San Andrés Huayapam and its historical organ in dire need of restoration

Visiting Oaxaca is like waking up in paradise. But what is Paradise without a nice welcome and a delicious meal.

 

When our group made its early afternoon caravan out of Oaxaca, heading east, we arrived to nearby Huayapam, in the Central Valleys, and we were immediately greeted by a local welcome committee, who offered us refreshments in the courtyard on the outside of the Church of San Andrés, not served in cups or glasses, but in jicaras or terra cotta bowls, much the same way as Dominican Missionaries were greeted here almost 500 years ago by the Zapoteco tribesmen and women.

 

 

Estela drinking tejate from her
jicara.

 

After our initial non-alcoholic welcome "cocktail", we were served an early afternoon dinner, featuring the local popular "mole". A "mole"is a dish that combines several different chiles, nuts and sometimes chocolate. In Huayapam, the specialty is "mole Amarillo" or yellow mole, with beef shanks and chayotes, a vegetable commonly used in Mexican cuisine, but much lighter and full of water.

Refreshing drink of tejate, typical of Huayapam
 

Mole Amarillo is delicious, but to some palates accustomed to more day-to-day cuisine, it may result in a taste which is slightly course. In Mexico City, in our finer shopping and commercial districts, we can find a variety of  "moles": "mole poblano", "mole oaxaqueño", "mole acacahuatada", "mole almendrado", which are tamed down to become more palatable to our everyday taste. However the wonderful experience that the organizers of IOHIO (Instituto de Organos Historicos de Oaxaca) was that they gave us the experience of authentic native food, the food that the people of Oaxaca have been cooking for centuries. And we had the opportunity to wash it all down with a plentiful supply of locally distilled mezcal,  

 

Mole Amarillo.

 

The Church of San Andrés Huayapam was built in the late 16th century, while the organ was built in 1772, as we can inscribed on the central façade pipe.

 

The façade of San Andres Huayapam with twin

bell towers but without stone-carved figures

 of saints.

 

The organ here has laid silenced for over a half of a century (last used during the decade of the 1960's). It is a 4' table organ, which once was located in the choir loft, but now is located on a side chapel off to the right side of the main altar. The tonal base is provided by a 4' principal, and the pitch reaches up to 392 Hz. But if the case  is visibly smaller than 4'! The largest pipes are 4' (122 centimeters),but they are bent in order to fit.

View of the 4' tabletop organ from the rear.

 

The table organ of Huayapam has certain peculiarities that make it very different the organ we saw that morning at Jalatlaco. The most notable difference is the keyboard with only 45 notes C to c'''. Now is that 4 octaves? A standard octave has 7 natural notes, and 5 sharps, thus 12 notes. So if a keyboard starts with a C (two octaves bellow middle C) and ends with a c''' (which is two octaves above middle C), some keys or notes are missing apparently on the keyboard. 4 octaves x 12 notes in each octaves, plus the final c''' should make 49 notes or keys, and not 45. On the keyboard, the naturals are made of cedar while the sharps were made of walnut.

 

 

The keyboard of the organ of

Huayapam has a short octave

on the far left.

 

Organ builders in Oaxaca during the 17th and 18th recurred to something similar to a  musical shorthand, creating the short octave, where most of the sharps are eliminated in the last and most base octave, as most of the music composed before Bach did not require them. If you take a close look at the bass or left end of the keyboard in the above picture, it apparently doesn't end in the C, but in E.

 

 

The case of the 4' table organ of Huayapam is made of ayacahuite, and was repainted maroon sometime in the last 100 years, while in certain corners of the keyboard and the moldings we can see a previous color which was a bright red. The frontal pipes are arranged in a 7-5-7 array. The pipes are covered at the top with wooden carved floral shades.

 

The top of the front case of the organ of

San Andrés Huayapam

 

At the top of the case, there is a chalice at the crest. The case is 150 centimeters (60") high, 112 centimeters wide, and 65 centimeters deep. Including the table, the total height is 225 centimeters (7', 4").

If you take a close look at the tubes in the above

picture, notice that the tubes in the right are

wooden and the lowest notes on the principal.

 

The pipes that we see today in the organ are probably all the originals. Four of the most base tubes are wood, while all the rest are metal, of a very soft alloy. Four of the largest pipes in façade section are bent, because they are too long: one central, two on the RH (right hand) and one on the LF (left hand). It is feasible that this organ was originally built as a 2' organ and then later modified to 4'.

The bellows of the Huayapam organ

 

There are two wedge bellows on the table behind the organ. The bellows are 48 centimeters (19") wide, 107 centimeters (42") long. Seven folds in the bellows. The weights are made of lead.

 

Lead weights of the bellows.

 

The fresco of Saint Christopher on

the side wall of the Church.

Principle nave of the church of

San Andrés Huayapam

 

Side chapel of San Andrés Huayapam

 

The church of San Andrés Huayapam has in its side chapel a collection tures, we can of "ex-voto" paintings, which claim miraculous intervention as a response to a persons needs and their prayers or prayers of their families. In the following pictures are some of these "ex votos":

 

 

 

San Matias Jalatlaco and the anatomy of an Organ Restoration.

The International Festival of Historical Organ and Early Music is not only a series of talks and concerts, but of field trips to churches with abandoned organs in a state of total ruin, or as in this case, in the nearby village of Jalatlaco, where the process of the restoration of the outside "case" or frame is almost complete, while the restoration of the inner mechanics of the organ is practically just beginning.

 

The Church of San Matias Jalatlaco,

built in the 17th Century.

 

The tour of Jalatlaco was divided into two sections: the outer case of the organ and the inside mechanics. Thus we were introduced into the outer and inner anatomy of a 18th century organ.

 

The entrance to the parish offices

San Matias Jalatlaco

 

Estela taking a break at the fountain of

San Matias Jalatlaco

 

Jalatlaco is on the northeast edge of the metropolitan area of the city of Oaxaca A hermitage was established here in the 17th Century, and eventually a Church dedicated to Saint Catherine of Alexandria. The church was rebuilt in 1713 and in 1754. During the 18th Century, the Church was dedicated again, now to San Matias, and in the parish records, we find that the Church already had an organ, which needed repairs by Friar Nicolas of Saint Joseph as early as 1674, and then again in 1680 by Francisco Rebollo and in 1726 by Marciel Ruiz Maldonado. (All these repairs are documented in the parish archives.)

 

Twisted pipes of the original organ,

smelted from an alloy of tin and lead,

which makes a metal which is very

soft and bends easily.

 

In 1866, only a few years after the Laws of the Reforma were put into effect by President Juarez, this church seemed to have avoided confiscation, and placed a contract for 700 pesos with Pedro Nibra to build the organ which is presently under restoration.

Inner view of the wind chest.

 

Pedro Nibra was proud of this instrument, and he made this clear in more than one way. His initials are in the center of the front console, and are painted in red. His effigy is carved in the wood at the top of the case. He left his name written on the inside of several of the boards of the case.

The inner mechanism of the organ

 

The organ of Jalatlaco is different from other restored organs in Oaxaca. The style is no longer baroque, but neoclassical. The inner workings show all the technological improvements of the 19th Century. The Nibra organ at Jalatlaco has a nostalgic air to it: it is the last of an era, just as Nibra was the last great organ builder in Oaxaca.

At least half of the original pipes of the

Jalatlaco organ are missing or are beyond

repair.

 

To whom does the Organ belong? To the first Dominican missionaries? Or to the secular priests who came afterwards? Or, as a consequence of the Laws of the Reforma, promulgated by President Benito Juarez, himself a native son of Oaxaca, by which Church property was confiscated in 1858, does it belong to the "nation". Or to the local community?

 

Close-up of the points of the pipes.

 

What is ownership? The title? The stewardship? The caretaking? The occupation? My purpose is not to beg an idle question? Ownership, stewardship and occupation are the ingredients that make restoring such a challenging task, be it an organ, or a church or a painting. And this is the challenge that the IOHIO must not only contend with, but orchestrate.

 

Insertion points of the frontal pipes.

This rank of pipes were all controlled

by the same stop button.

 

We have an expression here in Mexico: "Quien paga, manda." ("He who pays, is in charge.") I say it because we might feel that if the IOHIO is paying for a restoration, it can have things done their way. This is an oversimplification. IOHIO provides funds for the restoration, the local community has a say, so does the local parish priest, and so does the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia or INAH (National Institute of Antropology and History). And sometimes these institutions, their representatives and their opinions can conflict with one another.

 

Roots of a centuries-old tree in the garden

of the parish of Jalatlaco

 

The INAH has groups of specialists, many of them stationed in Mexico City, that set up guidelines for many types of restorations, including historical organs. Those guidelines cannot be transgressed, in spite of the experience or prestige of the restorers or a foundation. What type of paint can be used to restore the organ? What tone? Even, How to deal with the termites?

These "drawers" were conductors

between the keyboard and the rank

 

So to whom does the organ really belong? To all of the aforementioned: to the first Dominicans, to the secular priests that came later, to the local community, to the Catholic Church, to Oaxaca, to the young Mexican musicians who come here and play it, and to Nation of Mexico as a whole. And humanity? They are all stakeholders.

Roots of the tree behind the church

 

Who was really "right" in the conflict of the Liberals against the Conservatives during War of the Reforma in Mexico, during the 1850's? There is nothing as destructive as popular figures defending noble causes without showing respect nor patience for those who hold a different opinion.

The outer case of the Pedro Nimbra Organ is

almost completely restored, and is in the

upper choir loft

 

The War of the Reforma was a Civil War. Just like in the case of the Civil War in the United States, or the Civil War in Spain, a Civil War is the ugliest of wars, because the only way we justify a war is through the anonymity of the enemy. Unfortunately, in a civil war, the enemy is no longer anonymous. The enemy is my boss, my employee, my neighbor, my cousin or sometimes even my brother. The expropriation of Church property in Mexico during the 1850 was an idea whose time had come. It had already happened in France, in Spain and in Italy. The Church had more property than it needed to fulfill its mission given to it by Jesus Christ.  However the handling of the exclaustration of monks and nuns, some of them in a very advanced age, was pathetic and contemptuous, and only served to sow the seeds of a future civil war, called the War of the Cristeros.

 

Top section of the organ case of

Jalatlaco

 

Enough of politics, and silly feuds in the past that left little good, and let's get back to the Jalatlaco Organ. It's a 8' (8 foot, 240 centimeters  high) stationary organ. It is located on the left side (east side) of the choir loft. The painting is sky blue, with light  grey moldings. When I said that it is an 8´ organ, 8 feet is not the total height, which is close to almost 15'. An 8' organ is an organ with pipes up to 8' long. In the case of Jalatlalco, the tonal base is provided by a 8' principal. Here in the upper case, the pipes are arranged in three sections of flat-round-flat with the front pipes set out in a 9-5-9 plan. Elegant crest and side carvings, very neoclassical.

 

Bottom section of the organ case of Jalatlaco

The lower case is almost 200 centimeters tall (6'6"), with elegant lateral hips, creating a total width of 291 centimeters (or 9'6") and thanks to the paper stop labels that we can see in the above picture that have been removed, this paint is not the original. In the center of the lower case is the console. The keyboard had the natural notes made out of cedar, with bone covers, while the sharps were ebony. The compass is 56 notes long, starting in C to g'''. We can see the 6 holes on each side of the console from which the façade knobs will protrude when the restoration is complete 

Façade of San Matias Jalatlaco

 

At Jalatralco , the reservoir bellows are located to the right of the organ, and the feeds are 52 centimeters wide (20"), and a depth of 112 centimeters (3'8"). The reservoir width is 156 centimeters and 118 centimeters deep. The bellows have 3 folds. The weights are missing.

Altarpiece of the church of

San Matias Jalatlaco

Main altarpiece of the church of Jalatlaco

Ceiling of main altar

Side view of Façade

 Pipe organs use compressed air, blown

through sets of pipes, that

are organized in sets called ranks.

 

Each rank of pipes is controlled by a button on

the control panel called a "stop". At Jalatlaco,

the organ had 12 stops, yet the two top stops

on each side have been canceled.

 

This is the board on which all the pipes are

inserted in their hole, according to the "rank"

to which they pertain.

If you take a close look at this complex mechanism

designed in the mid 19th century by an Oaxacan

organ builder, with its intricate side movements,

it might remind you of a similar contraption,

the weaving loom.  

In one of the halls of the parish, used often for

catechism classes, the organ is being

restored by a specialist, José Luis Acevedo.

 

The suspended round wooden trackers of the

 Pedro Nibra organ, by which the keyboard

 is connected to the rollerboard, and to

 the specific rank and pipe to be played.

View of the side of the church of San Matias

Jalatlaco

An important issue is the restoration

of an organ are the termites.

 

The IOHIO or any foundation in the quest of rescuing a centuries-old organ in Oaxaca, not has to deal with local communities, the parish priest, with historians, and with inspectors from the government INAH authorities, it also has to establish a strategy on how to deal with the termites. I am not pretending to be comical.

The IHS symbol on top of the case in red and

white while a mask of the face of a man,

possibly Pedro Nibra, the constructor,

underneath.

 

When you have termites in the basement of your house, you call the exterminator. When you discover termites in an organ which is a priceless artifact of historical value, the question becomes more complicated. Certain parts of the case were so destroyed, new wood was needed. It other cases, sanding out the damaged sections was all that was needed.

 

Sometimes when different types

of light are projected on the top

layer of paint of an old organ, we

can not only find out the original

tone, graffiti that has been hidden

for centuries.

 

And the termites. It is not only a question of destroying the termites, but of disposing of the "corpses". The correct insecticide must not only kill the insect, but cause no side effects on the wood, and the dead insects, that will not march out of the organ in a prisoners of war parade waving a white flag of surrender. Dead or alive, they continue to occupy the organ. So an insecticide or termiticide must be chosen that converts the corpses of the insects into part of the structure of the wood. And that is what has been achieved at this Jalatlaco restoration. Eco-friendly, state-of-art termite control.