VA - Arpa Paraguaya - Personal Collection

Brilliant and joyful traditional music from Paraguay, played by the best Indian Harp players. Enjoy 20 tunes, mostly traditional, but also some familiar western songs arranged for harp, selected from many albums.

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.

TRACKLIST
01. Dos Arpas y Guitarra - Cascada
02. Ignacio Alderette - Cascada
03. Ignacio Alderette - Pajaro Campana
04. Jose Luis Leon - Balada para Adelina
05. Jose Luis Leon - Concierto de Aranjuez
06. Jose Luis Leon - Devorame otra vez
07. Jose Luis Leon - El Condor Pasa
08. Jose Luis Leon - Romance D' Amour
09. Jose Luis Leon - Yesterday
10. Los Tres Soles del Paraguay - Cascada
11. Los Tres Soles del Paraguay - El Pajaro Campana
12. Los Tres Soles del Paraguay - El Pajaro Chogui
13. Luis Bordon - En lo alto de la sierra
14. Luis Bordon - Gallito Cantor
15. Luis Bordon - Illusion
16. Raquel Lebron - El Boyerito
17. Raquel Lebron - El Canto del Pajarito
18. Raquel Lebron - Historia de un Amor
19. Raquel Lebron - Il Padrino
20. Raquel Lebron - La Rodriguez Pena