Daniel Alomía Robles

Daniel Alomía Robles (3 January 1871 – 17 July 1942) was a Peruvian composer and ethnomusicologist. He is best known for composing the song "El Cóndor Pasa" in 1913 as part of a zarzuela — a musical play that alternates between spoken and sung parts — of the same name. This song was based on Andean folk songs and is possibly the best known Peruvian song, partly due to the worldwide success that the melody obtained when it was used by Simon & Garfunkel as their music for "El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)", although that song has different lyrics.

Early life Daniel Alomía Robles was born in Huánuco, Peru, on January 3, 1871 to Micaela Robles and Marcial Alomía, a French immigrant. It was while living with an uncle in Lima at the age of 12 that Alomía Robles first heard musical theatre. In an interview in 1942 with Esteban Pavletich Trujillo, Alomía Robles credited his wife as the impetus for creating his first musical works.

In 1910, Alomía Robles published his discovery that the musical structure of Andean music involved a Pentatonic scale.

"El Cóndor Pasa"

In 1913, Daniel Alomía Robles composed "El Cóndor Pasa", and the composition was first performed publicly at the Teatro Mazzi in Lima. Marcela Robles writes that the zarzuela contained eight parts and was performed over 3,000 times in Lima at the Teatro Mazzi.

In December 1996, the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), enacted the Rights Of Performers (Moral Rights Of Performers); also known as "The Morality Treaty" into sanction. The parade and the cachua have been widely covered and spread, and in some cases, lyrics have been added (all of them should be considered apocryphal) and generally their rhythms and instrumentations have been changed.

Life in the United States

In 1919, Alomía Robles traveled to the United States, living in New York City for 14 years until his return to Peru in 1933.

Alomía Robles returned to Peru in 1933 after 14 years in the United States His son Sebastian Tomas Robles remained in the United States and in 1933 became a staff cartoonist for the Editors Press Service in New York City and was selected by The Washington Post to sketch government personalities for the National Gallery.

Musical legacy Alomía Robles compiled over 700 compositions of popular music of Peru

Personal life

Daniel Alomía Robles was married to Sebastiana Godoy Agostini with whom he had ten children including four sons: Jack, Felix, Ernest, and Carlos.

On August 14, 1996, his remains were returned to his hometown of Huánuco where they were received by thousands of people. The manuscripts included the originals of “El Cóndor Pasa” and “Himno Al Sol”, and all of the “Colección Folklórica”.