Radio Programme Review

[JWPM 2.2 (2015) 211-215] JWPM (print) ISSN 2052-4900 doi:10.1558/jwpm.v2i2.21287 JWPM (online) ISSN 2052-4919

BBC. 2013. World Routes: The Baroque and Beyond (Episodes 1 to 3). Produced by James Parkin, presented by Lucy Durán. BBC Radio 3 programmes, 60 minutes (each)

Reviewed by: Alfredo Colman, Baylor University, USA [email protected]

Keywords: Agustín Barrios; Arpa Róga; Paraguay; Paraguayan harp; Zipoli

Recorded in January 2013 during Lucy Durán’s trip to Paraguay and Bolivia, and broadcast throughout March 2013 as part of Baroque Spring for the BBC Radio 3 series World Routes, the first three of these five radio programmes focus on music and culture in Paraguay, whilst the remaining two episodes explore Baroque musical traditions in Bolivia. As the BBC website indicates, “World Routes gets to the heart of Latin American Baroque in two of the con- tinent’s most musical nations. The programme makes exclusive recordings of music and musicians that date from the Baroque period, as well as other traditions that date from before or after the 16th and 17th Centuries” (BBCa 2013). In addition to the recorded episodes, the BBC Radio 3 website and sound archives include details on the live music played on each programme. The first three episodes, which form the basis for this review, are primarily concerned with Paraguay and explore the history and performance practice of the Paraguayan harp, the choral sounds of sacred music composed during colonial times, the musical practices of the Kamba-kuá Afro-Paraguayan community, the musical contributions of Paraguayan guitarist and composer Agustín Pío Barrios “Mangoré”, and conjunto music as performed in the countryside in Paraguay’s southern region. In order to provide the appropriate cultural, historical and musical contexts, Durán interviews local music teachers, students and professional musicians, such as popular music conjunto Arapy Sandú; harp- ists Nicolás (“Nicolasito”) Caballero, Marcos Lucena and Kike Pedersen; conductor Luis Szarán; and guitarist Berta Rojas. In fact, the approach and nature of each one of the episodes—interviews, live performances, descriptions in real time/on-location comments—add a good perspective of Paraguay as a geographical-social place and as a musical-cultural space. Episode 1, simply titled “Paraguay”, begins in Itapúa, one of the Southeast- ern “Departments” (geographical regions) of Paraguay. Durán visits Jesús de

Tavarangué, an old Jesuit mission dating back to 1760 and, since 1993, part of a United Nations’ Cultural World Heritage Site. At the remains of the unfinished church (the Jesuits were expelled from the New World in 1767), Durán attends a rehearsal of Amadeus Lírica, a student musical ensemble from Encarnación, capital of Itapúa. The group rehearses a portion of the ‘Te Deum’ by Domenico Zipoli (1688–1726), a significant musical figure in the life of the Jesuit missions in the eighteenth century. Born in Prato (Italy), Zipoli joined the Society of Jesus in 1716 and, one year later, arrived in Buenos Aires. Zipoli completed his theological studies in Cordoba, Argentina. Though he never travelled to the Jesuit missions located in present-day Paraguay, his music became known throughout the churches and mission settlements of the Provincia Jesuítica del Paraguay (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, Uruguay) and beyond, including present-day Bolivia and Peru. At first,World Routes seems to suggest that “Par- aguay’s great Baroque tradition” resulted from the fusion of European and Jesuit Baroque music with that of the Guaraní community. However, this episode and the subsequent ones clarify, at least through the musical selections, that although the current perceptions stress the idea that Paraguay devel- oped a rich Baroque musical tradition, in reality the entire “Jesuit” region promoted and disseminated music using European models and tools, including the systematic instruction of music and the establishment of workshops to build instruments. Nevertheless, present-day Paraguayans feel proud of the historical and cultural connections with the sacred works written in the region by composers of the stature of Zipoli. Next, Durán travels to Arpa Róga in Asunción, a Paraguayan harp music school where the systematic instruction of the country’s national instrument is offered to children and teenagers. At Arpa Róga, she interviews “Nicolas- ito” Caballero, one of the most renowned performers of the Paraguayan harp worldwide. After performing ‘Cascada’ and sharing details on his background and approach to performance, Nicolasito indicates that harp music in Para- guay is not “Spanish” nor “Indian”, but “Paraguayan”. Indeed, the “Guaraní” element is located in the use of the Guaraní language in vocal music, as well as in the type of speech cadence inflection implied by the musical accompani- ment. Nicolasito then performs his own arrangement of the epic and dramatic Paraguayan polca ‘Campamento Cerro León’ and the country and western song ‘Sweet, Sweet Smile’ by Otha Young and Juice Newton. This last selection showcases the versatility of the Paraguayan diatonic harp and the fine technique of Nicolasito, who plays semitones on the Paraguayan diatonic harp using a llave (“metal ring”), which is pressed on the strings of the instrument. The first episode continues with an interview with conductor and re- searcher Luis Szarán who discusses the development of music in the colonial Jesuit missions and his own experience with the compositions of Domenico

Zipoli (see also Szarán 2005). Following two harp pieces based on a transcription of a work by Zipoli and ‘Guarania Barroca’, an original composition by harpist Marcos Lucena, Durán visits the Kamba-kuá Afro-Paraguayan community. Located in Fernando de la Mora, near Asunción, the group shares with World Routes a drumming session and the intriguing history of this Para- guayan community, dating back to the 1820s, when Uruguayan General José Gervasio Artigas (1764–1850) was sent to exile in Paraguay along with a group of Afro-Uruguayan soldiers. Due to the lack of a general awareness of a Black presence in Paraguay, the Kamba-kuá community promotes the performance of music, dance and traditions as a means of sharing and transmitting cultural practices among the Afro-Paraguayan people. As we learn during the interview, the figure of San Baltazar (the dark-skinned king, one of the three Wise Men) is key for the representation and affirmation of the social and cultural identity of the community. Whilst episode 1 ends here, the subsequent second episode on Paraguay features an interview with the guitarist Berta Rojas, a visit to Arpa Róga and a discussion about the Sonidos de la Tierra project with conductor Luis Szarán. Introducing the listeners to guitarist Berta Rojas, Lucy Durán engages her in a conversation to share her views on the classical guitar, including her own musical background, performances and experiences in Paraguay and abroad. Rojas also talks about the musical career and significance of Paraguayan guitarist and composer Agustín Pío Barrios “Mangoré” (1885–1944), a landmark in the world of classical music for the guitar. Indeed, seen as the Chopin or the Paganini of the guitar, the lyricism and technique of Agustín Barrios are admired, performed and transmitted worldwide through his compositions. For Berta Rojas, Barrios has transcended the realm of Paraguayan music, becoming a representative of the Latin American guitar tradition as well as the foremost composer for the instrument in the world of classical music. As part of the broadcast, Berta plays four solo guitar compositions by Barrios: ‘Caazapá’, ‘El último Canto’, ‘Danza Paraguaya’ and ‘Ha Che Valle’. Durán and Rojas visit the Archivo Paraguayo de la Música El Cabildo, where a permanent display of the life and works of Agustín Barrios could be observed. Located in the Centro Cultural de la República complex, the Archivo serves as the Para- guayan museum of music. Throughout the conversation, we learn about the achievements and challenges of the professional musician in Paraguay. Thus, we hear that although there is a current awareness and promotion of Para- guayan music and the arts in general, musicians received little support from the government. The broadcast continues with Lucy Durán interviewing Cristóbal and Gladys Pedersen, founders of Arpa Róga. The Pedersens emphasize that the main goal of Arpa Róga is to teach about Paraguay and its history and cul-

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2015. 214 Journal of World Popular Music ture, both locally and internationally, and through the promotion of the Paraguayan harp and its music. Next, students of the institution perform the Paraguayan polcas ‘Tren Lechero’, ‘Isla Saká’ and ‘Carretaguy’, and both Kike Pedersen and Nicolás Caballero play ‘Pájaro Campana’, the “Paraguayan hymn” for the harp. During the course of the interview, we also learn more about harpist Félix Pérez Cardozo (1908–1952), a landmark in the development of the instrument (performance technique, repertory), as well as the past and present methods of construction and the innovations added to the Paraguayan harp. Episode 2 continues with Luis Szarán, who discusses the project Sonidos de la Tierra (Sounds of the Earth). As an ongoing model and in the context of social sustainability through musical instruction, this project emphasizes that (teaching) music produces good citizens and reduces poverty. Precisely, in the words of Szarán, “the young person who plays Mozart by day does not break shop windows at night”. Reflecting on the current place of the harp and musical instruction in Paraguay, Durán takes the audience back to Berta Rojas for a final performance of Agustín Barrios’s ‘Caazapá’ and ‘The Flight of the Butterfly’, a piece extracted from Vincent Lindsay Clark’s Suite Americana, a work dedicated to Rojas. The third and final episode dedicated to Paraguay starts at the Estancia (ranch) Tacuaty in Misiones, Paraguay. Here, Santiago González, owner of the estancia, shares insights into his life working with sheep in the countryside. Following the interview, the musical conjunto Arappy Sandú performs tradi- tional Paraguayan polcas and the Guarania. Exemplifying the local tradition of singing about the countryside, human emotions, nature and nostalgia, the group combines voices, guitar, harp and accordion to perform songs in Span- ish and Guaraní, as well as in Jopará, a local language mixing both Guaraní and Spanish words. Thus, we hear the Paraguayan polcas ‘Che Paraje-kué’, ‘Arapy Sandú’, ‘Che Lucero Aguai’y’ and ‘India’ by Paraguayan classical composer José Asunción Flores (1904–1972). This last selection is representative of the highly lyrical and melancholic Guarania, a musical urban genre created by Flores around 1925. Episode 3 continues with harpist and composer Kike Pedersen, who performs three original works: ‘Maiteí América’, ‘Cacique Jeroky’ and ‘A Magi- cal Journey’. Pedersen, son of Cristóbal and Gladys Pedersen and a founding member of Arpa Róga, had previously met Lucy Durán in London almost ten years ago. Representing a new generation of Paraguayan harp performers and composers, Kike Pedersen explains his interest in the promotion of Paraguay’s national instrument through teaching and composing. Pedersen believes that a new (Paraguayan) audience is becoming aware of the musical significance and cultural representation of the instrument, especially when

© Equinox Publishing Ltd 2015. Radio Programme Review 215 the harp engages in dialogue with the contemporary (and global) musical vocabulary. Luis Szarán is interviewed once again, this time discussing Par- aguayan popular music in the context of “an island [Paraguay] surrounded by land”, after which Durán travels back to Misiones in Southern Paraguay. She visits British writer and journalist Margaret Hebblethwaite (see also Heb- blethwaite 2010), who lives in Santa Maria de Fe, a town near San Ignacio, capital of Misiones. Hebblethwaite illustrates her experiences of Paraguay, its history and culture, and the Jesuit missions as “utopias”. World Routes then reports on the replica of a Baroque harp (from a model found in a church in Bolivia) kept at Santa Maria de Fe. Harpist Victoria Oviedo gives details on the physical aspect and history of the instrument, and then plays a transcription of a keyboard piece by an anonymous colonial composer. The broadcast also includes additional performances by Berta Rojas (Agustín Barrios’s ‘The Little Doll’ and ‘El último Canto’), Amadeus Lyrica (Domenico Zipoli’s ‘Te Deum’) and Marcos and Mónica Lucena (Domenico Zipoli’s ‘Piece No. 54’). Throughout this third episode of the World Routes Baroque series, the audience is once more reminded of certain key cultural symbols of Paraguayan identity: the Paraguayan harp; Agustín Barrios “Mangoré”, “the greatest guitar composer”; and Guaraní culture, the cultivation of the Guaraní language being its most significant component. More generally, Lucy Durán’s World Routes episodes on Paraguay are a good and exciting introduction to the general history, culture and musical life of the country. Nevertheless, the BBC Radio 3 World Routes team would have greatly benefited from including the voices of local anthropologists, historians, folklore experts, journalists, (Guaraní) linguists and sociologists, which would have helped to clarify pre- conceived (cultural, historical, musical) notions, and thus separate fact from fiction. To be sure, these three radio programmes on Paraguay are an excel- lent point of departure to learn more about one of the most serene and mys- terious places in South America.

References BBCa. 2013. World Routes: The Baroque and Beyond. Episode 1 (Paraguay), http://www.bbc. co.uk/programmes/b01r0yx1 (accessed 16 September 2013). BBCb. 2013. World Routes: The Baroque and Beyond. Episode 2 (Paraguay/Berta Rojas), http:// www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r5n6l (accessed 16 September 2013). BBCc. 2013. World Routes: The Baroque and Beyond. Episode 3 (Paraguay/Cowboy-musicians from the Misiones Region), http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01r9p69 (accessed 16 September 2013). Hebblethwaite, Margaret. 2010. Bradt Travel Guide to Paraguay. Chalfont St Peter, Bucks: Bradt Travel Guides. Szarán, Luis. 2005. Domenico Zipoli, 1688–1726: Una Vida, un Enigma. Asunción: Fundación Paraquaria.