Recordings

Recordando a Venezuela

Rafael Angel Aparicio y los Hermanos Aparicios

This collection of songs recorded by Venezuelan harpist Rafael Angel Aparicio, along with his brother Rafael de Jesus (Fuchito) and other accompanying musicians, contains archival material recorded in 1971 as well as songs recorded in Venezuela in 1996. The compositions found herein are an exquisite collection of instrumental tunes featuring the harp, cuatro, and maracas, though many were written and performed originally with lyrics. However, the ensemble tradition of Rafael Angel Aparicio y los Hermanos Aparicios is rich in rhythmic and melodic counterpoint and the trained listener will note the Spanish Andalusian and Afro-Caribbean influences that are found in this regional folkloric form. The pairing of the early recording with contemporary works also shows the evolution and maturation of Rafael Angel Aparicio's playing style after a twenty-five year gap.

Introduction
by Robert Garfias
February 26, 1997

In the autumn of 1970 Rafael Angel Aparicio and his younger brother, Rafael de Jesus Aparicio, came to the University of Washington from Venezuela as visiting artists in the Ethnomusicology Program. Rafael Angel came to teach harp and Rafael de Jesus to teach cuatro (four-string guitar). I invited them to Seattle as the result of my longstanding interest in the music of Venezuela, an interest going back to my undergraduate days when I had heard a tantalizing example of harp music from the province of Aragua played by Candelario Prieto on a Columbia recording edited by Alan Lomax. Years later, Venezuelan friends introduced me to recordings of the Llanera style of harp played by Juan Vicente Torrealba.

Venezuelan harp music remained a strong interest of mine, but there was little opportunity to hear it, since virtually no recordings of this marvelous music were available outside Venezuela. The Ethnomusicology Program at the University of Washington offered a means of bringing Venezuelan music and musicians to the attention of a much wider audience through its visiting artist residency program. The purpose of these annual one-year residencies, established early in the program's history, is to provide American ethnomusicology students with the opportunity to learn firsthand the structure and techniques of various forms of music practice from a traditional practitioner before they embark on work in the field themselves. I consulted with my friend and colleague, Luis Felipe Ramon y Rivera, then director of INCIDEF, one of the finest research and training centers in ethnomusicology anywhere in Latin America. Luis Felipe, knowing of both my personal interest and the needs of the program to have not only excellent musicians but also those who understood and carried on the best of their tradition, wisely chose and recommended the Aparicio brothers.

The Aparicios' year in Seattle was a wonderful period of great music and animated discussions. They contributed much to the vitality of Seattle's music community through their numerous concerts and workshops. And, in spite of the obvious challenges presented by the technique of the Venezulean Llanera style of harp playing, several of the American students did learn to play amazingly well.

It happened that the annual meeting of the Society for Ethnomusicology was held at the University of Washington that year, and Rafael Angel Aparicio's performances were an important part of that meeting. Many of the ethnomusicologists attending this conference had not previously heard Venezuelan harp music and were greatly impressed. However, what I remember most vividly from that year was the annual Pacific Northwest meeting of the harpists association. Learning that there was a harpist from Venezuela

at the university, the society asked Rafael Angel to do a workshop. What was fascinating about this meeting of harpists was that, although the generic and historical connection between the playing styles of the Western classical harp and the traditional Venezuelan style of playing was evident, the Western harpists were astonished at what they heard. They found the precise, percussive technique used by Rafael Angel quite amazing.

Clearly, much had transpired since the splitting off of these two threads of the harp tradition. The Venezuelan harp derived from the now lost Spanish popular harp, itself deriving from an older Arabic harp introduced during the long period of Arab domination of Spain. This harp gradually became a

very popular instrument in Spain, so much so that many Spanish Renaissance composers indicated that their works could be played by any keyboard instrument or the harp.

Spanish settlers carried the harp with them to the New World. The Spanish priests who established schools for the education and conversion of the indigenous peoples of America were the first to bring the Spanish harp. Gradually, in many places in Latin America, a number of independent yet related styles of harp began, all based on the original Spanish repertoire. The musicians in each area added new

compositions and developed local styles, thus giving rise to the main Latin American harp traditions. These are two Mexicans traditions, one in Veracruz and another in Michoacan, in addition to the numerous styles of the indigenous peoples of Mexico; and two styles in Venezuela, one in the regions of Aragua and Miranda and the other in the Central Plains, the Llanera style of Rafael Angel Aparicio. This latter style also spills over into Columbia. In addition to these there are the related harp styles of

Chile, Argentina, and Paraguay and the unique harp style of the Andean regions of South America.

The Llanera style of Venezuela is characterized by fiery and precisely articulated delivery of melodic lines and rhythmic patterns. The joropos, pasajes and tonadas of central Venezuela are the local forms used to display this brilliant tradition. Compositions such as "El Pajarillo" exemplify the evolution of the old Spanish fandango in Venezuela and, as such, are related to other fandangos such as the Verecruzana son jarocho ("El Cascabe"). "El Pajarillo" and its mirror composition in major tonality, "Seis por Derecho," best represent the rapid melodic and percussive style which so well characterizes the Llanera region. Rafael Angel Aparicio is a master of this style which is clearly evidenced in the quality of these performances.

Twenty-six years after his first visit, Rafael Angel Aparicio has returned to the University of Washington for a second stint as a visiting artist in residence, this time with a different younger brother, Euclides Alfredo Aparicio, playing and teaching cuatro and maracas. This recording honors the long and distinguished careers of these wonderful musicians and has been long awaited by their friends and students.

I am pleased to have had a part in bringing about this introduction of excellent Venezuelan music to new and, I am certain, appreciative audiences.

Robert Garfias Ph.D., is a former member of the Ethnomusicology Faculty at the University of Washington. He is currently a professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine.

+ Up to the top of this page
+ Back to the Northwest Folklife Recordings page
+ Back to the Northwest Folklife Home-page
This page last updated on 19 September 2001
Contact Northwest Folklife.
© 1997 - 2001 Northwest Folklife
All rights reserved.