Evocación by José Luis Merlin

Evocacion by José Luis Merlin

José Luis Merlin’s Suite del Recuerdo (“Suite of Memory”) opens and closes with a beautiful, expressive movement called “Evocación.” This is a piece that comes from our Grade 6 curriculum at CGC Academy. First, watch the full performance above so you can experience the music; then we’ll take a look at where this music actually comes from.

José Luis Merlin

Merlin was born in Buenos Aires in 1952 and started on the guitar at age five, performing publicly by the time he was nine. Over a career spanning more than fifty years, he’s worked as a guitarist, composer, arranger, and teacher, and his musical roots are genuinely varied: Latin American, Ukrainian-Jewish, and Spanish. That mix shows up directly in his music, which moves between Argentine folk forms, the melodic character of Eastern European folk song, and the harmonic language of Western classical guitar writing. He’s often called a “poet of the guitar,” and Suite del Recuerdo, written for solo guitar and one of his most widely performed works, is usually cited as the piece that exemplifies the poetic quality of his work best.

A Suite Dedicated to Atahualpa Yupanqui

Suite del Recuerdo is dedicated to Atahualpa Yupanqui. Yupanqui wasn’t a guitar composer in the classical sense. As one of the most well-known guitarists and folk singers of the 20th century in the nation, he was closer to Argentina’s national conscience.

Born Héctor Roberto Chavero in 1908 in Pergamino, Argentina, he adopted the stage name Atahualpa Yupanqui as a young man, invoking two of the last rulers of the Inca empire. It was a deliberate choice, tying his artistic identity to Argentina’s indigenous history rather than his own family name. He spent much of his early life traveling through the country’s rural interior and the Andean altiplano, absorbing and collecting the folk music of the people he met along the way. This was work that made him, by most accounts, the single most important Argentine folk musician of the twentieth century.

His politics were as bound up in this as his music: an early affiliation with Argentina’s Communist Party led to a period of exile in Uruguay, and decades later, tension with the military government that took power in 1976 pushed him to settle permanently in France, where he died in 1992. Younger nueva canción artists like Mercedes Sosa championed his songs and helped bring his work to a new generation, who affectionately called him “Don Ata.”

Therefore, we could see Merlin’s dedication as an indication that this suite is his own remembering, a memory of an Argentina and its musical legacy dear to his heart that he left behind when he was forced to move to Spain. He had become, like Don Ata late in life in France, an immigrant in a strange land, yearning for home.

Inside Argentine Folk Music: The Rhythms Behind the Suite

Suite del Recuerdo is built from six movements: Evocación, Zamba, Chacarera, Carnavalito, a return to Evocación, and finally Joropo. Evocación is the only movement in the suite that is not a folk dance. Understanding those dances and their character can help you better understand Evocación’s place in the suite.

Zamba is a slow, graceful courtship dance, traditionally danced with handkerchiefs, that belongs to a wider family of folkloric couple dances (distant cousins include Chile’s cueca and Peru’s marinera). It’s lyrical and unhurried, built in triple meter, and tender like a love song.

Chacarera is the opposite: fast, propulsive, and rhythmically tricky. It comes from Santiago del Estero in Argentina’s northwest and is traditionally played on guitar, violin, and the bombo legüero, a deep-toned folk drum. Its defining feature is a hemiola, where the rhythm shifts between a compound 6/8 feel and a simple 3/4 feel within the same phrase.

Carnavalito comes from further north still, from the Andean provinces of Jujuy and Salta, where it’s tied to carnival celebrations. In its traditional form it’s a communal, processional dance built on bright, pentatonic melodies carried by panpipes and charango, with guitar and bombo underneath.

Joropo, the suite’s finale, is actually a departure from Argentina altogether. It’s the traditional dance music of the Llanos, the plains shared by Venezuela and Colombia. This music is built around the harp, cuatro, and maracas, in a fast triple meter.

How to Approach This Music on the Guitar

The expression mark at the beginning of Evocación is “Tempo rubato,” which is something we cover in our guide to using rubato expressively without losing the pulse. This is a challenging skill because it requires maintaining the pulse while also learning where you can stretch time that you have to give back.

One recommendation to capture this style and to apply rubato in the right way is to listen to Don Ata’s recordings. It’s will give you a much different sense of how to interpret the music than just reading rhythms off a page. Here’s Atahualpa playing a traditional zamba:

If you’re drawn to guitar repertoire with this kind of folk lineage, Agustín Barrios Mangoré’s “Julia Florida” is worth exploring too—another piece where a specific national folk tradition, in that case Paraguayan, shapes everything about how it should be phrased.

“Evocación” comes from our Grade 6 curriculum, and members of CGC Academy can watch a full lesson on the music. If you’d like to become a member, you can go here to Join CGC Academy today.