Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera

Infobox Writer
name = Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera


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birthdate = birth date|1913|8|23
birthplace = San Cristóbal, Táchira, Venezuela
deathdate = death date and age|1993|10|22|1913|8|23
deathplace = Caracas, Venezuela
occupation = Folklorist, writer, poet, teacher, composer, musician
nationality = Venezuelan flagicon|Venezuela
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genre =
subject = Venezuelan Folklore
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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 sibblings, 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.

Legacy

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:
*"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

* [http://html.rincondelvago.com/musicos-venezolanos-y-tachirenses.html Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera Biography]

See also

*Venezuela
*Venezuelan music