Aretz (de Ramón y Rivera), Isabel

Aretz (de Ramón y Rivera), Isabel, Argentine–born Venezuelan folklorist and composer; b. Buenos Aires, April 13, 1909. She studied piano and composition at the National Cons, of Music in Buenos Aires. She subsequently dedicated herself to research in Argentine folklore at the Museo de Ciencias Naturales de Buenos Aires (1938–44). She received her Ph.D. in musicology in 1967 at the Argentine Catholic Univ. in Buenos Aires with the diss. Música tradicional argentina: La Rioja. She served as an assoc. member of the Instituto Argentino de Musicología (1938–50), and then was the first prof. of ethnomusicology at the Escuela Nacional de Danzas de Argentina (1950–52). In 1953 she settled in Caracas, Venezuela, as a research fellow in ethnomusicology and folklore at the Instituto Nacional de Folklore de Venezuela. In 1965 she became director of the folklore dept. of the Instituto Nacional de Cultura y Bellas Artes, and, in 1970, of the Instituto Interamericano de Etnomusicología y Folklore. She was married to Luis Felipe Ramón y Rivera. As a composer, Aretz’s music reflects interest in folk music and contemporary European trends.

Writings

Música tradicional argentina: Tucumán, historia y folklore (Buenos Aires, 1946); El folklore musical argentino (Buenos Aires, 1953); Manual de folklore venezolano (Caracas, 1957; 3^rd ed., 1972); Cantos navideños en el folklore venezolano (Caracas, 1962); Instrumentos musicales de Venezuela (Cumaná, 1967); La artesanía en Venezuela (Caracas, 1967); El traje en Venezuela (Caracas, 1972); El tamunangue (Barquisimeto, 1976).

—Nicolas Slonimsky/Laura Kuhn/Dennis McIntire