Marian Gonzalez/Oñati, Gipuzkoa. The recuperation of Aita Madina's enormous musical heritage will receive an important boost in 2018. The Archive of the Regular Lateranensi or Augustinians in Oñati and the Andres Egiguren Orchestra, in Eibar are working together on an ambitious project that hopes to debut the unpublished works of this universal musician, and composer of immortal pieces like “Aita Gurea,” or “Agur Maria.”
This project gives continuity to a road already explored by Oñati soprano, Amaia Azpiazu, and organist from Durango, Aitor Olea when they published last year the CD Eliz Kantak with unknown scores by Madina dedicated to the Virgin of Arantzazu. The work was the delight of music lovers and had been the hallmark of another Txantxiku (nickname for people born in Oñati), Xabier Ugarte, a great connoisseur of Madina’s work. He was the person responsible for selecting the songs after discovering more than 20 pieces dedicated to the virgin in song and for organ.
This time, the connection to the Augustineans' Archive which houses Madina’s work in Oñati, was Pedro Palacin, musician from Eibar, who has embarked the Andres Egiguren Orchestra in the initiative “that seeks to rescue a yet unexplored cultural heritage.” The goal of the alliance between Eibar and Oñati is “to recover much of the production that has yet to debut, huge works. We will have world premieres in 2018,” Palacin explained.
Having seen the first scores, the director of the orchestra doesn’t hesitate to indicate that the project “is very strong,” and he sees more possibilities beyond recovering these works and debuting them. “We are interested in recording the work and disseminating it, I would also like to analyze the work and write a book about this man and his music.”
Before, and as an aperitif and presentation of the project, the group will perform a concert at the Eibar Coliseum this Friday. The first in an intense schedule that in addition to the recovery of Aita Madina’s music archive will allow more continuous activity of the orchestra that was formed in 2007, the year that Oñati delved into the centennial of Francisco de Madina Igarzabal.
From Zubillaga to New York
[Zubillaga is the Oñati neighborhood where the baserri where Aita Madina was born, Txipitxaile, is located]
In 1931, Aita Madina was assigned to Salta, Argentina where he contacted and became involved with a large number of Basque exiles who were refuged on the other side of the Atlantic after the Civil War. In 1946, he became the soul of the nascent Saski Naski, a youth group that performed Basque musicals. He would compose txistu, dance and choir music for this company and this is also the year of his most well-known, and performed work today, “Aita Gurea.”
A year later, he founded the Polyphonic Choir in Salta and contacted Nicanor Zabaleta who had composed works for harp. His “Sonata Vasca,” debuted at Carnegie Hall and the suite recorded by the BBC, but the roots of this contact weren’t only musical. He also met Basterretxea and Oteiza who had presented him their ideas about the Basque Cultural Revolution. His style began to renew then, moving away from pure frivolity to look for a more universal means of expression.
On vacation in Oñati he wrote the choral symphonic poem Oñati whose debut he directed at the University, not hesitating to participate in the literary musical contest created as part of the inauguration of the Basilica of Arantzazu, receiving honorary mention by the jury. In 1957, he returned home again and was honored with the debut of “Arantzazu” at the Parish of San Miguel.
Tireless composer, director and prestigious organist
Since 1958, Madina permanently settled in New York, a city that was the ideal platform for his launch to stardom. During his long stay in the US he was in touch with world-renowned musicians with whom he became close friends. Aware of their sublime inspiration and ease of composing, they requested works that they would make known. Thus he became a devoted musician required to interpret, direct and give lectures. He also performed organ recitals across the country, while serving as a music critic on the “Voice of America,” radio station.
Over the years, he never stopped composing and arranging scores, most of them dedicated to the local Irrintzi group, founded under his impulse and who would win the second Basque-Navarrese Contest in 1964. All this activity, nevertheless, was undermining his health and in 1966, while on vacation in Oñati he suffered a stroke. After recuperating, he returned to the US and in 1970 he debuted his “Basque Concert,” in San Francisco. When he was about to complete his “Sacred Concert” to debut at the Vatican, a second attack left him in a wheelchair in 1971, with incurable hemiplegia. In 1972, he returned to Oñati to be honored, just days before his death.
(published on 12-12-2017 in El Diario Vasco)
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