{{short description|Argentine composer (1921–2010)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=August 2022}} {{Infobox person | image = Ariel Ramírez retrato 03.jpg | alt = | caption = Portrait of Ariel Ramírez by Anatole Saderman, 1957 | birth_date = {{Birth date|1921|9|4|df=y}} | birth_place = Santa Fe, Argentina | death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|2|18|1921|9|4|df=y}} | death_place = Monte Grande, Buenos Aires, Argentina | occupation = {{hlist|Composer|pianist|music director}} | years_active = }} '''Ariel Ramírez''' (4 September 1921 – 18 February 2010) was an Argentine composer, pianist and music director. He was considered "a chief exponent of Argentine folk music" and noted for his "iconic" musical compositions.<ref name="Latin American Herald Tribune"/>
Ramírez is known primarily for his ''Misa Criolla'' (1964).<ref name="Radio Netherlands Worldwide"/><ref name="Buenos Aires Herald"/> It allowed him to travel around Europe and Latin America to build his reputation.<ref name="Buenos Aires Herald"/> However, he wrote more than 300 compositions during his career, and sold over 10 million albums.<ref name="Momento24"/><ref name="The Washington Post"/><ref>{{cite web |last1=Vitale |first1=Cristian |title=Una obra cumbre de la música popular {{!}} A 50 años del estreno de Misa Criolla |url=https://www.pagina12.com.ar/25167-una-obra-cumbre-de-la-musica-popular |website=PAGINA12 |access-date=19 April 2023 |language=es |date=11 March 2017}}</ref>
== Biography == thumb|left|Ariel Ramírez next to a piano in 1938 Ariel Ramírez was born in Santa Fe, Argentina.<ref name="The Washington Post"/> His father, who was from Spain and immigrated to Argentina, was a teacher and it had been thought Ramírez would also pursue this career path but the job lasted for just two days due to "discipline problems".<ref name="The Washington Post"/> He initially pursued tango before switching to Argentine folklore.<ref name="The Washington Post"/> He began his piano studies in Santa Fe, and soon became fascinated with the music of the gauchos and creoles in the mountains. He continued his studies in Córdoba, where he met the great Argentine folk singer and songwriter Atahualpa Yupanqui and was influenced by him.<ref name="Buenos Aires Herald"/>
[[File:Ariel Ramírez y Atahualpa Yupanqui 01.jpg|thumb|Ariel Ramírez with Atahualpa Yupanqui {{circa}}{{nbsp}} 1962]] Following a suggestion from Yupanqui, he visited the northeastern part of Argentina, and deepened his research into the traditional rhythms of South America. He spent time in Mendoza and Buenos Aires.<ref name="Buenos Aires Herald"/> At the same time continuing his academic studies as a composer at the National Conservatory of Music, in Buenos Aires.<ref name="Buenos Aires Herald"/> He made his first recording in 1946, with RCA; he made twenty records with that label until 1956.<ref name="Buenos Aires Herald"/> Plácido Domingo, José Carreras and Mercedes Sosa are some of the artists to have recorded his work.<ref name="Radio Netherlands Worldwide"/> He was also associated with Miguel Brascó and Félix Luna.<ref name="Momento24"/>
Ramírez went on to study classical music in Madrid, Rome and mainly in Vienna, from 1950 to 1954. Back in Argentina, he collected over 400 folk and country songs and popular songs and founded the Compañía de Folklore Ariel Ramírez.<ref name=nacion>[http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=1234859 ''La Nación'' (2/18/2010)] {{in lang|es}}</ref>
Ramírez had two daughters, Mariana and Laura, and a son, Facundo.<ref name="La Nación">{{cite news|author=René Vargas Vera|url=http://www.lanacion.com.ar/1235449-el-ultimo-adios-al-pianista-y-compositor-ariel-ramirez|title=El último adiós al pianista y compositor Ariel Ramírez|date=February 21, 2010|newspaper=La Nación|access-date=12 July 2013}}</ref> (NB: ''The Washington Post'' reported in error that he had two sons.)<ref name="The Washington Post">{{cite news|author=Adam Bernstein|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/02/20/AR2010022003418.html|title=Ariel Ramirez dies; Argentine composer wrote 'Misa Criolla'|date=February 21, 2010|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=21 February 2010}}</ref> He married musicologist Norma Inés Cuello de Ramírez.<ref name="Dirección de música y danza">{{cite news|author=Alicia Agüero |url=http://musicaydanza.cultura.gob.ar/alicia-aguero/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150106021753/http://musicaydanza.cultura.gob.ar/alicia-aguero/ |url-status=dead |archive-date=6 January 2015 |title=Dirección Nacional de Artes |access-date=12 July 2012 }}</ref><ref name="Boletín Oficial, Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires">{{cite news|author=Publicación oficial|url=http://boletinoficial.buenosaires.gob.ar/areas/leg_tecnica/boletinOficial/documentos/boletines/2011/09/20110929.pdf|title=Boletín Oficial, Gobierno de la Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires|date=September 29, 2011|access-date=12 July 2013}}</ref>
== Compositions == In 1964, the Ramírez composition ''Misa Criolla'' marked the beginning of a period of high musical productivity for the composer, which also heralded the premieres of the works ''Navidad Nuestra'' and ''La Peregrinación'' (both 1964); ''Los Caudillos'' (1965); ''Mujeres Argentinas'' (1969), and ''Alfonsina y el mar'' (1969), all produced in collaboration with writer Félix Luna. ''Misa Criolla'' and ''Alfonsina y el mar'' are probably his best-known compositions.
===''Misa Criolla''=== [[File:Gira europea presentación Misa criolla 12.jpg|thumb|Ramírez gifts a copy of ''Misa Criolla'' to Pope Paul VI]] ''Misa Criolla'' was one of the first masses not in Latin shortly after the Second Vatican Council permitted use of the vernacular in Catholic churches.<ref name="Radio Netherlands Worldwide">{{cite news|url=http://www.rnw.nl/english/article/argentinian-composer-ariel-ram%C3%ADrez-dies|title=Argentinian composer Ariel Ramírez dies|date=February 19, 2010|publisher=Radio Netherlands Worldwide|access-date=21 February 2010}}</ref><ref name="The Washington Post"/> ''The Washington Post'' wrote that the ''Misa Criolla'' is "widely regarded as a stunning artistic achievement, [that] combined Spanish text with indigenous instruments and rhythms".<ref name="The Washington Post"/> It led to album sales numbering in the millions internationally.<ref name="The Washington Post"/> Ramírez once told ''The Jerusalem Post'' how ''Misa Criolla'' was inspired by a visit to Germany after World War II.<ref name="The Washington Post"/> While there, he had an encounter with two of five sisters (siblings, not nuns), who had regularly risked their lives bringing food to prisoners of the Nazis in their neighbourhood, which led him to consider writing "a spiritual piece". This would eventually become the ''Misa Criolla''.<ref name="The Washington Post"/>
The ''Misa''—a 16-minute Mass for either male or female soloists, chorus, and traditional instruments—is based on folk genres such as chacarera, carnavalito, and estilo pampeano, with Andean influences and instruments. Ramírez wrote the piece from 1963 to 1964, and it was recorded in 1965<ref name="Navidad Nuestra">{{cite news|title=WorldCat, Misa Criolla Navidad nuestra listing|oclc = 9208123}}</ref> by Philips Records, directed by Ramírez himself with Los Fronterizos as featured performers (Philips 820-39 LP, including ''Navidad Nuestra'', remastered in 1994 and released by Philips as CD 526 155). It was not publicly performed until 1967 in Düsseldorf, Germany, during a European tour that eventually brought Ariel Ramírez before Pope Paul VI. Other notable recordings feature the solo voices of George Dalaras (1989), José Carreras (1990), and Mercedes Sosa (1999). Plácido Domingo recorded the ''Kyrie'' (the first movement of the ''Misa'') with Dominic Miller on guitar (2003). On 12 December 2014, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, it was performed in St. Peter's Basilica, Rome at the invitation of Pope Francis, with Patricia Sosa as the soprano soloist and conducted by Facundo Ramírez, son of the composer, who had conducted its first performance in St. Peter's Basilica exactly fifty years before.
==="Alfonsina y el mar"=== [[File:Ariel Ramírez y Felix Luna 01.jpg|thumb|left|Ariel Ramírez and Félix Luna, composers of ''Alfonsina y el mar'']] {{Main article|Alfonsina y el mar}} While not sharing the same worldwide success,{{Citation needed|date=February 2010}} ''Alfonsina y el mar'' enjoys great popularity in Latin America and Spain, being one of the most well regarded songs in Argentine folk music. The piece pays homage to poet Alfonsina Storni, evoking her tragic suicide in 1938, when she threw herself into the sea at La Perla beach in Mar del Plata, and the poem she wrote as a goodbye message, ''I Am Going to Sleep''. Artists of the stature of Mercedes Sosa, Nana Mouskouri, Violeta Parra, Alfredo Kraus, Avishai Cohen and José Carreras (with Pasión Vega) have made recordings of the song, as well as many other popular singers including Shakira, Ane Brun, Miguel Bosé, Andrés Calamaro and Paloma San Basilio.
===Other=== [[File:Ariel Ramírez "Cantata sudamericana 01.jpg|thumb|Live performance of ''Cantata sudamericana'' at Channel 11 studios in 1972]] Other major compositions by Ramírez include the ''Cantata Sudamericana'' ("South American Cantata": again with text by Félix Luna, 1972) and the ''Misa por la paz y la justicia'' ("Mass for Peace and Justice", 1981), with texts by Félix Luna and Osvaldo Catena.<ref name="Radio Netherlands Worldwide"/> He wrote more than 300 compositions during his career.<ref name="Momento24"/> With Luna he created the Mercedes Sosa hit album ''Mujeres Argentinas'' ("Argentine Women", 1969), which documented women fighting for their freedom.<ref name="The Washington Post"/>
Along with the Hamlet Lima Quintana, Ramírez composed the music for Carlos Saura's TV film ''Los Cuentos de Borges: El Sur'', which is based on the short story ''El Sur'' by Argentine author Jorge Luis Borges.<ref>Elley, Derek. [https://www.variety.com/review/VE1117900180.html?categoryid=31&cs=1 "El Sur"], ''Variety (magazine)'', New York City, 2 December 1992. Posted on 1992-12-01.</ref>
==Society of Authors and Composers of the Argentine Republic== [[File:Ariel Ramírez primer discurso en SADAIC 01.jpg|thumb|left|Ramírez giving a speech at SADAIC {{circa}} 1955]] Ramírez was first elected president of the Society of Authors and Composers of the Argentine Republic (SADAIC) in 1970, serving for two four-year terms.<ref>[http://www.lanacion.com.ar/nota.asp?nota_id=49076 ''La Nación'' (1/19/2001)] {{in lang|es}}</ref> He was returned to the post in 1993 and remained in that capacity until ill health forced him to step down in 2004. At the time of his death he was still chairman of the organization's advisory board.<ref name="Momento24"/>
==Death== Ramírez developed pneumonia in early 2010, from which he died on February 18 in a Monte Grande clinic at the age of 88.<ref name=nacion/> His wake was held in Congress at the Salón de los Pasos Perdidos,<ref name="Buenos Aires Herald">{{cite news|url=http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/25656|title=He was the creator of "Misa Criolla": Ariel Ramírez dies at 88|publisher=Buenos Aires Herald|access-date=21 February 2010}}</ref><ref name="Momento24">{{cite news|url=http://momento24.com/en/2010/02/19/argentine-pianist-and-composer-ariel-ramirez-has-died/|title=Art & Culture: Argentine pianist and composer Ariel Ramirez has died|date=February 19, 2010|publisher=Momento24|access-date=21 February 2010}}</ref> and he was buried at Chacarita Cemetery in the Argentine Society of Authors and Composers' mausoleum on February 21, 2010.<ref name="Latin American Herald Tribune">{{cite news|url=http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=352611&CategoryId=13003|title=Argentine Folk Icon Ariel Ramirez Dies|publisher=Latin American Herald Tribune|access-date=21 February 2010|archive-date=7 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170807020237/http://www.laht.com/article.asp?ArticleId=352611&CategoryId=13003|url-status=dead}}</ref> Singer Patricia Sosa described him as "the biggest folklore composer in History. [...] The whole world cries the death of such a beautiful gentleman".<ref name="Buenos Aires Herald"/>
==See also== *List of best-selling Latin music artists
==References== {{reflist}}
== External links == {{Sister project links|auto=y}} * [https://web.archive.org/web/20060901143739/http://dcguild.home.mindspring.com/Programs/19970517.html A concert of music by Latino composers] * [http://www.coralesangaudenzio.it/conc02.htm Concerto Di Natale del 19 Diciembre 2002] * [http://www.fundacionkonex.com.ar/premios/curriculum.asp?ID=1987 Konex biography] * [http://www.corohispanoamericano.it/RamirezAriel.htm Coro Hispanio-Americano di Milano biography] * {{ChoralWiki|Ariel Ramirez}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramirez, Ariel}} Category:1921 births Category:2010 deaths Category:20th-century Argentine classical composers Category:20th-century Argentine male composers Category:Argentine male classical composers Category:Argentine people of Spanish descent Category:Argentine folk musicians Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Deaths from pneumonia in Argentina Category:People from Santa Fe, Argentina Category:Burials at La Chacarita Cemetery Category:20th-century Argentine artists Category:21st-century Argentine artists Category:20th-century Argentine male musicians