Máximo Damián Huamaní

Máximo Damián Huamaní (born December 20, 1936 in San Diego de Ishua , Aucara District , Lucanas Province , Ayacucho Region , Peru; † February 12, 2015 in Lima ) was a Peruvian violinist and composer who, through his interpretations of traditional songs and his own compositions who were mostly oriented towards the Huainos of his home region, but also became one of the most famous musicians in Peru through his friendship with José María Arguedas .

Life

Máximo Damián grew up as the son of the Quechua farmers Justiniano Damián and Toribia Huamaní in the village of San Diego de Ishua on the banks of the Sondondo River . His father was a violinist in addition to his farm work and played at village festivals in various places in the region, so he was often out and about. Máximo, on the other hand, helped his mother with field work as a child, which kept him from going to school.

Already as a child, Máximo wanted to play the violin like his father , but his father did not want this, because playing the strings is usually associated with drinking and Máximo deserves a better life. However, Máximo took advantage of his father's long absence to invite his father's students to his home and learn to play the violin from them. At the age of 13 he played for the first time at a festival in his home village and received a lot of applause, where he also made other contacts with musicians. His father gave up his opposition to Maximo's plans.

A mishap happened to him at the age of 14: As a shepherd, he did not take sufficient care of the cattle that ran away from him and devastated the field. Fearing severe punishment from his father, he joined his uncle, who was just leaving for Lima , and only said goodbye to his mother. Via Nazca he came to Lima in 1950, where he initially earned his living as a domestic worker and later as an industrial worker. A year later his uncle brought him his violin, and from then on he played pieces of music publicly every Sunday, many of them his own creations in the traditional Andean style. In this way he quickly gained notoriety and popularity, especially with those arriving in Lima from the Andes.

One day the writer José María Arguedas came to his apartment in the Pueblo Libre district and spoke to him in Chanka-Quechua : “Are you Máximo Damián? I will hire you. I want you to play handcrafted (acoustically). ”This marked the beginning of a longstanding collaboration between the writer and the violinist. In 1954 Damián and Arguedas made a concert tour to Chile together. In 1955 Damián traveled to Caracas and in 1962 to Porto Alegre ( Brazil ) and Loja ( Ecuador ). Arguedas dedicated his last, only posthumously published novel El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo ("The fox from above and the fox from below") to his friend Máximo Damián.

One day, Máximo Damián was expecting his friend Arguedas at his home for an arranged dinner, but Arguedas did not come. He later said that he had seen him the night before, but the next morning he read in the newspaper that Arguedas had committed suicide, but he did not die until two days later, on December 2, 1969. Arguedas had had once before recorded how his funeral was to go. In accordance with this wish, Máximo Damián played together with Jaime Guardia , Alejandro Vivanco and the Chiara brothers the piece Agonía composed by Damián from the "scissor dance " (Danza de las Tijeras) , with two scissor dancers dancing at the coffin.

In 1975 Damián became a violin teacher at the Escuela Nacional de Folclor . In 1992 he toured Germany , Switzerland , France and England on the occasion of the 500 years of the “ Discovery of America ” . He later played in Denmark , in 1994 in the Netherlands and in 2000 in New York at the Lincoln Center and in some cities in Japan .

On the occasion of the hundredth birthday of José María Arguedas on January 18, 2011, he opened the festive event in front of the Congress of the Republic of Peru with the writer's favorite melody , Onchuchukucha .

Awards include the Medalla Kuntur from the Instituto Nacional de Cultura del Perú (1995) and an award from the Universidad Nacional de Ingeniería .

On 11 February 2015, he was due to his diabetes mellitus hospitalized Hospital Nacional Edgardo Rebagliati Martins de Lima admitted, where he died the following day.

Máximo Damián was married to the singer Isabel Asto , with whom he performed regularly.

Works

Compositions:

• Manzana pukay pukacha
• Agonía
• Chinka chinkacha jora
• Retama
• Toril
• Jaca takay
• Salud chimaycha

u. a.

Discography

• 1992: Máximo Damián. El violín de Ishua (Paris)

u. a.

Contributions to films

• 1972: El Violinista (documentary by Marianne Eyde)
• 1979: El Perú y su Música (French documentary film)
• 1982: Yawar Fiesta (feature film based on the novel of the same name by José María Arguedas)
• 1984: Mountain Music of Peru (American documentary)
• 2000: Lágrimas de Wuayronco (Spanish documentary film)
• 2004: Altiplano (Peruvian-French feature film)
• 2012: Sigo Siendo (documentary about the music of Peru)

literature

• José María Arguedas: El zorro de arriba y el zorro de abajo . ALLCA XX / Ediciones UNESCO, Colección Archivos, 14. Madrid 1990. Edición crítica coordinada por Éve-Marie Fell.
• Jesús Raymundo: Violín Magico . Máximo Damián conserva el sonido tradicional de la musica costumbrista de Ayacucho. Diario La Primera. Lima, June 8th 2008.
• Alberto Tauro del Pino : Enciclopedia Ilustrada del Perú . Tercera Edición. Tomo 6. D'AC / FER. Lima, PEISA, 2001. ISBN 9972-40-155-3
• Mario Vargas Llosa : La utopía arcaica . José María Arguedas y las ficciones del indigenismo. Fondo de Cultura Económica. México, 1996. ISBN 968-16-4862-5

Web links

• Juan Francisco Tincopa Calle: Tupananchikkama wawqichallay ("Goodbye, my dear brother") ( Memento from February 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), written on February 15, 2015. Qawaq 30 ( Memento from February 26, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), March 2015, p. 36.
• Hasta siempre Máximo Damián Huamaní, guardían de nuestra identidad andina. Radio Programas del Perú, February 13, 2015.
• Máximo Damián y sus anécdotas con José María Arguedas. El Comercio, February 13, 2015.
• Don Máximo Huamaní, violinista , September 2008.

Individual evidence

1. ^ Mario Vargas Llosa : La utopía arcaica . José María Arguedas y las ficciones del indigenismo. Fondo de Cultura Económica. México, 1996, p. 13.
2. ^ Claudia Berríos Campos: Danza por José María Arguedas.  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   La República, January 19, 2011.