Nevertheless, he received international recognition thanks to his popular song El Totumo de Guarenas, which has been performed and recorded by generations of classical guitarists.
[2] He was the son of Agostino Canónico, an immigrant Italian musician who taught him to play violin at a young age.
[2] In the early 1920s Canónico moved with his family to Caracas, where he worked as a music teacher and devoted himself to composing and orchestrate.
Besides this, he played during 22 years for the Banda Marcial Caracas, by then conducted by Pedro Elías Gutiérrez, and was a founding member of the Orquesta Típica Nacional in 1953.
[2] Since then, the song has been recorded by a number of famous guitarists including Liona Boyd, Antonio Lauro, Flavio Sala and John Williams, among others.