Organ at Basílica de la Soledad, Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México

Oaxacan Holiday

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.

Program Broadcast dates:

• October 14, 2002

Links and Resources:

• PIPEDREAMS Mexican tour in 2005.
• PIPEDREAMS trip to Oaxaca in 2001.
• PIPEDREAMS “South of the Border”

Music played in the program

FRANCISCO CORREA de ARAUXO: Tiento y discursos de segundo tono. ANONYMOUS: Daphne variations. MARTIN y COLL: Espanoleta –Roberto Fresco (1690 anonymous/Catedral Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México)

ALESSANDRO SCARLATTI: Toccata Number 11, 1st movement JUAN CABANILLES: Toccata Number 2 de ma esquerra –Elisa Freixo (Basílica de la Soledad, Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México)

ANTOIO de CABEZON: Diferencias sobra la Gallarda Milanesa. JUAN CABANILLES: Pasacalles II. ANTOIO de CABEZON: Fabordones del primer tono. LUÍS ÁLVARES PINTO: Pieces for Organ –Cristina Garcia Banegas, Guy Bovet (1727 anonymous/San Jerónimo, Tlacochahuaya, Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México)

ANTONIO VALENTE: La Romanesca. ANTONIO CARREIRA: Cancao. Sebastián Durón: Gaitilla –Elisa Freixo (Basílica de la Soledad, Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México)

J.S. BACH: Gigue, from Suite in d, S. 997 –Horacio Franco, recorder; Jose Suarez (1690 anonymous/Catedral Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México)

ANTONIO CORREA BRAGA: Batalha de sexto tono –Cristina Garcia Banegas (1727 anonymous/San Jerónimo, Tlacochahuaya, Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México)

Filler –FRANCISCO CORREA DE ARAUXO: Tiento tercero –GUY BOVET (1727 anonymous/San Jerónimo, Tlacochahuaya, Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México)

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 Saint Jeronimo, Tlacochahuaya, Elisa Freixo at the Basílica de la Soledad Ciudad de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México, and Roberto Fresco and José Suárez Molina playing the organ at the Catedral Ciudad Oaxaca, Mexico. 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, Pieter 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.