MUSIC AND DANCE / Chris Pasles : Harpist Taps a Multi-Ethnic Background to Make His Music

The bright, tangy sounds of the Paraguayan harp will galvanize the South American Festival this Sunday at the Old World Village in Huntington Beach.

“In Latin America, the harp is a very important part of the musical tradition,” harpist Alfredo Orlando Ortiz said recently. Ortiz will play the instrument at noon and 2 p.m.

“In this country, the image of the harp is very limited. It is very unfair. Even the (standard) pedal harp can do much more than play arpeggios with an orchestra.”

Modeled, like all other Latin American harps, on the Spanish harp of the 16th through 18th centuries, the Paraguayan harp has no pedal system. It is made of soft wood, has 36 strings and is played with the fingernails rather than the fingertips, as on the standard harp, producing a sound that is much brighter.

“I call it love at first hearing,” Ortiz said.

“When it comes to the Latin American harp, there is even greater choice of rhythms and variety of sound quality we can produce (than on the pedal harp) because our music uses polyrhythms and syncopations which are very attractive,” he said.

“In fact, the biggest challenge for someone who is (classically) trained . . . is that our music is so polyrhythmic and so syncopated. It is common to see a very experienced musician sit down in front of our music, stop and say, ‘How do you count this?’ They just get lost.”

Ortiz, who was born in Cuba, began playing the harp when he was 15.

“My first teacher was a 13-year-old kid from school,” he said. “Playing the harp is so common, kids play it in talent contests in the schools. That’s how I began.”

Because his family did not have much money, Ortiz had to borrow a harp from a neighbor and soon began taking lessons from Alberto Romero, a famous Paraguayan harp performer.

“He would show me, and I would imitate him,” Ortiz said. “There was no printed music. Everybody plays by ear. That is true of popular music worldwide. People essentially learn by ear.”

Later, Ortiz would publish books which he claims to be the first that fully notate the music so that musicians who play the pedal harp may have access to this music.

But practical considerations intervened first. Unable yet to support himself with music, when he turned 17, Ortiz moved to Colombia to begin medical studies. He continued to play the harp for fun and after playing at a wedding reception, a record producer gave him a business card.

“That was the beginning of my professional career,” Ortiz said. “My very first engagement ever got me a contract for my first record. Now (I have recorded) 36 albums altogether, and I continue to record with him.”

After paying his way through medical school playing the harp, Ortiz became a general practitioner in Colombia and also started working in music therapy, a special field in which he sought training in the United States in 1975. But eventually it became too much to keep the two careers going.

“I describe myself as a musician who happens to be a doctor, not the reverse order,” he said. “I am crazy mixture. I am a Cuban-born, Venezuelan citizen who used to live in Colombia and plays the Paraguayan harp.”

Now, 41 and married with two daughters, Ortiz lives in Corona and earns his living strictly through music. He has produced nine of his own recordings.

On one album, with rock band backing, he recorded harp versions of such rock hits as Nancy Sinatra’s “These Boots Were Made for Walking,” Tommy James’ “Hanky Panky” and the Beatles’ “Yellow Submarine.” But it was not one of his best sellers.

“It survived for only three years or so,” he said. “There are about 18 of my recordings still available in Colombia.”

While Ortiz is interested in tradition, he also has struck out in an individual direction.

“I try to develop a repertory as a soloist,” he said. “Generally, the harp is the center of an ensemble group surrounded by other instruments or singers. But I play always solo. . . . “The whole music style is very beautiful. It is hard to describe. The best thing I can say is, come hear it. The music styles are a very pleasant surprise to everybody. . . .

“In the United States, people think of folklore as something that has practically disappeared or that comes from a remote place. In Latin America, the folkloric music styles are usually so much alive that many times the only way of distinguishing a new composition from one written a long time ago is by being told. . . .

“A lot of people are not aware that ‘La Bamba’ (was originally) harp music from Veracruz, Mexico.”

The South American Festival will run from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Sunday at the Old World Village, 7561 Center Ave. in Huntington Beach. Soloists will include Alfredo Rolando Ortiz playing the Paraguayan harp and Argentine dancer Maria del Carmen Cena. Groups will include the Brazilian dance ensemble Embrasamba and the Bolivian instrumental group Yatiri, among others. Admission is free. For further information, call (714) 898-3033.