FolkWorld #67 11/2018
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Article in Spanish

Los Ruphay

Music of Bolivia - A Cry For Revolution

A Cry For Revolution - Earth Healing Music From Bolivia - 50 Years of Los Ruphay
A Cry For Revolution is an anniversary album to celebrate 50 years of Bolivian folklore band Los Ruphay. The group was founded in 1968 by the late Mario Gutiérrez, who spent the next 17 years touring and recording 15 albums. The band per- formed throughout Europe, and still is continuing to perform, record and educate. The songs are sung in Aymara and Spanish. They perform on instruments such as the quena flute, the charango guitar and various panflutes and drums, thus preserving, reviving and spreading the culture of the indigenous Quechua and Aymara people of Bolivia. The album's sub-title is Earth Healing Music from Bolivia; the Cry For Revolution is a peaceful one. It is a metaphor for a greater awareness of the balance between humans, fauna and flora. For example, Pachamamasti Llakitawa (Mother Earth is Sad) is an urgent request from Mother Earth (Pachamama) to stop hurting nature.
Pachamamasti llakitawa		Mother Earth is sad
Oraq'enapaj usutaway			Her soils are ill
Jaq'enakaj juchanej.			Man is guilty.

Jawiranakas wañsuskiway		The rivers are drying
Uywanakas jiwaraskiway		Animals are dying
Kunjamas q'amañani.			How are we going to live!

"A Cry For Revolution - Earth Healing Music From Bolivia - 50 Years of Los Ruphay", ARC Music, 2018

Few bands get to celebrate 50 years together. Bolivian folklore band Los Ruphay are one of the lucky ones; a band that continues to live and play folk songs and music from their home country to the world.

Los Ruphay

Los Ruphay:

Basilio Huarachi Mollo - charango, vocals, flutes

Ramiro Calderón Velarde - panflutes, charango, flutes, percussion

Santiago Heriberto Murillo Garzón - flutes, vocals, percussion

Raúl Chacón Lemus - quena, flutes, charango, percussion

Marco Antonio Peña Barrera - guitar, flutes, percussion

Rupprecht Weerth - quena, flutes

Hannes Trittler - cello

José Jesus Alanoca, Felix Cerezo Alarcón - panflutes, flutes

Guiding spirit: Mario P. Gutiérrez
Special Guest: Luzmila Carpio (tracks 4, 12)
Artist Video
www.ruphay.net

The music of Bolivia has a long history. Out of all the Andean countries, Bolivia remains perhaps the most culturally linked to the indigenous peoples. Like most of its neighbors, Bolivia was long dominated by Spain and its attendant culture. Even after independence, Bolivian music was largely based on European forms. In 1952, a revolution established nationalistic reforms which included cultural and political awareness of the Aymara and Quechua natives. Intellectuals in the country began wearing ponchos and otherwise associating themselves with native cultures, and the new government promoted native folklore by, among other methods, establishing a folklore department in the Bolivian Ministry of Education.

Awareness of native music, spirituality and art continued into the 1960s. In 1965, Edgar 'Yayo' Jofré formed a quartet called Los Jairas in La Paz. With Bolivian folk music gaining popularity throughout the country, Jofré, along with Alfredo Dominguez, Ernesto Cavour Julio Godoy, and Gilbert Favre used traditional music in modified forms to appeal to urban-dwellers and Europeans. Later groups like Wara, Khanata, Paja Brava, Savia Andina, and especially Los Kjarkas and Kalamarka helped further refine this fusion. Following a close but different path, groups and singers like Luzmila Carpio, Ruphay, and Grupo Aymara started touring abroad and gained international praise for their compositions, tunes that have brought indigenous Bolivian culture and history to the world's attention.

Los K'jarkas consists of 3 brothers, the Hermosas, who play primarily Huayño or, more rarely, sayas. These are both dance music influenced both by native forms as well as African music imported to Bolivia with slavery. Los K'jarkas are known internationally for their Caporales classic "Llorando se fue", which was adopted and transformed to the popular beginning of the lambada dance craze of the 1980s, along with forró and carimbo in northern Brazil. The song was popularized by a French group, resulting in a successful lawsuit from the Hermosa brothers. Kalamarka was founded in 1984 by Hugo Gutierrez and Rodolfo Choque. They fusion folk instruments such as Zampoña, Quena, Charango and Bombo with modern instruments, creating a beautiful musica andina. Their famous songs are 'Cuando Florezca el Chuño' and 'Ama, Ama, Amazonas'. In the 1980s, Chilean nueva canción was imported to Bolivia and changed into canto nuevo, which was popularized by performers like Emma Junaro.

Traditional Bolivian (and other South American) musical instruments include the charango, charangón, ronroco, hualaycho, zampoña, quena, bombo, huancara, reco reco, chiapya box, pinquillo, tarka, toyos, pututu, Andean saxophone, and sheep hooves formed into a kind of shaker, as well as European musical instruments such as the violin and guitar.

Musical forms such as the Bailecito, Kullawada, Tonada (or, directly Tinku), Taquirari, Carnavalito, Lamento, Afro-Bolivian Saya, Tuntuna, Taki Taki and Cueca are prominently featured in Bolivia's cultural music.


Music of the Andes

Bolivia etc @ FROG

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_of_Bolivia]. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.

Date: October 2018.




Photo Credits: (1ff) Los Ruphay (unknown/website).


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