Argentinian musician and composer Jorge Milchberg, famous for having adapted and recorded in the 1960s “El Condor pasa” which became probably the most famous Andean melody in the world, died in Paris at the age of 93, the embassy announced on Friday. Argentina.
Jorge Milchberg, born in Buenos Aires in 1928 to Polish parents but who had lived in France since 1955, died on August 20, but his death was not announced until Friday by his family and by the embassy. He will be buried in his town of Thénisy (Seine-et-Marne), specifies the embassy.
A classically trained pianist, but a world-renowned charango (Andean plucked-string guitar) player, Jorge Milchberg was a member and artistic director for nearly 60 years of “Los Incas”, an iconic Andean music group founded in the 1960s. 1950 in Paris, and which has multiplied international tours, the embassy said in a press release.
“The condor happens”
Los Incas, also known as Urubamba, recorded in 1963 “El condor pasa” (the condor passes), then once more with arrangements by Jorge Milchberg and lyrics by Paul Simon, a version sung by the New York folk duo Simon and Garfunkel, under the title “If I might”, in their album “Bridge over troubled water” (1970).
Initially, the theme of “El Condor pasa” was taken from a zarzuela, a musical theater piece of the same name, created in 1913 by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomia Robles, but in a version for orchestra.
The version for reduced ensemble by the Argentine composer, and the title of Simon and Garfunkel which has become a folk standard, have contributed to the spectacular fame of “El Condor pasa”, which has known countless versions, and led to a resurgence of interest for Latin American music.
The artist points out the site of the Incasforeshadowed the “approach of arranging and adapting traditional music, now popularized in World music”, but unheard of in the 60s and 70s.
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