I recently transcribed this cute lullaby and tried to
find some information about the mysterious origin of
this song because I was curious to know the original
title, hear different versions recorded by other
interpreters, and learn something about the lyrics.
Atahualpa Yupanqui recorded this song 1984 for the
label Microfon and it was released on the album “La
Pampa De Antes”, that's for sure! The title
“Canción De Cuna Argentina” indicates that it's a
lullaby from Argentine and the of...(+)
I recently transcribed this cute lullaby and tried to
find some information about the mysterious origin of
this song because I was curious to know the original
title, hear different versions recorded by other
interpreters, and learn something about the lyrics.
Atahualpa Yupanqui recorded this song 1984 for the
label Microfon and it was released on the album “La
Pampa De Antes”, that's for sure! The title
“Canción De Cuna Argentina” indicates that it's a
lullaby from Argentine and the official list of studio
recordings tells us that it's a traditional piece, but
I couldn't find any reliable information about the
original title or the lyrics. So I asked a few
Argentinian friends if they recognized the melody, but
nobody seemed to have a clue.
As my research continued, I finally found a quite
popular lullaby that sounds very similar to the first
part of Yupanqui's recording and it's called
“Arrorró mi niño”. The word “Arrorró” is
supposed to come from the guanche, an extinct language
that was spoken by the native people of the Canary
Islands. As far as I understand, the guanche word
“arrawraw” meens “child” or “baby” and the
word “arrorró” is used as a name for lullabies
from the Canary Islands. I listened to different
recordings of the song “Arrorró mi niño, arrorró
mi sol, arrorró pedazo de mi corazón... Este niño
lindo ya quiere dormir háganle la cuna de rosa y
jazmín.” and I got the impression that Don Atahualpa
may have been inspired by this song. Maybe the
resemblance is just a coincidence, but still it is
posible that he created an instrumental solo guitar
version of its theme adding some variations and a few
new parts of his own to it and simply called it a
traditional “Argentinian Lullaby” because he didn't
want to call it his own composition, and preferred to
make it appear as a song of anonymous origin, but
that's all just speculation! However, the Argentinian
guitarist and former director of the magazine “Mundo
Guitarristico” Gustavo Aponte pointed out that
Yupanqui was not only a composer and artist but also a
compiler (“recopilador”) and arranger of
folkloristic music, who may have heard a mother singing
a modified version of the "Arrorró" or maybe even a
completely different lullaby to her baby somewhere on
one of his multiple journeys, and later on he might
have harmonized the melody from his memory without even
knowing the singers name or the lullaby's title. I'm
really happy and thankful to Gustavo that he also
showed me a rare live recording of the “Canción De
Cuna Argentina” from a concert in Córdoba
(Argentine, exact location and date unknown). Before
Yupanqui starts playing he talks about folkloristic
music and how it is passed on “...from generation to
generation, from house to house, from night to night,
from cradle to cradle, from mothers to their
children...” by oral tradition like anonymous songs,
and he ends saying that “la canción de cuna” is a
folkloristic document. I would have loved to hear what
Atahualpa Yupanqui's son Roberto “Kolla” Chavero,
president of the “Fundación Atahualpa Yupanqui”
(FAY), would have to say about the background of this
song, so I wrote a message to the FAY, but they never
replied. If you have any information about the origin
or recognize the melody and know the original title,
please leave a comment.
Rubarth, Lutz 
SHEET MUSIC