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The Paraguayan Harp: From Colonial Transplant to National Emblem
Publication Date : 15 September 2012
$37.50
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This ethnomusicological and organological study of the Paraguayan diatonic harp in the twentieth century tells its story as an emblematic national musical instrument. First used liturgically by Jesuit missions in colonial times, the transplanted European diatonic harp was transformed and adopted into the folk music vocabulary of Paraguay and the Río de la Plata region. Following the commercial success of Paraguayan harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo in the 1930s in Argentina, the instrument’s symbolic value as an icon of social, cultural, and national identity was articulated in local traditions such as popular folk music festivals. It received the designation of arpa paraguaya (Paraguayan harp) and, in 2010, official recognition as símbolo de la cultura nacional (cultural national symbol).
The book integrates an account of the historical and musical development of the diatonic harp in Paraguay, an analysis of the musical contributions by harp composers and performers, a survey of the various traditional genres associated with the instrument, and a discussion of the popular and academic settings where the instrument has been cultivated and performed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The author’s fieldwork in Paraguay and continuous contact with composers, educators, festival organizers, harp performers, researchers, and festival organizers have provided unique insights into the development of the Paraguayan harp tradition as a cultural icon of the nation.
This book will be of interest to a large and varied audience, including scholars and professionals in the fields of musicology and ethnomusicology, Latin American specialists, historians, libraries, harp performers and other musicians, and general readers interested in the history of musical instruments and culture.
ALFREDO C. COLMAN is an assistant professor in 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, Georgetown, and at the University of Texas at Austin, as well as the Ateneo Paraguayo in Asunción and at the Universidad Evangélica del Paraguay in San Lorenzo, where he returns periodically. Dr. Colman spent three years (1982–84) studying the Paraguayan diatonic harp with traditional harpist Heriberto Leguizamón. He has published extensively on the harp and cittern.