The Indian Harp of Paraguay & Venezuela (1987) [Repost]

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The Indian Harp of Paraguay & Venezuela (1987) [Repost]

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The Indian Harp was introduced into the South American continent by Spanish colonizers and has become widely used in popular music, especially in Paraguay. It is quite a large instrument, similar in shape to European harps. It has 36 strings and its range is usually 5 octaves. Its sounding case, without pedals, is longer (at the base in particular) and is held up by two small props, so that the instrument is almost horizontal when played seated. Despite its size, this instrument is portable: in processions, the musician holds the harp head down and plays it as he moves around.

The Indian Harp of Paraguay - The Guarani people and their music
Of all the forms that give character to a people, none is more authentic than that of music. It is the spiritual symbol of the race. It is the country itself that is evoked: the strange noise of its forests and rivers. The sweet musical harmony introduced by the songs of birds, and tha untamed beauty of its women. All this, sorrow and joy, is expressed by the indian harp. It recalls all that is dear in life, emotion, tenderness. Feelings pulsate in the gentle sonority of its melodies. The harp, the national instrument of Paraguay, is Guarani feeling expressed in music, in sublime harmony.

And the song goes:

Guarani Indian harp
Of remarkable arpeggios
Of telluric color
You are the melodious awakening
Of a great race
Of a glorious past
And a promising present.

The Paraguayan people is a homogenous one, proud of its race, deeply marked by its Guarani past. The Guarani Indians are members of one of the most extraordinary lineages of the New World. They were often warriors and conquerors, added to which they have a spirit of adventure and work. In this way, they succeeded in developing and extending their lands over a great part of Central and Southern America, by they did not construct an empire like the Aztecs or the Incas. They formed a vast grouping of peoples, united by bonds of political order, ancient social, religious and linguistic traditions. They were known by various names, like Caraives or Carives, in the Guianas, the west Indies and in the north of South America, as the Tupi-Guarani in Brazil, and finally as Guaranis in Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina. All these peoples considered themselves as members of a single ethnic group, as they still do to this day. Unity of language which was, and still is, deeprooted, was the most vigorous cultural expression of the social and spiritual unity of the immense Guarani race. They left no documents, but posterity has inherited their language whixh is as gentle as it is expressive and musical. Everything is in the language: civilisation, history, wisdom, morality, a conception of the world genious and soul. The Guarani becharms with his music. His language is also poetic and philosophical. To this day, in Paraguay, Guarani is the national language.

SERGIO CUEVAS expresses Guarani feeling through its history, its language and the expression of its soul, which is its music. Born at Villarica in 1939, he studied the harp exclusively from the age of 15. In 1958, he was chosen by the Government of Paraguay as Ambassador of the music of his country to the Festival of Latin American Music in Miami. This extraordinary virtuoso is modesty itself. His sole aim is to make known the musical riches of his country. He often says: "is not music the soul of things?"

The Indian Harp for a "Fiesta Llanera" in Venezuela
With Numero Uno and the following titles, we now find ourselves in Venezuela with a harp, more wild in character, whose sound is more metallic and rougher than the velvet one of the harp of Paraguay. Moulded down through the centuries into a blend of races and landscapes, the Venezuelan vibrates with all the currents of throbbing life which are mingled in his landbitterness and hope, sorrow and laughter, rivers and forests, lands and deserts. Each of our ancestors has given us a part of his being and has endowed us with his song. The Indian tribes, established in the Andean high valleys, mixed with the Spanish and produced a vigorous race; but also Asian influences, Latin and African reminiscences (Angola, Timbuktoo). The Latin and Arab Andalou came with the first vaqueros conqueros and the vihuela (a kind of early guitar) of yesteryear has dwindled down to the slender tones of the cuatro, the faithful friend one carries attached to one's saddle while crossing horizons, to the slow rhythm of the herd. The Black race not only brought the quickened beat of the heart, but also made the gift of percussion instruments that are more rapid and sonorous than those of the Indians, to which vast landscapes had already transmitted their gentle cadence and the drwan-out, sad note of the guarura (wind instrument).

Venezuela is at the same time the desert, the snowy mountain, the jungle and the plane. Outside the great cities like Caracas, Maracaibo, Valencia or Barquisimeto, The Plane, at the heart of Venezuela, is inhabited by peasants who have retained the most ancestral Indian traditions, and who still live by working the land, tending huge herds of cows and bulls. When night falls, they assemble in a large shed, the canay, where saddles, bits, whips and spurs are kept, and where the hammocks in which they spend the night are hung . Imperceptibly, the Fiesta Llanera begins. Music and songs rise to the rhythm of the Joropo, Contrapunteo, Corrido, Guacharaca, Pajarillo and Tonada. If there are no other musicians, there is always a harpist who is soon joined by the cuatro player. With just these two, the boisterous rhythm begins.

MARIO GUACARAN, the harpist, plucks the strings of his instrument with incomparable virtuosity and spirit. The cuatro, national king of accompaniment, with its four resounding, somewhat shrill strings, accentuate the frantic rhythm, accompanied by the guitaron (a kind of large, bass guitar), which completes the country orchestra. The rum is passed arround, compliments burst forth from the women. Their striped costumes add a highly colorful touch to the scene.

Text from the CD booklet