YMA SUMAC, THE VOICE OF THE SIX-AND-A-HALF OCTAVES

Yma Sumac

Today, the weather continues cold and The Grandma has decided to stay at home again. She is an old person and she must take care of her health. In the morning, a strong rain has surprised the city and its inhabitants and it has been a perfect moment for The Grandma to stay at her sofa and listen to classical music, one of her favourite hobbies.

The Grandma has chosen Yma Sumac, the Peruvian–American soprano, who was very popular some decades ago because she sang a range of over four and a half octaves, something really incredible. Sumac, whose name in Quechua, means How beautiful! is one of the most incredible an amazing voices of the last century.

After listening to Sumac, The Grandma has studied a new lesson of her Elementary Language Practice manual (Vocabulary 13).

More information: Vocabulary 13-Staying Healthy

Yma Sumac (September 10, 1923-November 1, 2008), was a Peruvian–American coloratura soprano. In the 1950s, she was one of the most famous exponents of exotica music.

Sumac became an international success based on her extreme vocal range. She had six-and-a-half octaves according to some reports, but other reports and recordings document four-and-a-half at the peak of her singing career. A typical trained singer has a range of about three octaves.

Yma Sumac

In one live recording of Chuncho, she sings a range of over four and a half octaves, from B2 to G♯7. She was able to sing notes in the low baritone register as well as notes above the range of an ordinary soprano and notes in the whistle register. Both low and high extremes can be heard in the song Chuncho, The Forest Creatures (1953). She was also apparently able to sing in a remarkable double voice.

In 1954, classical composer Virgil Thomson described Sumac's voice as very low and warm, very high and birdlike, noting that her range is very close to five octaves, but is in no way inhuman or outlandish in sound. 

In 2012, audio recording restoration expert John H. Haley favorably compared Sumac's tone to opera singers Isabella Colbran, Maria Malibran, and Pauline Viardot. He described Sumac's voice as not having the bright penetrating peal of a true coloratura soprano, but having in its place an alluring sweet darkness, virtually unique in our time.

More information: The Official Website of Yma Sumac

Sumac was born Zoila Augusta Emperatriz Chávarri del Castillo on September 10, 1923, in Ichocán, a historically Indian village in Cajamarca, Peru. Her parents were Sixto Chávarri and Emilia del Castillo. Her father was born in Cajamarca and her mother was born in Pallasca. Stories published in the 1950s claimed that she was an Incan princess, directly descended from Atahualpa.

The government of Peru in 1946 formally supported her claim to be descended from Atahualpa, the last Incan emperor. She was the youngest of six children. Her mother was a schoolteacher and her father a civic leader.

Yma Sumac

Chávarri adopted the stage name of Imma Sumack, also spelled Ymma Sumack and Ima Sumack, before she left South America for the United States. The stage name was based on her mother's name, which was derived from ima shumaq, Quechua for how beautiful!, although in interviews she claimed it meant beautiful flower or beautiful girl.

Sumac first appeared on radio in 1942. She recorded at least 18 tracks of Peruvian folk songs in Argentina in 1943. These early recordings for the Odeon label featured composer Moisés Vivanco's troupe Compañía Peruana de Arte, of 16 Indian dancers, singers, and musicians.

She was signed by Capitol Records in 1950, at which time her stage name became Yma Sumac. Her first album, Voice of the Xtabay, launched a period of fame that included performances at the Hollywood Bowl and Carnegie Hall.

More information: UPI

In 1950 she made her first tour to Europe and Africa, and debuted at the Royal Albert Hall in London and the Royal Festival Hall before the Queen. She presented more than 80 concerts in London and 16 concerts in Paris. A second tour took her to the Far East: Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Sumatra, the Philippines, and Australia. Her fame in countries like Greece, Israel and Russia made her change her two-week stay to six months.

During the 1950s, she produced a series of lounge music recordings featuring Hollywood-style versions of Incan and South American folk songs, working with Les Baxter and Billy May. The combination of her extraordinary voice, exotic looks, and stage personality made her a hit with American audiences.

Yma Sumac

During the height of Sumac's popularity, she appeared in the films Secret of the Incas (1954) with Charlton Heston and Robert Young and Omar Khayyam (1957).

She became a U.S. citizen on July 22, 1955. In 1959, she performed Jorge Bravo de Rueda's classic song Vírgenes del Sol on her album Fuego del Ande.

In 1987, she recorded I Wonder from the Disney film Sleeping Beauty for Stay Awake and  in 1989, she sang again at the Ballroom in New York and returned to Europe for the first time in 30 years to headline the BRT's Gala van de Gouden Bertjes New Year's Eve TV special in Brussels as well as the Etoile Palace program in Paris. She also gave several concerts in the summer of 1996 in San Francisco and Hollywood as well as two more in Montreal, Canada, in July 1997 as part of the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

On May 6, 2006, Sumac flew to Lima, where she was presented the Orden del Sol award by Peruvian President and the Jorge Basadre medal by the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos.

Sumac died on November 1, 2008, aged 85, at an assisted living home in Los Angeles. She was interred at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in the Sanctuary of Memories section.

More information: The New York Times

My music is different. 

It springs from my Incan heritage, 

which we proudly preserve in Peru. 

It is the music of the mountains.

Yma Sumac