Paraguay --- My Harp and I.

By

David A.H. Wate

When I was a little boy, and that’s an awfully long time ago, I remember a popular song of the day which went…..

Oh I wonder, yes I wonder, will the angels way up yonder.

Will the angels play their harps for me……

I suppose also that the connection between harps, angels and heaven has existed since time began….just look at statuary and paintings down the centuries and you’ll see what I mean. I will return to this theme later, but I can hardly believe that more than forty years have elapsed since I first heard, and was seduced by the sound of the South American harp. It was in the late Autumn of 1956 that the B.B.C. in London put out a musical programme featuring Luis Alberto del Paraná and Los Paragayos, and that was the moment when I added another ‘must’ to my musical tastes. It was all so different, not only the sound itself, but the types of songs etc.,and when Diego García gave us ‘Pájaro Campana’, I was completely sold,as they say in the States. Some of the songs were sung in Guaraní, the native language, and on equal status with Spanish in Paraguay. It is a beautiful,musical language,the language of poetry,song,and as an acquaintance remarked with a wink, the language of love!!

The years went by, until in 1969, a great friend of mine, who held the Chair in Latin American Studies at The University of St.Andrews, where I was teaching at the time, suggested that if I was really interested in Paraguay etc., I should apply to the Leverhulme Foundation for a grant. He wrote me a testimonial, but I thought my age would rule me out ( I was already 47) so I was very pleasantly surprised when in March 1970, I received a letter from Leverhulme informing me that I had been awarded a grant to go to Paraguay and do some research into Guaraní. I rejoiced inwardly,too,because I hoped to be able to fit in some research into Paraguayan music. I had to wait until June before I could travel, educational commitments etc.but I eventually set off on my odyssey……Glasgow to Shannon, to New York, to Miami,to Panama, to Quito, to Lima where I had to make an overnight stop,before carrying on to La Paz and finally Asunción, my destination. Quite a flight!! I had arranged to stay with a charming Scots family until I could fix up my own accommodation, and on our first outing, within an hour of my arrival, they gave my leg a good pull in the restaurant. For a starter, I simply must try ‘la sopa paraguaya’ they said, and as I’ve always been a ‘soup man’, I agreed willingly. The waiter arrived with a flat plate containing something which resembled a savoury sponge cake, shot with chopped onion. No matter, it was very tasty, and we moved on down the menu. While the main course was in progress,the entertainment began. Yes, here it was, a Paraguayan trio ‘in the flesh’and I must admit that I felt a shiver run down my flesh as they struck up. They had a very attractive girl singer with them, and their first number was.

Bienvenidos,bienvenidos a esta tierra

Al cielo ñandutí del Paraguay… A lovely welcome to their country.

I began my studies almost immediately, and the following Sunday, after Holy Communion, two English girls approached me,saying that they had heard that I was interested in the harp, One of them was already learning to play,and she said that she would introduce me to her teacher, who could also help me to obtain a harp, if I wanted to start learning. We duly met up and within a week,I found that I had a new harp; finished after I had selected one from among several unfinished instruments, and on teacher’s recommendation, of course. My lessons were twice a week, and I can still remember those warm afternoons in the patio of the pensión where I was staying, the voice of my teacher who taught me in a mixture of Guaraní and ferocious Spanish. ‘Ritmo,ritmo’ he kept repeating, because you begin with the left hand,which plays the rhythm, while the right plays the melody. For a couple of weeks, I despaired. I just could not get the two hands to co-ordinate, but of course, the glorious day came when I was ‘up,up,and away’.

The Paraguyan harp consists of four octaves, 36 strings, and is diatonically tuned: therefore it does not have pedals like the concert harp.Often played while seated, popular performers generally stand, the feet of the instrument propped on a box of some sort.The general Paraguyan trio consists of the harpist,and two guitarists,who play across the rhythm of the harp,a tricky business, and disastrous if you get it wrong.Before the arrival of the Spaniards, the Indians had no stringed instruments, but they were quick to learn, and the modern harp is really an Indian instrument; the national instrument of Paraguay. A great deal of music has been written for the harp, of course,waltzes, the distinctive Paraguyan polka,the galopa.and the guaranía. This last is a creation by the Paraguyan composer, José Asunción Flores, who ran away from home as a boy, and studied music at the reform school where he was sent. The guaranía is an allusion to the Guaraní Indians, the indigenous people of Paraguay, and who can still be seen around the streets of the capital on a Saturday morning,bedecked in traditional costume. One amusing little story which I must recount refers to the visit a friend and I made to the Indian village, which was on the opposite bank of the Paraná river from Asunción. We had to pay to be ferried across by canoe…and don’t let your fingers dangle in the water unless you want to risk losing them to a piranha…….pay at the turnstile to get into the village, pay if you wanted any of them to pose for a photo, but he biggest laugh of all was when we were shown the village bar,,,a thatched roof supported by four poles, two planks lying across four oil drums,and at one end,the familiar red button with the magic words ‘Todo va mejor con Coca Cola. There’s just no escape, is there?

Back to music and the story behind a well known showpiece for the harp,’Pájaro campana’ Many years ago, an unknown Paraguyan heard a wild bird in the forest. The bird was called Pájaro campana because it’s song resembles a small bell. Inspired by this bird’s song, he wrote the music which starts off with the same cadence known to everyone from the bird’s call. This music was handed down from generation to generation until finally the great Paraguyan harpist and composer, Félix Pérez Cardozo, arranged it and wrote it down in it’s present form. In the middle of July, there is ‘the winter holiday’, when tourists by the thousand flock into Paraguay, from Argentina, Brazil etc. and as part of the festivities, there was a huge folk concert in one of the theatres.One of the groups playing,struck up a well known piece ‘Campamento Cerro León’, named after a Paraguyan general of the Chaco wars against Bolivia. It opens with a tempo resembling a slow march, then a simulated drum roll, followed by a section in fast dancing tempo. As this last section struck up, I was amazed to see hundreds of kids in the audience take to the aisles and start dancing. I couldn’t believe the spontaneity of the whole thing, but those youngsters certainly enjoyed themselves……no rock or pop, just good old fashioned folk dancing. What’s that phrase about ‘Music hath charms’? I did say in my opening remarks that I would return to the ‘heavenly theme’,and this takes me to the last Sunday evening of my stay in that beautiful country. The ‘dueño’ of the house where I was staying had invited me to go to the Folk Mass in the Cathedral., and when we arrived, I saw that there were four ‘arpas indias’ (to use the local name for the instrument) in the gallery above the organ. When they began to accompany the organ, the effect was unbelievable. Even today, nearly thirty years later, I can still feel a tear spring to my eyes when I recall that sound. It really was ‘music of the spheres’ ….to quote the title of a well known waltz, and I thought to myself "I don’t know my ultimate destination, but this might be the nearest I shall get to Heaven"!!! By the time the service ended, I felt completely drained. I had had my harp crated for return to Scotland by sea, where it duly arrived some time in October. I felt, with tongue in cheek, that I could not follow my teacher’s suggestion of just throwing a blanket over it and carrying it on to the plane with me!!! The sting in the tail of my whole Paraguyan saga was that with freight charges and Customs duty, my harp ended up three times as expensive as the original cost. Ah well, I thought at the time that it was worth it, and I still have my memories of a lovely; and profitable summer in Paraguay. Viva la música paraguaya!