Peruvian guitar through the centuries

Since string instruments landed on America during the 16th century, guitar was not only well received, it was renewed. Every nation in Latin America tailored the early forms of guitar (say, vihuela or baroque guitar) according to their own expressive and aesthetic needs. Such process gave birth to a remarkable number of composers, performers, instruments, repertoires, and styles.

URDIMBRES (Spanish for wefts) aims at informing a wide audience about the blossoming art of guitar in Peru and performing a repertoire still scarcely known abroad.  The concert offers an overview of Peruvian guitar evolutions from the 18th to the 20th century.  The program highlights how diverse sources and mutual influences between Western and indigenous music melted in Peru, including music from pre-Colombian times. It is worth noticing how traditional genres changed their melodic, rhythmic and harmonic structures. For instance, ornamental forms typically baroque have deeply influenced the way Andean guitar is played, both technically and aesthetically.

Pieces such as the Suite Virreinal, of clear European descent, will surprise the listeners with “strange” harmonies and purposeful dissonances. Indeed, it is interesting to dwell on the fine line where the composer still holds on to the memories of his own listening tradition yet, concurrently, losing footing under the wave of the new world soundscape. The end result is a singular music, full of vitality, different from the one performed in that era.

The works included in this study/concert embody a valuable contribution to the guitar repertoire.  Their musicological value as well as their intrinsic musical quality are undeniable. Several of the pieces remained buried in archives for over two centuries and they will now be performed again for your appreciation.

Camilo Pajuelo and Luis Malca have begun their vocational training in Peru, where they shared education at the National Conservatory of Music in Lima. Then, they traveled to Europe for additional studies of interpretation and musicological research respectively at the University of Helsinki (Finland), plus the University of Valladolid (Spain), and at the Professional Conservatory of Music Adolfo Salazar, the Royal Conservatory of Music and the Complutense University all in Madrid (Spain).

In their careers as soloists and researchers, Peruvian music and culture are always at arms-length for them. Camilo Pajuelo has recently released a DVD tutorial entitled “Andean Guitar: Techniques and Tunings”, based on the work of maestro Raúl García Zárate, that responds to both teaching and musicological purposes. Luis Malca in Peru has developed a remarkable work in recovering and spreading original guitar compositions from the 18th and 19th centuries.

PROGRAM

I

Peruvian Viceregal Suite
(Zifra Book. 1805 / Notebook Mathias Maestro Guitar Music. Lima, 1786)
Sonata                               

Minueto de Landabere

Giga

Tocata

Fandango

Three Minuets

(Pedro Ximénez Abril Tirado. Arequipa, 1780-1856)

Minueto 21

Minueto 15

Minueto 13

Triptych

(Máximo Puente–Arnao. Lima, at the end of the 19th century)

Vals En busca de lo ideal

Mazurca Brisas campestres

Polka  Simpatía recíproca

Two Peruvian Popular Pieces

Danza del Altiplano (L. Brouwer, 1939)

Vals (I. Granda, 1920 - 1983)

II

Indigenous Dances from Ayacucho

Waylías (Danza navideña - Adapt. Julio Humala)

Doce cobray (Danza de tijeras - Adapt. Manuelcha Prado)

Cantos de amor y al trabajo

Desde tu separación (Yaraví – Arr. Raúl García Zárate)

Toril (Arr. Raúl García Zárate)

Chanca Tunings

Natural Tunings

Arriba los pañuelos (Marinera – Arr. Raúl García Zárate)

Cholito cordillerano, Alberjoneschay (Huaynos – Arr. Camilo Pajuelo)

Decente Tunings

Lamentos de un viejo guitarrero (Huayno – Arr. Manuelcha Prado)

Flor de los glaciares (Manuelcha Prado)

Diablo Tunings

Helme (Drama musicalizado – Arr. Raúl García Zárate)

Dances of the High Plain

Ciudad del lago (Marinera – Augusto Masías)

Cuando me vaya (Wayñu – Jorge Huirse)

III

Poéticas (Little Peruvian Suite)

(Celso Garrido-Lecca, 1926)

Juego de terceras

Negrito triste

Sikuri

Tondero

Start:            20:30h
Address:       Guitarras de Luthier
Price:            10 €

AFORO LIMITADO: Booking to guitarrasdeluthier@yahoo.es