José María Nemesio Otaño
(José María Nemesio Otaño y Eguino, Azcoitia, 1880-San Sebastián, 1956) Spanish composer and musicologist, one of the essential figures in the reform of sacred music in Spain during the first half of the 20th century.
He studied organ in Guipúzcoa and later counterpoint and composition with Vicente Goicoechea in Valladolid.In 1896 he entered the Society of Jesus and soon obtained the position of organist at the Loyola Basilica.
In 1907 he organized the First National Congress of Sacred Music in Valladolid, and that same year he founded the magazine Hispanic Sacred Music , which, following the proposals of Pope Pius X, served to give new air to the religious music that had been performed in Spain until now.
Since 1911 he was director of the choir of the Pontifical University of Comillas, which became a model of good functioning for other religious choral groups in Spain.Simultaneously, Otaño continued composing, giving classes and organizing activities related to sacred music.As of 1939, he was appointed director of the Superior Conservatory of Music of Madrid, to which he contributed his innovative pedagogical ideas.
Among his religious compositions, his Miserere for five voices, the Great Hymn to Saint Ignatius of Loyola or the Twelve Canticles to the Sacred Heart .He also composed secular works with popular roots such as the Basque Suite .As an essayist, he produced some important writings, among which are Religious music and ecclesiastical legislation (1912) or Mountain folk song (1915).
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