Ariel Ramírez
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Ariel Ramirez (born in Santa Fe, Argentina, 1921), composer.
[edit] Development and influcences
Ariel Ramirez began his piano studies in Santa Fe, and soon became fascinated with the music of the gauchos and creoles in the mountains. He continued his studies in Córdoba where he met the great Argentinean folk singer Atahualpa Yupanqui. It was after a suggestion by this latter that he visited the Nordeste and deepened his research on the traditional rhythms of South America. At the same time continuing his academic studies as a composer at the Conservatorio Nacional of Buenos Aires. In 1946, with RCA, he made his first recording out of a vast discography, both as a composer and a performer.
He went on to study classical music in Madrid, Rome and Vienna, from 1950 to 1954. On returning to Argentina, he collected over 400 folk songs and popular songs and founded the Compañía de Folklore Ariel Ramírez.
[edit] Compositions
In 1964 a period of brilliant creativity started, with the creation of the Misa Criolla (1964), Navidad Nuestra (1964, with poet Félix Luna), La Peregrinación (with F. Luna, 1964); Los caudillos (with F. Luna, 1965); Mujeres Argentinas (with F. Luna, 1969), Alfonsina y el Mar (with F. Luna, 1969).
Misa Criolla is by large his best known composition: a mass for tenor, mixed chorus, percussion, keyboard and Andrean instruments. Entirely based on traditional rhythms (chacarera, carnavalito, estilo pampeano), it is also,- being contemporary to the Second Vatican Council - one of the first masses to be celebrated in a modern language. He wrote it in 1963-1964 and it was recorded by Philips almost immediately: directed by Ramírez himself with Los Fronterizos as solo performers (Philips 820 39 LP, including Navidad Nuestra). It was not publicly performed until 1967 in Dusseldorf, Germany, during a European tour which eventually brought Ariel Ramírez before Pope Paul VI. Equally famous are the recordings with the great solo voices of Mercedes Sosa (1999) and Jose Carreras (1990). In the 1990s Misa Criolla was performed in the Royal Festival Hall, London.
Today, Ariel Ramírez is president of the Society of Authors and Composers of the Republic of Argentina (SADAIC).
Besides those already cited, other major compositions by Ramirez include the Cantata Sudamericana (with F. Luna, 1972) and another mass: Misa por la paz y la justicia (1980) with liturgical texts by Félix Luna and Osvaldo Catena. Polly Ferman is an exponent of Ramirez's piano works, but the popularity of Misa Criolla by far outstrips anything else he wrote.
[edit] References
http://dcguild.home.mindspring.com/Programs/19970517.html
http://www.coralesangaudenzio.it/conc02.htm
https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/ferman6
http://www.fundacionkonex.com.ar/premios/curriculum.asp?ID=1987
http://www.corohispanoamericano.it/RamirezAriel.htm