A UNIQUE DILETTANTE. SALVADOR CARDENAL
Cecilia Ruiz de Ríos
From a dilettante to others, was the slogan of the Small Music Lessons in the undying voice of Salvador Cardenal Arguello, our foremost musicologist born on October 29th. In this phrase is summarized the humbleness, modesty and tenderness that always characterized the unforgettable founder of Gueguense Radio, the only classical music station of Nicaragua. For those of us who had the enormous honour of knowing him, it is not necessary to listen to his lessons to recall him.Salvador Cardenal, fondly nicknamed Don Salva, was an extraordinary man, a magnificent husband,loving father and a severe yet gentle teacher.
I met Don Salva when I studied music at the conservatory, being a teenager. One afternoon he came to seek among all those kids that studied there the two privileged souls who would be his tutored students. The lucky chosen ones were the blond Leonese Silvio Alejandro Cortéz and myself. Silvio, with his sweet disposition and smiling docility World be a delight as a pupil for don Salva, while I World be the one destined to give him several strong headaches.I was backtalking, spoiled and quarrelsome. However, the iron-gripped discipline to which don Salva held us was enough for me to Stara worrying about learning instead of playing pranks on poor Silvio. Don Salva was the perfect example of the iron fist wrapped in a silken glove.
Respectful, dilligent and punctual, he never forwarded us into new topics unless he was 100 per cent sure that Silvio and I had understood and assimilated everything. His paternal protection towards us included practical adivice, and it was to my great joy that when I won a gold medal for shot put in a track meet to celebrate Columbus Day, in the midst of the cheering crowd was Don Salva, feeling very proud of me. It was don Salva who taught me that learning didn`t have to be painful, and that history was a far cry from being being. Alter class, I World stay a while longer tasting sweetmeats or ice cream, talking about the most diverse topics.
When I went to France with a scholarship, I got it through his help. Once in France, there wasn`t a single week during which I wouldn`t write to him, long sprawling letters full of lurid details and acrid remarks, which were answered by an avalanche of advice that proved very useful…such as “what do you want a 90 for if you can have a 100.”
The Small Music Lessons griten by my teacher had traveled with me to Europe.In a version translated by myself into French, they were filed by the French Conservatory. As soon as I returned with my certificates, I went to show my teacher what I had done. It was the least that I could do, for I owed him my scholarship and a good percentage of my professional training. As disciplined and tidy as always, don Salva showed me all the letters I had sent him, neatly tied with satin ribbons.”My wife Ofelia really enjoys your letters, so full of witty remarks.”Don Salva shared everything with his green-eyed wife, with whom he lived in a perpetual and sincere romance.
Shortly alter I returned from France, he was awarded one of his many distinctions, the Bèla Bartòk Award for musical research. Along time, he would win the Medal for Prominent Personality in Latin American Music, two medals from the Voice of America(VOA) for his broadcasting efforts, the Rubèn Darìo Order of Cultural Independence, The Héitor Villalobos Award for Musicology and the Medal For Excellence from the Marais Foundation of France. This last distinction was awarded posthumously, since he died on September 1st,1988 at the age of 74. His wife had died only one year before.
Among his works, we must highlight Small Music Lessons, Nicaragua Music and Song(an anthology of folkloric music), Music History according to Salvador Cardenal and Music and Thought(music and philosophical spurts).In the 50s he created Radio Centauro, which later on became Radio Gueguense. He was by occupation an accountant, yet he became a self-made musicologist due to his passion for music. He also painted and made drawings. His work was continued by his son Lorenzo Cardenal Vargas, a sound engineer. Lorenzo died of heart failure in 2001.Nowadays Radio Gueguense has fallen into a slump due to the poor administration and lack of knowledge of his vedette granddaughter Belen Cardenal.
Only surviving pupil: Cecilia Levallois, since Silvio Alejandro Cortez Wordsworth- Leonese composer,translator and writer-died of leukaemia in 1989 in New York.
Cecilia Ruiz de Ríos
From a dilettante to others, was the slogan of the Small Music Lessons in the undying voice of Salvador Cardenal Arguello, our foremost musicologist born on October 29th. In this phrase is summarized the humbleness, modesty and tenderness that always characterized the unforgettable founder of Gueguense Radio, the only classical music station of Nicaragua. For those of us who had the enormous honour of knowing him, it is not necessary to listen to his lessons to recall him.Salvador Cardenal, fondly nicknamed Don Salva, was an extraordinary man, a magnificent husband,loving father and a severe yet gentle teacher.
I met Don Salva when I studied music at the conservatory, being a teenager. One afternoon he came to seek among all those kids that studied there the two privileged souls who would be his tutored students. The lucky chosen ones were the blond Leonese Silvio Alejandro Cortéz and myself. Silvio, with his sweet disposition and smiling docility World be a delight as a pupil for don Salva, while I World be the one destined to give him several strong headaches.I was backtalking, spoiled and quarrelsome. However, the iron-gripped discipline to which don Salva held us was enough for me to Stara worrying about learning instead of playing pranks on poor Silvio. Don Salva was the perfect example of the iron fist wrapped in a silken glove.
Respectful, dilligent and punctual, he never forwarded us into new topics unless he was 100 per cent sure that Silvio and I had understood and assimilated everything. His paternal protection towards us included practical adivice, and it was to my great joy that when I won a gold medal for shot put in a track meet to celebrate Columbus Day, in the midst of the cheering crowd was Don Salva, feeling very proud of me. It was don Salva who taught me that learning didn`t have to be painful, and that history was a far cry from being being. Alter class, I World stay a while longer tasting sweetmeats or ice cream, talking about the most diverse topics.
When I went to France with a scholarship, I got it through his help. Once in France, there wasn`t a single week during which I wouldn`t write to him, long sprawling letters full of lurid details and acrid remarks, which were answered by an avalanche of advice that proved very useful…such as “what do you want a 90 for if you can have a 100.”
The Small Music Lessons griten by my teacher had traveled with me to Europe.In a version translated by myself into French, they were filed by the French Conservatory. As soon as I returned with my certificates, I went to show my teacher what I had done. It was the least that I could do, for I owed him my scholarship and a good percentage of my professional training. As disciplined and tidy as always, don Salva showed me all the letters I had sent him, neatly tied with satin ribbons.”My wife Ofelia really enjoys your letters, so full of witty remarks.”Don Salva shared everything with his green-eyed wife, with whom he lived in a perpetual and sincere romance.
Shortly alter I returned from France, he was awarded one of his many distinctions, the Bèla Bartòk Award for musical research. Along time, he would win the Medal for Prominent Personality in Latin American Music, two medals from the Voice of America(VOA) for his broadcasting efforts, the Rubèn Darìo Order of Cultural Independence, The Héitor Villalobos Award for Musicology and the Medal For Excellence from the Marais Foundation of France. This last distinction was awarded posthumously, since he died on September 1st,1988 at the age of 74. His wife had died only one year before.
Among his works, we must highlight Small Music Lessons, Nicaragua Music and Song(an anthology of folkloric music), Music History according to Salvador Cardenal and Music and Thought(music and philosophical spurts).In the 50s he created Radio Centauro, which later on became Radio Gueguense. He was by occupation an accountant, yet he became a self-made musicologist due to his passion for music. He also painted and made drawings. His work was continued by his son Lorenzo Cardenal Vargas, a sound engineer. Lorenzo died of heart failure in 2001.Nowadays Radio Gueguense has fallen into a slump due to the poor administration and lack of knowledge of his vedette granddaughter Belen Cardenal.
Only surviving pupil: Cecilia Levallois, since Silvio Alejandro Cortez Wordsworth- Leonese composer,translator and writer-died of leukaemia in 1989 in New York.
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