El condor pasa, RIP

El condor pasa, RIP

RIP

norman lebrecht

August 28, 2022

Jorge Milchberg had his moment of glory with an arrangement he wrote in 1963 of the Peruvian song, el condor pasa.

Milchberg performed the song with his group Los Incas on Andean instruments — kenas, charango, harp, guitar, tinya. Paul Simon, who heard Los Incas perform the song in Paris two years later, used Milchberg’s instrumentation as authentic backdrop for his hit song.

Milchberg, who spent the rest of his life in Paris, died last week in a French village, aged 92.

This is the first published version, dated 1933:

And here is Milchberg playing it on the charango.

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