indicates: “fingers 2 and 3 must be very stiff, marking and playing simultaneously the first two notes down, then the same ones up and thus successively.” (1974:13) 13. In the Paraguayan academic musical sphere, solfeo (solfège) implies musical reading. For the general public the term solfeo is associated with music literacy and denotes that someone who knows it or studies it, is a professional musician.

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14. These last three compositions are by Dionisio Arzamendia: the bambuco Nostalgia, the ritmo andino [huayno] Aire del Altiplano (Air from the Altiplano), and the pasaje Pasaje a Teolinda (Pasaje to Teolinda). (Arzamendia 2003:242–46, 252–54) 15. Most of these composers have also written popular music or have received their initial musical training by performing traditional music. 16. As part of the concert program notes, composer Felipe Sosa indicates, “The concerto has the three genre types of our music, which are the Canción, the Guarania, and the Kyre’y, and it has as a leimotiv, the first six measures of Pájaro Campana, [as they appeared] in the immortal version of Félix Pérez Cardozo. Throughout the piece, the harp develops a well-defined melody, appropriate for the instrument. In contrast, the guitars show a [type of musical] work of which the enormous richness of harmony and timbre that the instruments enjoy, which has allowed me to achieve a contemporary harmonic combination to the extent that the audience will notice a [type of] Paraguayan music that moves toward the time in which we composers live and are placed.”—my translation 17. Some of these events include the Festival de la Sandía de Paraguarí (The Watermelon Festival of Paraguarí), the Festival del Poivy de Carapeguá (The Poivy [a type of hand-made blanket] Festival of Carapeguá), the Festival de la Frutilla de Areguá (The Strawberry Festival of Areguá), the Festival de la Yerba Mate de Pedro Juan Caballero (The Yerba Mate [the regional tea] Festival of Pedro Juan Caballero), and the Festival del Poncho de Sesenta Listas de Piribebuy (The Sixty-Count Wool Poncho Festival of Piribebuy). 18. Paraguay Ñe’ẽ was a small conglomeration of local artists, artisans, dancers, journalists, musicians, and intellectuals who, from 1984 through the early 1990s, sponsored and organized various artistic events promoting Paraguayan folk traditions. 19. In the November 6, 1985, edition of Ultima Hora, a report indicated the participation of Rolando Ortíz and Victor Villalba, among others, in the modalidad competitiva (performance contest category); Wilfrido Méndez, Rito Pedersen, Juan Antonio Rojas, and others in the modalidad “nuevas canciones para arpa” (new songs for the harp category); and a long list of professional harp players including: Rubi Addario, Dionisio Aguayo, Cristino Báez Monges, Papi Basaldúa, Luis Bordón, Virgilio Ibarra, Roquelino Insfrán, Raquel and Rocío Lebrón, Teresita Rivas, Abel Sánchez Giménez, “Bebito” Vargas, and Samuel Vera. Primer Festival del Arpa (First Harp Festival), Ultima Hora November 6, 1985. 20. Although the festival was scheduled for 1986, plans were cancelled when Paraguay Ñe’ẽ and other artists decided to embark on an extensive musical tour of Europe that year. 21. Reconstructing the history of this particular harp festival has proved a formidable challenge. Informal conversations with harpists and research in the archives of newspapers were the main sources for this section. During the period of my fieldwork in 2002, the staff of the Asunción French Alliance had little knowledge of the festival and sent me to the offices of La Gioconda for archival materials. With changed management and irregular work hours, La Gioconda did not provide any help either. 22. An advertisement promoting the event states, “It must be noted that through [the promotion of] all the world [offices of the] French Alliance, the International

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[Harp] Performance Competition will take place in 1988, in which all Paraguayan, Latin American, and foreign harpists of our folklore are invited to participate. This competition will be especially promoted in Peru, Ecuador, Venezuela, Mexico, Chile, and Colombia, countries where the instrument is cultivated. Quieren hacer del Paraguay la cuna mundial del arpa” (They Want to Make Paraguay the World Birthplace of the Harp, A&E Supplement, Ultima Hora November 20, 1987). 23. The conservatory was established on December 4, 1987. 24. Quieren hacer del Paraguay la cuna mundial del arpa (They Want to Make Paraguay the World Birthplace of the Harp, A&E Supplement, Ultima Hora November 20, 1987. 25. Among them Tito Acuña, Luis Bordón, Oscar Nelson Safuán, and Abel Sánchez Giménez. 26. In 2009 the petition was dropped. 27. In alphabetical order, the featured artists were Tito Acuña (Paraguay), Aramí (U.S.A.), Eduardo Betancourt (Venezuela), Nicolás Caballero (Paraguay), César Cataldo (Paraguay), Papi Galán (Paraguay), Ismael Ledesma (Paraguay/ France), Marcos Lucena (Paraguay), Myrdhin (France), Lorenzo París (Argentina), Kike Pedersen (Paraguay/England), Rito Pedersen (Paraguay/Germany), Martín Portillo (Paraguay), Marcelo Rojas (Paraguay), Clelia Carolina Sanabria (Paraguay), Toshiko Nezu Sandoval (Paraguay/Japan), Lucía Shiomitsu (Japan), and Rubén Vázquez and Amada Rasgado (Mexico). 28. In 2008, three academic pieces were performed by harpists Marcos Lucena, Lilo Kraus, and César Cataldo, respectively: Herminio Giménez’s Suite El Pájaro, a tribute to Félix Pérez Cardozo; George Frederick Handel’s Harp Concerto in Bflat major, Op. 4 No. 6, HWV294; and Felipe Sosa’s Concierto Op. 35 No. 4 en “Sol Mayor” para Arpa y Cinco Guitarras. In 2009 harpist Gloria Vasconcellos performed Ottorino Respighi’s Siciliana from Suite No. 1 Ancient Airs and Dances, Elie Siegmeister’s Reverie, and Jean-Michel Damase’s Tango pour Harpe; in 2010, Marcos Lucena premiered Arpegios por la paz, a free Paraguayan polca for harp and orchestra and harpist Triona Marshall performed the Allegro from George Frederick Handel’s Harp Concerto in B-flat major and the Adagio from Joaquín Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez; and in 2011, Diego Sánchez-Haase premiered En el cerro de Sapukái for Paraguayan harp and chamber orchestra. 29. Lorenzo París’s biographical essay Félix Pérez Cardozo. Su vida y su música (2008); Lita Pérez Cáceres’s Luis Bordón: vida y obra (2008), Aída Lara’s Digno García, artista paraguayo universal (2009), Lita Pérez Cáceres’s biography of harpist Nicolás Caballero El arpa soy yo (2009); Rodolfo Ramos’s pictorial essay El arpa: cultura viva del Paraguay (2010); and Ismael Ledesma’s autobiographical pictorial essay Mi historia (2011). 30. The ñandutí (literally,”spiderweb”) is a traditional woven traditional folk art form that emulates the natural intricacies of spiderwebs. A tradition cultivated by the women of Itauguá, a town in the interior of Paraguay known as the capital de la artesanía paraguaya (capital of Paraguayan crafts), the ñandutí has become the quintessential Paraguayan folk art form and has made its way into virtually every tourist shop in the major urban centers. 31. Winter in Paraguay begins on June 21. Since the stadium was not heated nor entirely covered, the audience endured temperatures as low as 1˚C (about 33.8˚F).

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32. Guarambaré was originally founded by Domingo Martínez de Irala in 1539 and reestablished in 1632 under orders of Governor Juan Díaz de Andino. Located thirty-two kilometers southeast of Asunción, Guarambaré’s economy is primarily based on the sugarcane industry. 33. Support and sponsorship of festivals is divided according to the various logistical aspects of the event, such as general promotion, posters and magazines, sound amplification systems, recording studios, and stage construction. 34. The reference to foreign practices is to cachaca or tecno-cumbia paraguaya, which was very popular at the time. 35. Presented in rhymed form, this type of poetry is known as caso ñemombe’ú (storytelling) and is usually accompanied by a guitar improvising short melodies. 36. The transcribed introduction to the song is verbatim, and it reflects the characteristics of an improvised speech at festivals of this nature. 37. Although specific times are allocated for general announcement and recognition of judges, masters of ceremony frequently take advantage of logistical adjustments, such as soundchecks and the retuning of instruments, and engage in long florid speeches relating to the performers or the composition to be performed. 38. Made up of adults from Itauguá, the Katupyry dance group was introduced with the following disclaimer: “. . . éste no es un grupo de ballet folclórico, sino un cuerpo de baile.” [. . . this is not a folk-ballet group, but a dance group). All of the members of this dance group were amateur adults in their fifties and sixties. 39. Whistling and other vocal interjections typically occur during the instrumental introductions to fast-paced songs. These vocal expressions include highpitched vocables and phrases of jubilation such as eeeheee, peepooh, and arriba Paraguay! (Hail, Paraguay!). 40. Emiliano R. Fernández’s hometown and birth date, respectively. 41. Since the event was held in the countryside, no artificial illumination was provided for the stage; hence the closing of the Encuentro in conjunction with the sunset. 42. Vibrato at the end of cadences has been a common trend in traditional and popular singing since the mid-1950s. 43. In this case, “national” does not imply an official or political agenda, but rather the state of “being Paraguayan.”

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A

highly complex web of social, cultural, and historical threads has informed the development and adoption of the harp as Paraguay’s iconic instrument and bearer of cultural identity. As a Paraguayan and a Paraguayan scholar of music and culture I am still wrestling with an appropriately coherent way to understand this adopted European instrument as part of local folk traditions. In general, Paraguayans enjoy harp music because of the mental images, memories, and associations the performance of the instrument evokes and encapsulates: family, friends, cultural pride, countryside landscapes, social gatherings, and a few historical events (mainly ideas associated with the Triple Alliance and Chaco Wars). Though its function as a symbol of cultural identity is the product of imagination and invention, the Paraguayan harp is deeply embedded into the minds of Paraguayans. Its transference during colonial times and use for a short time by the Guaranís living in the Jesuit reducciones, as well its regional use in the nineteenth century, were among the reasons it became regarded as an authentic Paraguayan folk instrument in the early twentieth century. The fact that Argentine audiences in the 1930s and 1940s, and other Latin Americans and even Europeans in the 1950s and 1960s, found this “exotic” instrument musically and visually captivating helped to promote the uniqueness of Paraguay as well as Paraguayan musicians and the Paraguayan harp. Moving from the Guairá region to Asunción, harp luthiers and musicians engaged in a dialogue with their peers in exploring new ways to build and “improve” the instrument, and new compositions began to reflect new techniques and performance practices. A small number 123

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of nineteenth-century folk songs and dances served as for Paraguayan polcas and galopas as part of a folclore de proyección that very soon became integrated into the Paraguayan traditional music vocabulary. Receiving the musical influence of other regions in Latin America and Europe, genres and styles were adopted into the local musical expressions, applying a Paraguayan flavor to the march, the waltz, the ballad, selections from música internacional, and nuevo cancionero compositions. Government proclamations and concerts of traditional music in formal settings have also played an important role in the attempt to foster an academic view of Paraguayan music among Paraguayans. The existence of musical institutions offering Paraguayan harp lessons as part of their curriculum, the availability of various method books, and new music composed for the instrument indicate a high degree of attention to the Paraguayan harp in official circles. The harp does not, however, function primarily in the academic sphere, as the instrument has captured the popular admiration of the crowds attending festivals of traditional music. These festivals appeal particularly to members of the working class, who have been socially slighted and economically disregarded by the government even while it depends on their political support. Thus these festivals have not only provided a space where popular traditions are displayed and recreated, but they have also served as an arena for the promotion of sociopolitical ideologies. Some of these ideologies address the concept of the Paraguayan as an individual in search of his true identity. Others highlight the duty of the Paraguayan citizen to defend the national territory, the national symbols (the flag, the national anthem), and the icons of Paraguayan cultural heritage (historical sites, traditional music, popular religious festivities, the Guaraní language) against foreign influence. Since the early 1990s, a common practice among traditional music festivals has been an emphasis on the significance of the Paraguayan as a free individual in charge of his own decisions and destiny, the cultural pride associated with the Paraguayan nation and its historical past, and the social values linked to friendship, family, and religion that inform the individual’s actions. Revisiting the issue of Paraguayan identity and reassessing the role of the Paraguayan harp within the framework of paraguayidad we may call into question whether the Paraguayan harp has in fact played a significant role in the reinforcement of such a notion. If I were to include the harp in a diagram of Paraguayan identity, the instrument would constitute but a single element in the subcategory of traditions or ñanemba’é within some of the sociocultural values linked to paraguayidad. The transformation of the diatonic harp from an instrument used for liturgical purposes during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to a “secular” folk instrument in the nineteenth century remains one of the

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great enigmas in the history of Paraguayan music, as the total lack of extant documents illuminating the instrument’s development between 1767 (the year of the Jesuit expulsion) and the late nineteenth century renders any account of the instrument’s secularization and adoption into the popular music sphere purely speculative. Despite the absence of specific information on this point, I have shown that the harp has come full circle from its nineteenth-century status as a folk instrument to its current status as Paraguay’s folk instrument par excellence and an emblem of Paraguayan cultural identity. Although there is no basis for a direct link between the Paraguayan harp and the Guaraní culture, I suggest that the imagined idea of the Paraguayan tekó, searching for the tekorã, ultimately predisposed the Paraguayan populace to embrace the harp as a symbol of identity, even before the official decree of 2010. Whether it was pure coincidence that the harp’s development from the nineteenth through the twentieth century mirrored the culturally embedded idea of searching for the tekorã, or whether the life choices and actions of harpists such as Félix Pérez Cardozo and Luis Bordón, who catapulted the instrument to regional and international recognition, were informed by the values they inherited, the fact remains that modern-day Paraguayans identify the harp as an agent of cultural growth, an identification that is in keeping with the notion of seeking out the “culture that [we] will become.” I suggest that Paraguayans, who have drawn in their collective subconscious a parallel between the harp’s success abroad and the notion of searching for the tekorã, found no need to question the source or reason behind the music that was being conveyed to them as a representation of their identity, and proved a receptive audience for the kind of inculcation that took place during the second half of the twentieth century as part of an official agenda to construct a national folklore. As the nascent democratic government struggled to take root after the fall of Alfredo Stroessner’s regime in 1989, the collective notion of a Paraguayan cultural identity found voice in popular music festivals that celebrated the idea of the Paraguayan as an autonomous individual who desires to be accepted on the world stage while maintaining a strong connection to the components of his and her paraguayidad—Paraguayan territory, history, and sociocultural values. This longing for a sense of cultural identity proved conducive to the large-scale commercialization of traditional music, particularly that of the Paraguayan harp. The fact that the harp and other forms of popular expression, such as the local ñandutí lace, are highly commercialized lends an air of artificiality to the present-day celebration and promotion of those elements as embodiments of cultural identity. The view that the promotion of the harp as a symbol of cultural identity is purely a commercial manipulation has been exemplified by the various attempts to exoticize the harp with a direct link—despite the lack

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of historical evidence—to the Guaraní culture. Moreover, the ongoing debate regarding the “authenticity” of música de inspiración o proyección folclórica that has become a staple of the Paraguayan traditional music repertoire, emphasizes that even the music that is nowadays considered “traditional” by the general population is but a clever construction that appeals to a collective aesthetic nurtured by commercial attempts to capitalize on the success of certain musicians, particularly harpists who have attained recognition abroad and have added original compositions to the existing repertoire. From this point of view, the new repertoire that currently constitutes traditional music does not reflect paraguayidad, but rather prescribes what paraguayidad should be. Notwithstanding the aforementioned challenges to the Paraguayan harp as an active agent in the articulation and development of paraguayidad, when a Paraguayan citizen attends events such as the Festival Mundial del Arpa en Paraguay, the Festival del Takuare’ẽ, and the Encuentro con Emiliano and recognizes a traditional galopa played by a banda típica, or when he sees an ensemble of harp and guitar accompanying polcas paraguayas on a concert stage, something inside him resonates with these displays of paraguayidad, evoking strong sentiments of national pride and nostalgia. After four centuries of a process of social and cultural adaptation and adoption, the Paraguayan harp emerged as the quintessential Paraguayan folk instrument. Demonstrating the capability of evoking memories of an ideal, even if imaginary past, Paraguay’s instrument symbol of the national musical culture has become a fundamental component in the dynamic process of constructing a Paraguayan cultural identity, which is and will remain in flux.

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Appendix

ARPEROS AND ARPISTAS

I

n order to provide insight into the lifestyle and activities of the arperos populares and the arpistas profesionales, the following biographical vignettes include aspects of the musical characteristics of these two performance practice schools and the cultural and social climate in which they have developed. These vignettes enhance the previously discussed material in chapter 4. José del Rosario Diarte, arpero

José del Rosario Diarte (1884–1949), sometimes operating under the assumed name “Iriarte,” was born in San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, capital of the department of Misiones in southern Paraguay. Although Diarte was a mostly self-taught composer and harp player, as a child he took a few lessons from another harpist, Juan arpero, a traveling musician and an enigmatic figure who passed through San Juan Bautista. Due to his musical prowess, Diarte gained a formidable reputation that quickly spread from San Juan Bautista to adjacent towns in the southern region of Paraguay and later northern Argentina. Diarte also experimented with the construction of harps, building his first one with Kirandy (Aspidosperma quirandi) his second one with Kurupica’y (Sapium longifolium), two trees native to the region. Built with the assistance of Guillermo, a Bolivian prisoner of war working at the ranch of Don Aparicio Riveros, this second instrument had a unique resonance in the lower register (Riveros 127

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Figure A.1.

José del Rosario Diarte in 1927.

1995:134–35). Diarte alternated between the use of the two harps, depending on the setting: the Kirandy harp was reserved for serenades and family gatherings, while the Kurupica’y harp was used for more formal occasions. Diarte, an introvert who, according to relatives and friends, habitually consumed large quantities of alcohol prior to writing compositions and performing, was known for his volatile temperament and sudden mood swings during and after performances (Riveros 1995:136). Diarte’s first successful venture abroad as a harp performer and composer took place in Itá-Ybaté, in the northern Argentine province of Corrientes. In December 1912, invited by the Paraguayan consul Justo Robledo to give a concert in celebration of the day of the Virgen de Caacupé (The [Feast of the] Virgin [Mary] of Caacupé), Diarte traveled with a folk music trio from Misiones to Itá-Ybaté. The musical trio, featuring Santos Gómez (voice and guitar) and José del Rosario’s brother Aniceto Diarte (second guitar), in addition to Diarte (harp), experienced such an enthusiastic reception for their performance of traditional music from Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil that they extended their visit for about a week. Fifteen years later, in 1927, Paraguayan pianist and impresario Aristóbulos “Nonón” Domínguez invited Diarte to perform in a concert

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in Asunción. A forerunner of present-day music festivals, this concert took place at the Teatro Granados in Asunción on August 6, 1927. For this musical extravaganza, Domínguez, an ebullient performer and organizer of traditional music events, created a folk ensemble consisting of three harps, five guitars, an accordion, and a gualambau (see Figure 6.1). The formidable success attained by the ensemble prompted Domínguez to take the group on tour to Argentina. His final destination was Buenos Aires, where he had planned a series of performances at the Teatro Colón and Radio El Mundo, two prestigious establishments in the Buenos Aires performance circuit. Traveling by train to Posadas, located in the northern Argentine province of Misiones, Domínguez and his ensemble offered musical shows in the major cities and towns between Asunción and their destination. The group was well received and acclaimed at every stop en route to Posadas, where the ensemble played informal serenades, performed at clubs, and gave an official concert at the Teatro Español. Eight days later, as the ensemble was about to embark on the long journey to Buenos Aires, Diarte hastily returned to Paraguay after abruptly informing Domínguez that he no longer wished to continue with the tour. Domínguez, unable to convince Diarte to honor the commitment, cancelled the trip and also returned to Paraguay along with the rest of the ensemble. Diarte ultimately did return to Argentina, where he had the opportunity to perform under the patronage of Don Delfino Bower, a rancher from Santa Rosa. Diarte, who worked at Bower’s ranch keeping racing horses and training fighting roosters, traveled with his harp around the Argentine provinces of Misiones and Corrientes. Bower, who frequently visited various towns, travelling with a caravan of carretas (wagons), took Diarte from Posadas to General Paz in Corrientes, where he was hired to perform at a local rodeo. For his performances in General Paz, the local authorities granted Diarte the city’s highest artistic honor and proclaimed Bower an “extraordinary ambassador of Paraguayan music” (Riveros 1995:146). The three-day event turned into a highly successful threemonth musical tour around other towns and haciendas in Corrientes. Besides the harp, which was his most treasured possession, Diarte always traveled with his signature red poncho, black hat, and lantern. These objects seemed to symbolize who and what he was, not only an accomplished arpero, but also a proud arriero (peasant). Riveros (1995:161) tells that on one occasion Diarte indicated to a friend, che poncho, che arpa, ha che linterna, upéva che (my poncho, my harp, and my lantern, that’s who I am). Diarte never accepted money when performing for friends, but rather opted for gifts of certain monetary value. His audiences extended from the towns and estancias of San Miguel, San Ignacio, Santiago, Santa María, and Santa Rosa, among others, to Asunción, where he frequently

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performed at the homes of the prominent military and political figures of the times. Before the Chaco War, Diarte organized a local music group in San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, featuring guitarists Ernesto Gutiérrez and Cleto Cano, violinist Emilio Paredes, flutist Ramón Pintos, and singer Faustina Duarte, among others, and himself on the harp. After the war, the group was dissolved and Diarte traveled with his brother Aniceto, performing in Asunción and in the towns of Paraguarí, Villarrica, Caazapá, and Encarnación. In San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, he received periodic visits from other musicians who wanted to play with him. Although some of Diarte’s compositions have been collected and preserved by his friends, a significant number of them were lost or never copyrighted. Félix Pérez Cardozo frequently visited Diarte, with whom he practiced and discussed issues related to the harp and performed in Hy’aty and Villarrica. Unfortunately, little is known about Diarte’s playing technique. Obscure references to his infrequent use of the expected left hand accompaniment pattern and scarce quotes such as “. . . among the harp players of his times, Diarte was the only one who, while accompanying with the strings of his harp was able to complete the variations and the notes of the piano,” seem to suggest that he was a versatile performer, capable of performing any type of popular compositions of his time (op. cit., 151). No extant recordings of Diarte performing on the harp have been located to date. Diarte’s last performances took place at his home in San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, along with his guitarist friend José Dolores “Loló” Cáceres. The legacy of compositions and arrangements of folk tunes ascribed to Diarte includes musical pieces such as: Alondra (a type of regional bird), Arpa pú (The Sound of the Harp), Batallón 40 ([The] 40th Battalion), Boy Scout, Carretaguy (Under the Wagon), Che caña mí (My Little Sugarcane Rum), Che valle (My Surroundings), Chiricó (a type of bird), Guyrá chovy (a type of bird), Guyrá pú also known as Guyrá Campana or Pájaro Campana (The Bell Bird), Mi serenata (My Serenade), Misiones, also known as Misiones ñú (the region where Diarte was born), Mo’ópa rehó Josefa (Where Did Josefa Go?), Morena chusca (Fancy Dark-Skin Girl), Paloma pará (Many Doves), Piririta (a type of bird), Pycazú tí (Sweet Dove), Syryry (Flowing), and Yurú akuá (Loving Lips).1 Several explanations have been offered regarding the origin of Carretaguy on of the most popular pieces associated with Diarte. While some believe that Diarte composed it, others maintain that the harpist arranged a preexisting folk tune. Although the origins of the title remain obscure, one possible explanation provides a glimpse into the cultural backdrop that fostered the twentieth-century development of the Paraguayan polca. In Jopará, carretaguy literally means “under the wagon.” Carretas or wagons pulled by oxen have been in use throughout the region since colonial

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times. Before and after the Chaco war the train and the carreta were the main means of transportation. Carretas brought food, merchandise, and other goods from the Paraguarí and Coronel Bogado railroad stations to the towns located in the departments of Paraguarí and Misiones. Caravans of several wagons would travel for weeks on end until reaching their final destination. Along the way, they would stop to rest at night, forming a circle with the wagons, at which time the carreteros (wagon drivers) would drink mate or tereré, and sing songs accompanied on the guitar. Because this practice would take place literally “under the wagon(s),” where ponchos and blankets were placed to sleep, the expression carretaguy refers to both a place and an activity familiar to Paraguayans. The piece serves as a musical commentary and a programmatic depiction of the life of the carreteros. According to Diarte’s friend, Pepito Llano, the harpist told an acquaintance that he himself was the composer of the piece.2 Although other sources dispute this version of the story, Diarte did indeed give the composition to a friend, who later copyrighted the piece under Diarte’s name. Carretaguy has become a standard instrumental piece for contemporary harp players and, although the original melody and harmonic structure are preserved to a great extent, most performers add their own variations to the composition. Agapito Morínigo, “Tacho’í,” arpero Agapito Morínigo (ca. 1910–1993), also known as Tacho’í, was one of the last harpists performing in the arpero tradition.3 His father, also a harp player, did not approve of his son becoming a musician, presumably because of the destructive lifestyle associated with harp players and other musicians at the time resulting from the habitual consumption of the locally-produced rum.4 The elder Morínigo’s protestations were of no avail, however and, at the age of five, young Tacho’í decided to emulate his father and began to play at family gatherings. Upon his father’s death, Tacho’í inherited the elder Morínigo’s old wire-strung harp and became part of the musical ensemble Paraguay poty. The ensemble was later known as the quintet Resedá poty, and included harp, violin, accordion, and two guitars. For several years, the conjunto performed at social gatherings and dances in Guarambaré and adjacent towns. After the dissolution of the ensemble, Tacho-í performed with bandoneón player Gil Pineda from Typychaty, Guarambaré. Sometime later, when the demand for local folk music had decreased, the arpero traveled around alone playing at the improvised carousels and fairs set up for local religious and social activities, as well as for the occasional patron who hired him to play at serenades or family gatherings. Following the deaths of his wife and their three daughters between the 1970s and 1980s, Tacho’í moved to Ro-

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Figure A.2. Agapito Morínigo “Tacho’í” performing at a musical gathering during the 1988 Festival Rochas del Arpa.

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sado Guazú, near the town of Ypané, from where he would travel weekly to Guarambaré, playing at the mercado (open marketplace), the houses of patrons in town, and along the highway. It was not unusual for drivers to stop and request a couple of songs in exchange for money. In 1980, at the invitation of Alfredo Vaesken and the group Paraguay Ñe’ẽ, Tacho’í performed at the Festival del Takuare’ẽ in Guarambaré. Regarded as a musical icon of a dying tradition, during the 1980s and early 1990s Tacho’í performed at musical events such as the Festival de Mandu’arã, the Festival Rochas del Arpa, and the Festival Nacional del Folclore de Durazno. In June 1989 he was invited to record a few of his compositions and musical arrangements for a project sponsored by Paraguay Ñe’ẽ. Aside from amateur recordings made at some music festivals where Tacho’í performed, the 1989 recording constitutes the only document of his harp performance technique. The recording Arpa y terruño al estilo “Tacho’í” (Harp and Country in the Style of “Tacho’í”) includes fourteen Paraguayan polcas and compuestos by Tacho’í and anonymous composers.5 While the harpist sang the compuestos and accompanied himself on the harp, the polcas are instrumental solos. One of the distinctive features of Tacho’í’s compuesto performances is his use of smiliar musical materials in some of the compositions.6 The instrumental interludes of five of these compuestos—Mombyry ajeheka, Francisco Solano López, Mba’ere che Tupasy, Ajumingo Señor mío, and Taguapy sapy’amí—have identical melodic and harmonic features. Additionally, the traditional 6/8 accompaniment pattern is occasionally abandoned for a few measures of triple simple meter. The temporary change from 6/8 to 3/4 seems to have typified the older style of harp performance of Paraguayan polcas and similar folk songs at the turn of the twentieth century. This technique is prominent in two of Tacho’í’s instrumental compositions on this recording: Costa Ñaro and Polca Guinea. While Costa Ñaro is a Paraguayan polca about a geographical region, Polca Guinea is onomatopoeic in nature, illustrating and describing the sound and movement of the Guinea hen with a descriptive musical style. Following the verse and refrain structure typical of the genre, both compositions exhibit short melodic phrases in parallel thirds accompanied by the 6/8 polca rhythm moving to the 3/4 valseado pattern. A simple harmonic progression (I–V–I–IV–V–I) characterizes these two compositions, as well as the performer’s interpretation of the other polcas and compuestos. Tacho’í’s death marked the end of the arpero popular tradition. Félix Pérez Cardozo, arpista profesional Perhaps the most celebrated Paraguayan harpist and a pivotal figure in the establishment of the arpista profesional tradition, Félix Pérez Cardozo

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(1908–1952) was born in Hy’aty, Department of Guairá, Paraguay, to Teodoro Pérez and Rosa Cardozo. At a very early age, the precocious Félix taught himself the fundamentals of playing the harp and soon began performing with his peers at local parties and other social events.7 In 1928, Pérez Cardozo collaborated with guitarists Ampelio Villalba (1887–1937) and Diosnel Chase (1904–1988) to form a trio that traveled to Asunción to perform at various commercial venues and at a series of folk music festivals at the Teatro Granados organized by impresario Aristóbulo “Nonón” Domínguez. The conjunto’s overwhelming success prompted them to travel to Buenos Aires, one of the region’s principal artistic and musical centers at the time. Although other Paraguayan musicians had previously traveled to perform and record in Buenos Aires, this musical conjunto—two singers accompanied by two guitars and a harp—was the first of its kind to perform in Argentina.8 Upon their arrival in Buenos Aires in 1931, the group immediately set out to perform in clubs, confiterías, and on radio shows. They were soon offered a recording contract with the Victor label (later RCA Victor), one of the leading promoters of traditional music in the region. In a 1936 split from the trio, Diosnel Chase joined Basilio Melgarejo to form the celebrated vocal Dúo Melga-Chase. Félix Pérez Cardozo decided to freelance and embarked on collaborations with various musical ensembles that he accompanied on the harp in the performances of both Argentine and Paraguayan traditional repertoire. In the early 1940s, he accompanied the live shows of the conjunto Ubeda-Riera at Radio Belgrano. Shortly thereafter, he obtained his first professional contract as a soloist with the Confitería 9 de Julio in downtown Buenos Aires. In 1945 Pérez Cardozo organized his own conjunto and continued to perform actively throughout Argentina, Uruguay, and Chile.9 Pérez Cardozo’s fame as a virtuoso harp performer in the Río de la Plata area reached its peak between the mid-1940s and 1952, the year of his death. He was buried in his native town Hy’aty, Paraguay, the name of which was officially changed to Félix Pérez Cardozo in 1957.10 As previously discussed, Félix Pérez Cardozo’s collaboration with friend and luthier Epifanio López brought about significant changes in the form and function of the Paraguayan diatonic harp, introducing new possibilities that would help shape the contemporary arpista profesional tradition. In terms of musical repertoire, he collected, arranged, and composed folk songs suitable for the performance capabilities of the instrument, adapting the onomatopoeic qualities of certain traditional tunes to the harp technique in order to perform programmatic music. In regard to technique, the performer developed a new school of playing, emphasizing the use of the fourth finger on the right hand to play octaves, as well as the use of ascending and descending melodic passages in the bass line. In addition, Pérez Cardozo was one of the first harpists to use special

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Figure A.3. Félix Pérez Cardozo and his conjunto in 1944 (Rosario, Argentina). From left to right: Fidelino Castro, Cristóbal Cáceres, Félix Pérez Cardozo, Generoso (Chirole) Larramendia, and Agustín “Rubito” Larramendia.

effects such as the Paraguayan tremolo, bordoneado, and glissando, and his pioneering use of broken chords in the left hand to accompany the melodic line served as a point of departure from the customary waltz-like (valseado) pattern used by popular arperos. His extensive body of compositions includes pieces that have become staples in the Paraguayan harp performance tradition. Compositions such as Angela Rosa, Bolivianita (Sweet Bolivian Girl), Che valle-mí Hy’aty (My Sweet Little Town Hy’aty), Che valle-mí Yaguarón (My Sweet Little Town Yaguarón), Lejos sin ti (Away from You), Llegada (Arrival), María Elsa, Mi despedida (My Farewell), Mi Refugio (My Refuge)—the name of a confitería in Buenos Aires, Pájaro campana (The Bell Bird), Rosa, Sueño de Angelita (The Dream of Sweet Angelita), Tren lechero (The Milk-Run Train), Yataity ([Town of] Yataity), and Ykuá saty (Pure Springs) have been recorded by numerous harp performers. Some of his most celebrated vocal works have been incorporated into the traditional musical repertoire. Pieces such as El arriero (The [Paraguayan] Cowboy) with text by Rigoberto Fontao Meza; Burrerita (The Female Donkey-Rider), and Pasionaria (The Passion Flower) with texts by Antonio Ortíz Mayans; Mariposa-mí (Sweet Butterfly) with text by Andrés Pereira; Che la reina (My Girl), Desde la selva (From the Jungle), Oda pasional (Ode of Passion), Oñondivé-minte (Together), Primero

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de marzo (March 1 [1870]), and Teniente Rojas Silva (Lieutenant Rojas Silva) with texts by poet Emiliano R. Fernández; Los sesenta granaderos (The Sixty Grenadiers) with text by Hilario Cuadros; and Tetaguã sapukái (The Cry of the People) with texts by Victor Montórfano represent the most frequently performed and recorded selections. The figure and artistic achievements of Félix Pérez Cardozo are still regarded as symbols of national pride. During folk music festivals, Paraguayans celebrate the dissemination of traditional music in the region, reflecting a general sentiment of nostalgia for the old and, as perceived in the collective imagination, better times, and reinforcing national identity by nurturing a romanticized view of musical artists who succeeded abroad. Félix Pérez Cardozo—with one foot in the arpero popular tradition of the past and the other immersed in a host of innovations that would pave the way for the contemporary arpista profesional tradition— serves as a pivotal figure in the history of the Paraguayan harp tradition, ushering in a new era of performance practices and epitomizing the spirit of individuality that characterizes the harpists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Dionisio Arzamendia, arpista profesional Dionisio Arzamendia (b. 1931) was born in Arroyito, district of Coronel Martínez, Guairá. Inspired by his father, harpist Santiago Arzamendia, and his uncles Gil and Juan Pablo Párriz, who sang in a trio with harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo, Dionisio and his brother José decided to capitalize on their musical abilities by playing guitar and singing aboard the international express, a train that traveled the Buenos Aires-Asunción route and passed through Borja, a station near Coronel Martínez. The Arzamendia brothers became very well known in the area for their entrepreneurial idea of singing for the passengers in exchange for money and other gifts. In 1943, they moved to Asunción, where they eked out a living through numerous small jobs while continuing to perform, observing from a distance how professional musicians sang and played their instruments at local clubs and restaurants. The Arzamendia brothers were particularly inspired by the performances of the Dúo Melga-Chase at the Ideal restaurant in Asunción. A year later, in 1944, the brothers traveled to Buenos Aires by boat. During the roughly month-long trip, they cleaned the kitchen and sang in the evenings for the crew of the cargo ship La Morocha. Once in Buenos Aires, they performed at restaurants and searched for other Paraguayan musicians. They met Félix Pérez Cardozo, who immediately invited them to perform with him at Radio El Mundo, advised them, and taught them the current musical repertoire, and provided them with the information necessary for survival in the big city. Toward the end of

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Figure A.4.

137

Dionisio Arzamendia working at his home in Asunción, Paraguay.

1951 they decided to go back to Paraguay and, on their way to Coronel Martínez, they bought new instruments, including Dionisio’s first harp, in Asunción. In 1952, while getting ready to return to Buenos Aires, the brothers received the news of Félix Pérez Cardozo’s death, at which point Dionisio moved to Carapeguá, where he studied harp under the guidance of one of his uncles. After a brief period of study, Dionisio returned to Asunción and introduced a new style of performing traditional music: singing while simultaneously accompanying himself on the harp. Until then, harpists primarily played musical introductions and provided instrumental accompaniment to vocal music. In 1956, along with singers Ramón Arroyo and Armando Rivero, Arzamendia formed the trio Los Caciques Guaraníes (The Guaraní Chiefs), which traveled to Bolivia, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela. During the tour, the trio gave public and private performances of Paraguayan folk music and recorded LPs in La Paz and Lima. At the end of the South American tour, the trio separated and Arzamendia decided to remain in Caracas to learn more about Venezuelan harp construction techniques. Due to his embrace of socialist political ideology, Arzamendia was prevented from returning to Paraguay and remained in exile from 1956 to 1990. In 1962, along with his brother José, he participated at the Eighth World Youth Festival in Helsinki, where the two placed second in a musical competition with their instrumental rendition of Pájaro campana

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on harp and guitar. Immediately after the festival, Dionisio Arzamendia decided to go to Havana, where he studied at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música for seven years. From Cuba he traveled to Hungary, where his brother José was already studying at the Budapest conservatory. While Dionisio studied classical harp, José studied guitar performance and conducting. Abandoning his music studies at the Budapest conservatory, Dionisio moved to Paris, where he performed Paraguayan and other Latin American traditional music with the Los Guaraníes (The Guaranís). In France, while continuing to hone his musical skills, he met his future wife Katherine. His brother José, who had remained in Hungary, graduated with a doctorate in music and worked as a professional conductor in Budapest. During the 1980s Dionisio moved to French Guyana, where he assumed the position of harp instructor at the Ecole Nationale de Musique et de Danse “Edgard Nibul” in Cayenne. In 1990, a year after the coup d’etat that overthrew President Alfredo Stroessner’s government, Arzamendia visited Paraguay, envisioning a possible return. In 1996, after several years of intense musical activity in France and French Guyana, the harpist decided to return to Paraguay, where, in 2001, he joined the music faculty at the Conservatorio Nacional in Asunción. In March 2003 Arzamendia published his Manual didáctico del arpa sin pedales o diatónica. He continues to compose and teach Paraguayan harp in Asunción and Paris. Luis Bordón, arpista profesional Born in the town of Guarambaré, Paraguay, Luis Bordón (1926–2006) learned to play the harp by studying with and emulating his father, who played guitar as well as harp. Growing up in Guarambaré, Luis admired harpist Enrique Ayala, who had a traditional music conjunto with violin, clarinet, accordion, and guitar, and the Cáceres brothers, who also had a conjunto with violin, bandoneón, and guitar. Both groups performed regularly at dancing parties and other social events in town. Around this time, the combination of voice, guitar, and harp for the performance of folk music was very successful in Argentina, but not in Paraguay. Bordón also admired the technique and achievements of harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo, who had already made quite a name for himself in Argentina. During an interview, Bordón recalled vividly how captivated he was by Pérez Cardozo’s playing, . . . when I was in elementary school . . . I loved the sound of the harp . . . Pájaro campana! The way Félix Pérez would play [on the radio] seemed to me like a machine. I remember that at sunset I would come home running to practice the harp.11

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During his childhood Luis Bordón observed the performance practices of popular arperos at veladas (vigils)—popular musical soirées with singing, poetry reading, and short theater plays—the calesitas (carousels), and the casillas ([game] stands) erected at fairs connected to Catholic religious festivities. Bordón attended the musical performances organized by his uncle Gabino Bordón, who was a bandoneón player and owned a dance hall in Guarambaré, at which he frequently hosted veladas featuring artists such as comedian and musician José L. Melgarejo (1897–1984), harp player Santiago Cortesi (1913–1992), and actress Máxima Lugo (1910–1990). According to Luis Bordón, who yearned to play the harp and perform on stage like the velada artists, Paraguayan polcas such as Teresita, Minero sapukái (The Cry of the Miner), Guapo che (I Am Strong), and Paraguaya Linda (Beautiful Paraguayan Girl) were favorites with the public.12 In the 1940s Bordón moved to Asunción, where he initially played the harp for the Conjunto de los Hermanos Bordón, in which his cousins Cleto and Marcelo Bordón sang and played guitar. Later he performed with other musical groups such as the Conjunto Asunción of singer Tolentino Sarubi and the Dúo Melga-Chase. In 1949 he was invited to join Julián Rejala’s Conjunto Folclórico Guaraní, which traveled and performed throughout Paraguay and southern Brazil. In São Paulo the musicians performed at live shows for Radio Cultura and Radio Bandeirante and recorded an LP in 1950. A year later Bordón decided to remain in Brazil to work as an electronics engineer and as a harp studio musician in São Paulo. In 1959 Bordón, who was still living in São Paulo, was invited to record with the conjunto of the Meaurio brothers from Paraguay who, just days before the recording session, decided to dissolve the group. Left with the responsibility of informing Mr. Palmeira—manager for the Chantecler recording label in São Paulo—of the group’s last-minute decision, the harpist was invited by Palmeira himself to record an LP with instrumental music. Bordón approached the proposition with reluctance as no one had previously recorded an entire LP of instrumental music featuring the Paraguayan harp as a solo instrument. Days later Palmeira produced Bordón’s 1959 landmark recording, Harpa paraguáia.13 This recording has become significant in the history of the instrument for two main reasons. First, the diatonic harp was featured on an entire recording as a solo instrument for the very first time and second, the title of Bordón’s first solo recording led to the coining of the term arpa paraguaya (Paraguayan harp) in reference to any diatonic harp made in Paraguay. Although Félix Pérez Cardozo was the first Paraguayan harp performer to make a professional recording of the diatonic harp, his first recording from the 1930s featured traditional vocal music from Paraguay and Argentina and some instrumental pieces, unlike Bordón’s Harpa paraguáia recording which showcased the harp as a solo instrument.14 Bordón received two gold records for Harpa paraguáia

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Figure A.5.

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Professional photo of Luis Bordón taken in the late 1960s.

and six gold records awards for his 1960 recording A harpa e a cristandade (Harp and Christmas), which also appeared in the Guinness Book of World Records for an extraordinary sales volume.15 Bordón recorded and re-edited thirty-eight commercial recordings of Paraguayan music and musica internacional including boleros, tangos, traditional music from Latin America, musical themes from movies, and Christmas songs.16 In the 1970s he decided to reissue his first recording and, with the help of Paraguayan composer Oscar Nelson Safuán, who arranged the compositions and conducted the studio orchestra, Bordón rerecorded the album Harpa paraguáia in its entirety.17 Soon after, he also purchased the Chantecler label and became a musical producer for other artists. Bordón performed extensively in Brazil, Chile, The Netherlands, the United States, and Japan. Several awards and prizes testify to the great extent

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of his success as a recording artist and harp performer: awards from the Ministry of Communications and the Asociación de Arpistas del Paraguay; the Paraguayan Embassy, the military police of São Paulo and the Historical and Geographical Institute of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil); and the Fort Hood Semper Altimo military distinction, and the keys to the city of Dallas, Texas. In recognition of his international musical achievements as a performer of the Paraguayan harp, in 2001 UNESCO gave him the Orbis Guaraniticus medal.18 Bordón has produced over a dozen instrumental compositions. Among them, Alonsito (Little Alonso Bird), Arpa paraguaya (Paraguayan Harp), Caballito andador (Galloping Little Horse), Canto de pajarito (Song of the Little Bird), Danza seductora (Seductive Dance), Despertar nativo (Native Awakening), El arpa y la danza de mi tierra (The Harp and the Dance of My Land), El diálogo del guyraú con el caballo (The Dialogue Between the Blackbird and the Horse), Fiesta de la selva (Jungle Party), La voz del viento (The Voice of the Wind), Lamento indio (Indian Lament), Leny, and Sonrisa hechicera (Charming Smile) have been recorded by other Paraguayan harpists. In the late 1960s, in collaboration with harpist and luthier Papi Galán, Bordón developed the arpín (little harp), which resembled a psaltery and had twenty-five metal strings (see Figure A.6). He used this instrument to achieve special effects in songs for his recordings of Christmas music. In 1985, Oscar Nelson Safuán also used the arpín for his avanzada recording. As an innovator of sound effects on the diatonic harp, Bordón also experimented with the placement of a piece of metal on the console of the harp for the recording of Pájaro campana and India. The piece of metal, which had the shape of the console and a long cut in the middle, served as a resonator through which the strings of the harp were inserted. Although Bordón

Figure A.6. Arpín developed by Luis Bordón in the 1980s.

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experimented with special sound effects on the diatonic harp, he remained a strong proponent of maintaining the diatonic aspect of the instrument in the performance of both traditional music and new compositions.19 Bordón’s unique approach to the creation of varying tonal palettes within the diatonic system of the Paraguayan harp is evident in El arpa y la danza de mi tierra (“The Harp and the Dance of My Land”), one of the most celebrated compositions by the harpist and Oscar Nelson Safuán. Although this composition exhibits the rhythmic characteristics of a traditional Paraguayan polca in 6/8, it changes keys from E minor to E major within the same section—an unusual feature for a traditional Paraguayan piece. Bordón tunes the harp in E major, lowering G sharp and D sharp by a half step on the bordonas, spanning about an octave of the lower register. He begins the composition by playing a melody on the bordonas in the tonal area of E minor, along with an ostinato pattern on the arpín. The second half of the composition consists of an exuberant dance-like section in verse-refrain form and in the tonal area of E major. In its entirety the composition presents a colorful collage of elements distinctive of the Paraguayan folk music tradition, namely the E-minor section exemplifying the timbre of the arpa paraguaya on the bordonas and the E-major section vividly depicting a lively popular dance.20 This change of tonality is perhaps striking because the diatonic nature of the instrument lends itself to the movement from one key to its relative major or minor, a practice commonly observed among arpistas, but rarely to the parallel major or minor. Until his death in 2006, Bordón lived in Asunción, where he taught privately and performed regularly with his son Luisinho, who accompanied him on the guitar. The 2010 World Harp Festival in Paraguay paid tribute to Luis Bordón by highlighting his musical career and compositions throughout the event. Digno García, arpista profesional Digno García (1919–1984) was born in Morascué, a district of Luque, Paraguay. Having taught himself to play both the guitar and the harp, he began early to compose and to work as a luthier, searching to improve the sound quality of the instruments. In 1935, he played guitar and sang with Julián Rejala’s musical group Conjunto Folclórico Guaraní for a series of broadcastings at ZP5, Radio Nacional del Paraguay. Around this time, he also collaborated with other performers of traditional music such as Tito Fernández, Ignacio Melgarejo, and Demetrio Ortíz. In the early 1940s, García accompanied singers Gumercindo Ayala Aquino (1910–1972) and Luis Osmer Meza, also known as “Luis Alberto del Paraná” (1926–1974), during a five-year musical tour of Central America and Mexico. For several years, his 1944 composition Cascada (Waterfall), inspired by the Cho-

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loló, a waterfall located in Piribebuy (in the central eastern region of Paraguay), served as the musical theme for the broadcasts of Vatican Radio Latin America. In 1947, while still in Mexico, the Ayala-García-Meza trio, known as Trío Guaireño, separated and, along with singers Luis Alberto del Paraná and Humberto Barúa, Digno García formed the Trío Los Paraguayos, which resided in Peru. In 1952, Barúa left the trio and decided to stay in Lima, at which point García and Paraná returned to Asunción and invited singer Agustín Barboza (1913–2000) to join the group. In 1954, the new Trio Los Paraguayos traveled to Europe, where the ensemble performed and recorded Latin American music (Figure A.7).

Figure A.7. The Trío Los Paraguayos in 1954 (from left to right): Agustín Barboza, Digno García, and Luis Alberto del Paraná.

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The conjunto operated under the endorsement and sponsorship of the Paraguayan government, which officially conferred upon the performers the title of ambassadors, issuing them diplomatic passports and providing monetary benefits. With this group, García recorded his version of Pájaro campana and Cascada for the Philips label in Holland. Three years later, after having completed the official musical tour, García left the group and organized the Trío Los Pampas with singers Juan Alfonso Ramírez (1926–2008) and his wife Bonifacia “Chinita” Montiel (b. 1929), as well as requinto player Julio Jara (1935–2006). Years later, García formed the musical ensemble Digno García y sus Carios with singers Antonio Alvarez, Leonardo López, and Arnaldo Peralta, and performed with this group for several years, concertizing in forty-seven countries throughout Europe, Africa, and Asia.21 The conjunto performed at hotels, restaurants, nightclubs, theaters, on television shows, and for figures such as Princess Margaret of Great Britain, Queen Fabiola of Belgium, Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos, and the artist Salvador Dalí.22 In 1958 he moved to Brussels, where he married Belgian Vera Lynn. A prolific composer, García recorded more than fifty-four LP records and composed more than 120 vocal and instrumental pieces of various styles. Some of his most recognized compositions include selections such as A mi Paraguay (To My Paraguay), A mis dos amores (To My Two Loves), Acaray [a river in eastern Paraguay], Aromita (a regional herb), Arrorró (Lullaby), Canto a mi tierra (Song to My Land), Cascada (Waterfall), Costa brava [Costa Brava in Spain], Chiperita (Sweet Girl Baking Chipá), Chochi mí (My Little Chochi), Dulce ilusión (Sweet Illusion), El Indio (The Indian), Imelda [Imelda was composed for and dedicated to Imelda Marcos, wife of Ferdinand Marcos, former president of The Philippines], Las mejores rosas (The Best Roses), Luna llena (Full Moon), Luqueñita (Sweet Girl from Luque), Madrecita (My Sweet Mother), Marina, Mi compañera (My Companion), Mi nostalgia (My Nostalgia), Moras Cué [the section of town where he was born], Navidad triste (Tearful Christmas), Noches asuncenas (Evenings of Asunción), Ñandutí, Ñe’á purahéi (Let Us Sing), Paisaje de mi tierra (Landscape of My Land), Rosalinda, Tristeza India (Indian Sadness), Vals de papá y mamá (The Waltz of Mom and Dad), Viajera (The [Female] Traveler), and Ykuá ka’aguy (The Spring [hidden in] The Forest). In the early 1980s, Digno García received the national medal of honor and the title Hijo dilecto de la ciudad de Luque (Renowned Son of the City of Luque). In 1982, García visited Paraguay for the final time, offering a series of harp recitals prior to returning to Europe. He passed away in Gerardsbergen, Belgium, in 1984. García’s accomplishments are still celebrated in Europe, where every year since the composer’s death, a series of performances entitled La Fiesta Digno García (The Celebration [of]

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Figure A.8. Digno García y sus Carios in 1966 (from left to right): Miguel Angel Gamarra, Digno García, and Luis “Lucho” Marín.

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Digno García) take place in Belgium in his honor. In 2009, the third annual World Harp Festival in Paraguay dedicated the performance event and additional activities to the memory of Digno García. A compilation of biographical details in Dutch and Spanish are available on a website devoted to the harpist (see http://www.dignogarcia.com/). Lorenzo Leguizamón, arpista profesional One of the last members of the generation of harpists who placed Paraguayan traditional music on the international map, Lorenzo Leguizamón (1924–2005) was born in Ybytimí, Paraguay. Although around this time popular harp players had a low social status, Leguizamón expressed a strong interest in becoming a harp performer.23 He learned the fundamentals of playing the instrument by observing other performers and by taking a few lessons from neighbors and friends in Ybytimí. In the early 1940s he made his professional debut participating in a live folk music show broadcast by Radio Teleco in Asunción.24 He subsequently traveled to Argentina, where he accompanied the conjunto of Reinaldo “Rubito” Medina (1927–1986). In Buenos Aires Leguizamón played for various ensembles and worked for about two and a half years with harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo who, at the time, was directing his own musical conjunto. After Pérez Cardozo’s death in 1952, Leguizamón became the musical director of the ensemble and they performed for about nine years at confiterías, clubs, and for live radio shows in Buenos Aires. 25 In the early 1960s, Leguizamón accompanied Los Guaraníes and Luis Alberto del Paraná y Los Paraguayos, and kept a rigorous touring schedule, which included performances in Europe and, later, Japan and the Middle East. As a recording artist for Barclay, Columbia, Philips, Odeón, and RCA Victor, Leguizamón has released 120 LP records. These recordings also featured Leguizamón as a guest artist accompanying various Paraguayan folk music conjuntos based in Paraguay, Argentina, and Europe from the 1960s through the 1980s. Leguizamón has composed numerous traditional pieces, including A mi estrellita (To My Little Star), A orilla del Sena (By the Seine), Aka’é pará (Noisy Crows), Arpapú rory (The Joyful Sounds of the Harp), Charará (The Charara Birds), Chavela (Miss Chavela), Kara’í Fermín (Mister Fermín), Kara’í Guazú (Mister Boss), Melgarejo jeroky (Melgarejo’s Dance), Mi abuelita (My Sweet Grandmother), Ña Seve (Miss Seve[riana]), Playa Asunción (Asunción Beach), Soldado del Chaco (Chaco [War] Soldier), Sombrero’í (Little Hat), Ybytimí (Town of Ybytimí), Ykuá Potrero (The Spring of Potrero), and Yvapovóguype (Under the Yvapovó Tree).

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Figure A.9. Lorenzo Leguizamón performing at a musical gathering during the 1988 Festival Rochas del Arpa.

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Leguizamón’s approach to the performance of the Paraguayan harp typifies the traditional accompaniment to folk music using standard harmonic progressions (I-V-I-IV-I-V-I), short melodic phrases, and verserefrain form. These characteristics make his compositions ideal for pedagogical purposes. In 2000, the local recording label Producciones Fonográficas The Song, released a compact disc compilation of sixteen traditional pieces previously recorded by Leguizamón on LP records. From the early 1990s and until his death in 2005, Leguizamón resided in Asunción, where he taught privately and gave occasional harp performances. His son Heriberto (b. 1955), also a harpist, teaches and performs actively in Paraguay, Australia, and Japan. Tito Acuña, arpista profesional Born in the town of Bernardino Caballero, Paraguay, Justo Ilirio (“Tito”) Acuña (b. 1952) absorbed a passion for music from his father, who played the harp in the arpero tradition. A precocious child, Tito followed the practice of self-instruction prevalent among Paraguayan harp performers and taught himself how to play the instrument by observing and listening to his father. During my August 5, 2002, interview with Acuña, he indicated to me that his earliest recollections of performing on the harp include a performance of 1963 at his elementary school when he was eleven years old and his first professional engagement, an appearance with the Medina brothers, a professional voice and guitar duo, in the town of Franco Ñú.26 In 1968 Acuña moved to Asunción, where he joined the conjunto of singer Vicente Santacruz and gave his first performance in the capital at a live music show for Radio Nacional. Soon thereafter he met the Torres brothers from Paraguarí, with whom Acuña toured southern Paraguay and the northern Argentine province of Formosa. The conjunto sang traditional music, accompanying themselves with guitar, accordion, and harp. In the early 1970s Acuña recorded Mitakuña’í (Sweet Little Girl), his first professional LP for the Elio label, and, in the mid-1970s, he recorded with his own ensemble Las Calandrias del Sur and with the Dúo Colmán-Medina. In 1978, at the end of the musical tour with the Torres brothers, Acuña joined the Dúo Rojas y Rojas with whom he recorded for the Humaitá label. With the Rojas ensemble, Acuña traveled extensively for about six months throughout the interior of Paraguay performing in Caaguazú, Encarnación, Iturbe, Pilar, and San Pedro del Paraná. This conjunto also included guitars, accordion, and harp. In Asunción, they performed at Radio Ñandutí and television station Channel 9. The same year, Acuña traveled to São Paulo with Ireneo Ojeda Aquino and his conjunto Los Zorzales Guaraníes to record five LPs of Paraguayan traditional music and to perform in various cities in southern Brazil.

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Upon his return to Asunción, Acuña, who had been playing the harp at La Curva, was invited by Lorenzo Pérez to join him for a series of performances in Europe. 27 Acuña embraced the opportunity and the newly established guitar and harp Dúo Pérez-Acuña set out on the musical tour, performing at nightclubs in Switzerland and Italy. The duet, which later acquired another guitarist, became the Trío Pérez y Pérez y Acuña and traveled extensively throughout Europe. Once he had fulfilled his touring contract with the trio, he joined Paraguayan singer Elio Serafini in Spain for an eight-month tour of Spain, Germany, Italy, Greece, and Egypt. In the early 1980s, during breaks from his European tour, Tito performed in South America with the vocal trio of singers Rigoberto Arévalos, Tito Martínez, and Lalo Martínez. This group, comprised of three singers and two guitarists, had been performing Paraguayan and other Latin American traditional music with a special emphasis on bolero repertoire. Altogether, Acuña lived and traveled throughout Europe and northern Africa for about five years. In 1984, along with his brother Digno Acuña, Tito joined singer and guitar player Juan Carlos Oviedo, with whom they embarked on various musical tours to Argentina and Chile. Since then, they have been performing together as the Conjunto de Juan Carlos Oviedo y los hermanos Acuña. With nearly thirty commercial recordings, the conjunto, which specializes in traditional repertoire, has become one of the most popular and representative folk music groups performing in festivals and other musical events in Asunción, the interior of the country, and abroad, primarily Argentina and Chile. For Acuña, the essential repertoire of Paraguayan traditional music consists of polca compositions by figures such as Flaminio Arzamendia, Dúo Gómez-Quiñónez, Dúo Melga-Chase, and Dúo Vargas-Saldívar. This view is also espoused by Juan Carlos Oviedo, whose group bases its musical performances on this core of traditional repertoire. Acuña asserts that the festivals del Takuare’ẽ (Guarambaré), del Lago Ypacaraí (Ypacaraí), del Ñandutí (Itauguá), and de la Raza (Guairá), constitute the most prominent folk music events in Paraguay. Tito Acuña, who employs a traditional harp technique including bordoneados and arpegios, is a veritable powerhouse of a performer whose playing exhibits a unique balance between extraordinary virtuosity and keen sensitivity to the music and to the vocal lines. The Acuña brothers are annually featured as the closing number of the World Harp Festival in Paraguay. Figure A.10 shows Acuña performing a Paraguayan polca and showing off his acrobatic skills while playing the instrument at a family gathering.

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Figure A.10.

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Tito Acuña performing at a family gathering in Asunción.

Nicolás (“Nicolasito”) Caballero, arpista profesional Viewed by his colleagues and by the general public as the most versatile contemporary Paraguayan harp performer, Nicolás Caballero (b. 1949) was born in Asunción. A true prodigy, at the age of three Nicolás started to take harp lessons from his father, harpist Isidro Caballero, and a year later, he made his debut at the Teatro Municipal in Asunción. In the mid-1950s he traveled throughout Paraguay and to Uruguay and Argentina performing with the Trío Paraguay Tropical, a conjunto led by his father Isidro and singers Adolfo Duarte and Lauro Romero. In the late 1950s, Nicolasito,

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as he came to be known, traveled to Spain with the new configuration of the Trío Paraguay Tropical, which now included his father Isidro Caballero, singer Pura Aguero Vera, and harpist Pablo Morel. After wining first prize for a solo harp performance at the 1957 Sixth World Festival of Youth and Students held in Moscow, Caballero traveled extensively throughout Europe, performing in Brussels, Paris, Sofia, Vienna, and Warsaw. In the late 1960s Caballero attended the Paris Conservatory, where he studied classical harp and other string instruments while seeking a degree in orchestral conducting. During the early 1970s Caballero taught harp at the Conservatorio Municipal de Música in Asunción and, in 1975, he established residency in Spain, where he lived for about twenty-five years before returning to Paraguay. While in Spain he performed regularly at the Vihuela concert hall in Madrid, taught harp lessons, and offered recitals throughout Europe. Prior to his return to Paraguay, he embarked on one last extensive tour, accompanying various musical conjuntos throughout Europe, Northern Africa, Turkey, Israel, and East Asia. Highly influenced by his formal training on the pedal harp, in 1962 Caballero experimented with the production of semitones on the Paraguayan diatonic harp, resulting in the creation of the brass llave. Although other Paraguayan harp players use this device as well, Caballero has perfected the system, performing an extensive repertoire of music. With the use of the llaves, Caballero has branched out from the Paraguayan traditional repertoire and recorded tangos, boleros, and rock and pop music.28

Figure A.11. Nicolás Caballero performing at the 2010 World Harp Festival in Asunción.

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As a composer for the harp, Caballero has produced traditional pieces such as Campana de Pascua (Easter Bell), Ka’í jeroky (The Dance of the Monkey), Sol María, and Vuelo de pájaro (Bird Flight). Since the late 1990s Caballero has traveled frequently to Japan, where he has taught harp, coached Japanese-Paraguayan music groups, and played at different venues in Tokyo and Osaka. In 1984, he recorded in Spain New Sounds, an LP with jazz and pop music performed on the Paraguayan harp. Besides Navidades and Tango, in which he performed Christmas music and tango selections, Caballero released three other recordings for the Elio label between 1997 and 2000: Secretos del arpa paraguaya (Secrets of the Paraguayan Harp), Maestros del arpa paraguaya (Maestros of the Paraguayan Harp), and Melodías inolvidables en solo de arpa (Unforgettable Melodies for Solo Harp). In 2002, Caballero recorded two compact discs, Arpa and Polka, as part of the series “Memories from Paraguay” for the Living Sounds label. Currently, Nicolasito Caballero performs regularly at the World Harp Festival in Paraguay, teaches harp, and serves as musical advisor and arranger for the Elio recording studio in Asunción. César Cataldo, arpista profesional Born in the border town of Clorinda, Argentina, during the political exile of his parents, Paraguayan harpist, composer, and music educator César Cataldo (1951–2012), returned to his family’s home country at the age of three, gaining Paraguayan citizenship. Cataldo’s ardent interest in music took root during his elementary school years, when he would play guitar at home and listen very intently to musical shows aired on Radio Nacional. At the age of fourteen, Cataldo studied Paraguayan harp with the performer Rubí Addario de Báez Monges (1923–2000). In 1968, along with a musical conjunto sponsored by Colegio Cristo Rey where he attended high school, César won second place for solo harp performance at the Segundo Festival del Folclore (Second Festival of Folklore). During the 1970s and 1980s Cataldo was an active member of the nuevo cancionero movement. As part of this musical movement, Cataldo composed several instrumental pieces, accompanied conjuntos such as Juglares, Ñamandú, and Sembrador, and toured with them throughout Latin America and Europe playing at various music festivals. In addition to performing at music festivals and recording as the sole harpist of the nuevo cancionero movement, he also served as coordinator of the Mandu’arã music festival series. Building on his musical training, Cataldo received degrees in music education (ISE—Instituto Superior de Educación) and science education (UTCD—Universidad Técnica de Comercialización y Desarrollo). Beginning in the early 1970s Cataldo performed and presented lectures and workshops throughout Latin America, Canada, the United

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Figure A.12.

153

César Cataldo.

States, and Europe. He was the recipient of notable awards and distinctions, among them two musical composition prizes—first place at the Festival Rochas del Arpa in Asunción (1990) and second place at the Festival del Lago Ypacaraí (1983). Besides his numerous recording collaborations with local musical groups, he has recorded three compact discs as a soloist: Música Paraguaya en Arpa y Orquesta (Paraguayan Music with Harp and Orchestra) in 1997; César Cataldo: Arpa Paraguaya (César Cataldo: Paraguayan Harp) in 2000; Exitos del arpa paraguaya ([Musical] Hits of the Paraguayan Harp) in 2001; César Cataldo in 2009; Su obra sus amigos (His [Musical] Work[s], His Friends) in 2009; and Compartiendo con grandes creadores (Sharing With Great [Musical] Creators) in 2011. As a composer, Cataldo has written about fifty instrumental and vocal compositions. His most frequently performed works include the instrumental pieces Coloquio (Colloquium), Decidamos (Let Us Decide), Gotitas (Little Drops), Jerokyrã (Time to Dance), Resurgir (Revival), Sólo Dos (Only Two), and Tereréhápe (In the Tereré Circle); Che rope’aguype (Under the Hammock) with text by poet Elvio Romero; El canto del hombre (Song of Man) and Vy’a pave nendivé (Our Joy) with texts by Rudy Torga; En verde y rojo (In Green and Red) and Tierra colorada (Red Land) with texts by Carlos Federico Abente; and Señor del llanto (Lord of Weeping) in collaboration with Maneco Galeano. His compositions and performance style are characterized by the use of clear melodic lines and ornaments such

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as mordents and short trills. At times he also uses harmonic sequences borrowed from other musical genres and styles such as ballad and pop music. Cataldo’s technique and his use of a harmonic vocabulary that is not exclusively traditional have set him apart from other arpistas profesionales, leading him to be known as an arpista profesional de técnica estilizada. In addition to composing, performing, and recording, Cataldo taught music education and music technology at the Colegio Cristo Rey de Asunción. He also taught harp as part of the Proyecto Sonidos de la Tierra—a program developed by Paraguayan composer and conductor Luis Szarán, in which social and community integration through music serves to prevent youth violence and motivates musical creativity (see http://www. sonidosdelatierra.org.py/). He was an active participant in the Proyecto Sueña Esperanza in Caaguazú, coordinating agricultural, musical and recreational activities for this multifaceted program sponsored by the National Secretariat for Children. From 2007–2010 Cataldo served as one of the artistic directors for the annual World Harp Festival in Paraguay. Raquel Lebrón, arpista profesional Born in Asunción, Raquel Lebrón (b. 1954) has forged a name for herself as one of the few active female harp performers in Paraguay where, unlike other regions in Latin America, the harp performance tradition is almost exclusively male-oriented. 29 In 1961 Lebrón began piano lessons; two years later she received her first harp lessons from her mother. A few years later, Lebrón studied harp in Asunción with harp teachers Santiago Cortesi, María Cristina Gómez, Nicolás Caballero, Enrique Samaniego, Aparicio González, and César Cataldo. Because of her training, harp technique, and extensive list of musical performances, Lebrón could be placed in the categories of arpista profesional or arpista profesional de técnica estilizada. Aside from recitals in Paraguay, she has given harp performances and lectures in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Peru, Uruguay, Canada, South Africa, Portugal, and Germany. In 1991 she received first prize for solo folk instrument performance at the International Eisteddfod Festival in Roodepoort, South Africa, and filmed the documentary Harfen aus Paraguay for ARD German television. In 1992 she signed a contract with Deutsche Welle in Köln, Germany for a recording and a series of exclusive harp performances. Lebrón performed at the Thalhaus Kultur für Wiesbaden, the Theater Augustinum in Bonn, and the Johannes Gutenburg-Universität in Mainz (1992); at the the German Bank Auditorium in Berlin and at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg (1995); at the IberoAmerikanisches Institut Preußischer Kulturbesitz in Berlin (2005); at the Musikschule Piccolo in Stommeln, and the National Theater National in

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Figuer A.13.

155

Raquel Lebrón.

Heidelberg (2007). In addition to numerous awards and diplomas for her contribution to the performance of the Paraguayan harp locally and abroad, other notable solo concerts include the 1990 and 1993 Rochas Harp Festivals in Asunción, the 1998 EXPO in Lisbon, the 2000 opening of the first Paraguayan-Brazilian Cultural Center in Rio de Janeiro, a 2002 performance at the Salón Dorado at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and the 2011 Posadas (Province of Misiones) Artistic Festival in commemoration of the bicentennial of Paraguayan independence.30 In 2006 she created the Lebrón Entertainment Agency, an international artist’s agency promoting female performers of the Paraguayan harp. As a recording artist she has released seven recordings of Paraguayan harp music: Melodías en arpa (Melodies on Harp); Clásicos de Folclore Paraguayo (Paraguayan Folk Music on Harp); Música Internacional con Gran Orquesta (International Music with Large Orchestra); Polcas Paraguayas en Solo de Arpa (Paraguayan Polkas for Solo Harp); Lo Mejor de Raquel Lebrón (The Best of Raquel Lebrón); Cascada (Waterfall); and Paraguay en Arpa (Paraguay on Harp).31 Currently, Raquel Lebrón performs regularly in Asunción and other world capitals, giving lecture recitals in concert settings. Lebrón was featured at the 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011 Annual World Harp Festival in

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Paraguay. As a performer, she plays with precision and elegance, always asserting the validity of the Paraguayan harp as a concert instrument capable of playing any style of music. Mariano González Ramírez, arpista profesional Born in 1954 in Buena Vista, Paraguay, Mariano González grew up in a musical family.32 At the age of five he began playing the harp on an instrument inherited from his father Fortuozo González, who had learned the instrument from his own father, Alfredo González. As a young musician he traveled with the ensemble Los Mensajeros del Paraguay to Japan for a performance at the World Music Festival in Tokyo. Subsequent musical engagements took him to the 1980 Mediterranean World Festival in Lisbon, the 1983 Folk Festival in Cosquín (Argentina), and immediately after to an extended tour throughout Switzerland, France, Italy, and Spain. The same year he founded the trio Las Estrellas del Paraguay, performing on television shows between 1983 and 1986 in Japan, where he returned for solo harp performances from 2000–2002. González has also performed at the 1997 Jazz Festival in Asunción; in 2002 at the Buena Performing Arts Center in Serra Vista, Arizona; in 2003 at the Ninth Annual Festival Guitarras del Mundo in Buenos Aires and Paraná, Argentina; in 2005 at Carnegie Hall in New York City; the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C.; and the Scott Fitzgerald Theater in Baltimore, Maryland; in 2006 at the Suntory Hall in Tokyo and the Kanai Hall in Yokohama; in 2007 with the National Symphony Orchestra in Asunción and at the Lyon & Healy International Jazz & Pop Harpfest in Salt Lake City, Utah; in 2008 at the International Harp Festival in Spoka, Japan; and in Las Vegas, where he regularly performs at the “Denis Bono Variety Hour” and with the Bob Rosario Jazz Ensemble and as a member of the Tony Orlando Tour. González was featured as a guest soloist at the 2011 World Harp Congress in Vancouver, British Columbia; and at the 2011 Fifth Annual World Harp Festival in Asunción. In 1977 while performing in Taiwan, González observed the lever mechanism of the Salvi orchestral harp and decided to transfer this principle to the Paraguayan diatonic harp. González’s goal was to perform an international repertoire along with Paraguayan traditional music. This innovation enabled him to play jazz, popular, light classical, and easy listening compositions on the traditional instrument of Paraguay. During the late 1970s and early 1980s and in collaboration with luthier Adelio Ovelar, González added levers to the Paraguayan harp console and started experimenting with chromaticism. Soon after, other Paraguayan harp makers followed the prototype developed by González and Ovelar. In 2003 González applied MIDI to the Paraguayan harp,

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Figure A.14.

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Mariano González with his midi harp.

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developing an instrument capable of producing multiple sounds for each string. In 2007, González introduced a new version of the Paraguayan harp that besides being an electronic instrument with chromatic levers, included a pitch-bending system that allows him to play styles like blues and rock and roll. González’s style of composition integrates elements taken from the classical and world music repertoires and that of the traditional Paraguayan harp repertoire.33 Ismael Ledesma, arpista profesional Exhibiting the most innovative approach to composition, harmonic language, and performance style among the arpistas profesionales, Ismael Ledesma (b. 1962), born in Lambaré, took his first harp lesson at the age of five from his father, harpist Raimundo Ledesma.34 With the encouragement of his father and his mother (singer and guitarist Luisa Isabel Lucena), Ledesma decided to pursue a musical career. After graduating from high school, he accompanied various musical ensembles traveling to France. In 1982 he moved to Paris, where he accompanied performances of Paraguayan musical groups such as Pedro Leguizamón’s Los Guayakíes, Pedro Ramírez’s Los diablos del Paraguay, and “Rubito” Luna’s Los Tupí. After a successful musical tour to Israel as a member of Los tres amigos paraguayos (along with guitarists Julio and Néstor Rojas) and concert engagements with the music and dance group América Latina con alegría y fuego, in 1985 Ledesma decided to pursue a career as Paraguayan harp soloist. In addition to his various performances, he took courses at the Sorbonne and studied music at the Conservatoire International de Musique de Paris. Departing from the usual performance model ot Latin American traditional music in Europe, which has tended toward exoticism, since the late 1980s Ismael Ledesma has been promoting his own compositions. In 1991 he received first place for his harp composition Aromas del mundo (Aromas of the World) at the Festival Rochas del Arpa in Asunción, an achievement that has inspired him to further explore his own performance style and technique. Ledesma has performed extensively in Paraguay, England, The Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Austria, Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Russia, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, and India. As a solo recording artist, he has produced seventeen compact discs, most of them featuring original compositions.35 His pieces are characterized by a combination of long melodic phrases and sophisticated harmonies. At times, he integrates a background instrumental accompaniment drawn from diverse styles and genres such as light classical, pop, new age, and ballad, as well as rhythmic features characteristic of the Paraguayan polca and guarania.

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Figure A.15.

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Ismael Ledesma performing at the Colosseum in Hamburg (2011).

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His 2000 recording La Balada del Indio (The Indian’s Ballad) can be characterized as an instrumental suite of programmatic nature. Using the diatonic harp, as well as background electronic instruments, Ledesma’s compositions, sometimes characterized as exhibiting a neofolclore style, have descriptive titles such as El lago salvaje (The Wild Lake), El indio pensativo (The Pensive Indian), La balada del indio (The Indian’s ballad), Cuerdas al aire (Open Strings), Influencias (Influences), Amazonas, Melodía corta (Short Melody), and La peregrinación (The Pilgrimage). For many Paraguayan harpists, Ismael Ledesma is an innovator of the Paraguayan harp tradition. His highly experimental approach, which includes some traditional musical gestures as well as a touch of avant-garde and world music, has elicited a positive reaction from audiences. In fact, his colleagues and the public have bestowed their approval upon Ledesma, whose recitals and compositions have been well received in Europe, an indication that he has triumphed abroad and should be lauded at home.

NOTES 1. According to Nicolás Riveros, Diarte was never interested in authorship or copyright issues; consequently, many of his pieces have received other names or have been claimed by other composers (Riveros 1995:167, 172). 2. This seems to have occurred during one of José del Rosario Diarte’s trips with his brother Aniceto. On their way to San Juan Bautista they were picked up by a carreta. The company reached the small town of Curuzú lata, four kilometers away from San Juan Bautista de las Misiones, and decided to rest before continuing the journey. To repay the favor, the Diarte brothers played some music on the harp and guitar. After being asked about one of the songs, Diarte indicated that he was the composer of the piece and that its title was Carretaguy (ibid.,169). 3. Details regarding the birthplace and birthdate of Agapito Morínigo remain sketchy. In the March 6th, 1993, edition of Noticias (a local newspaper), an article in the arts and entertainment section announced the performer’s death at the age of seventy-eight. Three years later, on March 5th, 1996, another article in Noticias paid tribute to the harp player, indicating this time that “Agapito Morínigo . . . falleció hace exactamente 3 años, a los 76 . . .” (Agapito Morínigo . . . passed away exactly 3 years ago, when he was 76 . . .). In Diccionario de la música en el Paraguay, researcher Luis Szarán records 1908 as the birthdate and Guarambaré as the birthplace of Morínigo. (Szarán 1997:455). Alfredo Vaesken, organizer of folk music festivals and sponsor of the only commercial harp recording of Agapito Morínigo, informed me that, in 1991, when he wanted to take the performer to a music festival in Uruguay, Tacho’í did not have a cédula (national identification card), nor did he remember his date of birth; therefore, a group of friends had to fabricate a date of birth in order to produce the proper documentation (birth certificate, national identification card, and passport) for the artist. At this point, no evidence exists to definitively support 1908, 1913, or 1915 as Morínigo’s year of birth.

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In Guaraní, the addition of “í” at the end of the word means “little” or “small.” In the case of names or nicknames, the “í” indicates the youngest of siblings or the son of somebody with the same name or nickname. Tacho’í’s father was also known as “Tacho.” 4. On a 1991 newspaper article Agapito Morínigo stated, “So my father, then, was a harpist. His name was Tacho. So I am known as Tacho’í, right[?] ‘Dad, why don’t you teach me some [harp?]. I also want to be a harp player,’ I said to him one day. ‘No, my son, [all] harp players are drunks. Don’t you see me [?].’ Tacho’í: La canción del arpa errante” (Tacho’í: the song of the traveling harp), Ultima Hora, Revista Correo Semanal, July 27, 1991. 5. The recording made in June 1989 included five compuestos: Mombyry ajeheka (Searching Far Away), Francisco Solano López, two versions of Mba’ere che Tupasy (Why Me, Mother of God?), Ajumingo Señor mío (I Am Coming My Lord), and Taguapy sapy’ami (Sit Down for a Little); two polcas by Tacho’í: Costa Ñaro (Ñaro Coast) and Polca Guinea (Guinea [Hen] Polca); and six polcas by anonymous composers: Barra buche (At the Bar) , Péinako la guerra opá (There the War Ended), Kilómetro 11 ([At Kilometer 11), Ndarekói la culpa (It Is Not My Fault), Solito (Alone), and Ña Seve (Mrs. Seve[riana]). Both Ndarekói la culpa and Solito are traditional anonymous compositions from the late nineteenth century. 6. This borrowing technique was applied to Mombyry ajeheka (Searching Far Away), Francisco Solano López, and Taguapy sapy’ami (Sit Down for a Little). 7. According to Félix Pérez Cardozo’s second cousin Julio Martínez, the harpist took up the guitar while still in elementary school. Some time later, one of Pérez Cardozo’s brothers bought him a harp from Eduvigis Fernández, one of their uncles. Young Félix apparently repaired the old harp by adding missing strings made of wire and horse skin, securing them with hand-made pegs made of metal and wire. As soon as Pérez Cardozo was able to play a few songs, he proceeded to take lessons from Juan Crisóstomo Britos of Carovení, Guairá (Sánchez 2002:38–39). 8. Among the earlier Paraguayan performers in Buenos Aires were the Dúo Giménez-Pucheta in the mid-1920s (Herminio Giménez and Justo Pucheta Ortega, both singers and guitar players)—one of the first vocal duets to record Paraguayan music—and popular singer Samuel Aguayo, who moved to Buenos Aires in 1927. 9. During a personal interview, Angel Benítez (b. 1925), one of the last singers to collaborate with Pérez Cardozo in Buenos Aires, indicated to me that the harpist had such consistent energy that he was able to perform and travel for days with little or no rest. He also mentioned that Pérez Cardozo indulged daily in abundant servings of puchero (a local version of osso bucco [meat and bone soup]) and numerous shots of sherry. Pérez Cardozo’s friends and musical collaborators found that they often had difficulty keeping up with his frenetic pace and continuous activities. Angel Benítez, interview by author, Villarrica, Paraguay, February 3, 2002. This view is also shared by singer and composer Agustín Barboza (1913–1998), who worked with Pérez Cardozo for about five years in Buenos Aires (Barboza 2000:89–92). 10. Pérez Cardozo’s legacy lives on in the city of Mendoza in central Argentina, where a street was named after the renowned harpist (Szarán 1997:384). This was also the result of Pérez Cardozo’s musical contribution to the Argentine musical

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repertoire; his composition Los sesenta granaderos (The Sixty Granaderos), was dedicated to the courageous regiment of General José de San Martín, a central historical figure in the process of Argentine and South American independence in the early nineteenth century. Los sesenta granaderos is still sung in most Argentine elementary schools to evoke patriotic sentiment. The harpist, who in 1945 married Avelina Sánchez Deal from Mendoza, maintained strong personal, as well as professional, ties with Argentina. A detailed account of a posthumous musical tribute to the performer by colleagues and friends in Asunción is given by Barboza (2000:249–52). 11. Luis Bordón, interview by author, Asunción, August 21, 2002. 12. As a child, Bordón was fully aware of the social stigma associated with the arperos and, frequently, his uncle’s dance hall witnessed some of the stereotypical behavior that perpetuated the stigma. According to Bordón, Victoriano Verón, a neighbor in Guarambaré and a harpist, indulged in large quantities of alcohol prior to performing for his patrons. Bordón recalls one occasion when Verón was said to be playing a composition entitled Mi teniente, mi teniente (My lieutenant, my lieutenant), but, in reality, it was the polca Carretaguy. Bordón also indicated that Verón used to mix up the names of pieces or simply apply different names to Carretaguy. Luis Bordón, interview by author, Asunción, August 21, 2002. 13. The first recording included Harpa paraguáia (Paraguayan Harp), polca by Luis Bordón and Yoly Sánchez; India (Indian Girl), guarania by José Asunción Flores; Carretaguy (Under the Wagon), polca, motivo popular (popular [musical] motif)—anonymous; Llegada (The Arrival), polca by Féliz Pérez Cardozo; Lamento indio (Indian Lament), fantasia by Luis Bordón; Canto de pajarito (The Song of the Little Bird), polca by Luis Bordón; Pájaro campana (The Bell Bird), polca, motivo popular, anonymous); Cerro Corá (Corá Hill), polca-canción by Herminio Giménez; Galopando (Galloping), polca by Feliciano Brunelli; Solito en la noche (Alone in the Night), polca by Mauro da Costa Lima; Rodríguez Peña, tango by Vicente Greco; and Malvita (Sweet Malva), polca by Herminio Giménez. 14. According to Bordón, “[I] was the first [harpist] to record sung music on the harp. I mean, using the harp as a solo instrument [for the entire recording] and not just accompanying [vocal music]. Félix Pérez Cardozo was the first [harpist] to make the harp transcend beyond Paraguay, but with a conjunto, occasionally he played instrumental solos . . . the [musical] group mainly performed Paraguayan and Argentine vocal music.” Luis Bordón, interview by author, Asunción, August 21, 2002. 15. “Harp and Christmas” was recorded for the Chantecler label in São Paulo in 1975. This LP record featured traditional Christmas carols from Europe, the United States, and Brazil. 16. Luis Bordón’s recordings include: Harpa paraguáia em hi-fi (vols. 1–3), A harpa e a cristandade (vols. 1 and 2), A harpa romántica (The Romantic Harp), Bordon Tropical, Os grandes sucessos da harpa paraguáia em hi-fi (Great [Musical] Hits of the Paraguayan Harp in Hi-Fi), Tangos para você (Tangos for You), Nostalgia del Paraguay (Nostalgia for Paraguay), Recordando carnavais—Marchas (Remembering Carnival—Marches), Recordando sucessos Junino (Remembering the Musical Hits of Junino), O réi da harpa paraguáia (The King of Paraguayan Harp), O carnaval brasileiro (Brazilian Carnival), Harpa paraguáia em 3 D (Paraguayan Harp in

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Three Dimensions), and Luis Bordon e sua harpa paraguáia (Luis Bordon and His Paraguayan Harp) [Mono LP recordings]. O velhinho, A harpa e a Cristandade, Harpa paraguáia em hi-fi, Luis Bordon: Solista de harpa paraguáia. [Single and double recordings]. Harpa paraguáia em stereo, A harpa paraguáia em estereofónico, and reeditions of A harpa e a Cristandade—Vol. II, Tangos para você, and Bordon Tropical [Stereo LP recordings]. Fourteen of these recordings were reedited as compact discs in the 1990s. 17. At this time, Oscar Nelson Safuán, who had been living in Brazil since the 1960s, was singing with the Trío Los Tres Soles and working as a musical producer and arranger of música sertaneja (music from the Brazilian hinterland). 18. The text of the diploma of recognition indicates: “Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, General Director of the United Nations Department of Education, Science, and Culture, whose principal goal is to oversee Universal Culture, confers the ORBIS GUARANITICUS medal and the present diploma upon Maestro LUIS BORDON in just recognition of his exceptional professional credentials as a performer of the Paraguayan harp, his brilliant artistic endeavors, and the successful international promotion that he gives to the Guaraní Music. Asunción, September 27, 2001.” [Signed by] Edgar Montiel. UNESCO Representative in Paraguay. Cultural Advisor for the MERCOSUR. 19. During a published interview, in reference to the newly introduced mechanical levers and other means of producing half steps on the Paraguayan diatonic harp, Bordón stated, “At the same time, I believe strange attachments should not be added to the simple diatonic [instrument] of almost five kilograms, [made] of fine wood scented with the fragrance of the forest and [with] thirty-seven or thirty-eight strings, that will not be able to compete with the [instrument] of fiftyfour kilograms, [which is] covered with iron, [and has] seven pedals, [and] that is the concert harp. The Paraguayan harp must remain as it is, otherwise it will lose its identity.” El arpa: Singular historia que llega desde el fondo del tiempo” [The Harp: Singular History Coming from the Depth of Time] A&E Supplement, Ultima Hora, November 8, 1985. The same opinion was expressed by Bordón during a personal conversation in July, 2002. 20. El arpa y la danza de mi tierra and Despertar nativo (“Native awakening”) were the only pieces featuring the Paraguayan harp accompanied by orchestra during a series of three performances of traditional music organized by the Philharmonic Society of Asunción and presented by the Asunción Symphony Orchestra in March of 2002 and featuring Bordón as soloist. 21. At that time Juan Alfonso Ramírez, Chinita Montiel, and their son Juan Alfonso “Johnny Monte” Montiel formed the musical conjunto Los Indios, traveling extensively throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Japan for over than thirty years. The name “Carios” refers to a Guaraní group inhabiting the area around present-day Asunción at the time of the arrival of the Spaniards during the sixteenth century. Since García, Alvarez, López, and Peralta were not members of an indigenous tribe, the name of the ensemble seems to have been chosen for its exoticist appeal. 22. Salvador Dalí (1904–1989) created for Digno García a work of art in crystal entitled La Guitarra, which was dedicated to the musician.

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23. During an interview Leguizamón stated, “Since always, from childhood, I wanted to play the harp. Even though back then harp players were not very well seen. He [a harp player] was only an arpero. Back then they [harp players] played by the carousels [at fairs] and things like that. I believe that I was already born with the harp.” Merecido Homenaje a Lorenzo Leguizamón [Worthy Tribute to Lorenzo Leguizamón] A&E Supplement, Ultima Hora, May 15, 1987. 24. Invited by musician Toledo Núñez, Leguizamón first appeared on the Domingos de gala (Gala on Sundays), broadcast by Radio Teleco. 25. Lorenzo Leguizamón directed the Conjunto de arpas y guitarras de Félix Pérez Cardozo, which included musicians Reinaldo Meza, Tito Fernández, Eulogio Pérez, and Ovidio Juárez. From the 1930s to the 1960s, Radio El Mundo, Radio Splendid, and Radio Belgrano were the leading broadcasting venues for live music shows in Buenos Aires prior to the advent of the television age. Their programs were broadcast throughout the Río de la Plata area (Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay) and reached a large body of listeners. 26. .Tito Acuña, interview by author, Lambaré, Paraguay, August 5, 2002. 27. La Curva restaurant was one of the main venues hosting performances of traditional music in Asunción. 28. For example, using the llaves Caballero recorded Melodías inolvidables en solo de arpa (Unforgettable Melodies for Solo Harp) for the Elio label in the late 1990s. This compilation included arrangements of musical themes from movies such as The Godfather, Love Story, Limelight, and Chariots of Fire; boleros such as Contigo aprendí (With You I Learned) and La distancia (Distance); the tango El día que me quieras (The Day You Love Me); the folk song La paloma (The Dove); instrumental renditions of Beatles songs (Hey Jude, Yesterday, and Let It Be); and Rock Around the Clock. 29. In some Latin American countries the harp has a distinctly female association, as in Chile, where a tradition of female harp players was established in the nineteenth century. Rubí Addario de Báez Monges (1923–2000); María Cristina Gómez (b. ca. 1944); Rocío Lebrón (b. 1955), sister of Raquel; Teresita Rivas (b. 1954); Ada Valiente “Nenequita” Cáceres (1925–1982); and Carmen Villalba (b. 1930) are among the few renowned female harp performers in Paraguay. 30. See http://www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/profile/RaquelLebron and http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raquel_Lebr%C3%B3n (accessed 14 July 2014). 31. Dates for the release of these recordings are unavailable 32. The extended González family includes more than twenty professional and amateur Paraguayan harpists. Mariano González, Skype interview by author, November 25, 2011. 33. For sample compositions see http://worldtv.com/mariano_gonzalez_harp. tv (accessed 14 July 2014). Mariano González is represented by the Washingont Kikaku Entertainment Booking Agency, Inc. 34. For a detailed biography and sample audio recordings see www.ismaelledesma .com (accessed 14 July 2014). Lesdesma’s performances of his compositions can be also found at http://www.dailymotion.com/ismaelLedesma#videoId=xmrvk0 and http://www.youtube.com/user/ismaeledesma (accessed 14 July 2014).

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35. Paraguay en solo de arpa (Paraguay in Solo Harp) (1996), La Navidad (Christmas) (1997), Yacaré (Crocodile), (1997), Paraguay (1998), Paraguay: Terra (1999), La Balada del Indio (The Indian’s Ballad) (2000), Renaissance de la Harpe Paraguayenne (The Renaissance of the Paraguayan Harp) (2000), Arpa Danza (Harp Dance) (2003), En concierto (In Concert) (2004) En vivo y en directo (Live) (2004), Latin Harpe Lounge (2005), El vagabundo (The Traveler) (2005), Intimidad (Intimate) (2007), Testimonio (Testimony) (2008), Arpa embrujada (Bewitched Harp) (2008), Balades Paraguayennes (Paraguayan Ballades) (2009), Paseo imaginario (Imaginary Journey) (2011).

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Duarte, Juan “Panchi.” Guitarra guaireña. Music Zone Producciones Artístícas. CD. 2008. Flores, José Asunción. José Asunción Flores. Obras Maestras de la Guarania Sinfónica. 3 Vol. Ateneo Cultural ‘José Asunción Flores.’ CD. 2001. García, Digno. Solos de arpa. DIVUCSA MUSIC S.A. 36-863. CD. 2004. Giménez, Florentín. Galas orquestales. Discos Elio. CD. 2000. ———. Rescate histórico. Released by Florentín Giménez. CD. N.d. ———. Tierra de guaranias. Panambí Musical. R.G.V. Serie No. 6000. CD. N.d. Giménez, Francisco. Nueva propuesta. Serie Especial (edited by the composer). CD. N.d. Giménez, Herminio. Paraguay romántico. Blue Caps Producciones Fonográficas. B.C. 5097. D. N.d. Godoy, Sila. El mundo de la guitarra. Arami Concierto. SGCD-00495. CD. N.d. González, Aparicio. Paraguay en solo de arpa. Vol. 2. Blue Caps Producciones Fonográficas. BCCD 5010. CD. N.d. González, Lorenzo. Con amor—With Love. Guairá Producciones. GP 040. CD. 2006. ———. Encuentro. LG Productions. CD. 1994. ———. Homenaje. Released by Lorenzo González. CD. N.d. González, Martín. El Regreso de la típica con Martín Gonzalez. Industria Fonográfica S.A. 5-1081. CD. 2000. Gran Típica Orrego. Gran Típica Orrego: Los príncipes del compás. El Campeón Producciones Discográficas. A.V.G. 1003. CD. N.d. Grupo Calazán-Caje. Los compuesteros carapegueños. Edited by Centro ParaguayoJaponés. CD. 1996. Hermanos Corbalán. Arpa paraguaya. Estudios JVA. CD. 2010. Intérpretes Varios. Paraguay en solo de arpa. Vol. 2. Blue Caps Producciones Fonográficas. BCCD 5010. CD. N.d. Jiménez, Sebastián. Aires tradicionales Paraguayos. Recopilaciones y adaptaciones de Aristóbulo Domínguez. Edited by Sebastián Jiménez. CD. 2006. Juan Carlos Oviedo con Los Hermanos Acuña. 22 años . . . con el más puro folklore. DYON Studio Digital. CD. 2005. ———. Emilianore Purajhei. The Song Producciones Fonográficas. CD. N.d. ———. Guaripola jha cuñá. The Song Producciones Fonograficas de Guillermo Maldonado. CD. N.d. ———. Recordando al Dúo Vargas-Saldívar. ARP Producción Fonográfica S.R.L. A.R.P. 12173. The Song Producciones Fonográficas. CD. 1999. Juglares. Despertar. Panambí Musical. CD EE 005514. CD. N.d. Lebrón, Raquel. Paraguay en arpa. Blue Caps. Producciones Aníbal Riveros. B.C. 5224. CD. 2007. ———. Polcas paraguayas en solo. Asunción: Blue Caps Producciones Fonográficas. B.C. 5085. Audiocassette. N.d. Ledesma, Ismael. Ismael Ledesma. Discos Elio. CD. 2001. ———. Paraguay en solo de arpa. Vol. 3. Producciones Fonográficas. B.C. CD 5083. CD. 1995. Leguizamón, Lorenzo. En solo de arpa. The Song Producciones Fonográficas. CD. N.d.

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WEBSITES Les Amis de Pablo. “Jean Rambaudi.” http://lesamisdepablo.free.fr/zic.htm (accessed 14 July 2014). Arpas Sanabria. “Harps and Guitars.” http://www.arpasgsanabria.com.py/ (accessed 14 July 2014). Daily Motion. “Ismael Ledesma.” http://www.dailymotion.com/ismaelLedesma# videoId=xmrvk0 (accessed 14 July 2014). Ismael Ledesma. “Ismael Ledesma.” www.ismaelledesma.com (accessed 14 July 2014). The Jazz Network. “Raquel Lebrón.” http:// www.thejazznetworkworldwide.com/ profile/RaquelLebron (accessed 14 July 2014). Mika Agematsu. “Mika Agematsu.” http://www.agematsu-mika.jp/top.html (accessed 14 July 2014). Miss AMERICA. “Sharlene Hawkes.” See http:// www.missamerica.org/ourmiss-americas/1980/1985.aspx (accessed 14 July 2014). Smithsonian Folkways. “Harpmaker Oscar Maldonado.” http://www.folkways .si.edu/video/mexico_central_south.aspx (accessed August 22, 2014). Smithsonian Folkways. “Pajaro campana.” http://www.folkways.si.edu/video/ mexico_central_south.aspx (accessed August 22, 2014). YouTube. “Ismael Ledesma.” http://www.youtube.com/user/ismaeledesma (accessed 14 July 2014). Wikipedia. “Raquel Lebrón.” http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raquel_Lebr%C3% B3n (accessed 14 July 2014). World TV. “Mariano González.” http://worldtv.com/mariano_gonzalez_harp.tv (accessed 14 July 2014).

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Index

Acuña, Tito, ix, 50, 58, 61n10, 109, 113, 115–116, 121n25, 121n27, 148–150, 164n26 Alianza Francesa de Asunción (Asunción French Alliance), 103– 104 APA (Paraguayan Authors Association), 97 arpa, x, 5, 24, 46, 49, 69, 85, 92, 94, 97, 99, 102–106, 118n2, 120n19, 121n22, 121n24, 121n29, 126, 129–130, 132– 133, 138–142, 146–147, 152–153, 155, 158, 161n4, 162n16, 163nn19–20, 164n25, 164n28, 165n35; guaraní, 6, 15n7; india, 5–7, 15n7, 24; paraguaya, 4, 9, 18, 24, 72, 85–86, 94–95, 97, 103–105, 118n2, 139–142, 152–153, 162n13, 162n16 arpero, 7–8, 17–18, 22, 24, 40, 57–58, 61, 69, 75, 95, 127, 129, 131, 133, 135– 136, 139, 148, 162n12, 164n23 arpín, 77, 141–142 arpista, 7–13, 40, 57–58, 127, 141–142; profesional, 7–8, 24–25, 57–58, 60, 61n15, 127, 133–134, 136, 138, 142, 146, 148, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158

Arzamendia, Dionisio, ix, 24–25, 30n6, 49, 51–52, 56, 58, 60, 60n4, 61n12, 94, 97–99, 120n14, 136–138, 149 Asunción, 1–2, 4, 6–7, 9, 24–25, 31–34, 36–37, 43–44, 49–53, 60n5, 61n9, 68–69, 75, 79, 86–87, 91–92, 100–105, 107, 114, 118nn2–3, 119n7, 122n32, 123, 129–130, 134, 136–139, 142–144, 146, 148–156, 158, 162n10, 163n21, 164n27 avanzada, 77–78, 141 Ayala, Eusebio, 84 Báez Monges, Cristino, 24, 50, 60n5, 112, 120n19 balada, 76, 160, 165n35 banda, 1, 66, 69, 114, 126; de Música de la Policía de la Capital, 69; folclórica, 116; Folclórica Municipal, 12; koyguá, 1, 66; típica, 66–67, 111, 114, 126 Barrios, Agustín, 68, 99; Danza paraguaya, 68 Berger, Louis, 39, 42n15 Bernal, Adolfo. See Papi Galán Biggi, Emilio, 92, 99

179

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180

Index

Bordón, Luis, ix, 18, 21–22, 24, 58, 61, 69, 72, 77, 81n21, 86, 92, 120n19, 121nn25–29, 125, 138–142, 162nn11– 16, 163nn18–20 bordonas (strings), 22, 49, 55, 115, 142; bordoneado (technique), 22–23, 51, 55, 135, 149; bordonillas (strings), 49, 55 Buenos Aires (city), 6, 15nn6–12, 22–23, 32–33, 36, 39, 41n3, 59, 60, 68, 70–71, 85, 87, 89, 118n2, 129, 134–137, 146, 155–156, 161nn8–9, 164n25 Caballero, Nicolás (“Nicolasito”), 24–25, 58–60, 81n21, 121n27, 121n29, 150–152, 154, 164n28 candombe, 73–74 Cataldo, César, ix, 24, 58, 61n10, 76, 78, 99–100, 121nn27–28, 152–154 centro (cultural centers): Cultural de la República, 86, 118n3; Cultural Manzana de la Rivera, 86; Paraguayo Japonés, 86 Chaco War, 51–52, 70, 75, 81n19, 113, 123, 130–131 chamamé, 68 compuesto, 74–75, 81n18, 115, 133, 161n5; compuestero, 75; Compuesteros de Carapeguá, 115 confitería, 22, 134–135, 146; 9 de Julio, 134 conjunto (musical group), 1, 6, 8–10, 13, 18, 22–24, 53, 57–58, 63, 77, 84, 86–88, 90, 92–93, 108, 112, 113, 115, 116, 131, 134–135, 138–139, 144, 146, 148–152, 162n14, 164n25; de Arpas de Sonidos de la Tierra, 106; de Juan Carlos Oviedo y los Hermanos Acuña, 109, 113, 115–116, 149; Folclórico Guaraní, 139, 142; music, 138, 146 conservatorio: Municipal de Asunción, 92, 151; Nacional, 4, 92–93, 94, 97, 138 continuo, 38 Córdoba, 40

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Cortesi, Santiago, 24, 58, 60, 69, 103, 139, 154 cuatrillo, 64, 95 de Ayolas, Juan, 33 de Mendoza, Pedro, 32–33 de Salazar y Espinosa, Juan, 32 de Solís, Juan Díaz, 32 Diarte, José del Rosario, 57, 69, 95, 101, 112, 127–131, 160nn1–2; Carretaguy, 22, 69, 130–131, 160n2, 162nn12–13 Domínguez, Aristóbulo (“Nonón”), 27, 101, 128–129, 134 Duarte Frutos, Nicanor, 96 Echeverría, Miguel Angel, 99 encomienda (system), 34, 36, 41n4; encomenderos, 36, 41n4, Escuela de Bellas Artes, 92 fandango, 68 Fernández, Emiliano R., 28, 74, 113– 114, 116, 122n40, 136 festival (music), vii, viii, 3–4, 9, 13, 15n6, 23, 25, 26–29, 29n1, 36, 52, 69, 72, 74, 77–78, 84–85, 90, 92–93, 100–112, 114–116, 118n2, 120n17, 120n19-21, 122n33, 122n36, 124, 126, 129, 133–134, 136–138, 149, 151–152, 154–156, 160n3; del Arpa Paraguaya, 102–103; del Lago Ypacaraí, 102, 149, 153; del Ñandutí, 108–110, 149; del Takuare’ẽ, 4, 27, 67, 110–112, 114, 126, 133, 149; Encuentro con Emiliano, 26–28, 114–117, 126; Internacional de Música Coral, 102; Internacional Zeballos con el Folclore, 110; Mandu’arã, 102, 133, 152; Mundial del Arpa en el Paraguay, x, 79, 85–86, 100, 105–108, 126, 142, 146, 149, 151–152, 154–156; Nacional del Folklore (Folclore), 102; Nacional del Folclore de Durazno, 133; Rochas del Arpa, 102–104, 132–133, 147,

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Index 153, 155, 158; Rock Sanber, 102; Viña del Mar, 102 Flores, José Asunción, x, 3, 68–73, 81n15, 85, 92, 99, 162n13 Fogel, Ramón, 28 folklore (also, folclore), 1, 5–6, 14n5, 18, 21–22, 26, 28–29, 58, 80n2, 83, 85–86, 88–89, 96, 102, 110–111, 113, 119n7, 121n22, 125, 133, 152, 155; de proyección, 27, 29, 83, 89, 124, 126 FONDEC (Fondo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes), 95, 110, 114 Gaboto, Sebastián, 32, 38 Galán, Papi (Adolfo Bernal), ix, 25, 52, 59, 77, 92, 94, 97, 121n27, 141 galopa, 28, 64–67, 69, 77, 98, 111, 116, 124, 126; concurso de, 67; Galopera (composition), 66–67, 69 García, Alejo, 32 García, Digno, 18, 24, 58, 60, 69, 73, 89, 98, 121n29, 142–146, 163nn21–22; Cascada (composition), 69, 89, 98, 142, 144, 155 gato (dance), 65, 80n6 Giménez, Florentín, ix, 67–68, 71, 73, 80n9, 81n15, 81n18, 99, 119n8 Giménez, Herminio, 5, 69, 72, 87, 92, 99, 121n28, 161n8, 162n13 Giménez, Remberto, 68, 84, 91, 99, 119n9 González Macchi, Luis Angel, 86, 111 González Ramírez, Mariano, ix, 6, 15n9, 25, 52, 58–59, 81n21, 99, 156– 158, 164nn32–33 Guairá, 30, 43–44, 51, 60n1, 75, 118n2, 123, 134, 136, 149, 161n7 Guarambaré, 27, 67, 110–112, 114, 116–117, 122n32, 131, 133, 138–139, 149, 160n3, 162n12 Guaraní, viii, 3, 5–6, 11, 14, 15n7, 21, 26, 30n5, 30n8, 31–32, 34–38, 42n12, 43, 63, 70, 87, 89, 108, 113, 115, 117– 118, 123, 125–126, 137–138, 163n18; community (group), 6–7, 11, 13, 19–21, 26, 29n2, 30nn3–4, 34–37, 70, 163n21; language, viii, 11–13, 20–21,

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181

27, 30n10, 32, 36, 38, 40n1, 50, 68, 75, 85, 90, 124, 161n3 guarania, 5–6, 20, 27, 59, 63, 67, 69–72, 77–79, 80n9, 80n13, 80n15, 81n16, 84–85, 89– 93, 97–99, 109, 115, 120, 158, 162n13 guitar, vii–viii, 1–3, 6, 17–18, 20, 23, 26, 30, 44, 46, 48, 51–53, 63–65, 68, 72–73, 75, 77–79, 92, 94, 97, 99–101, 112–113, 115–116, 118n1, 120n16, 122n35, 126, 128–131, 134, 136, 138– 139, 142, 148–149, 152, 158, 160n2, 161nn7–8 habanera (pattern), 73, 79 harp: classical (pedal), 138, 151; diatonic, vii–viii, 2–8, 10, 13–14, 17–18, 21–24, 26, 38, 40, 44, 46–53, 58–60, 60n2, 63, 72, 78, 84, 94, 115, 124, 134, 139, 141–142, 151, 156, 160, 163n19; Paraguayan, vii–x, 1–10, 13, 17–18, 21–25, 29, 31, 43–44, 46–53, 55–60, 61nn9–16, 63–65, 72, 76, 78–79, 81n21, 83–85, 90–91, 93–94, 97–101, 103–110, 112–113, 116–117, 118n2, 121n28, 123–126, 135–136, 138–139, 141–142, 148, 150–153, 155–156, 158, 160, 163nn18–20 Harpa paraguáia (recording), 24, 72, 139–140, 162n13, 162n16 Hy’aty, 51, 60n6, 112, 118, 130, 134–135 identity, viii, 4, 10–14, 18–19, 26, 28, 30n8, 111–114, 116, 124–125, 163; cultural, viii, 2, 14, 18, 25, 27–29, 34, 105, 117, 123, 125–126; national, viii, 2–4, 83, 85, 89–90, 93, 117, 136; Paraguayan, vii, 2–3, 11–14, 18–20, 25–29, 34, 58, 60, 70, 83–84, 93, 124– 126; social, 2, 27–28, 79, 117 Insfrán, Roquelino, 6, 73, 94–96, 120n19 Jesuit, viii, 4, 6, 17, 30n8, 34–36, 38–39, 41n10, 42n17, 43–44, 125; church, 44; mission, 7, 14n5, 30n8, 35, 37–40, 44; order, 35, 40; priest, 7, 35, 36;

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182

Index

Province of Paraguay, 35–37, 41n8; reductions (also, reducciones), 36, 123; San Ignacio Guazú, 36–37; schools, 36 Jopará, viii, 13, 20–21, 63, 75, 90, 108, 112–113, 115–117, 130 kyre’ỹ, 63, 66–68, 98–100, 120 Lara Bareiro, Carlos, 91, 99, 119n10 Lebrón, Raquel, ix, 24, 58, 81n21, 120n19, 154–155 Ledesma, Ismael, ix, 24, 58, 76, 106– 107, 121n27, 121n29, 158–160 Leguizamón, Lorenzo, 2, 14n1, 14n5, 18, 24, 58, 61, 69, 146–148, 164nn23–25 López, Carlos Antonio, 11, 65, 84 López, Epifanio, ix, 7, 22, 43, 49–52, 56, 61n7, 86, 134, 163n21 Los Paraguayos (trio), 25, 143, 146 Lucena, Marcos, ix, 58, 65–66, 71, 76, 99, 106–107, 121nn27–28 Lugo Méndez, Fernando, vii, 85 Magalhães, Fernando, 32 marcha, 75–76, 78, 95, 162n16 Martínez de Irala, Domingo, 33–34, 41n5, 118n3, 122n32 mazurca, 65 Meliá, Bartomeu, ix, 7, 15n10 mestizo, 14, 20–21, 29n3, 30nn4–5, 31, 34; mestizaje, 20–21, 30n8, 33–34, 43, 70, 80n15 métodos (harp methods), 6, 59, 61n13, 84, 90, 93–100, 124; Curso de arpa paraguaya en solfeo, 94–95; Manual didáctico del arpa sin pedales o diatónica, 94; Método de arpa paraguaya, 94–95, 97; Método para arpa paraguaya, 94 milonga, 74 Monges, Epifanio, 52 Moreno González, Juan Carlos, 68, 73–74 Morínigo, Agapito (“Tacho’í”), 57, 75, 131–132, 160n3, 161n4

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Morínigo, Higinio, 71, 84 Museo, x, 86; de Arte Popular, x, 51, 86; del Arpa Paraguaya, 86 music: academic, 73–74, 99–100, 107, 119n13; popular, vii–viii, 14, 17, 23, 25, 27–29, 50, 59, 71, 77–79, 80n3, 84, 86, 88, 90, 99, 101, 104–105, 120n15, 125, 139; traditional (tradicional), viii, 1–5, 8–13, 14n5, 18, 20, 22, 24–27, 29, 58–59, 63–64, 67, 69–70, 74, 77, 83–84, 86–90, 92–93, 96, 100– 102, 104, 108–116, 118n1, 119nn4–5, 124–126, 128–129, 134–138, 140, 142, 146, 148–149, 156, 158, 160, 163n20, 164n27 música internacional, 9–10, 24–25, 59, 78–79, 81, 96, 124, 140, 155 música sertaneja, 77, 163n17 ñane ñe’ẽ, 20, 27–28 nuevo cancionero, 76, 78, 81n20, 102, 124, 152 Ortega, Armando, 94–95 OSCA (Orquesta Sinfónica de la Ciudad de Asunción), 91, 119n8 Ovelar, Adelio, ix, 2, 25, 46, 52, 156 Ovelar, Mario, ix, 47–48, 52 Paraguayan harp: luthiers, ix, 3–4, 25, 40, 42n14, 43–44, 47, 50, 52, 58, 79, 107, 123; parts, 46–48 Paraguayan-ness. See paraguayidad paraguayidad (Paraguayan-ness), 2-4, 8–14, 18–20, 25–26, 28, 83, 93, 114, 116–117, 124–126 Pérez Cardozo, Félix, vii, 3, 5–7, 13, 15n6, 18, 21–23, 30n6, 43, 49, 51–52, 55, 58, 60n6, 63, 69, 85–87, 89, 92, 95, 98–101, 103–104, 106, 112, 118n2, 120n16, 121nn28–29, 125, 130, 133–139, 146, 161n7, 161nn9–10, 162nn13–14, 164n25; Llegada, 22, 69, 95, 98, 113, 135, 162; Mi despedida, 22, 69, 98, 135; Pájaro campana (guyrá campana, The Bell Bird), 9, 22–23, 30, 51, 55, 69, 100,

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Index 120n16, 130, 135, 137–138, 141, 144, 162n13; Tren lechero, 9, 22–23, 69, 89, 92, 135 polca paraguaya [also, Paraguayan polca], 20, 27, 59, 61n11, 63–69, 71, 73–74, 77–79, 81n19, 89–90, 92–93, 95, 97–98, 100, 109, 115–116, 119n4, 119n11, 121n28, 124, 130, 133, 139, 142, 149, 158; polca-canción, 68–69, 113, 162n13; polca corrida, 67; polca jekutú, 67; polca kyre’ỹ, 66–67; polca popó, 67; polca syryry, 67 polka (Bohemian), 64 Prieto, Justo, 11, 15n12, 28 proclamations (official), 83–86, 94, 124 pupyasy, 68 purahéi, 67–68, 118n1, 144; asy, 63, 71, 80n12, 80n15; hoyvy, 116 radio (stations), 1, 8–10, 72, 83–84, 86–90, 118n1, 138, 143, 146, 148, 164n24; Belgrano, 87, 134, 164n25; Cardinal, 111; Charitas, 87, 111, 115; El Mundo, 87, 129, 136, 164n25; Nacional del Paraguay, 88, 111, 115, 142, 148, 152; shows, 1, 4, 9, 22, 87, 89–90, 134, 146; Splendid, 87, 164n25 rasguido doble, 73–75, 78, 95 Real Cédula, 33 Red Privada de Comunicación (television station), 89–90, 119n6 Río de la Plata, 17, 32–33, 35, 38, 40, 41n3, 68, 134, 164n25 Rodríguez de Francia, José Gaspar, 11 Rubín, Humberto, 89–90, 119n5 Safuán, Oscar Nelson (composer), ix, 69, 77–78, 92, 121n25, 140–142, 163n17 Sánchez Giménez, Abel, ix, 9–10, 24–25, 52, 58–59, 73, 81n21, 120n19, 121n25 Sánchez Haase, Diego, 100, 121n28 São Paulo, 32, 35, 41n7, 60, 77, 139, 141, 148, 162n15

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Sepp von Reinegg, Anton, 39 sesquialtera (ritmo sesquiáltero), 63–65, 80n5 sincopado paraguayo, 65, 71 Sistema Nacional de Televisión (television station), 1 Society of Jesus, The (Societas Iesus), 35 Sonidos de la Tierra: harp ensemble, 106–107; orchestra, 116; school, 154 Sosa, Felipe, ix, 99–100, 120n16, 121n28 Stroessner, Alfredo, 78, 84, 91, 113, 118n1, 125, 138 Szarán, Luis, ix, 67, 73, 80n9, 99, 119, 154, 160n3 teatro (concert hall): Colón, 129, 155; Granados, 101, 129, 134 tekó, 3–4, 7, 10, 12–13, 19, 26, 28–29, 113, 125; tekohá, 19; tekó-katú, 19, 26, 29; tekó-katueté, 13, 20; tekorã, 19, 26, 29, 30n8, 125 Torga, Rudi (Gabino Torales), ix, 5–6, 78, 96, 113, 153 trémulo (Paraguayan tremolo), 22, 55, 95, 98, 135 Triple Alliance War, vii, 12, 17, 75, 84, 109, 123 UNESCO, 105, 141, 163n18 Vaesken, Alfredo, x, 111, 115, 133, 160n3 valseado, 57, 72–73, 133, 135 Wasmosy, Juan Carlos (president), 71, 85 Yapeyú (Nuestra Señora de los Santos Reyes del), 37, 39 Yupanqui, Atahualpa (Héctor Roberto Chavero Aramburo), 5 yvy marane’ỹ, 26, 30n8 zamba, 68, 80n6 Zipoli, Domenico, 40

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About the Author

Alfredo C. Colman is associate professor of musicology/ethnomusicology at Baylor University in Texas. He has a strong interest in musical repertoires of Paraguay and other Latin American countries, as well as in liturgical music from colonial Latin America. He has taught at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, and at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as at the Ateneo Paraguayo in Asunción and at the Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay in San Lorenzo, where he returns periodically to teach music seminars. Dr. Colman spent three years (1982–1984) studying the Paraguayan diatonic harp with harpist Heriberto Leguizamón. Colman has also published on the Renaissance cittern in England.

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