Yaraví

The yaraví is the slow, melancholic song form of the Peruvian Andes, perfected in Arequipa, where it became the defining expression of the loncco tenant farmers and of the poet *Mariano Melgar*. Descended from the Inca harawi, it joins a pentatonic, minor-mode melody of Quechua origin to Spanish verse forms, guitar and mandolin accompaniment, and texts of unrequited love, solitude and death. Sung in duet or by a solo voice, with free and ornamented delivery set against strict metres, it favours private grief over public festivity; its recorded legacy survives as 78rpm sides and as individual tracks on mixed albums rather than as a discography of its own.