Eduardo Falú (July 7, 1923August 9, 2013) was an Argentine
folk music
Folk music is a music genre that includes traditional folk music and the contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be called world music. Traditional folk music has b ...
guitarist and composer.
Life and work
Eduardo Falú was born in
El Galpón, a village near
San José de Metán
San José de Metán (usually shortened to Metán) is a city in the south of the province of Salta, Argentina, 160 km from the provincial capital Salta
Salta () is the capital and largest city in the Argentine province of the same name. Wi ...
in the province of Salta, in 1923. His parents, Fada and Juan Falú, were
Syrian immigrants. Raised in rural surroundings, he was strongly influenced by the folk traditions of Salta (which remain, in Falú's words, "something lively, dynamic and evolutionary").
Falú was given his first
guitar
The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected strin ...
as a gift during childhood, and he began to perform traditional folk tunes of the
Argentine Northwest
The Argentine Northwest (''Noroeste Argentino'') is a geographic and historical region of Argentina composed of the provinces of Catamarca, Jujuy, La Rioja, Salta, Santiago del Estero and Tucumán.
Geography
The Argentine Northwest comprises ...
as a
troubadour
A troubadour (, ; oc, trobador ) was a composer and performer of Old Occitan lyric poetry during the High Middle Ages (1100–1350). Since the word ''troubadour'' is etymologically masculine, a female troubadour is usually called a ''trobairi ...
. He formed a duo with César Perdiguero, and became well known in the region during the 1940s. Largely self-taught, Falú deepened his knowledge of the guitar through study of the 19th century masters and was trained in
harmony and
theory
A theory is a rational type of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the results of such thinking. The process of contemplative and rational thinking is often associated with such processes as observational study or research. Theories may be ...
by the prominent Argentine composer
Carlos Guastavino
Carlos Guastavino (5 April 1912 – 29 October 2000) was an Argentine composer, considered one of the foremost composers of his country. His production amounted to over 500 works, most of them songs for piano and voice, many still unpublished. ...
.
[
His increasing renown brought him to ]Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires ( or ; ), officially the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires ( es, link=no, Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires), is the capital and primate city of Argentina. The city is located on the western shore of the Río de la Plata, on South ...
in 1945, and he recorded his first album there in 1950. Among the volume of collaborations with many of the leading Argentine poets, perhaps the best-known are his compositions for lyrics written by Jaime Dávalos, among which some of the most popular are ''Zamba de la Candelaria'', ''Trago de sombra'', and ''Canción del jangadero''. Falú wrote music for a number of Argentine historical epics, as well, including ''Romance de la Muerte de Juan Lavalle
Juan Galo Lavalle (17 October 1797 – 9 October 1841) was an Argentine military and political figure.
Biography
Lavalle was born in Buenos Aires to María Mercedes González Bordallo and Manuel José Lavalle, general accountant of rents and t ...
'' (written by Ernesto Sábato
Ernesto Sabato (June 24, 1911 – April 30, 2011) was an Argentine novelist, essayist, painter and physicist. According to the BBC he "won some of the most prestigious prizes in Hispanic literature" and "became very influential in the literary wo ...
) and '' José Hernández'' (by Jorge Luis Borges
Jorge Francisco Isidoro Luis Borges Acevedo (; ; 24 August 1899 – 14 June 1986) was an Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, as well as a key figure in Spanish-language and international literature. His best-known b ...
).Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
, in 1959. This was followed by performances in Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
, Madrid
Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...
, and numerous other cultural capitals. He was particularly popular in Japan, where from 1963 to 1973, he gave over 200 performances; in subsequent years, he also performed regularly in duos with his nephew, Juan Falú.[
Arguably the creator of Argentina's modern folk song movement, Falú has set over 150 poems to music. These have included Borges' and Dávalos', as well as those by León Benarós, Manuel J. Castilla, and Alberico Mansilla. Known for his ]Chamamé
Chamamé ( Guarani for: party, disorder) is a folk music genre from Northeast Argentina and Argentinian Mesopotamia. In 2020, Chamamé was inscribed in UNESCO's Intangible cultural heritage list after it was nominated by Argentina in 2018.
C ...
, Chacarera and Zamba compositions, Falú more recently composed two suites, ''Primera Suite Argentina'' (1996) and ''Segunda Suite Argentina'' (1999).[
The Government of Perú bestowed on him a Distinguished Service Award, and Falú's work earned him an important recognition by his Argentine colleagues in 1985, when he received the highest honor in the Argentine cultural realm, the ]Konex Award
Konex Foundation Awards, or simply Konex Awards, are cultural awards from the Konex Foundation honouring Argentine cultural personalities.
History and purpose
Konex Awards are granted by the Konex Foundation, created in 1980 in Argentina. The pur ...
, as well as a Grand Prize by the Argentine Society of Music Composers (SADAIC).[
Falú's last album as a performer, published in 2009, was a tribute to classical Spanish guitarist ]Andrés Segovia
Andrés Segovia Torres, 1st Marquis of Salobreña (21 February 1893 – 2 June 1987) was a Spanish virtuoso classical guitarist. Many professional classical guitarists were students of Segovia or their students.
Segovia's contribution to the m ...
. He died on August 9, 2013, at his home in the city of Buenos Aires, Argentina; he was 90.
References
External links
*
Eduardo Falú, Song for a landscape of dreams (''Canto al paisaje soñado''), a documentary film by Oliver Primus and Arno Oehri
{{DEFAULTSORT:Falu, Eduardo
1923 births
2013 deaths
Argentine composers
Argentine guitarists
Argentine male guitarists
Argentine people of Syrian descent
Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery
People from Salta Province