Organ at Le Soledad, Oaxaca, Mexico

Oaxacan Holiday

Special feature with slideshow, interviews, restored organs of Oaxaca and more!

This week we expand our sense of music's North American history when we visit the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca to hear pipe organs from the 17th and 18th centuries. While we were barely 'the colonies' up north, Mexican natives directed by Spanish artisans practiced the art of organbuilding as early as fifty years following the landing of Columbus. With a refreshing and colorful spirit, instruments in the village of Tlacochahuaya, La Soledad Basilica and the Oaxaca Cathedral illuminate the stories of organists Elisa Freixo, Cristina Garcia Banegas and Roberto Fresco. This is a precious heritage, deserving our careful attention and enthusiastic support. Join us south of the border for a Oaxacan Holiday.

Listen to the program

Program Broadcast dates:

October 14, 2002

Featured Organs:

Links and Resources

Music played in the program

( Key to abbreviations)

FRANCISCO CORREA de ARAUXO: Tiento y discursos de segundo tono.

ANONYMOUS: Daphne (variations).

MARTIN y COLL: Espanoleta -Roberto Fresco (Catedral)

A. SCARLATTI: Toccata No. 11 (1st movement).

JUAN CABANILLES: Toccata No. 2 de ma esquerra -ANTONIO de CABEZON: Diferencias sobra la Gallarda Milanesa.

JUAN CABANILLES: Pasacalles II.

CABEZON: Fabordones del primer tono.

LUIS ALVAREZ PINTO: Pieces for Organ -Cristina Garcia Banegas, Guy Bovet (Tlacochahuaya)

ANTONIO VALENTE: La Romanesca.

ANTONIO CARREIRA: Cancao.

SEBASTIAN DURON: Gaitilla –Elisa Freixo (Soledad)

J. S. BACH: Gigue, fr Suite in d, S. 997 -Horacio Franco, recorder; Jose Suarez, organ (Catedral)

ANTONIO CORREA BRAGA: Batalha de sexto tono -Cristina Garcia Banegas (Tlacochahuaya)

Filler - CORREA Tiento tercero (Bovet/Tlacochahuaya)

All musical selections were recorded on-location during a Oaxacan Organ Festival held in late autumn of 1991. Performaners included Guy Bovet and Cristina Garcia Banegas (at the Church of St. Jeronimo, Tlacochahuaya), Elisa Freixo (at La Basilica de la Soledad, Oaxaca) and Roberto Fresco and José Suárez Molina (at the Oaxaca City Cathedral). While these organs seem to date from the 1600s and 1700s, documentation of their origins is incomplete at best, and the names of their builders remain unknown. Recent restorations were accomplished by Susan Tattershall, Piet Visser and Ignacio Zapata.

The Instituto de Órganos Históricos de Oaxaca (IOHIO, pronounced yo-yo) will present a second annual International Organ Festival, featuring these and other instruments in and around the city of Oaxaca, from November 21-24, 2002. This festival offers opportunity to hear Iberian and related Italian repertoire on historic pipe organs conceived in the Spanish tradition. A concurrent conference on organ restoration guidelines for Latin America will include field trips to several restored and unrestored organs. For more information, contact IOHIO.