Yma Sumac

From Hispanopedia
Yma Sumac
Photo taken in 1954 in Italy, during a tour. Published in the RAI magazine Radiocorriere TV.
Other namesQueen of Exótica & Inca Princess
Years active1943–2006
WebsiteYma-Sumac.com
Signature

Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo (Callao,[1] September 13, 1922 – Los Angeles, November 1, 2008), better known as Yma Súmac,[2] was a Peruvian soprano who achieved great international success in the 1950s. She was especially known for her unusual vocal range, unique in the world, which came to span five octaves.[3] Her vocal range achieved the triple coloratura, which allowed her to imitate birdsong.

She claimed to be a ñusta (a Princess of Inca royalty) descended from the Inca Atahualpa. In 1950, she was the first female Latin American singer to enter the Broadway theater.[4] In 1960, she became the first Latina to have her name inscribed on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.[5][6] Yma Sumac sold more than 40 million records, making her the best-selling Peruvian singer in history.[7]

Biography

Yma Sumac was born in the Constitutional Province of Callao on September 13, 1922; her real name is Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo. Her parents were Sixto Chávarri and Emilia del Castillo. Through her maternal genealogy she said that she considered herself a direct descendant of the last Inca, Atahualpa, a fact that was confirmed by the Consul General of Peru in the United States, although it should be noted that Yma Sumac was of castizo ancestry.

When she was five years old her family moved to the village of Magdalena and then to the city of Cajamarca, both in the province of Cajamarca. It is said that as a girl she tried to imitate birdsong until she achieved the vocal range characteristic of the trilling of birds, thus beginning her passion for singing. After her singing talents were discovered at the age of thirteen, and with the support of the Ministry of Education, she moved to the city of Lima, capital of Peru. Her first radio appearance was in 1942. She married Moisés Vivanco, composer and director of the band Compañía Peruana de Arte, on June 6, 1942, in Arequipa.

Using the stage name Yma Sumac, which means "I am the most beautiful" in the Quechua language,[8] she recorded at least eight songs of Peruvian folklore in Argentina in 1944. On these first recordings, with the Odeón record label, she was accompanied by Vivanco's group, the Compañía Peruana de Arte, made up of 46 native dancers, singers and musicians.

In the United States

In 1946, Yma Sumac traveled with Moisés Vivanco to New York, where they performed as the Trío Inca Taky, with Vivanco on guitar and Cholita Rivero, Yma Sumac's cousin, singing contralto and dancing. Some tabloid journalists considered her proclaiming herself a descendant of the Inca Atahualpa to be snobbery based on a deception, and the hoax arose that she had been born in Brooklyn and that her real name was Amy Camus, which is actually her stage name spelled backwards. On May 23, 1946, Consul José Varela y Arias, on behalf of the government of Peru, officially certified that "to my best understanding and in accordance with the assertions of authorities on the history of the Incas and Peruvian history in general, Yma Sumac is a descendant of the Inca Atahualpa".

In 1950 the couple signed a contract with Capitol Records, a company that understood the interest of the United States public in exotic cultures after the Second World War. Indeed, in her performances she appeared dressed as an Inca Princess supposedly would, according to Hollywood taste.

That same year she recorded, produced by Les Baxter, Voice of the Xtabay, which was a great success. She would later record with conductor Billy May. Her repertoire drew on songs from Andean folklore and others composed by her husband.

In 1954 she took part in several scenes as an archaeologist's assistant in the film Secret of the Incas, with Charlton Heston, Robert Young and the glamorous Nicole Maurey, in which she appears in scenes of folkloric performance singing the songs "Taita Inty", "Ataypura" and "Tumpa".

In 1955 she released Mambo!, with Afro-Cuban rhythms. In July 1955, the United States Government granted her United States citizenship.[9]

In 1956 she appeared in the Mexican film Música de siempre, in which she performed "Chuncho", and the following year she appeared in Omar Khayyam, with Cornel Wilde. After these successes she was granted a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, being the first and only Peruvian woman to receive this honor.

In May 1958 she obtained her legal divorce from her husband, the musician Moisés Vivanco.[10]

In the early sixties, thanks to her political convictions, she became popular in the Soviet Union, where in 1961 she recorded a live album accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre. A decade later, in 1972, she recorded a rock album, Miracles. During the following years she continued to perform, although sporadically, in the United States, Peru and Canada. In 1987 she recorded the song "I wonder" with producer Hal Willner for the album Stay Awake, with versions by various artists of songs from Disney films.

In the nineties her voice was heard again in advertisements and films. For example, her song "Ataypura" appeared in the film The Big Lebowski by Joel and Ethan Coen.

On May 2, 2006, after three decades away and at 84 years of age, she returned to Peru thanks to the initiative of Miguel Molinari (a renowned critic and cultural promoter) to receive a series of decorations from the Government, authorities and cultural organizations. The soprano stayed for fifteen days in her native country, visiting Cuzco and Machu Picchu.

Over her long career, exotic pieces stood out such as "Ataypura", "Chuncho", "Taita Inty", "Gopher Mambo", "Montana", "Incacho", "Tumpa", "Xtabay", "A La Molina", "El cóndor pasa", "Goomba Boomba", "Jungla", "Jívaro" and "Vírgenes del sol". Some singers have acknowledged her influence, such as the Frenchman Bernard Lavilliers, who acknowledges the "Latin" musical influences of the Yma Sumac records his parents had given him in the fifties. More recently, she is mentioned by the singer Vanessa Paradis in the song "Joe le taxi" (1987) and by the Spaniard Guille Milkyway, who has a song titled "La nueva Yma Sumac". The earnings from her millions of records sold allowed her to lead a refined high-society life in the world of Hollywood.

Yma Sumac died in Los Angeles on November 1, 2008, at the age of 86 after a short six-month battle with aggressive colon cancer. In accordance with the wishes of the singer and her closest relatives, she was buried in Hollywood, where she had spent 60 years of her life.[11]

Vocal range

Yma Sumac had a wide vocal range; she could produce notes above those of a coloratura soprano down to the low notes of a bass. She had one of the widest vocal ranges ever known in a performer, being capable of producing notes in the tessitura of sopranino, soprano, mezzo-soprano, contralto, tenor, baritone and bass. She was the only person capable of performing the triple coloratura or perfectly imitating the trilling of birds. Her range extended from B1 to D8.

In the song "K´arawi" she produces five octaves and five notes, from G2 to D8.[12]

In the song "Chuncho" she produces five octaves and three notes, from B1 to D7.

She performs a live duet with the recorder, reaching an E6.[13]

Criticism and commentary

The Spanish composer Manuel de Falla (1876–1946) advised that Yma Sumac should sing with her natural voice and avoid being influenced by systematic singing teachers.[14]

Arthur Fiedler—conductor of the famed Boston Pops orchestra—was impressed upon hearing her and sent his sister, Elsa Fiedler, to teach her to read music and to speak the language of professional musicians. He too did not want to tamper with her voice.[14]

The greatest revelation of our times.

— Newspaper La Prensa (Buenos Aires, 1943)[14]

Yma Sumac dominates the artistic sensibility of all of Brazil. With her magical and divine voice the problems of our modern world are forgotten through the magnetism of this fabulous gift, which comes to us descending directly from Atahualpa, last Inca king.

— Newspaper O Globo (Rio de Janeiro, 1944)[14]

Yma Sumac, the marvelous Peruvian singer, induces a kind of self-hypnosis when she sings.

— Newspaper Los Angeles Times (March 11, 1951)[14]

A Peruvian wildcat, Yma Sumac, holds the audience frozen with a fabulous four-octave range.

— James Poling, Collier's (April 14, 1951)[14]

The most thrilling thing I have ever heard.

— Jarmina Novotna, soprano of the Metropolitan Opera

There have been four-octave voices in opera on rare occasions, and he adds that each singer has limited herself to a single range in which she feels most comfortable. Yma feels equally comfortable in any of her four voices.

— Max Rudolf, musical secretary of the Metropolitan Opera Company of New York[14]

Dr. Hollace E. Arment, head of the Department of Music at Auburn University, stated that Yma's voice could be a throwback to a more primitive era. He supposed that in the scores of earlier centuries, European composers took for granted that professional voices had a greater range than today's. Dr. Arment also stated that he had detected similarities between Yma Sumac's way of singing and ancient Yemenite music and Balinese music (ancient Babylonian music is completely unknown, since no written records exist). Arment suggested that Yma Sumac's voice could be a "glimpse into the past".[14]

There is no voice like this in the world of music today. It has a higher scale than any female concert or opera voice. It soars into the acoustic stratosphere, or plummets to the deep subcontralto of tone with equal ease. Such voices come along only once in a generation.

— Glenn Dillard Gunn, music critic of the newspaper Times-Herald (Washington, D.C.)[14]

To hear her weave that fantastic counterpoint over the complex rhythms of her accompaniment is at last to experience something new in music.

— Albert Goldberg, music critic of the newspaper Los Angeles Times[14]

Her voice undoubtedly has great beauty and her vocal technique is impeccable. She sings very low, warm notes, and very high ones like bird trills, and her middle tones are no less lovely than the extremes of her range. None of the notes she produced was unpleasant or out of tune. Indeed, her natural attributes are so great and her technique so solid that one can only regret that she had not devoted herself to the great repertoire of music; her place is in the great opera houses.

— Virgil Thomsom, music critic of the newspaper Herald Tribune (New York, 1954)[14]

Stravinsky shook me out of my cinematic lethargy:
Peruvian?! —he said to me— Like Yma Sumac?!
And he went on to praise the shadowy throat of our singer.

— Jorge Eduardo Eielson (1924–2006), Peruvian poet, in his work Diálogo sobre Nijinski[14]

Discography

Filmography

Notable films containing her songs include:

Musicals

Honors

References

  1. ↑ pucp.edu.pe : Yma Sumac nació en Callao Retrieved January 21, 2019
  2. ↑ The name Yma Sumac is a worldwide recognized transliteration of the Quechua term Ima sumaq ("how beautiful").
  3. ↑ "BBC de Londres destaca "increíble registro vocal" de Yma Sumac". Andina (in español). Retrieved June 19, 2021.
  4. ↑ PERÚ, NOTICIAS EL COMERCIO (2019-09-16). "Yma Súmac: ¿por qué es tan importante su legado musical en estos tiempos? | musica peruana | Hollywood | Mabela Martinez | SOMOS". El Comercio Perú (in español). Retrieved 2021-08-04.
  5. ↑ "La inigualable y exótica Yma Sumac, primera iberoamericana en el Paseo de la Fama de Hollywood". amp.notimerica.com (in español). Retrieved 2021-08-04.
  6. ↑ "La inigualable y exótica Yma Sumac, primera iberoamericana en el Paseo de la Fama de Hollywood". Notimérica (in español). March 30, 2017. Retrieved September 25, 2019.
  7. ↑ "Yma Súmac, la última princesa inca". Fundación BBVA Perú (in español). Retrieved 2021-08-08.
  8. ↑ Adaui, Katya (2018). "Yma Sumac. Soprano". Había una vez una peruana. Segunda edición (in español). Lima: Xilófono, Librerías Crisol: 33. ISBN 9786124772221.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: periodical has ISBN (link)
  9. ↑ "Yma Sumac becomes citizen", article of July 23, 1955, in the newspaper New York Times, p. 10.
  10. ↑ "Yma Sumac's divorce final", article of May 21, 1958, in the newspaper New York Times, p. 39.
  11. ↑ Sun Virgin website.
  12. ↑ In the song "K'arawi" she sang from a G2 at minute 00:15 up to a D8 at minute 00:26. This song spans five octaves and five notes. In the song "Chuncho" she sings from a B1 (at minute 0:40) up to a D7 (at minute 2:56).
  13. ↑ The supposed "double voice" is the recording of her voice (singing an E6 while a flute is played).
  14. ↑ 14.00 14.01 14.02 14.03 14.04 14.05 14.06 14.07 14.08 14.09 14.10 14.11 Biography, article in English on the Yma-Sumac website.

Sources

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