According to the list of studio recordings
(www.atacris.com & www.discogs.com) Atahualpa Yupanqui
recorded this beautiful piece only once in 1970 for the
french label "Le Chant Du Monde" and it was released on
the album "Guitare des Andes". When I first transcribed
"El indio y la quena" I noticed that there are quite a
lot of nice and rich harmonies that I couldn't find or
reach on my guitar while playing the melody, so I
harmonized the original melody by using the best
fitting bass notes availa...(+)
According to the list of studio recordings
(www.atacris.com & www.discogs.com) Atahualpa Yupanqui
recorded this beautiful piece only once in 1970 for the
french label "Le Chant Du Monde" and it was released on
the album "Guitare des Andes". When I first transcribed
"El indio y la quena" I noticed that there are quite a
lot of nice and rich harmonies that I couldn't find or
reach on my guitar while playing the melody, so I
harmonized the original melody by using the best
fitting bass notes available. This first arrangement is
quite easy to play and I guess that most people
wouldn't notice a big difference to the original
version. However, I recently revised and tryed to
improve my transcription, but at first I still didn't
understand how Yupanqui could play the melody and at
the same time use those mysterious and for my hands
inaccessable chords. I thought it might be possible
that he used some kind of magic guitar tuning, but I
didn't find a tuning that would solve the mystery and
allow me to play all the original harmonies along with
the melody. In the beginning it seemed quite improbable
to me, but after listening to his recording again and
again I have come to the conclusion that at least some
or maybe even all of the harmonies in the accompaniment
were played by a second guitar (two-track-recording).
At first I didn't really believe in this duet theory
because it sounds pretty much like a solo guitar piece
and (as far as I know!) he only recorded very few duets
(e.g. "La Cacharpaya"), but after analyzing the
recording of "El indio y la quena" very carefully I'm
quite sure that it's true. Not only are there several
unplayable combinations of high melody notes and low
bass notes, and a few other mysterious effects, but
another aspect that supports this theory is the
observation that "El indio y la quena" was recorded
1970 in the same studio, and it was released on the
same record as the duet "La Cacharpaya". So I created a
version for two guitars which might come very close to
what you hear on Yupanqui's original recording from
1970. Also, in the latest newly revised version of my
solo guitar transcription I tried to include the
original harmonies and I think I managed to get pretty
close to Atahualpa Yupanqui's original (two-track-)
recording. PS: By the way, when I recentely listened to
Roberto Aussels recording of this piece I noticed that
his version definetely sounds like a duet, too. Then a
friend looked it up and told me that the credits list
of Aussels album "La paloma enamorada" mentions the
name of a second performer: Bénédicte Fretaud (!).
The version of Carlos Martínez is a solo guitar
arrangement though... ;)
