Joaquín Díaz González

Joaquín Díaz González (Zamora, May 14, 1947) is a Spanish musician and folklorist, honorary president of the Chair of Tradition Studies at the University of Valladolid and full academician of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of the Purísima Concepción, based in Valladolid, of which he was president.

He has dedicated his life to works of interpretation, research and dissemination of traditional culture and folklore that he made known with the publication of books and recording of albums whose themes deal with romances, songs, popular sayings, legendary stories and legends of oral dissemination. He was the creator of the Ethnographic Center of Urueña, a project that culminated in June 1994 with the Joaquín Díaz Foundation.

Biography and professional career

He was born in the city of Zamora and at the age of four his family moved to Valladolid, the city where he completed his high school studies (law of 1953) at the Nuestra Señora de Lourdes school. He began university studies in Philosophy and Law but abandoned them without completing his degree.

The family environment and his surroundings were conducive to developing his vocation for music, especially popular music. In Sanabria he had the opportunity to connect with a woman from the town (María Barrio) who had a large repertoire of popular songs that aroused in Joaquín Díaz a great interest in the subject.

From a very young age he participated in choirs and other musical groups and began his first performances as a soloist in some Spanish media. In 1963, at age 16, as a high school student, he formed a folk song group. In 1965, at the age of 18, a student at the University of Navarra, he formed another folk song group. During those years and until 1976, he dedicated his efforts to the study and expansion of traditional culture, giving recitals and conferences at some universities in Spain, America and Europe, as well as in theaters, athenaeums and other venues. In 1967 he made a trip to the United States performing at the universities of Harvard, Austin and Boston and years later he again gave lectures and recitals in clubs such as Troubadour (Los Angeles) or Ash Grove (Los Angeles). His scholarship was rewarded with the appointment of Honorary Citizen of the State of Texas.

Between 1971 and 1975 he continued traveling around Europe giving lectures and recitals. In those same years he wrote his first two books: Hidden words in the folk song and Pop music and folk music , the latter in collaboration with the journalist José María Íñigo. From this date, Joaquín Díaz made the decision to abandon his performances in the entertainment world and dedicate his efforts to the research, study and dissemination of traditional culture.

His performances as a performer had been received with pleasure and surprise because he was never a conventional figure: it was he who sat on stage waiting for the audience to arrive, singing and explaining the songs about the origin and evolution and the program of the day taken from his repertoire that covered about five hundred songs, he could change on the fly if he saw fit.

There is no sense in the tingling of opening the curtain, coming out and applauding you without acting.

Joaquín Díaz

In those recitals he was accompanied by the six- and twelve-string guitar, the four-, five- and six-string banjo, bandurria, double bass, ukulele, rebec, hurdy-gurdy, rattles, anise bottle and other rudimentary and popular instruments.

Research and study work

Field work was the basis of all the research carried out. He visited numerous towns in Castilla and León and, in contact with their inhabitants - especially older people - he collected, recorded and compiled an entire unexplored and unknown legacy of popular tradition and culture. In this way he had to his credit both the particularities of the festivals, dances, ceremonies and proverbs, romances, stories and songs, even craft demonstrations. A whole variety of topics.

In 1980 he founded the Folklore Magazine. In 1982 he completed the five-volume work Folkloric Catalog of the Province of Valladolid in collaboration with Luis Díaz Viana and José Delfín Val, a work that includes romances, songs, and instrumental themes—with a predominance of dulzaina —; a compendium of traditional culture that could be rescued because it was still alive in the memory of the people. The Cancionero del Norte de Palencia and the Cancionero de Palencia were two other books that were published in 1981 and 1982 with themes compiled from music from the oral tradition of Palencia.

Joaquín Díaz was one of the protagonists of the documentary ¡FOLK! A look at traditional music, candidate for the 2019 Goya awards, where he explains, apart from his musical origins, the entire movement according to traditional Castilian music, accompanied by other important musicians such as Ringorrango, Mayalde or Candeal.

The romance

The investigation and dissemination of the traditional ballads was one of the most intense works of Joaquín Díaz. In relation to the topic he edited Temas del Romancero en Castilla y León (1980); Romances de Castilla y León (1981) in collaboration with Luis Díaz; The Duke of Marlborough in the Spanish tradition (1982). Musical and romantic prototypes (1985); Romance Guide (1987); Music in Romances (1991). And taking the subject from a musical perspective, he recorded the five-volume collection Cancionero de romances and the series of five recordings Romances de todos y de acá (1987-1991), a production which he did in collaboration with various artists from American countries and Italy.

Literature of laces and blind romances. Other literary topics

Another important work of study and compilation was related to cordel literature and blind man romances. In 1978 the recording Romances de cielo was released; In 1992 he edited Coplas de cielo. Anthology and Pliegos de Cordel; in 1997 The blind man and his couplets and The illustrations on the sheets of twine.

Traditional stories and legends were compiled in five books and recordings titled Traditional songs and stories (1984) and One hundred children's themes (1997), a compendium of two boxes with five discs each. Popular theatrical pieces, riddles, tongue twisters and other expressions of the language of the common people were also studied.

Sephardic topics

They were a subject of study since the 60s of the XX century when he made contact with the Sephardic communities of Los Angeles. The titles with the most impact were Romanzas y cantigas sephardíes (1971); Sephardic themes (1974); Sephardic Ballads Andalucía Love Songs (1985); Kantes Djudeo-Espanyoles (1986); Das Kölner Koncert (1992); The soul is sweet, songs of the Sephardim (2001).

Other popular themes

The clothing and musical instruments were made known in different exhibitions and in publications titled Prints of costumes in Castilla y León (19th century) (1986); Costumes and customs (1988); The costume in Valladolid according to 19th century engravers (1989); The costume in Andalusia. Prints from the 19th century(1995); Popular instruments, Musical instruments in Castilla y León (1986); The traditional castanet (1994).

Addendum of publications

• Permanent memory. Reflections on tradition (1992). Essay about the author's time society and the changes that emerged.
• Comedia Yermo (1994), grouping of articles with the theme of rural and urban worlds, their approach and distance.
• The white prison. Challenges on Depression (1996), considerations on melancholy and depression.
• Learning topics of traditional culture, with more than twenty monographs covering the themes of popular theater, traditional architecture, pig slaughter, stick dances, children's and older games, papyroflexia, even jurisdictional rolls.
• Oral culture, with folk recordings from the province of Valladolid.

Castian Center for Folklore Studies

It was founded in 1981 in a space inside the Casa de Zorrilla in Valladolid and from there courses, conferences, publications and other cultural events were held. In 1985, the Ethnographic Documentation Center was born thanks to a commitment between the Provincial Council and Joaquín Díaz, whose provisional headquarters for five years was in premises shared with the Jorge Guillén Center for Creation and Studies, located on Santiago Street. After five years, the Center moved to Urueña where the Casona de la Mayorazga, a notable building owned by the Provincial Council, had been set up. The institution was inaugurated on March 22, 1991 with the name of the Joaquín Díaz Ethnographic Center, adding then other nearby premises, one of them home to the bell museum and another as an archeology classroom. The Center became a Foundation whose patrons were initially Joaquín Díaz and the Provincial Council. Later the Junta de Castilla y León, University, Caja España and the Ministry of Education and Culture joined.

Appointments

In addition to those already mentioned, they can be considered important:

• Honorary Partner of the Spanish Society Sigma Delta Pi in 1978
• Doctor Honoris Causa by Saint Olaf College, USA in 1985
• Doctor Honoris Causa by the University of Valladolid in 2006
• Member of the International Council for Traditional Music
• Member of the London Galpin Society
• Gold Medal of the province awarded by the Provincial Council of Valladolid, 2014
• Coello Award for Cultural Excellence 2018
• Award for a lifetime granted by IEA (Artists, Intérpretes and Executors of Spain), 2021
• SGAE Golden Key for 50 years of membership of the Society, 2021

Documentaries about his life and work

• The river that takes us, reflection of time: Joaquín Diaz, written and directed by Inés Toharia Terán, El Grifilm Productions, 2015.
• Joaquín Díaz, words for oblivion, written and directed by Inés Toharia Terán. The Grifilm / TVE, 2016