Daniel Alomía Robles

Daniel Alomía Robles was born in Huánuco, Peru, on January 3, 1871 to Micaela Robles and Marcial Alomía, a French immigrant. Alomía Robles said in an interview in 1942 that his first exposure to music was when he was six years old when his mother took him to hear mass in Huánuco, and he began to sing along with the chorus. Alomía Robles said that he had a good ear and could reproduce any sound that he heard and that he took special pleasure as a child in singing the indigenous songs of Peru. ==Musical education==

Alomía Robles attended primary school at La Mineria in Huánuco and moved with his family to Lima, Peru in 1882. It was while living with an uncle in Lima at the age of 12 that Alomía Robles first heard musical theatre. Lima in the early 20th-century was filled with musical theatre, and many well known musicians made their home in Lima. Alomía Robles discovered that the theatre needed extras in the chorus line and offered himself so he could hear the music for free and learn the operettas of that period. In Lima, Alomía Robles studied at the college Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe. Alomía Robles' early interest in music was encouraged there by his teachers Manuel De la Cruz Panizo and Claudio Rebagliatti. Alomía Robles says that Rebagliatti took him under his wing and offered to teach him music if Alomía Robles would help o Rebagliatti in his concerts. In 1892, Alomía Robles decided to study medicine at University of San Marcos. In his third year he traveled with other students to the Amazon jungle regions where he met Catholic missionary Gabriel Sala, who came to influence Alomía Robles' life in music. Sala had created a city in the Amazon jungle region with 400 men and women who he taught to work in the fields and build their houses. Sala said to his people that it was not good to work without resting. So every Sunday at 2:00 PM he brought the people together to sing and dance. Alomía Robles decided to leave the university in 1894 and dedicate his life to music. Alomía Robles' family, who had encouraged him to study medicine, were against this change of direction. ==Musical travels in South America==

Alomía Robles traveled throughout Peru compiling the stories and myths of the folk music of the Amazon jungle regions and the mountains of the Andes. He continued his collections of versions of the songs from the most remote villages of Peru. 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"==

popularized "El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)", with new English lyrics written by Paul Simon (above) 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”. ==References==