Juan Garcia

Mexican composer Juan García de Zéspedes, whose surname files in “G,” not “Z,” worked for his life time at Puebla Cathedral, where he joined up with on being a choirboy at age 11. He’d have been educated under the immediate supervision from the cathedral’s great maestro di capilla, Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla, as well as the cathedral’s payment information indicate that García de Zéspedes was an extremely valued singer certainly. In 1654, García de Zéspedes had taken over a number of the responsibilities of schooling choristers and cantors in performing and instrumental functionality, as Padilla was either ailing or neglecting such responsibilities as those entrusted to him. Padilla passed away in 1654, and García de Zéspedes was called just interim maestro di capilla for the moment. No suitable substitute was discovered to fill the positioning, and García de Zéspedes was honored the full name and income in 1670. Within 2 yrs, however, information suggest García de Zéspedes had been in big trouble for neglecting his teaching and borrowing musical instruments, books, and manuscripts that belonged to the cathedral rather than returning then in due time. Last admonishment to García de Zéspedes for even more slacking is documented in the cathedral ledger in 1676, however, not long following the composer became a sufferer of paralysis and was relieved of his responsibilities shortly before he passed away at about age 60. To time, just seven compositions of García de Zéspedes have already been located, however they are all significant ones and so are proclaimed by a unique sense of range. His best-known function may be the villancico Confidante seta la Noche, which utilizes the African-derived folk dance type of the guaracha and may be the oldest known exemplory case of this sort of music extant; the guaracha, and guajira, whose tempo likewise appears within this piece, would afterwards serve as essential elements to Cuban well-known music. Although his result is certainly dominated by villancicos, García de Zéspedes also constructed Latin mass music, including a seven-voice Salve Regina that could attended direct out of something by Palestrina.