Alomía Robles, Daniel (1871–1942)

Daniel Alomía Robles (b. 3 January 1871; d. 17 July 1942), Peruvian ethnomusicologist and composer. Born in Huánuco, Alomía Robles was sent as a child to Lima to study solfège with Cruz Panizo and piano with Claudio Rebagliati. From 1892 to 1894 he studied medicine in San Fernando. While doing research on the Campas Indians, he was encouraged by a Franciscan friar to study aboriginal music. He eventually dedicated more than twenty years of his life to the subject. His research took him to remote regions of Ecuador and Bolivia, where he collected and classified folk materials. In 1910 he gave a celebrated lecture on Andean melodies at the University of San Marcos in Lima. Alomía Robles's wife, the pianist Sebastiana Godoy, assisted in the harmonization of native music. Although he became a noted composer, he is best known for his research on Indian music. He died in Lima.

See alsoMusic: Popular Music and Dance .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Rodolfo Holzmann, "Catálogo de las obras de Daniel Alomía Robles," in Boletín Biblioteca Universidad Mayor de San Marcos 13 (1943).

Gérard Béhague, Music in Latin America (1979); New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians, vol. 1 (1980).

Additional Bibliography

Bolaños, César, José Quesada, Enrique Iturriaga, Juan Carlos Estenssoro, Enrique Pinilla, and Raúl Romero. La música en el Perú. Lima: Patronato Popular y Porvenir, 1985.

Robles Godoy, Armando. La obra folclórica y musical de Daniel Alomía Robles. Lima: Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología, 1990.

Varallanos, José. El cóndor pasa: vida y obra de Daniel Alomía Robles, musico, compositor y folklorista peruano, biografía, glosario, texto del drama, documentario, partituras. Lima: Talleres Gráficos, 1988.

                                       Susana Salgado