Patricio Manns

Iván Patricio Eugenio Manns de Folliot, better known as Patricio Manns (3 August 1937 – 25 September 2021) was a Chilean singer-songwriter, composer, author, poet, novelist, essayist, journalist and writer.

Manns has been a prominent representative of the so-called Nueva canción chilena.

Patricio Manns was born in the rural town of Nacimiento, in central Chile, on 3 August 1937.

He is the son of a primary school teacher of French descent and an agricultural engineer of Swiss German descent.

Both of his parents played the piano: his father was a jazz aficionado but his mother studied classical piano.

Manns studied in the city of Angol, at the current Enrique Ballacey Cottereau Bicentennial High School of Excellence.

At the age of fourteen he published his poems for the first time in the newspaper El Colono de Traiguén, beginning a career as a writer that would last throughout his life.

Manns was initiated in the field of music when he composed Bandido in 1959, which was recorded in Argentina in 1962 by the folk group Los Travadores del Norte and in Chile by Los Cuatro Cuartos.

In the early 1960s, he moved to Santiago where he continued his journalistic work.

In addition, he tried out at the University of Chile Club, where he was left as goalkeeper with Adolfo Nef, but he could not continue his football career because the leadership made him choose between football and music, Manns choosing to continue his musical career.

In his youth he held the most diverse jobs: coal miner in Lota, truck driver, pharmacy clerk, until 1961 when he was hired as a journalist in the newspaper La Patria, in Concepción, and radio trainer at the María Elena nitrate office, in the middle of the Atacama desert.

In 1963 he wrote his first novel, Parias en El Vedado, which he rewrote years later with the title La noche sobre el rastro, winning with it the Alerce prize, from the Sociedad de Escritores de Chile, in 1967.

From his multi-faceted role as singer, composer, writer and journalist he actively collaborated in the presidential campaigns of Dr. Salvador Allende in 1964 and in 1970, the latter being the campaign that led Salvador Allende to the presidency as the leader of the Unidad Popular government.

He is known for his 1965 song "Arriba en la Cordillera".

But it was with the composition Arriba en la cordillera (Up in the Cordillera) in 1965 that he achieved national fame – especially when it was released in the album, Entre Mar y Cordillera (Between Sea and Cordillera) in 1966 on Vinyl format by the label "Demon" under the number LPD-021, all songs are credited to Manns, the song "Ya no canto tu nombre" is credited to Edmundo Vásquez, on track n ° 8 of the album, "Sirilla de la Candelaria" featured Rolando Alarcón, a singer-songwriter Chilean.

The album was a massive success, other singles were added to the album, such as "Bandido" or "Vai Peti Nehe Nehe", a song with a title and lyrics in Pascuense language.

Manns was a founding member (1965) of the New Chilean Song, with Rolando Alarcón and the Parras (the children of Violeta Parra: Isabel and Ángel Parra) and of the Peña of Carmen 340 (later known as the Peña of the Parras), Víctor Jara joined the Peña and the movement a few months later.

Nueva Canción Chilena (New Chilean Song) movement – for some a folkloric renaissance which led to a revolution in the popular music of the country.

In this early period of his career Manns also composed the cantata El Sueño Americano (The American Dream) (1965), which he recorded with the folk group Voces Andina and that amalgamates distinctive rhythmic elements from different regions of the sub-continent.

In this song, which has been traced as one of the firsts cantatas to be heard in Latin America, the historical birth of Latin America is told.

Song XII of the cantata América Novia Mia (America My Bride) has been recorded by himself and Inti-illimani several times.

During this period he also recorded ¡El Folclore No Ha Muerto, Mierda! (Folklore Hasn't Died, Dammit!) (1968) with Silvia Urbina which revived folkloric forms which were disappearing under the influence of foreign musical trends that were being popularized in Chile.

During this time he recorded the album Patricio Manns (1971) which included one of his best-known compositions Valdivia en la niebla (Valdivia in the fog) and the prophetic No Cierres los Ojos (Don't Close Your Eyes).

In this recording, which was accompanied by Inti-illimani, the Symphony Orchestra of Chile and the Philharmonic Orchestra of Santiago, the musical arrangements were done by Luis Advis.

At the time of the 1973 Chilean coup d'état - which toppled the democratically elected socialist government of Salvador Allende - the Nueva Canción Chilena had acquired a nationwide mass following with Nueva Canción Chilena artists touring the world as cultural ambassadors.

Manns would go on to actively participate in the extensive production of a series of travelling shows called Chile Rie y Canta (Chile Laughs and Sings) which were organized throughout Chile by René Largo Farías.

The military coup of 11 September 1973 found him in Chile and it was only due to international diplomatic mediation that he was able to safely leave his country.

Late in 1973, Manns settled in Cuba where he began a life in exile that was to last decades.

During his period in the Caribbean island he composed and recorded accompanied by the Symphony Orchestra of Cuba Cuando Me Acuerdo de Mi País (When I Remember My Country, some years later recorded by Mercedes Sosa) and other songs that were featured in his LP Canción sin Limites (Songs with out limits).

From Cuba he travelled to France where he settled and formed the ensemble Karaxú in 1974 with which he continued to musically collaborate with Cuban artists.

From exile Manns launched his "struggle against the Pinochet dictatorship" becoming a spokesman of the Chilean resistance.

This was also reflected in almost all his musical productions: Chansons de la Résistence Chilienne (Songs of the Chilean Resistance) (1974).

He collaborated with Humberto Solás with the script for the movie La Cantata de Chile (Cantata of Chile) (1976) and also wrote the text for the musical work of Leo Brouwer which the movie was named after.

Canción sin limites (Songs without limits) (1977).

In this stage of exile he met Alejandra Lastra (1979) to whom he composed the famous Balada de los Amantes del Camino de Tavernay (Ballad of the Lovers of Tavernay Road) (1981) – Manns had moved and settled with his partner in Chemin de Tavernay in Geneva in the course of 1979.

As the musicologist Juan Pablo González has stated: "… in his 27 years of exile, Manns established with Horacio Salinas one of the most fruitful creative collaborations in the history of Chilean music".

This collaboration began to take form in the works of Inti-illimani, in compositions such as Retrato (Portrait) or Vuelvo (I Return) – both from 1979.

From this period of work with Salinas and Inti-illimani we find the grains of songs which with time would grow to become true emblems of the Latin America folk/popular music repertoire: such as El Equipaje del Destierro (The Baggage of Exile), Palimpsesto (Palimpsest) (1981), Cantiga de la Memoria Rota (Verses for a Shattered Memory) and Samba Landó (1985).

Subsequently, other songs of this collaborative period included Medianoche (Midnight), Arriesgare mi piel (I'll Risk My Skin) (1996) and La Fiesta Eres Tú (You Are the Party) (1998).

In 2011, he won the folkloric competition of the LII Viña del Mar International Song Festival with the song "De Pascua Lama", performed by Valentina Sepúlveda and Diapasón Porteño.