Emilio Murillo Chapul was born in Guateque, April 19, 1880 and died in Bogotá on August 9, 1942. He studied with Pedro Morales Pino and with him he learned to play string instruments. He entered the Academy of Music directed by Honorio Alarcón in 1905 and there he studied music theory, theory, flute and piano. He stayed 3 years in this institution until it had to be closed due to the Thousand Days War. During the Thousand Days War he published a liberal sheet called “La Regeneración”, which was printed from his house, also the place of his “La Rosa Blanca” brewery. The publication of this sheet caused him to be locked up in the panopticon along with Julio Flórez. He began playing in a trio together with Pedro Morales Pino and Ricardo Acevedo Bernal, to which Antonio González and Julio Flórez would later join, forming a quintet that entertained the social gatherings of the capital. He traveled to the United States in 1907 and 1910, the year when he signed a contract with RCA Víctor to record Colombian songs. That same year the publishing house M. Whitmark and sons published several songs by Murillo in the South American Melodies for piano Collection. He founded the 'Estudiantina Murillo' with Alejandro Wills, Arturo Patiño, Jorge Pubiano, Cerbeleón Romero and Ernesto Neira. In 1923 he traveled to the Universal Exhibition in Seville as a representative of Colombia. Between 1924 and 1930, together with Guillermo Uribe Holguín, Emilio Murillo was the protagonist of a public discussion that took place through the press, in which both composers defended nationalist music from their position, Guillermo Uribe Holguín from the academy and Emilio Murillo from the popular. In 1932 he toured Leticia, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Chile, Argentina, and Uruguay; in which he collected melodies from other cultures. He founded the Murillo Academy, an institution in which he gave free musical instruction. He received the Cruz de Boyacá in 1935, at the initiative of President Alfonso López Pumarejo. His musical production encompasses approximately 90 pasillos, 45 waltzes, 18 danzones, 50 bambucos and 50 varied works in the air of tango, ranchera, fox and rumba. They stand out: "Mi cabaña", "El trapiche", "Canoita", "El vaquero", "Muchachita linda", "El guatecano", "Flores negra", "Elvira", "Weekend", "Jocoso", " Canto Rojo”, “Lucero”, “Canción mística”, “La bavaria”, “Don Quijote”, “Sonrisas”, “Noches bogotanas”, “Celos”, “Madrigal” and “Mi tributo a Calvo”.
