Simon Diaz - Alma Llanera

UPDATE - 19/02/2014: Venezuela Bids Adios to a Much Loved Folk Legend

"Alma Llanera" is the country's second national anthem, a song that pays homage to the wide open plains of the Llanos and the importance of "musica llanera" to Venezuela's cultural identity.

Visit Venezuela and you're sure to hear this at the opening or closing of a popular fiesta, on TV or the radio. Countless versions of the song exist and smooth crooners like Julio Iglesias and operatic masters like Placido Domingo have all tapped into its popularity.

Venezuelan pop group Los Amigos Invisibles even tackled it for their last album "Superpop Venezuela".

This version is performed by folk singer and composer "Tio" Simon Diaz (born 8 August, 1928), a legend of traditional Venezuelan music who was awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Latin Grammy's in November 2008.

The song has a long history. The music was composed in the form of a "joropo" by Pedro Elias Gutierrez, a band leader from La Guaira, for a "zarzuela" of the same name performed on 19 September, 1914, at the Teatro Caracas.

"Zarzuela" was the name for comic folk operas that became popular in 17th century Spain and are named after Philip IV's Zarzuela Palace.

The lyrics of the song, which were penned by the writer Rafael Bolivar Coronado, stay true to the "zarzuela" tradition by encapsulating the wild beauty of the rugged Llanos while the music draws on the folk style of "joropo", the music of the Llanos.

As you can see from the lyrics (below) Bolivar Coronado created an idealized vision of thundering rivers, white ibises, sunshine and roses and people who love, cry, sing and dream "with carnations of passion".

Not surprisingly, "Alma Llanera" became an instant hit and President Juan Vicente Gomez was so pleased with the tune that he paid for Bolivar Coronado to visit Spain on a scholarship from which he never returned.

So, let's all sing along:

Yo naci en esta ribera del Arauca vibrador
Soy hermano de la espuma
De las garzas de las rosas
Soy hermano de la espuma
De las garzas de las rosas
Y del sol (del sol) y del sol.

Me arrullo la viva diana de la brisa en el palmar
Y por eso tengo el alma
Como el alma primorosa
Y por eso tengo el alma
Como el alma primorosa
De cristal de cristal.

Amo, lloro, canto, sueño
Con claveles de pasion
Con claveles de pasion.
Para aunar las rubias crines
Para aunar las rubias crines
Del potro que monto yo.
Yo naci en esta ribera
Del Arauca vibrador
Soy hermano de la espuma
De las garzas de las rosas y del sol.



Report: Simon Diaz honoured at Latin Grammy Awards

Click here for a video of Simon Diaz singing "Caballo Viejo"

Click here for a video of "Angustia" by Simon Diaz remixed by Babylon Motorhome

Click here for a video of the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra playing "Alma LLanera" at the BBC Proms in London's Albert Hall in 2007

Dudamel back at the Proms

Mop-top Venezuelan super-conductor Gustavo Dudamel will be bringing some of his musical magic to the BBC Proms again this year, although sadly not with the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra, which set the place alight in 2007, leaving to standing ovations and gushing press reviews.

This year, Dudamel will be fronting Sweden's Gothenberg Symphony Orchestra.

His three-date tour of the UK includes the Edinburgh Festival on 12 August, the BBC Proms at the Albert Hall on 13 August and the Snape Maltings Concert Hall on 14 August.

Only 27 years old, Dudamel is flying high. Taking up the violin at the age of ten, he's a product of "El Sistema", the National Network of Youth and Children Orchestras that was set up in the 1970s by Venezuelan economist, music lover and teacher Jose Antonio Abreu.

Showing early promise at conducting, by the age of 18 Dudamel was the musical director of the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra, the jewel in El Sistema's crown.

Following critically-acclaimed guest appearances with several international orchestras, last year he was named the principal conductor of Sweden's Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra.

Not bad for a boy from Barquisimeto, in Lara State.

In July this year, his fans were rewarded with "Fiesta" (Deutsche Grammophon), an album of South American compositions played by the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra that brims over with the same passion and joy that wowed audiences at the BBC Proms.

Next year, in his biggest step yet, he will take over as the musical director of the Los Angeles Philarmonic Orchestra.

Asked recently by the Telegraph's Geoffrey Norris how he would cope with running three major orchestras at the same time, Dudamel said: "People say that having three orchestras is a crazy life, but its better because you have three families."

Despite his growing fame in the classical music world, he also said he was determined to maintain his connections with Venezuela:

"Venezuela is very important, not just because it's a place I go to conduct but because my family is there - my wife and my parents and my musical family. I love working not only with the Bolivars but also with the other children's orchestras, something that Maestro Abreu put in our blood."

The video shows the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra at the BBC Proms playing Alma LLanera, Venezuela's second national anthem, a song composed by Pedro Elias Gutierrez that was first performed in Caracas in 1914.

Video: Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra performing Mambo at the Albert Hall in 2007

Video: Gustavo Dudamel interviewed at the Proms in 2007

CD review: "Fiesta" Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela

To download tracks from the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra's latest album "Fiesta" click here: