José Manuel Gonzalez Durán was born forty years ago in Baracaldo (Vizcaya); at the age of six he and his family transferred to the town of his parents, the small locality of Alcazarén, near the city of Valladolid. In Valladolid the Augustinian Recollects have a school named after Saint Agustine. It is here where José Manuel, at age 12, had his first contact with the Order. Today he is an Augustinian Recollect religious priest. He has worked in places like, Manila (Philippines), Rome, Zaragoza, Marcilla (Navarra) and, presently, he is in Madrid. Love for music made him compose, sing and publish various records of religious songs with Augustinian themes, like: search, interiority, friendship, love, and community…
P. – What inspired you to compose and sing?
R. – I trace the beginnings to Colegio de san Agustín where I enrolled just after completing 12 years of age; in this school music was an important part of our life; in addition to this, there was the rondalla and there was also the opportunity to learn how to play piano and flute; we had sufficient practices to prepare for the songs for the liturgy of the day, for first communions, feasts of the school, including cultural presentations… The truth is, my vocational itinerary goes parallel to my musical calling. It was in the seminary, I was only sixteen then, when I started to experiment plucking melodies in the guitar and, in that way, my first songs were born. We also formed a group we called, “Voces nuevas”, with which we did some initial presentations of some of my compositions.
Discography
For ten years I kept in a box some of the songs that truly expressed what I had inside me then, and this was with the hope that they would be published one day. And finally, in 1999, that hope became a reality with the release of my first record, “Caminos de Santiago”, which, logically, was born from that beautiful and profound experience of pilgrimage to Compostela. This was followed by “Vendremos a él”, which was inspired by the Jubilee Year 2000, and the “Confieso tu amor”. Two of my works were also published in Columbia by the Province of Candelaria, one was a record of songs dedicated to the Virgin: Mother of Silence, and the other was a compilation of works that were published earlier, the “Quédate”. I think music and life journey together; you need to express what you live, to sing it, and at the same time, what you express and sing illuminates and gives form to what you live.
Inspiration
P. – What inspires you to compose your songs?
R. – At first it was a response to an interior impulse to “create”, to “say” the things that you live or have impact on you, with the language of music that, without knowing exactly how, you feel is urging you. As fountain of inspiration you always have interior experience and life; and this clearly appears, for example, in my first record, “Camino de Santiago”. But for me the Word of God as fountain of inspiration is fundamental; the second work, “Vendremos a él” was a challenge in this sense: to sing the Word that has been given to us: songs to the Trinity, to the Father, the Son, to the Holy Spirit, and to the temples of God that we are, to the dwelling that God puts in us, to St. John, St. Paul, Mary… If one does not drink from the Word of God, Christian music ceases to be “vocation” and becomes mere “exhibition”. We, Catholics, are blessed because we can also count on the inspirational fountain that contains the tradition of the Church and the testimony of the saints, precisely as living witnesses of the love of God and imitation of Christ, the Word made flesh. The inspiration of the “Confieso tu amor”, logically, comes from one of these witnesses of faith in God and in His Word, Augustine of Hippo.
P. – Tell us about the idea of putting into music the words of St. Augustine?
R. – To give an example, well, everybody has heard of the Confessions! Having drunk from the tradition of the Augustinian family in the years of formation and ministry, and having realized that many texts of St. Augustine have great human and spiritual force and beauty I could not, one may say, “resist the temptation” to “put music to Augustine”. And this is concretized, above all, although not exclusively, in the record dedicated precisely to the Confessions of St. Augustine, “Confieso tu amor”. The message and the experience of St. Augustine continue to touch lives because his story is also, in one way or another, our story and struggle: allowing God to progressively inundate our life, or the contrary, setting ourselves the conditions of our relation with Him. I hope that whoever listens to the “Confieso tu amor”, and upon reliving the spiritual itinerary of St. Augustine will be inspired by God and by the saint of Hippo, to go through his own spiritual journey.
P. – And how would you explain that spiritual itinerary of St. Augustine to the youth of today?
R. – More than just explain it to them, I would rather invite the young to journey with the saint and to find how Augustine resonates in their own lives: his restless heart in continual search; the presence that is ever intimate of his loved ones, his friends; the interior emptiness that is experienced when nothing fills from the immediate surrounding; the listening of the heart; the giving of opportunity to God and to dare to have personal encounter with him…
Christian Art
P. – St. Augustine discovers beauty, love, and a new life by means of Jesus Christ and the Gospel; but to propose the Gospel to our developed world is becoming a real challenge. How can we “confess” faith in Jesus in our society? Is art perhaps a form of proclaiming the Good News?
R. – But the Gospel is always a challenge, and on the day it ceases to challenge, we would have another thing but the Good News of Jesus. It has always been like this in the history of the Church, from the first Christians up to the present. There were times when the society was more receptive, but there were always some challenges from the Gospel that had to be faced. How to face the challenge, yes, this has to do with the times in which we live. Are there pointers? There are no magical answers; perhaps there will be if we look at the world as an opportunity and not as a threat; accept with simplicity that we – at least in the West – are of little significance socially, and to live the richness of this poverty with joy; form ourselves theologically well in order to be able to give the reason of our faith to whoever would ask; offer a testimony of fraternity amidst all forms of prejudice; live with austerity and to bet for the most needy… and never to distrust God, the Lord of the world and Judge of our history.
Meanwhile, or as St. Augustine would say, “sing and move on, do not tarry”. Perhaps it would appear insignificant, but we should not forget that each one has to “live the Gospel” day after day by means of the simple and apparently non-transcendent realities. The Gospel is not a question of “quantity” but quality, and it does not demand for “drums and trumpets”, but for everyday fidelity and much humility in order to let ourselves be transformed by God and if we, in turn, desire to transform a “minute piece” of this world.
I am not saying that we are to hide, but neither do I believe that we should be obsessed with having much presence and social influence. That is why Christian art will be an evangelical witness of faith not because of the influence or resonance that it can have, but for its faithfulness to itself: a humble attempt to portray the visible presence of the Invisible, the music and voice of the Word, the sparks of beauty that proceed from the Beautiful. Augustine is one great example of this. For the Christian, beauty is reflection of God and pertains to the essence of the good News, thus, I insist once again on the responsibility of both the “creators” and the “receivers” of the art.
Present and Future
P. – You are an Augustinian Recollect, what do you propose in order to live interiority, love, friendship and solidarity?
R. – Three fundamental things: first, to live with passion all those aspects; but also – second aspect – to live with authenticity; Augustine was very passionate, but he was also very authentic; he was fully committed, but he had a very sound critical conscience that he perceived from within and to which he remained faithful; if the thing he was involved in did not fully satisfy, he did not cling to it, he would leave it and search for something new. As third element I would like to mention the need to live fully – passion and frustration, compromise and interiority – making of this a way of encountering and relating to God and Jesus Christ.
P. – What recording projects do you have for the future?
R. – Well, I have to find, little by little, which possibilities could be materialized. Perhaps I could return, next year, with more songs with Augustinian themes. I also like to provide the musical score to and publish various songs that I have composed and dedicated to the Virgin.