Emiliana Zubeldía

EMILIANA ZUBELDÍA

In 1928, she travels to South America: Brazil, Uruguay and Argentina, where she is received by the Basque communities in those countries. Upon entering the cultural elite, she gets acquainted with Juana de Ibarbourou, Alfonso Reyes and other Latin American cultural personalities. In 1930, she arrives in New York. During her stay, Radio City Music Hall is inaugurated and she performed in its stage with Andres Segovia and Nicanor Zabaleta, for whom she composes and dedicates some of her works. From New York, she travels to tour Cuba, Puerto Rico and Mexico. She met Mexican researcher and musician Augusto Novaro, who arrives to the Big Apple in the same time period to present his recently created System of Natural Music, where he defends the practical possibilities of the fundamental harmonic scales and its application to all musical temperaments. Emiliana is dazzled by these principles and dedicates herself to their study, to later integrate them into her compositions. Novaro returns to Mexico a couple of years later, and Emiliana de Zubeldia follows him in 1937 to become the sole composer reflecting Novaro’s theories in all kinds of musical works. In Mexico City, she met Rodolfo Halffter, Silvestre Revueltas and Adolfo Salazar, Sophie Cheiner and many other musicians and musicologists, both Mexican and refugees from the Spanish Civil War and World War II. In 1939, a car accident affected her right arm, prompting her career to take a new turn, dedicating herself to teaching and composing. Decided to stay in Mexico (she became a permanent resident in 1942), she began the second act of the long life. In 1947 she relocates to Hermosillo, Sonora, invited by the recently founded University of Sonora, to lead musical education efforts, up until her death in 1987. She arrived to a barren landscape, entirely removed from the cultural enclaves she inhabited. Upon her arrival, she began organizing concerts, inviting well-known musicians and promoting scholarships for her better students. She became the main cultural promoter of the city, while remaining an Avant Garde composer: in 1956, her Elegiac Symphony, based on Novaro’s principles, receives the National Composition Award. In Hermosillo, she erases all traces of the previous life: she lies about her age, taking up to 25 years from the real age; she lied about her marital status –she will always be Miss Zubeldia about her birthplace… She basically reinvents herself. Adding to her life’s mystery, in 1960 she returned to Pamplona incognito to visit Nestor, her brother, who was terminally ill. No one knew of this visit, to prevent Joaquin Fuentes Pascal, still her husband, from finding out. During the almost 40 years that she spent in Hermosillo, she lived in a hotel room, without a home. She continued teaching, accumulating all kinds of accolades up until a few months before she passed away at 99 years old. Regarding her music, she composed for all types of formations. Some of the works showcase impressionist echoes and reflect the Paris vanguard of the twenties. Some are more traditional compositions, with contemporary elements, polytonality and dissonances. And another ones are written under Novaro’s musical theories. Zubeldia’s music is known for its minimal use of resources to achieve a wider expressive and aesthetic effectiveness. Still, her complete works are waiting for a more systematic study, since most of it remains unpublished and archived with restricted access at the University of Sonora.