Florentín Giménez’s Folk-Style Songs: A Practical Reading of Paraguayan Cultural Identity

Abstract

Florentín Giménez (1925–2021) stands as one of the most prolific Paraguayan composers. Published in six Cancioneros (‘Songbooks’), his more than 800 canciones populares (‘folkloric or folk-style songs’) testify to his productivity and distinctive approach to this particular genre. Based on the examination of his six published Cancioneros, along with an analysis of Giménez’s musical recordings and personal interviews with the composer, this article first provides biographical context and introduces these songs through a series of representative cultural themes that emphasize some of Giménez’s ideas about musical and extra-musical expressions of cultural identity and Paraguayan nationalism. Following a discussion of Giménez’s vocal compositions, the article focuses on the composer’s self-proclaimed musical advocacy, and highlights three of his most iconic and widely known songs: ‘Así canta mi patria’ (‘Thus My Country Sings’), ‘Ka’aguype’ (‘In the Forest’) in the Guaraní language, and ‘Muy cerca de ti’ (‘Very Near You’). By considering these three Paraguayan folk-style songs, I aim to demonstrate that throughout his career, Giménez’s music has become illustrative of a cultural identity informed by Paraguayan music and socially imagined ideas, including the sentiment of nationalism, which he expresses through a profound admiration for his country.

While notable twentieth-century Paraguayan composers have contributed with their works to the Paraguayan vocal music repertoire, few of them have published multi-volume collections of their songs. Florentín Giménez (1925–2021), who espoused a strong commitment to the representation of a Paraguayan cultural identity, stands as one of the most prolific Paraguayan composers of both concert and folk music-style works. Published in six volumes called Cancioneros (‘Songbooks’), his more than 800 canciones populares (folkloric or folk-style songs) testify to his productivity in this particular musical genre. Based on my analysis of his six songbooks, along with Giménez’s musical recordings and personal interviews with the composer, this article introduces these folk-style songs by examining them alongside Giménez’s ideas about cultural identity and Paraguayan musical nationalism.

Following a general overview of Paraguayan cultural identity and a discussion of Giménez’s vocal compositions, this article will focus on the composer’s professed musical advocacy and highlight three of his most iconic songs: ‘Así canta mi patria’ (‘Thus My Country Sings’), ‘Ka’aguype’ (‘In the Forest’), and ‘Muy cerca de ti’ (‘Very Near You”). By considering these three folk-style songs, I aim to illustrate that throughout his career Giménez’s music has become representative of a cultural identity informed by Paraguayan music and socially imagined ideas, including the inculcated sentiment of Paraguayan nationalism, which he explains as a profound admiration for his country.

Biographical Background

Lauded as one of the most influential musical figures of Paraguayan musical culture, the composer, arranger, conductor, educator, and writer Florentín Giménez was born in 1925 in Ybicuí. ¹ He received his musical training in Paraguay (1940–50) and Argentina (1956–69). In the late 1940s, he established his first ensemble, Orquesta Ritmos de América (‘Rhythms of America Orchestra’), and in 1950 his second orchestra, the Orquesta Típica Florentín Giménez (Figure 1). ² During his years in Buenos Aires, he became actively involved in the performance and production of music. He continued his studies at the Carlos López Buchardo Conservatory and at the Torcuato di Tella Institute. However, his formal training in composition was the result of six years of private study with the Italian maestro Cayetano (Gaetano) Marcolli. In the late 1950s and over the next decades, Giménez became well known when one of his songs – ‘Muy cerca de ti’, with lyrics by Ben Molar – was recorded by several local and international artists. ³ In collaboration with Molar, owner of Ediciones Internacionales Fermata – a major music-publishing house as well as a recording label – Giménez produced other songs that were also recorded by well-known local and international artists. ⁴ In 1969, he returned to Paraguay, where in the course of the next several decades he became conductor of the Asunción Symphony Orchestra (OSCA) and the Municipal Chamber Orchestra (OCM), was appointed ‘Composer in Residence of the City of Asunción’, created both the Conservatory of the Catholic University and the National Conservatory, became the intellectual author of the bi-annual National Music Award, and founded the National Symphony Orchestra (OSN), which he conducted until his retirement in 2008 (Figure 2).

Figure 1 Florentín Giménez (at the piano) and his orquesta típica, c. 1953. (Photograph provided by Giménez and reproduced with permission.)

Figure 2 Florentín Giménez conducting the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional in Asunción (2005). (Photograph provided by Giménez and reproduced with permission.)

His prolific musical pen produced more than 800 folk-style songs, works for piano, a Paraguayan folk mass, an opera, thirteen zarzuelas, two instrumental suites, a concertante for piano and orchestra, three concertos (violin, viola or violoncello, two guitars), two symphonic poems, and nine symphonies. A prolific writer, Giménez published books discussing Paraguayan music and folklore. He even wrote fiction. ⁵ In recognition of his musical achievements, Giménez received three honorary doctorates from Paraguayan universities, the Orden de Comendador (‘National Order of Merit as Knight Commander’) – the highest recognition awarded by the Paraguayan government to a civilian – and on two occasions the National Music Award. ⁶

In addition to the 147 canciones populares recorded and released by the composer and/or his heirs, numerous arrangements of some of his folk-style songs have become regularly performed at local concerts, festivals, and radio and television broadcasts. ⁷ Currently disseminated on streaming platforms, as Giménez himself indicated to me during a phone conversation in 2020, these recordings testify to his musical contribution and cultural efforts in the promotion of Paraguayan folk-style music. ⁸

Cultural Themes

Giménez’s approach to composing folk-style songs and concert music was highly influenced by his views on certain cultural and national themes, such as Paraguayan history and Guaraní culture – concepts that have been historically associated with Paraguayan nationalism. ⁹ Added to these cultural themes, Giménez’s systematic use of folk music idioms and the promotion of folk-style music via his professed musical advocacy were of paramount significance in the composer’s musical nationalism, which for him is a reflection of his paraguayidad (‘Paraguayan-ness’ or ‘Paraguayan cultural identity’).

During one of my first interactions with Giménez, he emphasized that he considered his musical works to act as signifiers of Paraguayan cultural identity, resounding some of the discussions on nation and cultural representation in late twentieth-century sociological studies. ¹⁰ At our meeting, Giménez described himself as a nationalist composer and that his concert works were similar in conception to those composed by Latin American figures such as Alberto Ginastera, Héitor Villa-Lobos, and others. ¹¹ I consider Giménez’s own conception of his musical nationalism worthy of exploration especially since it helps us better understand both his music and the issues related to readings and understandings of Paraguayan cultural identity. It is to this last topic that we turn next.

Paraguayan Cultural Identity, Guaraní (Culture), and Florentín Giménez

As stated in a monograph focused on the Paraguayan harp as a national emblem, the terms paraguayidad and Paraguayan cultural identity first carried the meaning of a particular group of people who understood that they belonged to a specific past and present time and a specific geographical space. At the same time, both terms illustrate the engagement of Paraguayan citizens in the recognition of certain particular traditions and ideas: speaking both Spanish and Guaraní, recognizing the past history of the country and its inherited Iberian-Guaraní values, and communicating a deep regard for the country’s geographical territory and its natural resources. ¹² In fact, the concept of paraguayidad embodies that which represents all things Paraguayan.

Concepts involving and commentaries on Guaraní culture appear frequently throughout Giménez’s musical works. For him, Guaraní culture is intimately associated with the historical and current cultural construction of being Paraguayan. ¹³ As Simone Krüger Bridge has also noted, nationalist government agendas have reinforced ‘the sociocultural values associated with paraguayidad specifically through the inclusion of the concept of a Guaraní race ‘as a signifier of an ethnic identity directly representative of the Guaraní people that came to serve over time as an ultimate expression of Paraguayan national identity’. ¹⁴ However, Giménez’s reading of Guaraní culture must be understood vis-à-vis specific cultural material connectors, the Guaraní language being perhaps the most critical element. ¹⁵ He believed that Guaraní as a language can describe and explain certain Paraguayan concepts and ideas with unparalleled accuracy. For instance, the phrase ñane retã, which in Spanish could be translated as nuestro país or nuestra patria or nuestra tierra (‘our country, our land’) or, following the Guaraní literally, ‘our place of existence’. Yet, crucially, it also depicts for Giménez the way in which Paraguayans speak, sing, and play music. ¹⁶

During a 2018 interview, the composer reaffirmed this idea by indicating that ‘the (Guaraní) language is the foundation of the development of Paraguayan music’, a language that became ‘the new Paraguayan character’ and at the same time ‘generated the new style of Paraguayan music through that new character’. ¹⁷ Giménez also saw a close connection between the speaking of Guaraní and the types of musical melodies that nineteenth-century arribeños (‘troubadours’) and músicos empíricos (‘oral tradition musicians’) employed to develop songs. ¹⁸ José Asunción Flores (1904–72), the creator of the guarania, became one of the greatest influences on Giménez’s music. ¹⁹ He maintained that José Asunción Flores’s guaranias (‘urban folk-style songs’) such as ‘India’ (‘The Indigenous Woman’), ‘Mburicaó’ (proper name of a stream), and ‘Nerendape ajú’ (‘I Come to You’) have accurately captured the flair and inflections of the Guaraní language through original melodies mimicking speech patterns. Nevertheless, since each one of these musical works presents lyrics in Guaraní, Giménez’s observation and the relationship between music and text can be considered recognizable when listening to the songs.

Though not a view endorsed by Giménez, that which is Guaraní or influenced by Guaraní culture is associated in the popular imagination with that which is Paraguayan or, for the purpose of this discussion, Paraguayan music. In addition to the previously cited 2015 publication on the Paraguayan harp, musicologist Timothy Watkins has also supported the view of a cultural construction of that which could be seen as authentically Guaraní and its connection to Paraguayan music in the social imagination. As Watkins states:

Unlike other aspects of Indigenous culture which have been maintained since the colonial period as part of Paraguayan mestizo culture, Paraguayans have completely lost any link to actual indigenous music. Thus – given the identity between Guaraní and Paraguayan in the popular imagination – Paraguayan music has come to be seen as authentically Guaraní. ²⁰

Watkins’ observation is on point since Paraguayans do frequently identify or explain their music as Guaraní, and examples of this view can be cited from the activities of numerous Paraguayan musical groups from the 1950s to the 1980s that toured and played concerts throughout Latin America, Europe, and Asia. ²¹ To a great extent, these musical groups promoted their Paraguayan folk-style musical selections as connected to a Guaraní culture, even at times referring to the Paraguayan harp as arpa india (‘Indian or Indigenous harp’).

Giménez’s Musical Nationalism

As indicated in a previous publication, Florentín Giménez’s musical nationalism can be described by two ideas connected to paraguayidad: orgullo (‘pride’) and deber (‘duty’). ²² Giménez believed that his nationalism was reflected in the cultural pride and social duty that he expressed in musical works highlighting specific Paraguayan topics. As analyses of the formation of nationalism, national identity, and cultural representation in Latin America have proposed, various complex factors involving regional nationalisms and cultural identities have been of paramount significance. For example, national ideas associated with specific national elements have been systematically inculcated throughout Latin American countries and especially connected to the performance of música folclórica (‘folk-style music’). ²³ Additional case studies in the twenty-first century have also considered musical nationalism within the complex of cultural nationalism as the employment of music to illustrate specific nationalist goals. ²⁴ In fact, as has been demonstrated by contemporary researchers, this type of nationalism has become a cultural script to support social interaction and solidarity as well as certain cultural imaginaries to justify historical and political processes. ²⁵ Though Giménez’s view on nationalism could also be explained in association with some of the preceding ideas as proposed by a selected group of Latin Americanists (see previous note), his ideas have been highly developed and informed by a particular understanding of Paraguayan history and the influence of the spoken Guaraní language. Nevertheless, being part of a conversation on musical nationalism and cultural identity was deeply significant for the composer, who used them as recurring topics in his publications and conference presentations.

As indicated by the composer, his musical nationalism reflects what he deems to be an accurate understanding of Paraguayan cultural identity: the beliefs and actions of a Paraguayan citizen proud of his nation’s history and culture; in other words, his paraguayidad. Under the influence of this understanding of paraguayidad and by illustrating Paraguayan cultural themes through his music, Giménez believed that his obligation as a Paraguayan composer was accomplished.

For example, while songs such as ‘Mi patria’ (‘My Country’) and ‘Triunfarás Paraguay’ (‘Thou Shalt Triumph, Paraguay’) celebrate Paraguayan nationalism, ‘Soy paraguayo’ (‘I Am Paraguayan’) and ‘Capuerero de mi tierra’ (‘Farmer of My Land’) are associated with cultural and social identities. In connection to the Paraguayan historical memory and, more specifically, in reference to the Chaco War with Bolivia (1932–35), ‘El holocausto chaqueño’ (‘The Chaco Holocaust’), ‘Canción al veterano’ (‘Song to the Veteran’), ‘Héroes de Boquerón’ (‘Heroes of Boquerón’), and ‘Batalla de Boquerón’ (‘Battle of Boquerón’) praise the courage of Paraguayan soldiers in the battlefront. A solid appreciation for history and identity is of paramount significance for Giménez; so is a deep love for nature and the Paraguayan landscape, including its regions and towns. In addition to the depiction of nature in songs with Guaraní titles such as ‘Panambi morotĩmíva’ (Beautiful White Butterfly’), ‘Jasy’ (‘Moon’), or in Spanish, ‘Primavera’ (‘Spring’), and ‘Lago azul de Ypacaraí’ (‘The Blue Lake of Ypacaraí), others evoke nostalgic memories associated with towns and geographical landmarks: ‘Canto a Ybycuí’ (‘Song to Ybicuí’), ‘Mi bella Itapúa’ (‘My Beautiful Itapúa’), ‘Asunción de mis recuerdos’ (‘Asunción of My Memories’), ‘Noches misioneras’ (‘Nights of Misiones’), and ‘Nocturno de la Chacarita’ (‘Nocturne from the Chacarita’). ²⁶

Regardless of theme or topic, 30 per cent of the canciones populares include text in Guaraní or Jopará, a local language mixing words and phrases in both Guaraní and Spanish. Some of them focus on the Guaraní language as a symbol of cultural identity – ‘Guaraní Ñane Ñe’ẽ’ (‘Guaraní, Our [Native] Tongue’), ‘Ñane Ñe’ẽ Mba’erã’ (‘Aspects of Our [Native] Tongue’), and ‘Ñande Avañe’ẽ’ (‘Our Native Tongue’). Others praise national symbols such as the flag – ‘A mi bella bandera’ (‘To My Beautiful Flag’) – and still others celebrate musical forms closely connected to Paraguayan cultural identity – ‘Dichosa guarania’ (‘Blessed Guaranía’) and ‘Yo soy la guarania’ (‘I Am Guaranía’). Giménez also wrote about Paraguayan folk musical instruments in ‘Guitarra’ (‘Guitar’) and ‘Guitarra mía’ (‘My Guitar’). ²⁷

In the process of observing and comparing the series of cultural themes in Giménez’s canciones populares with those found in his concert music, striking similarities come to the foreground. These and other themes – including references to Indigenous groups from other regions in Latin America and influences from late nineteenth-century and early twentieth-century nationalist composers – permeate his entire body of works. In the specific case of his canciones populares, I argue that they function as a kaleidoscope of cultural ideas informed by several personal and socially shared factors. Two of them – Paraguayan history and Guaraní culture (including speaking the language and singing in it) – have been closely associated with a Paraguayan nationalism promoted by early twentieth-century Paraguayan governments. ²⁸ Though at this time evidence is inconclusive whether there is a direct correlation between the nationalistic programmes of early twentieth-century governments and the cultural themes permeating Giménez’s musical works, the parallels are quite notable.

Defining Terms: Música popular/música de proyección folclórica

Giménez’s canciones populares fall in the category of what Paraguayan musicians refer to as música popular or música folclórica or música de proyección folclórica (‘compositions inspired by folk music’). These are synonymous terms employed to designate composed Paraguayan music informed by folk music rhythms. ²⁹ While some Paraguayan musicians may also use the expressions música popular and nuestra música (‘our music’) in reference to Paraguayan music, the majority of the population employs the phrases música folclórica and música popular interchangeably. Among the main folk music genres informing the composition of música folclórica or música popular, both the nineteenth-century polca paraguaya (or polca) and the purahéi asy (Guaraní for ‘song of intense emotion’) constitute its main sources. ³⁰ While the polca paraguaya is a lively song and dance form in compound duple metre with hemiola rhythmic characteristics, the purahéi asy is its slow and relaxed song form counterpart. Both traditional polca paraguaya and purahéi asy exhibit repetitive short musical phrases and a harmonic vocabulary mostly based on a tonic–dominant–subdominant relationship. At first with the musical accompaniment of the guitar and later with the addition of the diatonic harp, the polca paraguaya and the purahéi asy have been closely related to other genres within the Paraguayan music vocabulary: the galopa (a nineteenth-century dance form in compound duple metre), subgenres of the polca (polca kyre’ỹ, polca jekutú, polca syryry), the guarania (a melancholic and relaxed tempo urban song form created in 1925), as well as a series of alternate terms to the guarania designation (aire paraguayo, balada guaraní, canción, canción guaraní, canción paraguaya, and romance paraguayo). ³¹ Other Paraguayan musical genres belonging to the category of música popular or música folclórica include the marcha (‘march’), the rasguido doble (‘double strumming’), and the vals or valseado (‘waltz’, or ‘in the style of a waltz’). Even though the Paraguayan marcha and the vals have been used to compose pieces associated with epic themes (march) and romance (waltz), the rasguido doble is closely related to the rhythmic form of the habanera. Florentín Giménez’s canciones populares have not only been informed by the preceding Paraguayan folkloric musical genres, but in addition to these, he has composed songs based on other musical genres of Hispanic origin such as the Argentine chacarera, zamba, milonga, and tango; the Mexican corrido; and the Spanish chotís.

A Journey through Giménez’s Six-Volume Cancioneros (Songbooks)

Florentín Giménez’s series of songbooks constitute the composer’s published collection of his entire body of canciones populares as he explains them in his catalogue system (see Table 1). ³² Yet while Giménez considers his musical works to be ideal models for composing Paraguayan folk-style music, he uses the term cancioneros not to imply an official prescriptive model or framework of Paraguayan music, but rather as a means to designate and group together his entire collection of canciones populares. ³³ Along with twenty-two instrumental pieces, Giménez’s songs have been published in six volumes: Vol. I in 1993, Vol. II in 2009, Vols III–V in 2011, and Vol. VI in 2014. ³⁴ With the exception of Cancionero I, which was used by the Centro de Publicaciones Universidad Católica Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, the other Cancioneros have been released by Tavaroga, the composer’s own publishing company. While Cancionero I includes introductory essays by lyricist and stage director Mario Prono and folklore specialist Gabino Ruiz Díaz Torales ‘Rudi Torga’, Cancioneros II and III offer introductory musical remarks by the composer. Other Cancioneros include brief essays by other lyricists such as Lino Trinidad Sanabria (Cancionero IV), Marcial Bordas Álvarez (Cancionero V), and Domingo Galeano (Cancionero VI). Surprisingly, though no reviews have been published in reference to the cancioneros, their public reach and relevance could be inferred from the essays, musical remarks, and endorsements given by the preceding writers, as well as from the concert programme notes of the National Symphony – one of the major orchestral ensembles frequently performing selected Giménez’s canciones populares.

Table 1 Summary of Giménez’s published canciones populares

Cancionero	Year	Canciones populares	Canciones from zarzuelas	Canciones from other sources (theatre, opera, chamber works, folk mass)	Instrumental compositions	Total
I	1993	175	3	19	5	202
II	2009	100	10			110
III	2011	95	17		19	131
IV	2011	124	4			128
V	2011	113	2	14		129
VI	2014	111	7			118
Total		737	43	33	24	818

Following the publishing approach of early twentieth-century solo music sheets and song albums, the six cancioneros have been published following a vocal–keyboard layout format with the inclusion of printed lyrics at the end of each song. ³⁵ By providing a melody and accompaniment format to the publication of his canciones populares, the composer desired to give musical flexibility to the potential arrangers and performers of his songs and present a model for other similar publications. In reference to the first cancionero, the composer wrote:

This collection gathers parts for piano and voice with lyrics by more than twenty-three lyricists, some of the most renowned with whom I have collaborated to create my compositions […] I hope that the documentation of these works will help as an example [of composition] and that through the years young composers may follow this model. ³⁶

Composed between 1943 and 1985, out of the 202 pieces published in Cancionero I, 180 belong to the category of Paraguayan vocal compositions. Folkloric genres are showcased under various designations – aire paraguayo, canción, guarania, polca, polca canción, rasguido doble, and vals or valseado – and five such compositions included as instrumental pieces (one guarania, three kyre’ỹ and one polca syryry/polca canción). Four are representative of Argentine folkloric vocal genres (one chacarera and three zambas), and thirteen have been designated as canciones de cámara (‘vocal chamber music’), including eleven solo works (one balada guaraní, ten canciones) and two choral compositions (canción, Christmas villancico). ³⁷ Out of the 197 songs in this volume, thirty-one pieces include lyrics by Giménez.

A volume dedicated to guaranias composed between 1990 and 2009, Cancionero II includes 110 vocal pieces. With the indication ‘composed during my serene hours’, this cancionero also functions as a commentary of a series of personal circumstances experienced by the composer at the time of its publication. ³⁸ As part of the Prologue, the composer refers to them as follows:

Today, when I am experiencing one of the most irrational dispossessions, perhaps because of being so passionately obstinate for the musical future of this country, which has been impacted by improvisations, [feeling] marginalized in my solitude, in the end, I was able to go through this task and organize my manuscripts. Thus, I discovered sketches of songs coming from those passionate creative moments next to poems by numerous lyricists, as well as loose leaves with transcriptions of new melodies. ³⁹

As in the case with Cancionero I, some of the songs published in Cancionero II had been previously composed for Paraguayan zarzuelas. ⁴⁰ As part of the introductory remarks, Cancionero II provides a brief remark on pupyasy, a Guaraní compound term coined by the composer with the purpose of replacing the word polca. As he indicates:

I am committed to change the apocryphal designation of our authentic musical expression, designated with the strange term ‘polka’ – an unfortunate adoption – that challenges the unique characteristics of one of the most singular countries in Latin America. ⁴¹

Giménez argued for the change of the polca designation to defend the purity of Paraguayan music – one of the composer’s main concerns in his role as cultural advocate. Out of the 131 guaranias in this volume, seventeen songs were authored by Giménez.

Cancionero III includes 131 pieces composed between 1990 and 2011. ⁴² Designated as pupyasy, the collection of these canciones populares include contrasting derived forms such as pupyasy kyre’ỹ (‘lively pupyasy’), pupyasy purahéi (‘vocal pupyasy’), and pupyasy syryry (‘effervescent pupyasy’). ⁴³ Out of the 131 pupyasy, twenty-six pieces include lyrics by the composer. In the final section of the cancionero, Giménez added nineteen instrumental pupyasy to be orchestrated at the discretion of arrangers and performers. In fact, on the score he indicated that this group of nineteen pieces had been composed in order to serve as a guide for those who may want to be introduced to Paraguayan music. ⁴⁴

Cancionero IV presents 129 compositions (including genres such as pupyasy, rasguido doble, vals, and milonga). ⁴⁵ Endorsing the composer’s advocacy for the promotion of Paraguayan music, Lino Trinidad Sanabria’s Presentación (Prologue) emphasizes Giménez’s intention to renew the body of Paraguayan vocal music inspired by folk music sources through the composition of these series of canciones populares. ⁴⁶ Out of the 129 songs, thirteen pieces include both music and lyrics by the composer, and as in the case with previous cancioneros, some of the published songs come from Giménez’s zarzuelas. ⁴⁷

Though the subtitle of Cancionero V indicates ‘one hundred and thirty final compositions […] completing seven hundred and four pieces of popular character’, the publication includes 121 songs and the score to Giménez’s ‘Misa folclórica paraguaya’ (‘Paraguayan Folk Mass’), of which individual sections have been counted as part of the canciones populares. ⁴⁸ Among the 121 songs (corrido, guarania, himno, marcha, milonga, pupyasy, rasguido doble, tango, vals, and zamba), the composer includes five vocal pieces from the 1972 musical play Pigmalión, the songs ‘Nuevo día’ (‘New Day’) and ‘Cariñosa’ (‘Lovely’) from the zarzuela Ana de Jesús, and the aria ‘Cautivo amor’ (‘Love Captive’) from his 1987 opera Juana de Lara. Out of the 121 songs, twenty-six pieces include both music and lyrics by the composer.

Cancionero VI presents 118 compositions (chotís, guarania, himno, pupyasy, rasguido doble, and vals) composed between 2011 and 2014. ⁴⁹ In contrast with the previously published cancioneros, out of the 118 compositions, three pieces include both music and lyrics by the composer. In order to provide a general and chronological overview of the cancioneros, Table 1 presents a summary and inventory of Giménez’s published canciones populares. ⁵⁰

Even though the majority of the songs shown on this table come from the canciones populares category, a small percentage of them are connected to a few of the composer’s zarzuelas, his collection of ‘art songs’, and the ‘Misa folclórica paraguaya’. While the included zarzuela songs follow the style of Paraguayan polcas, guaranias, and pupyasy pieces, Giménez’s art songs reflect a series of vocal compositions developed during the 1970s that illustrate the composer’s exploration of the Lied. Most of them were conceived with formally trained singers in mind. ⁵¹ With the exception of the first performance of these series of vocal chamber works, the pieces have remained unknown.

In regard to form, Giménez designs most of his songs as through-composed or in verse and refrain fashion, frequently moving from a minor to a relative major tonality or vice versa. While approximately 60 per cent of the canciones populares include lyrics in Spanish, 30 per cent of the folk-style songs include texts in Guaraní. Alternating verses in both languages or in Jopará, the remaining 10 per cent of the songs showcases the way in which this form of spoken communication is achieved. Giménez’s songs include themes such as romance (38 per cent), nostalgia (18 per cent), and nation–identity–history (10 per cent); others are associated with names of local towns and cities (8 per cent), nature (7 per cent), as well as other miscellaneous topics (19 per cent). This last group of songs includes lyrics describing certain local characters, celebrating family and friendship, depicting specific Guaraní legends and myths, and acknowledging some essential elements of paraguayidad: pride for the Guaraní language and the guarania as a musical form and cultural expression. In addition to these themes and topics, the cancioneros include a lullaby, a Christmas carol, a series of personal prayers, school anthems, and a few songs celebrating the Paraguayan flag and sports (football clubs, mainly).

Giménez’s process of writing music for songs varied according to factors such as whether he was collaborating with a lyricist – who may be a personal friend or an acquaintance – or composing by commission. At times he would read the poetry aloud to find the rhythm or flow or metre informed by the text. Depending on that rhythmic flow or topic, he then would choose the appropriate genre or style to best convey the text. At other times, Giménez would first elaborate a melody and then apply it or adapt it to a text. For instance, in September 2018, during one of my visits to the composer, I witnessed him elaborating a melody on the same page where the text of the poetry had been typed (Figure 3). During this visit, Giménez took a pencil and a ruler, and next to the poem drew staff lines where he notated brief melodic phrases to later be transcribed and edited using music software. After reading the text once, he repeated it, assigning a rhythmic value to each syllable and verse; then he hummed several melodies until he decided which one – or variation of them – appeared as the best fit for the flow of the poetry or for the emphasis of a particular word or phrase.

Figure 3 Florentín Giménez’s working manuscripts of Alas y pétalos (‘Wings and Petals’) and Virginia by lyricist Carlos Miguel Jiménez. (Photograph provided by Giménez and reproduced with permission.)

Next, let us focus on Giménez’s concerns in regard to Paraguayan music and the way in which he strives to promote it through his compositions.

Musical Advocacy

A tireless promoter of music and culture, Giménez considered his symphonic works and canciones populares as models for the composition and notation of Paraguayan music. ⁵² Countless performances and recordings of Giménez’s pieces have translated into sound his intention and desire to defend and promote the integrity of Paraguayan music and culture in a type of self-proclaimed musical advocacy. As discussed by the composer in his monographs La música paraguaya, Historia sin tiempo, and El decálogo sonoro, the phrase ‘purity of Paraguayan music’ refers to the accurate way in which both melody and rhythmic values are supposed to be notated and performed. More specifically, Giménez was concerned with genres based on compound duple metre, such as the guarania and the kyre’ỹ, alternatively pupyasy, Paraguayan polca, and galopa. Lamenting the lack of musical understanding among the majority of present-day Paraguayan music performers, Giménez addressed this particular issue on radio, television, and in newspaper interviews, as well as through interactions on social media. ⁵³ Besides recording his own compositions, he was a passionate advocate for the orchestration and dissemination of specific folk-style works by other Paraguayan composers. His experience as pianist and ensemble director of various orquestas típicas in the 1950s and 1960s and his conducting tenures with the Asunción Symphony (1970s–1980s) and the National Symphony (2004–08) provided Giménez with the unique opportunity to arrange, orchestrate, and perform his own canon of Paraguayan musical works. In addition to special scheduled concerts of the Asunción Symphony and the National Symphony that were devoted exclusively to Paraguayan music, Giménez developed the practice of including arranged folk-style music works in almost every regular concert of these two major ensembles. ⁵⁴

Among the studio recordings featuring works by Paraguayan composers under the baton of Giménez, two of them illustrate the composer’s approach and commitment to the promotion of Paraguayan music throughout his career. Re-edited in 2000, the compact disc Galas orquestales, archivo I (Orchestral Gala, Archive I) included previously released recordings of various chamber groups in Argentina and Paraguay performing a selection of folk-style pieces arranged and orchestrated by Giménez. Recorded in the 1970s and 1980s, these pieces showed his particular approach to musical arrangement: introduction, verse–refrain form, passing of the melody among instrumental sections or soloists, modulations to the mediant, and, at times, variations with countermelodies. ⁵⁵ Released in 2005 under the sponsorship of the Ministerio de Educación y Cultura (Ministry of Education and Culture), his recording Joyas de la música paraguaya (‘Jewels of Paraguayan Music’) featured the National Symphony performing the Paraguayan National Anthem as well as folk-style pieces by Paraguayan composers. ⁵⁶ With over four decades of experience, Giménez’s approach to the arrangements of these selected compositions showed a mature and solid composer, orchestrator, and conductor. Expanded in terms of scope and duration for a symphony orchestra, each one of the arranged pieces revealed a particular orchestral colour informed by the particular piece’s programmatic nature. Though other representative recordings of Giménez’s compositions and arrangements of Paraguayan folk-style music have been produced, both Galas orquestales and Joyas de la música paraguaya function as a kaleidoscope that displays the continuous musical commitment of a nationalist composer who desired to communicate genuine pride for his country of origin, as well as his cultural identity. ⁵⁷

Giménez’s concern for the proper notation of Paraguayan folk-style music dated back to the 1950s, when he witnessed the work of music copyists commissioned to notate new pieces for copyright purposes in Buenos Aires. ⁵⁸ Several of these copyists, as Giménez remembered, were not properly trained to write guaranias and Paraguayan polcas in compound duple metre, transcribing them in triple metre and dismissing the typical sincopado paraguayo (‘Paraguayan syncopation’) – the aural effect of a light-hearted anticipation of the beat or the connection of the last beat of a bar with the first of the next one, rendering the acoustic impression of falling behind the beat. ⁵⁹ After that time, he aimed to train fellow musicians, composers, performers, arrangers, and conservatory students in the correct practice of notation and performance of Paraguayan music. ⁶⁰ Nevertheless, his zeal for the proper understanding of Paraguayan folk-style compositions reached a new level through the creation of a musical form: the pupyasy.

After several decades of using polca paraguaya, kyre’ỹ, and galopa to designate the lively character of some of his canciones populares, Giménez proposed a new designation for them in 2007. ⁶¹ He combined two words in Guaraní: pupy-asy (pupy = ‘nucleus of sounds’ and asy = ‘soulful emotion’ or ‘sensitivity’) to show a closer connection with Paraguayan culture and thus replace common terms adapted from foreign words to designate genres of Paraguayan music. ⁶² For the composer, showing and maintaining a strong connection with the socially constructed notion of Guaraní identity and culture was a critical part of the promotion of a Paraguayan cultural identity. In fact, in Giménez’s view the use of Guaraní terminology to designate Paraguayan music genres authenticate them as carriers of that Guaraní identity. Texts in Guaraní or Jopará set to the sounds of Paraguayan folk-style music function similarly. In addition to sections in the cancioneros and in his 2007 novel Rasgos y pasiones, Giménez has thoroughly discussed the term pupyasy in his collection of essays El decálogo sonoro. Curiously, starting with the third Cancionero (2011), the lively songs earlier labelled polcas have been referred to and published under this new designation. ⁶³ Within the pupyasy complex, Giménez has proposed four currents or subgenres: pupyasy kyre’ỹ (‘animated or vivacious pupyasy’), pupyasy purahéi (‘vocal pupyasy’), pupyasy syryry (‘lively, bouncy pupyasy’), and pupyasy asy (‘thoughtful, reflective pupyasy’). Giménez’s goal was to use the term pupyasy as a construct and musical signifier of Paraguayan cultural identity. Nevertheless, while a few other Paraguayan composers have followed Giménez’s idea and employed the term pupyasy, in reality, polca paraguaya and polca have remained the preferred designation for the majority of musicians.

Next, let us explore the background and context of three of Giménez’s most representative vocal music compositions: ‘Así canta mi patria’, ‘Muy cerca de ti’, and ‘Ka’aguype’.

‘Así canta mi patria’

In 1951, during a concert tour in San Juan Bautista de las Misiones (southern Paraguay) and inspired by the natural landscape, Giménez composed the melody for the song that would be entitled ‘Así canta mi patria’. Lyricist Lionel Enrique Lara later added the text and soon after their collaboration was recognized at first by performances and recordings of notable Paraguayan artists such as Samuel Aguayo, Luis Alberto del Paraná, Trío Los Paraguayos, and others (Table 2). Since then and along with ‘Mi patria soñada’ (‘Country of My Dreams’), a song composed in 1952 by lyricist Carlos Miguel Jiménez and singer-songwriter Agustín Barboza, ‘Así canta mi patria’ has become an iconic Paraguayan anthem replete with sentiments of patriotic pride and nostalgia. A fifty-five-bar guarania in F major and binary form (AA′BAA′B), the folkloric song presents a series of four-bar repetitive and lyrical melodic phrases (Example 1).

Table 2 Chronological list of commercially released canciones populares from Florentín Giménez’s early period (1952–60)

Title	Year of composition	Recorded by
Así canta mi patria	1951–52	Luis Alberto del Paraná (n.d.), Trío Los Paraguayos (1956, 1958, 1999), Samuel Aguayo (1958?), Oscar Mendoza (1958), Oscar Del’Alba (1959), Los 3 Paraguayos (1970), Los Trovadores Paraguayos (1974), Vocal Dos (1980?), Orquesta de Cámara Municipal (2013), Grupo Perfil (2014), Aguas Claras (2018)
Muchachita	1952	Luis Alberto del Paraná y el Conjunto Juan Escobar (n.d.)
Nocturnal	1953	Los Cantores del Paraguay (n.d.)
Muy cerca de ti	1956	Trío Sánchez–Monges–Ayala (1956, 1977), Gregorio Barrios (1957, 1964, 1975), Conjunto Farroupilha (1957, 1958, 1979), Franquito (1959, 1968), Samuel Aguayo (1958?), India Tini con seu conjunto Paraguai eté (1958), Los 4 Hermanos Silva (1958, 1965), Trío Ñandutí (1960?), Andy Russell (1960?), Angel ‘Pocho’ Gatti (1960?), Freddie Davies (1960), Porfirio Báez (1960?), Argentino Galván (1960?), Enrique Dumas (1960?), Alfredo Rolando Ortíz (1960?), Daniel Salinas e seu piano (1960, 1968), Aristides Valdéz e seu conjunto paraguaio Calandria Ñu (1960), Dionisio Bernal e seu conjunto paraguaio (n.d.), Trío Lambaré (n.d.), Trío Paraná (n.d.), Roberto Barreiros (1960?), Heraldo do Monte e seu conjunto (1961), Primas Miranda (1961), Martha Mendonça (1963), Roberto Yanés (1964), Carlos González Ayala e sua Orquesta (1965), Estela Raval y los 5 Latinos (1967), María Teresa Márquez (1967), Lorenzo González (1968), Orquestra Serenata Tropical (1968), Aníbal Sampayo (1969), Los Buenos Paraguayos (1974), Ugo Marotta (1976), Los Hermanos López y su Harpa Paraguáia (1977), Los Cinco Latinos (1978), Quintín Irala y Orquesta (n.d.), Lucio Milena y su orquesta (n.d.), Trío Cristal (1982), Los 3 Sudamericanos (1984), Trío Los Panchos (1984), Santo Morales (1986), Celso and Familia Duarte (1995), Los Alfonso (1996), Papi Galán (1997), Palito Miranda (2002), Delia Picaguá (2004), Trío Lambaré (2009), Aires Gonçalves (2015)
Mi lejano amor	1956	Los Hermanos López y su Harpa Paraguáia (1977)
Sin saber por qué	1956	Mercedes Sosa (1959, 1962), [Dúo] Ala Par (2019)
Te sigo esperando	1957	Samuel Aguayo (n.d.), María Teresa Márquez (1957), Julio César del Paraguay (1960), Trío Cristal (1966), Ramona Galarza (1966, 1977), Aníbal Sampayo (1967), Lorenzo González (1968), Orquestra Serenata Tropical (1968), Ugo Marotta (1976), Los Hermanos López y su Harpa Paraguáia (1977), Los Cumbreños (1980), Papi Galán (1997)
Soy el amor	1960	Baby Bell (1961), Juan Ramón (1961), Raúl Lavié (1963), Neil Sedaka (1964)

Example 1a ‘Así canta mi patria’ by Lionel Enrique Lara (lyricist) and Florentín Giménez.

Example 1b ‘Así canta mi patria’, lyrics.

Con voces tal como el eco de su sentir,	With voices echoing her sentiment,
Profundo canto de dicha en cada emoción,	Profound and joyful song of every emotion,
Vibrante grito de lucha de hondos amores,	Vibrant cry of struggles and her deep love,
El alma pone la raza en cada canción.	The soul yields the [Paraguayan] race in each song.
Así canta mi patria su himno de fe,	Thus, my country sings her hymn of faith,
Llevando el tesoro inmenso de su vigor.	Carrying the treasure of her might.
La fuerza que contenida renacerá	Strength that contained will have a rebirth
Trayendo la paz, la dicha para vivir.	Bringing peace, the joy to live.
Recogiendo dulces suaves frescuras en el arroyuelo,	Gathering sweet and soft freshness from the stream,
Subiéndose tenue lípida grácil en los trinares,	Hearing the graceful sound of the trills of birds,
Aromándose con los mil perfumes de la floresta,	Receiving the aroma of a thousand scents from the forest,
Milagro de amor, mi gran Paraguay se hizo canción.	[A] miracle of love, my beloved Paraguay has become a song. 64

By analysing the text of the song, Lara’s poem intends to express a deep sense of nationalistic passion and pride. By exalting nature and the country’s hymn of faith, the poet announces an inherent joy and peace coming to fruition in a miracle of love, or my beloved Paraguay. Though the melody was composed before the text, Giménez’s lyrical guarania maximizes the intensity of the poetry, revealing an effective collaboration between lyricist and composer. Evidence suggests that the positive reception and promotion of the song was related to its specific message of hope in the context of Paraguayan politics of the times. ⁶⁵ In fact, around the mid-1940s, Paraguayan society experienced political turmoil and social unrest as friction grew between and within the two main political parties – the Partido Colorado (‘Colorado Party’) or Asociación Nacional Republicana (‘Republican National Association’) and the Partido Liberal (‘Liberal Party’), first founded with the designation Centro Democrático (‘Democratic Centre’). At the same time, a brief period of social respite known as the primavera democrática (‘democratic spring’) of 1946 promoted in the population a new freedom of expression. Minority political parties – including those of socialist and communist tendencies – actively promoted their doctrines among Paraguayan young adults and professionals, and a series of previously exiled political figures returned to the country. Nevertheless, in 1947 a civil conflict that started in the city of Concepción – about 400 kilometres from the capital – lasted for six months and brought Colorado Party agitators known as the pynandí (‘barefoot’) to Asunción. Creating chaos and instability in the capital and surrounding vicinities, the group returned to their farmlands a year later. After the presidential elections of 1948, though still experiencing a climate of political threats and harassment, relative calm returned to the country. ⁶⁶

Composed in the aftermath of these unstable political times, ‘Así canta mi patria’ has become a type of national song which continues to be frequently featured at local music festivals, primary and secondary school events, and radio and television folk music shows.

‘Muy cerca de ti’

In 1956, a few months after he moved to Buenos Aires, Giménez’s melody to what would become ‘Muy cerca de ti’ was given to lyricist Ben Molar. ⁶⁷ Giménez was encouraged in this endeavour by Paraguayan singer-songwriter and personal friend Demetrio Ortíz. Impressed by Giménez’s lyrical melodic theme, Molar added text and the song was immediately published and recorded. An instant hit, ‘Muy cerca de ti’ became one of the most recorded collaborative compositions by Molar and Giménez, who cultivated a lasting friendship and partnership. Curiously, though conceived as a strophic guarania, the song became flexible as it was adapted to fit other genres for specific artists and recordings. Among them were Enrique Dumas’s rendition as a tango (1960?), Freddie Davis’s English version as a slow rock ballad (1960), and Estela Raval y los 5 Latinos’s recording as a stylized bolero (1967). Other notable renditions include the Spanish–English guarania version by Andy Russell (1960?), numerous recordings in Portuguese by various Brazilian artists, the instrumental arrangements by Argentino Galván with a chamber ensemble/orquesta típica approach (1960?), and Angel ‘Pocho’ Gatti’s version with a symphony orchestra (1960?). ‘Muy cerca de ti’ follows the rhyme scheme, harmonic structure, and form of a 1950s verse-and-refrain Latin American popular song using the Paraguayan guarania rhythmic form and style (Example 2). Even though this song could fit into other models of commercially thriving Latin American folk-style ballads of the times, the guarania melodic treatment and rhythmic accentuation shows the use of the sincopado paraguayo. Though the melody was composed first, according to Giménez, Molar captured the essence of the slow and relaxed guarania rhythm, and that rhythm was precisely conducive to presenting a text so charged with melancholy and nostalgia.

Example 2a ‘Muy cerca de ti’ by Ben Molar (lyricist) and Florentín Giménez.

Example 2b ‘Muy cerca de ti’, lyrics.

¿Por qué, si tanto te amé,	Why, if I loved you so,
tú te vas de mi?	Did you leave me?
¿Por qué, si te di mi fe,	Why, if I gave you my trust,
me dejas sin ti?	Are you leaving me?
¿Por qué, si fui tan felíz	Why, if I was so happy
muy cerca de ti,	Being very close to you,
Te vas, dejándome así	Do you leave me
con mi soledad?	With my solitude?
Jamás podré comprender	I’ll never understand
que tan gran querer,	That such great love
fue cual un sueño irreal	Was like an unreal dream
que no existe más.	That no longer exists.
Puede que te arrepientas	Perhaps you will repent,
y mi llanto presientas,	As you imagine my tears,
cuando sin esperanzas	When without hope
llores por mi…	You will weep for me…
Puede que te arrepientas	Perhaps you will repent,
y mi llanto presientas,	As you imagine my tears,
pero ya no estaré	But I will no longer be
muy cerca de ti.	Very close to you. 68

What was it about this particular song that made it into an instant hit? Even though Giménez’s melodic lines and the lyricist’s text reveal a close and effective musical and poetic collaboration, it was Molar’s entrepreneurial ability and marketing skills as owner of Fermata that were key to Giménez’s first successful canción popular in Buenos Aires. Remembering the experience, Giménez recalls Molar’s unique enthusiasm for the song, which was shared with a host of international recording artists in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, and Paraguay. Soon after additional compositions with Molar secured Giménez an auspicious position and career as a composer, arranger, and ensemble leader in Buenos Aires. In fact, besides ‘Muy cerca de ti’, songs such as ‘Te sigo esperando’, ‘Soy el amor’ (‘I Am Love’), and others became widely acclaimed collaborations of the Molar-Giménez partnership (Figure 4). ⁶⁹

Figure 4 Florentín Giménez and Ben Molar in Buenos Aires (decade of the 1990s). (Photograph provided by Giménez and reproduced with permission.)

‘Ka’aguype’

As one of the most celebrated instrumental compositions by Florentín Giménez, ‘Ka’aguype’ has become a work regularly performed by Paraguayan orchestras. Composed in 1948, Giménez’s piece was awarded first prize at a 1950 Paraguayan music composition contest sponsored by the Paraguayan Ministerio de Educación y Culto (‘Secretariat of Education and Worship’). In addition to commercially released recordings of ‘Ka’aguype’ by members of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic (1978), the Asunción Symphony (OSCA, 1996), and the National Symphony (OSN, 2004), the composition continues to be regularly programmed by Paraguayan orchestras. Though the piece has been arranged by Giménez and other orchestrators at different times, the original ‘Ka’aguype’ was conceived as a kyre’ỹ of eighty-five bars. As in the case of other compositions of this nature, Giménez’s work begins with a slow introduction, which is followed by two lively contrasting sections (Example 3).

Example 3 ‘Ka’aguype’ by Florentín Giménez.

Employing repetitive motives and brief musical phrases, the composer shows a preference for a harmonic vocabulary based on the tonic–subdominant–dominant relationship, a common feature found in Paraguayan folk-style music.

Of notable contrast are the versions by the Orquesta Típica Orrego (OTO, 1960?), the recording by members of the Buenos Aires Philharmonic (1978), and those by the OSCA (1996) and the OSN (2005). ⁷⁰ The first and second recordings appear closer in length (3′26″ and 3′19″, respectively) while the versions by the OSCA (5′14″) and the OSN (6′02″) have been developed as expansions of the original piece. Following the orquesta típica approach and sound, the OTO version was arranged for clarinet, bandoneón, three violins, viola, and double bass. In contrast, the 1978 recording presented a chamber approach orchestration, featuring winds (flute, oboe, clarinet), guitar, and strings. Employing repetition of sections and modulations to the chromatic mediant, the 1996 and 2005 versions have been clearly developed for large symphony orchestras and have remained as the final orchestral versions of Giménez’s lively piece. ‘Ka’aguype’ celebrates love for nature and the country’s natural resources as illustrated through the kyre’ỹ rhythm. Indeed, along with other frequently performed pieces by local folk-style music ensembles and symphony orchestras, ‘Ka’aguype’ continues to be considered part of the unofficial canon of folk-style works that are representative of Paraguayan musical culture. ⁷¹

Concluding Thoughts

These early songs by Giménez represent three distinctive, yet interrelated compositions. Though other musical pieces have preceded them, I have chosen these three canciones populares for two main reasons: they were widely disseminated during Giménez’s early career in Buenos Aires, and since the 1960s, they have continued to be performed and recorded nationally and internationally. Both ‘Así canta mi patria’ and ‘Muy cerca de ti’ demonstrate the composer’s conviction that the guarania is the ideal Paraguayan song form to communicate profound and personal sentiments. Even though in both cases the musical composition of those pieces preceded that of the poems, the collaborative effort between composer and lyricists have rendered two celebrated and memorable results. Giménez’s use of Paraguayan folk music idioms – repetitive melodic phrases and harmonic sequences, the characteristic compound duple metre with hemiola rhythmic characteristics, and the sincopado paraguayo – along with his orchestrations and recordings have become key elements and cultural signifiers of a prescriptive model for the composition, arrangement, and orchestration of Paraguayan music. Moreover, the lively ‘Ka’aguype’ not only depicts a Paraguayan natural landscape, but both the Guaraní designation of the genre – kyre’ỹ – and the title of the piece emphasize the composer’s high view of elements informed by Guaraní culture.

As I have shown, Giménez’s collection of songs shows the composer’s productivity in the sphere of Paraguayan folk-style music composition and introduces audiences to his approach to the various cultural themes illustrated in them. Though these various Paraguayan cultural themes could be seen as a mere personal choice of the composer, Giménez saw them as extremely significant. He believed them to illustrate, musically speaking, how socially embedded Paraguayan cultural beliefs ought to be represented. As the first multi-volume collection of songs composed, edited, and published by a Paraguayan composer, the six songbooks constitute a landmark in Paraguayan vocal music literature. Including representative local musical genres as well as others of Hispanic origin, Giménez’s collection of folk-style songs serves as a chronological and musical testament necessary to understanding the composer’s development of ideas in the course of almost eighty years of work (1943–2021). Moreover, Giménez’s canciones populares function as a lens through which one may observe and evaluate his personal beliefs and legacy as a Paraguayan composer. Whether he composed melodies to poems in Guaraní, Spanish, or Jopará, Florentín Giménez strived to represent through his actions and beliefs the embodiment of paraguayidad. Indeed, for Giménez the authentic way of being a Paraguayan composer was enacted by creating music depicting a strong admiration for the country, by hailing aspects of Guaraní culture, by advocating for the promotion of Paraguayan music, and by communicating through his musical works a robust cultural nationalism and pride.