Abstract
This chapter analyzes the authorial dimension of Violeta Parra as a musician, from the perspective that her creative work crosses a series of aesthetic categories. While traditional music has been Parra’s most representative aesthetic, other forms intersect in her creations. This essay thus explores problematic aspects raised by the difficulty of knowing the musical and therefore the authorial limits of Parra’s music. It maintains that the dimensión autoral [authorial dimension] of Parra is multiple and can be classified in four categories: cantora, folclorista, cantautora, and compositora [singer, folk singer, songwriter, and composer]. These diverse ways of being an author, in one way or another, have challenged the Chilean musical canon.
Keywords
The original version of this chapter was revised. An erratum to this chapter can be found at DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-69302-6_9.
This essay is translated from its original Spanish.
Notes
- 1.
The canto a lo humano and a lo divino are based on fundamentos (pre-existing themes), from which melodies are created. According to Astorga, some fundamentos from canto a lo divino are to be found in “The Old Testament; The Creation; Adam and Eve; Cain and Abel; Noah; The Tower of Babel, … New Testament, Annunciation, Virgin Mary, St. Joseph … Themes of biblical inspiration, Saint Francis; Saint Rose … Themes of non-biblical inspiration, Genevieve of Brabant; The Wandering Jew … ”. From canto a lo humano, Astorga includes “history; social and political developments; astronomy; geography ... Some facets of the paya, canto a dos razones; canto con pie forzado; canto de contrarresto … (and the like)”. p. 59.
- 2.
La lechera, a song now lost, cannot be definitively associated with Violeta Parra’s authorship. It was compiled by the artist but was never recorded. Later on, it was put into music by Gabriela Pizarro , who also recorded her own version. See http://www.cancioneros.com/nc/857/0/la-lechera-popular-chilena. Accessed May 19, 2017.
- 3.
See, for example, the themes in the following songs: “Aquí se acaba esta cueca”, “Qué pena siente el alma”, and “Casamiento de negros” (1956); “Parabienes a los novios”, “El palomo”, “Dicen que ají maduro”, and “Viva Dios, Viva la Virgen” (1956); “La cueca del balance”, “Adiós que se va Segundo”, and “Dame tu pelo rubio” (1959).
- 4.
Pereira Salas’s concepts of “folklore called ethno-music”, “criollo folklore”, and “popular folklore”, while trying to establish conceptual limits, are debatable. There is a substantial aesthetic difference between ethnic music and folk music; the first would align itself with primitive peoples, whereas the second would correspond more aptly to a mixture of music from different cultures, revealing features of musical syncretism. In fact, the idea of “popular folklore” is also debatable since both concepts correspond to two different kinds of music. These conceptualizations appear to be typical of a time when the phenomenon of both folklore and lo popular was being researched from a rather value-based, identitary, and scientific stance. Additionally, certain “folk” music could also be called “popular” in the sense that it becomes known through its means of dissemination, as is the case of “typical music”.
- 5.
This coined concept reveals how her music borders on different limits: aesthetic, stylistic, authorial, thematic, creative, and authorial-creative.
- 6.
Violeta uses this concept on two of her albums—Composiciones para guitarra (1957) and Las últimas composiciones de Violeta Parra (1966)—indistinct from the musical style that may be found on the two albums.
References
Aravena, Jorge. 2001. Opciones armónicas, estilo musical y construcción identitaria: Una aproximación al aporte de Violeta Parra en relación con la música típica. Revista Musical Chilena 55 (196): 33–58.
———. 2004. Música popular y discurso académico: A propósito de la legitimación culta de las ‘Anticuecas’ de Violeta Parra. Revista Musical Chilena 58 (202): 9–25.
Astorga, Francisco. 2000. El canto a lo poeta. Revista Musical Chilena 54 (194): 56–64.
Barros, Raquel, and Manuel Dannemann. 1960. El guitarrón en el departamento de Puente Alto. Revista Musical Chilena 14 (74): 7–42.
Barthes, Roland. 1989. The Rustle of Language. Trans. Richard Howard. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Bello, Enrique, José María Arguedas, et al. 1968. Análisis de una genio popular: Violeta Parra, hacen artistas y escritores. Revista de Educación 13: 66–76.
Concha, Olivia. 1995. Violeta Parra Compositora. Revista Musical Chilena 49 (183): 71–106.
Epple, Armando. 2012. Entre mar y cordillera, conversaciones sobre poesía, Violeta Parra y la Nueva Canción Chilena. Concepción: Lar.
Foucault, Michel. 1998. Aesthetics, Method, and Epistemology. Trans. Robert Hurley and Others and ed. James D. Faubion. New York: New Press.
González, Juan Pablo. 2005. Tradición, identidad y vanguardia en la música chilena de la década de 1960. Aisthesis. Revista chilena de investigaciones estéticas 38: 193–213.
———. 2006. Migración amorosa y musical. Run, Run se fue pa’l norte de Violeta Parra. Ensayos. Historia y Teoría del Arte 11: 173–185.
Hormazábal, Viviana. 2012. La obra visual de Violeta Parra. Un acercamiento a sus innovaciones conceptuales y visuales a través del análisis iconográfico de arpilleras y óleos. Thesis, Universidad de Chile. http://www.captura.uchile.cl/handle/2250/119628. Accessed May 12, 2017.
Letelier, Alfonso. 1967. Violeta Parra In Memoriam. Revista Musical Chilena 21 (100): 109–111.
Miranda, Paula. 2013. La poesía de Violeta Parra. Santiago: Cuarto Propio.
Miranda, Paula, Elisa Loncon, and Allison Ramay. 2017. Violeta Parra en el Wallmapu. Su encuentro con el canto mapuche. Santiago: Pehuén.
Navasal, Marina. 1958. “Una semana en radio” [Interview of Violeta Parra]. Ecran: Revista de cine internacional, 1416, 14 March.
Oporto, Lucy. 2013. El diablo en la música. La muerte del amor en ‘El gavilán’ de Violeta Parra. Santiago: USACH.
Rodríguez, Osvaldo. 1984. Cantores que reflexionan. Memoria y testimonio. Madrid: Ediciones Literatura Americana Reunida (LAR).
Spencer, Christian. 2000. Folklore e idiomaticidad: Violeta Parra y su doble pertenencia a la industria cultural. Actas del III Congreso Latinoamericano de la Asociación Internacional para el Estudio de la Música Popular. Bogotá. www.hist.puc.cl. Accessed May 16, 2017.
Subercaseaux, Bernardo. 2012. Historia de las ideas y de la cultura en Chile (1930–2010), Vol. 3, Book 5, “Política y cultura en Chile”. Santiago: Universitaria. http://www.ideasyculturaenchile.cl/. Accessed May 17, 2017.
Torres, Rodrigo. 2004. Cantar la diferencia. Violeta Parra y la Canción Chilena. Revista Musical Chilena 58 (201): 53–73.
Uribe, Christian. 2002. Violeta en la frontera del arte musical chileno. Intramuros. Revista de la Universidad Metropolitana de las Ciencias de la Educación 3(9): 8–14.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Appendix
Appendix
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Valdebenito Carrasco, L. (2018). What Type of Music Did Violeta Parra Make? Her Multiform, Musical, Authorship. In: Vilches, P. (eds) Mapping Violeta Parra’s Cultural Landscapes. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69302-6_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69302-6_3
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69301-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69302-6
eBook Packages: Literature, Cultural and Media StudiesLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)