Pedro Quijano *

Biography

The guitarist Domingo Pratt (1886 – 1944) describes the guitarist Pedro Mansilla Quijano (1879 – 1945) in his Diccionario de Guitarras, Guitarristas y Guitarreros.

Quijano was born in the city of Salta and died in Buenos Aires.

In 1887 he studied violin at the National Conservatory in Buenos Aires. Then, in a cafe in town, he met a Payador, a minstrel-like musician who sings folk songs with accompaniment. He immediately lost his heart to the guitar and learned to play as an autodidact. With the guitar he came into contact with the guitar scene in Argentina from which he learned a lot. He built up a teaching practice that was very popular with the well-to-do bourgeoisie.

Quijano gave concerts on a limited scale, mainly in living rooms and cafes. He seems to have made a musical contribution to the 1905 revolution by playing Vidalas (Argentine folk dances) during the night watches of the insurgents.

Quijano was known as a tango counterfeiter, allegedly combining existing compositions into new ones. In addition, he recorded a small part of his folk song arrangements repertoire in a collection Auras Camperas. Oddly enough, his work became popular in Argentina because he was thought to be already dead.

Music

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