Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera
Encyclopedia
Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera, composer
, teacher
, musician
, folklorist and writer
, was born in San Cristóbal, Táchira
, August 23, 1913. He lived his first years in the Venezuelan city of San Cristóbal. Between 1919 and 1921 he lived, with his parents and siblings, successively in Cúcuta
, San Luis
and Pamplona
(Colombia
).
In 1925, in Caracas
, he enters the Academy of Music and Declamation. In 1926, in the city of Pamplona, Colombia, Ramón y Rivera initiates his studies of theory and solfege with Gerardo Rangel. In 1928, again in Caracas, he continued his formal studies at the Academy of Music and Declamation, where he was a student of Vicente Emilio Sojo
and Miguel Ángel Espinel, among others. In 1934 he received the title of professor of viola
.
By that time he enters the Orfeón Lamas
and the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra
. In 1938 he becomes very involved in cultural work in San Cristóbal, where he founds the Pro-Art Assembly (1939), whose orchestra he directed, being as well professor of the School of Arts and the Normal School of Táchira, creating the Táchira Music Academy (1942), institution that he directed. In 1945 he obtained a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to continue his musical formation in Uruguay
and Argentina
. During two years he studied harmony and orchestration with Vicente Ascone in Montevideo
, and musical folklore with Carlos Vega in Buenos Aires
. In 1947 he returns to Venezuela as head of the department of music of the National Folkloric Investigations Service. He later returns to Buenos Aires and directed the American Orchestra, between 1948 and 1952. Upon his return to Venezuela, he founded "The National Typical Orchestra" (1953), with the mission to rescue and propagate Venezuelan folk music. Between 1953 and 1973 he was in charge of the direction of the National Institute of Folklore.
In 1988 he created the International Foundation of Ethnomusicology and Folklore (FUNDEF, now renamed "Centro de La Diversidad Cultural"), organism to which he donated his estate. As a composer, Ramón y Rivera is the author of a series of musical pieces in which the traditional genres of the country predominate, especially from the Venezuelan Andes, with such popular songs as: Brisas del Torbes", "Distancia", "Aires de verde montaña, among others. As a folklorist, his work, along with Juan Liscano
, Miguel Acosta Saignes, Rafael Olivares Figueroa, Manuel Rodríguez Cárdenas, Isabel Aretz, among others, contributed to the study and diffusion of Venezuelan popular culture. On several occasions, Rivera conducted the "Official Concert Band" of the state of Táchira.
His work as a teacher, folklorist, writer and musician ends on October 22, 1993 when he dies in Caracas, in company of his wife, Isabel Aretz
. Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera dedicated many years of his life to investigate Venezuelan popular traditions. His fight to defend the cultural values of the country led him to establish numerous conclusions relative to the creation of the Venezuelan folk music, wisdom that he shared in more than 20 books and innumerable articles.
Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera, is well-known for being the author of the bambuco
Brisas del Torbes, also for Lejanía, Matinal, Aires de verde montaña, compositions for piano like Joropo, Tierra andina and his songs for children. As folklorist, he contributed to the rescue of important sorts of pre-Hispanic music and the study of Venezuelan Folklore and traditions. He is also the founder of the National Typical Orchestra.
From his work as a writer we can mention:
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, teacher
Teacher
A teacher or schoolteacher is a person who provides education for pupils and students . The role of teacher is often formal and ongoing, carried out at a school or other place of formal education. In many countries, a person who wishes to become a teacher must first obtain specified professional...
, musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
, folklorist and writer
Writer
A writer is a person who produces literature, such as novels, short stories, plays, screenplays, poetry, or other literary art. Skilled writers are able to use language to portray ideas and images....
, was born in San Cristóbal, Táchira
San Cristóbal, Táchira
San Cristóbal is the capital city of the Venezuelan state of Táchira. It is located in a mountainous region of Western Venezuela. The city is situated 818 m/2,625 ft above sea level in the northern Andes overlooking the Torbes River, 56 km/35 mi from the Colombian border. San...
, August 23, 1913. He lived his first years in the Venezuelan city of San Cristóbal. Between 1919 and 1921 he lived, with his parents and siblings, successively in Cúcuta
Cúcuta
Cúcuta is a Colombian city, capital of Norte de Santander, in the northeast of the country. Due to its proximity to the Colombian-Venezuelan border, Cúcuta is an important commercial center. The city has the constitutional category of Special District. It is located at the most active...
, San Luis
San Luis de Palenque
San Luis de Palenque is a town and municipality in the Department of Casanare, Colombia.-External links:*...
and Pamplona
Pamplona, Colombia
Pamplona is a municipality and city in Norte de Santander, Colombia.-Colonization:Nueva Pamplona del Valle del Espíritu Santo, the name by which Don Pedro de Ursúa and Don Ortún Velasco de Velázquez paid tribute to the capital of the province of Navarre in Spain, was founded on 1 November 1549...
(Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
).
In 1925, in Caracas
Caracas
Caracas , officially Santiago de León de Caracas, is the capital and largest city of Venezuela; natives or residents are known as Caraquenians in English . It is located in the northern part of the country, following the contours of the narrow Caracas Valley on the Venezuelan coastal mountain range...
, he enters the Academy of Music and Declamation. In 1926, in the city of Pamplona, Colombia, Ramón y Rivera initiates his studies of theory and solfege with Gerardo Rangel. In 1928, again in Caracas, he continued his formal studies at the Academy of Music and Declamation, where he was a student of Vicente Emilio Sojo
Vicente Emilio Sojo
Vicente Emilio Sojo was a Venezuelan musicologist, educator and composer, born in Guatire, Miranda.- Biography :...
and Miguel Ángel Espinel, among others. In 1934 he received the title of professor of viola
Viola
The viola is a bowed string instrument. It is the middle voice of the violin family, between the violin and the cello.- Form :The viola is similar in material and construction to the violin. A full-size viola's body is between and longer than the body of a full-size violin , with an average...
.
By that time he enters the Orfeón Lamas
Orfeón Lamas
A fundamental institution for the modernity of choral music in Venezuela, was the Orfeón Lamas, being pioneering at this genre and in the compilation of Venezuelan popular songs, before it, any choral group in Venezuela exist....
and the Venezuela Symphony Orchestra
Venezuela Symphony orchestra
The Orquesta Sinfónica Venezuela was founded by a group of 26 professional musicians met at the invitation of the maestro Vicente Emilio Sojo following the dissolution on January, 1929 of the Union Filarmónica Nacional.This meeting took place January 15, 1930 in the Caracas Musical Declamation...
. In 1938 he becomes very involved in cultural work in San Cristóbal, where he founds the Pro-Art Assembly (1939), whose orchestra he directed, being as well professor of the School of Arts and the Normal School of Táchira, creating the Táchira Music Academy (1942), institution that he directed. In 1945 he obtained a scholarship from the Venezuelan government to continue his musical formation in Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
and Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
. During two years he studied harmony and orchestration with Vicente Ascone in Montevideo
Montevideo
Montevideo is the largest city, the capital, and the chief port of Uruguay. The settlement was established in 1726 by Bruno Mauricio de Zabala, as a strategic move amidst a Spanish-Portuguese dispute over the platine region, and as a counter to the Portuguese colony at Colonia del Sacramento...
, and musical folklore with Carlos Vega in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires is the capital and largest city of Argentina, and the second-largest metropolitan area in South America, after São Paulo. It is located on the western shore of the estuary of the Río de la Plata, on the southeastern coast of the South American continent...
. In 1947 he returns to Venezuela as head of the department of music of the National Folkloric Investigations Service. He later returns to Buenos Aires and directed the American Orchestra, between 1948 and 1952. Upon his return to Venezuela, he founded "The National Typical Orchestra" (1953), with the mission to rescue and propagate Venezuelan folk music. Between 1953 and 1973 he was in charge of the direction of the National Institute of Folklore.
In 1988 he created the International Foundation of Ethnomusicology and Folklore (FUNDEF, now renamed "Centro de La Diversidad Cultural"), organism to which he donated his estate. As a composer, Ramón y Rivera is the author of a series of musical pieces in which the traditional genres of the country predominate, especially from the Venezuelan Andes, with such popular songs as: Brisas del Torbes", "Distancia", "Aires de verde montaña, among others. As a folklorist, his work, along with Juan Liscano
Juan Liscano
Juan Liscano Velutini Venezuelan poet, folklorist, writer and critic. Director of Monte Ávila Editores, amongst his poetic work emphasizes: Nuevo mundo Orinoco , Cármenes and Fundaciones...
, Miguel Acosta Saignes, Rafael Olivares Figueroa, Manuel Rodríguez Cárdenas, Isabel Aretz, among others, contributed to the study and diffusion of Venezuelan popular culture. On several occasions, Rivera conducted the "Official Concert Band" of the state of Táchira.
His work as a teacher, folklorist, writer and musician ends on October 22, 1993 when he dies in Caracas, in company of his wife, Isabel Aretz
Isabel Aretz
Isabel Aretz was an Argentine-Venezuelan researcher, writer, ethnomusicologist and composer.-Biography:Isabel Aretz-Thiele was born in Buenos Aires. She was educated at the National Conservatory of Music and Performing Arts, studying pedagogy, piano with Rafael González and harmony, counterpoint...
. Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera dedicated many years of his life to investigate Venezuelan popular traditions. His fight to defend the cultural values of the country led him to establish numerous conclusions relative to the creation of the Venezuelan folk music, wisdom that he shared in more than 20 books and innumerable articles.
Legacy
Venezuelan bambuco
This musical genre is typical from the Andean region , it is also found in the States of Zulia, Bolívar, Lara and in the Capital District ; in the latter found in the form of romanticmelodies....
Brisas del Torbes, also for Lejanía, Matinal, Aires de verde montaña, compositions for piano like Joropo, Tierra andina and his songs for children. As folklorist, he contributed to the rescue of important sorts of pre-Hispanic music and the study of Venezuelan Folklore and traditions. He is also the founder of the National Typical Orchestra.
From his work as a writer we can mention:
- El Joropo, Baile Nacional De Venezuela (1953) ISBN 9802160180
- La Musica Tipica Del Tachira: El Folklore Tachirense (1961–1963) ISBN 9803520148
- Música Folklórica y popular de Venezuela (1963)
- Música Folklórica e Indígena de Venezuela (1967)
- La Música Afrovenezolana (1971)
- La Poesía folklórica de Venezuela ISBN 980-01-0194-2/9800101942
- La música popular de Venezuela (1976)
- 50 Años De Musica En Caracas, 1930-1980 ISBN 9803001361
- Memorias de un Andino (Autobiography) ISBN 9800708413
Source
See also
- VenezuelaVenezuelaVenezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
- Venezuelan music