History

Music during Republican times.

After almost three centuries of imperial domination, almost all countries in South America won their independence from the Spanish Crown between 1804 and 1824. Each country subsequently began to develop (and rediscover) its own musical identity. Many South American composers went to Europe for professional music training. Some were very successful in Europe, among them the Brazilian Antônio Carlos Gomes (1836-1896), who composed “Il Guarany.” Most of them returned home and started teaching composition to local composers. Since communication and transport between Europe and South America took a long time, many of the styles in the later part of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century seem to be “behind” the European styles. This is why in the early part of the twentieth century we find a great deal of “romantic” music by composers like Enrique Soro (Chile, 1844-1954), Guillermo Uribe-Holguín (Colombia, 1880-1971), José María Valle-Riestra (Perú, 1858–1925) and Alfonso Leng (Chile, 1894-1974).

At the same time, the Indigenist movement, in which composers made it a priority to draw directly from and illuminate the native music of their countries, was also taking place. In 1913, Daniel Alomía Robles (Perú, 1871-1942) composed “El Cóndor Pasa” (whose tune was popularized in 1970 by a cover version by Simon and Garfunkel). The work is a zarzuela of strong social content, having to do with a group of miners that were oppressed under unfair labor conditions by their foreign mine owners. Also an ethnomusicologist, Alomía Robles spent a great deal of time collecting folk music in the Andes and used some ancient Andean music in “El Cóndor Pasa.”