Ramón y Rivera, Luis Felipe

Ramón y Rivera, Luis Felipe , Venezuelan ethnomusicologist and composer; b. San Cristóbal, Aug. 23, 1913; d. Oct. 22, 1993. After studying viola pedagogy at the Caracas Escuela Superior de Música (degree, 1934), he returned to his native city to teach at the Escuela de Artes y Oficios de San Cristóbal (1939) and to found and direct the Táchira Music School (1940–50). He studied folklore and ethnomusicology with Carlo Vega at the Inst. of Musicology in Buenos Aires and with Isabel Aretz , whom he married, and Augusto Raul Cortâzar at the Colegio Libre de Estudios Superiores (1945–47). He returned to Caracas as chief of musicology of the Servicio de Investigaciones Folklóricas Nacionales (1947), and then went back to Buenos Aires to direct the Americana Orch. (1948–52). In 1953 he became director of the National Inst. of Folklore of Venezuela in Caracas. He traveled extensively in South America, taught folklore and ethnomusicology at Venezuelan and foreign univs., and was president of the Venezuelan Soc. of Authors and Composers (1972–73). Ramón y Rivera’s extensive fieldwork enabled him to make a comparative study of the music of the South American continent; he contributed greatly to the study of Venezuelan indigenous, folk, and popular music.

Writings

La polifonia popular de Venezuela (Buenos Aires, 1949); El joropo, baue national de Venezuela (Caracas, 1953); Cantos de trabajo del pueblo venezolano (Caracas, 1955); La música colonial profana (Caracas, 1966); Música indigena, folklórica y popular de Venezuela (Buenos Aires, 1970); La música afrovenezolana (Caracas, 1971); La música popular de Venezuela (Caracas, 1976).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire