"El Cóndor Pasa" | |
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Song | |
Published | 1913 |
Composer(s) | Daniel Alomía Robles |
Language | English, Spanish |
"El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)" | ||||||||
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Single by Simon & Garfunkel | ||||||||
from the album Bridge Over Troubled Water | ||||||||
B-side | "Why Don't You Write Me" | |||||||
Released | September 1970 | |||||||
Format | 7" single | |||||||
Recorded | November 1968 and November 1969 |
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Genre | Folk rock, Worldbeat, Andean music | |||||||
Length | 3:06 | |||||||
Label | Columbia | |||||||
Writer(s) | Daniel Alomía Robles (Music), Paul Simon (English lyrics), Jorge Milchberg (Arrangement) | |||||||
Producer(s) |
Paul Simon, Art Garfunkel, Roy Halee |
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Simon & Garfunkel singles chronology | ||||||||
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El Cóndor Pasa (pronounced: [el ˈkondoɾ ˈpasa], Spanish for "The Condor Passes") is an orchestral musical piece from the zarzuela El Cóndor Pasa by the Peruvian composer Daniel Alomía Robles, written in 1913 and based on traditional Andean music, specifically folk music from Peru.
Since then, it has been estimated that around the world, more than 4000 versions of the melody have been produced, along with 300 sets of lyrics. In 2004, Peru declared this song as part of the national cultural heritage. This song is now considered the second national anthem of Peru.
It is the best-known Peruvian song in the English-speaking world due to a 1970 cover by Simon & Garfunkel on their Bridge over Troubled Water album. Their version is called "El Cóndor Pasa (If I Could)".
In 1913, Peruvian song writer Daniel Alomía Robles composed "El Cóndor Pasa", and the song was first performed publicly at the Teatro Mazzi in Lima. The song was originally a musical piece in the Peruvian zarzuela (musical play), El Cóndor Pasa.
Its music was composed by Daniel Alomía Robles in 1913 and its script was written by Julio de La Paz (pseudonym of the Limenian dramatist Julio Baudouin). The piano arrangement of this play's most famous melody was legally registered on May 3, 1933 by The Edward B. Marks Music Corp. in the Library of Congress, under the number 9643. The zarzuela is written in prose and consists of one musical play and two acts.