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Violeta Parra
Violeta Parra in the 1960s
Background information
Birth name	Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval
Born	(1917-10-04)4 October 1917
Origin	San Carlos, Chile
Died	5 February 1967(1967-02-05) (aged 49)
Genres	Folk, Singer-Songwriter, Andean music, Latin music, Chilean music, Experimental Music, Nueva Canción
Occupations	Vocalist, Songwriter, Plastic Arts
Instruments	Vocals, Guitar, Charango, Cuatro, Percussion
Years active	1939–1965
Labels	EMI-Odeon Alerce Warner Music
Associated acts	Víctor Jara, Quilapayún, Inti-illimani, Patricio Manns, Illapu, Ángel Parra, Isabel Parra, Roberto Parra, Sergio Ortega, Margot Loyola, Pablo Neruda, Nicanor Parra, Soledad Bravo, Daniel Viglietti, Mercedes Sosa, Joan Baez, Holly Near, Elis Regina, Dean Reed, Silvio Rodríguez
Website	Official Website

Violeta del Carmen Parra Sandoval (4 October 1917 – 5 February 1967) was a Chilean composer, songwriter, folklorist, ethnomusicologist and visual artist. She set the basis for "Chilean' New Song", La Nueva Canción chilena, a renewal and a reinvention of Chilean folk music which would absorb and extend its influence far beyond Chile.

Biography[link]

Parra was born in San Carlos, province of Ñuble, a small town in southern Chile on October the 4, 1917. She was involved in the progressive movement and the Communist Party of Chile. She revived the Peña (now known as La Peña de Los Parra), a community center for the arts and for political activism. Some think she established the first 'peña' but according to the records of the Royal Academy of Spanish Language, places such as these had been called that since 1936 (RAE).

Violeta Parra was a member of the prolific Parra family. Among her brothers were the notable modern poet, better known as the "anti-poet", Nicanor Parra and fellow folklorist Roberto Parra. Her son, Ángel Parra, and her daughter, Isabel Parra, are also important figures in the development of the Nueva Canción Chilena. Their children have also mostly maintained the family's artistic traditions.

In 1967 Violeta Parra committed suicide.^[1] She had previously been romantically involved with Swiss flautist Gilbert Favre.

Gracias a la vida[link]

Her most renowned song, Gracias a la Vida (Thanks to Life), was popularized throughout Latin America by Mercedes Sosa and later in the US by Joan Baez. It remains one of the most covered Latin American songs in history. Other notable covers of this tragic, but widely beloved, folk anthem include the Italian guitar-vocal solo of Adriana Mezzadr and La Oreja de Van Gogh at the 2005 Festival Internacional de la Canción in Viña del Mar, Chile.^[2]

It has been treated by classically trained musicians such as in the fully orchestrated rendition by conservatory-trained Alberto Cortez.^[3]

The song has been re-recorded by several Latin artists and Canadian Michael Bublé to gather funds for the Chilean people affected by the earthquake in Chile, February 2010.^[4]

The song is in waltz time (3/4) and thus suitable for romantic dance forms; it opens with a very common shift between A minor and E Major chords, then it goes to G7-C/C7 before returning to the Am/E motif. ^[5]

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"Gracias a la vida" was written and recorded following Parra's separation with her long-time partner and shortly before she took her own life. Parra's lyricism is ambiguous; at face value, Parra's lyricism may be read as a romantic celebration of life and individual experience, however the circumstances surrounding the song suggest that Parra also intended the song as a sort of suicide note, thanking life for all it has given her. It may even be read as sarcastic or ironic, pointing out that a life full of good health, opportunity and worldly experience may not offer any consolation to grief and the contradictory nature of the human condition.

The song opens with a simple strumming at a leisurely tempo and exploits the poetic beauty of the Spanish language with consummate skill.

Gracias a la vida que me ha dado tanto

Me dio dos luceros que cuando los abro

Perfecto distingo lo negro del blanco

Y en el alto cielo su fondo estrellado

Y en las multitudes el hombre que yo amo

Translated into English the lyrical sentiment and ambiguity is best conveyed by personifying life;

Thank you life, you have given me so much

You gave me two eyes which when I open them

I can distinguish perfectly between black and white

And the starry depths of the sky above

And amongst the masses the man that I love

And the closing refrain "Gracias a la vida", ironically,

Thank you life

Thank you life

Thank you life

Another highly regarded original, "Volver a los Diecisiete" ("To Be Seventeen Again") similarly celebrates the themes of youthful life, in tragic contrast to her biography. Unlike much popular music, it moves through minor key progression creating an introspective if not melancholy mood and thus has lent itself to classical treatment ^[6] as well as popular music. Despite its originality, Parra's music was deeply rooted in folk song traditions, as is the case with Nueva Cancion in general.^[6]

As noted by Mercedes Sosa, with regard to "Gracias a la Vida", Parra's music was, though about "simple things", always "prophetic and true".^[7]

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

• Chants et danses du chili. Vol. 1 (1956)
• Chants et danses du chili. Vol. 2 (1956)
• Violeta Parra, Canto y guitarra. El Folklore de Chile, Vol. I (1956)
• Violeta Parra, acompañada de guitarra. El Folklore de Chile, Vol. II (1958)
• La cueca presentada por Violeta Parra: El Folklore de Chile, Vol. III. (1958)
• La tonada presentada por Violeta Parra: El Folklore de Chile, Vol. IV. (1958)
• Toda Violeta Parra: El Folklore de Chile, Vol. VIII (1960)
• Violeta Parra, guitare et chant: Chants et danses du Chili. (1963)
• Recordandeo a Chile (Una Chilena en París). (1965)
• Carpa de la Reina (1966)
• Las últimas composiciones de Violeta Parra (1967)

Posthumous discography[link]

• Violeta Parra y sus canciones reencontradas en París (1971)
• Canciones de Violeta Parra (1971)
• Le Chili de Violeta Parra (1974)
• Un río de sangre (1975)
• Presente / Ausente (1975)
• Décimas (1976)
• Chants & rythmes du Chili (1991)
• El hombre con su razón (1992)
• Décimas y Centésimas (1993)
• El folklore y la pasión (1994)
• Haciendo Historia: La jardinera y su canto (1997)
• Violeta Parra: Antología (1998)
• Canciones reencontradas en París (1999)
• Composiciones para guitarra (1999)
• Violeta Parra - En Ginebra, En Vivo, 1965 (1999)
• Violeta Parra: Cantos Campesinos (1999)

Further reading[link]

• Moreno, Albrecht: "Violeta Parra and 'La Nueva Canción Chilena." Studies in Latin American Popular Culture 5 (1986): 108—26.
• Alcalde, Alfonso: Toda Violeta Parra (biography plus anthology of songs and poems) Ediciones de la Flor. Buenos Aires 1974

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official site of the Violeta Parra Foundation
• Discography and lyrics
• Discography
• Issac 2001 Triptych version of Gracias A la Vida
• Remembering Violeta Parra
• Violeta Parra's gravesite