He is credited with composing songs like ‘The little boy is coming’, ‘I don’t know, beautiful boy’, ‘Carnations and roses’ and more. Who was this Lojan musician?
The weeks leading up to Christmas, the atmosphere in cities and towns is flooded with the smell of incense, palo santo and incense. And in the air the notes of songs related to the date sound; and although there is no shortage of melodies like ‘Jingle Bell’ or ‘Blanca Navidad’, the most common in Ecuador and many Latin American countries is listening Christmas carols traditional.
And among those that are heard the most in the streets, shopping centers and houses, and the most sung in posadas or novenas are songs such as’ The little boy is coming ‘,’ I don’t know, beautiful boy ‘,’ Carnations and roses’ and ‘In arms of a maiden. ‘ In EcuadorWithout a doubt, they are not lacking in the voice of the ephemeral children’s group ‘Los pibes Trujillo’.
What few know is that those Christmas carols, and others such as ‘Venid pastorcillos’, ‘Dulce Jesús Mío’ and ‘Pimpollito del alma’ are compositions attributed to an Ecuadorian: the Lojano musician Salvador Bustamante Celi (1876-1935).
But who was this prodigy of traditional popular music? Well, he was born in the capital of the province of Loja in the home of the also musician Teodosio Bustamante Vivar and Mercedes Celi. When he was 13 years old, he traveled to Quito, where he studied music at the Salesian Brothers school; He graduated as a Bachelor of Musical Arts.
He returned to his homeland, married, had a son and worked as an organist in the city of Macará, on the border with Peru. Then, around 1906, he went to Lima, where he was hired as an organist for the cathedral in the Peruvian capital; He held the position for about four years until the threat of a warlike conflict between Ecuador and Peru over border issues and the fear of reprisals against him, led him to literally escape and returned to our country in 1910.
In Ecuador composed a series of songs, including the Christmas carols attributed to him, he won contests, married a second time (1927), had three children, and died on March 8, 1835, leaving an extensive and, as noted, popular work behind him.
The news portal Infobae highlights that its Christmas carols they are heard and intoned with some melodic variations in countries like Peru, Colombia, Venezuela and in Central American nations. In the latter region, the musician Antonio Gutiérrez Laguna adapted the piece ‘I don’t know, beautiful boy’. And, according to Magdalena Guerrero, librarian at the College of Arts Salvador Bustamante Celi, ‘The little boy is coming’ has been translated into 102 languages. (LAG)
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