Juan Vásquez (composer) facts for kids

Juan Vásquez (also spelled Vázquez) was a Spanish priest and composer who lived around the 1500s. He was an important musician during the Renaissance period. He is considered part of a group of composers from the region of Andalusia in Spain. Other famous composers from this group include Francisco Guerrero and Cristóbal de Morales.

Biography: Juan Vásquez's Life Story

We don't know a lot about Juan Vásquez's life, even though experts have tried hard to find information. Most of what we know about his age is an educated guess.

Vásquez started singing in a church choir when he was a boy. In 1511, he was hired as a "contralto" (a high singing voice) at the cathedral in Plasencia, Spain. This shows he was still very young then.

After that, he disappears from records for almost 20 years. In 1530, he appeared at Badajoz Cathedral, where he taught plainchant to the choirboys. By 1539, he was singing in Palencia Cathedral and became known for his compositions.

He then seemed to go to Madrid in 1541. But by 1545, he was back in his hometown of Badajoz. There, he became the cathedral's chapel master (Maestro de capilla), which meant he was in charge of the music.

From 1551, Vásquez worked for Don Antonio de Zuñiga in Seville. Vásquez dedicated a collection of his songs, called Villancicos I canciones, to Don Antonio that year. It's believed that Vásquez stayed in Seville until he passed away around 1560. In 1560, all his non-religious songs were published in a collection called Recopilatión de sonetos y villancicos.

Music: What Juan Vásquez Composed

Juan Vásquez wrote two main types of music: sacred (religious) and secular (non-religious).

His only surviving religious work is the Agenda defunctorum, also known as the Office of the Dead, from 1556. This piece was mostly for four voices, but some parts had three voices and others five. In this work, Vásquez showed he could write long musical pieces. He also proved his skill with counterpoint (where different melodies are played together) and created beautiful, flowing tunes. He sometimes used cantus firmus (a main melody that other parts are built around) in different voices. The music combines plainchant (simple, unharmonized church singing) with polyphony (music with multiple independent voice parts). The Missa pro defunctis (Mass for the Dead) from this collection is a great example of his polyphony. The Office of the Dead is admired for its calm and thoughtful feeling.

Most of Vásquez's other compositions are clever secular villancicos. He wrote about 90 of these. Villancicos were popular Spanish songs that often used poems by famous writers of the time. His music had easy counterpoint and paid close attention to the words, making the music fit the text perfectly. Many of his villancicos also included folk poetry and sounded like Spanish folk songs. They were very popular during his lifetime.

Agenda defunctorum: A Special Religious Work

Vásquez's Agenda defunctorum was published in 1556. It's special because it was a complete Agenda defunctorum. This included Matins and Lauds (morning prayers), in addition to the more common Vespers (evening prayers) and Mass. In the first publication, the original plainchants from Seville were printed alongside Vásquez's polyphonic (multi-voiced) versions.

This type of "requiem" (music for the dead) setting, known as stile antico (old style), was very popular in Spain and Portugal for a long time. It even spread to new continents through their colonies. Vásquez's work seems to follow the style of another famous composer, Morales, and both pieces were written for Seville.

Vásquez composed his impressive Agenda defunctorum in Seville in 1556. He chose parts from the Officium Defunctorum (Office of the Dead) used at the Seville Cathedral for the text. This work has six parts:

• Inventorium (a call to prayer)
• In Primo Nocturno (first night)
• In secundo Noctruno (second night)
• In tertio Nocturno (third night)
• Ad Laudes (morning prayers)
• Missa pro defunctis (Mass for the Dead)

Any musical parts that Vásquez didn't set with multiple voices would have been performed using their original plainchant. Vásquez set many parts to music, including the Invitatory, a Psalm, nine antiphons (short chants), five lessons, one Responsorium (a sung response), the Canticum Zachariae, the Requiescant in pace, Amen, and the Missa pro defunctis.

Vásquez wrote this Agenda defunctorum for four voices: soprano, alto, tenor, and bass (SATB). In most parts of the Agenda defunctorum, Vásquez switches between homophony (where all voices move together with the same rhythm) and polyphony (where voices have independent melodies). For example, in the Canticum Zachariae, the even-numbered verses are sung by all four voices, while the odd-numbered verses are sung by one voice. The Responsorium Libera me, Domine also alternates between plainchant and polyphony. The Graduale section is written for three voices: alto, tenor, and bass.

Discography: Recordings of Juan Vásquez's Music

Many groups have recorded Juan Vásquez's music. Here are some of the dedicated recordings:

Dedicated discs

• Agenda Defunctorum: Performed by Capilla Peñaflorida, directed by Josep Cabré. This recording features many singers and instrumentalists like dulcian and organ.
• Ex Agenda Defunctorum Officium: Performed by Coro de Cámara de la Universidad de Salamanca, directed by Bernardo García-Bernalt.
• Villancicos: Performed by Quink Vocal Ensemble in 2013.
• Si no os hubiera mirado: Performed by Los Afectos Diversos, directed by Nacho Rodríguez. This recording features a selection from Vásquez's "Recopilación de sonetos y villancicos a quatro y a cinco."

Various artists

• Canciones y Ensaladas - Chansons et pièces instrumentales du Siècle d'Or: Features music from the Spanish Golden Age, including some of Vásquez's works. Performed by Ensemble Clément Janequin, directed by Dominique Visse.
• The Victory of Santiago - Voices of Renaissance Spain: This album includes music from Renaissance Spain, with performances by The Concord Ensemble.

See also

In Spanish: Juan Vásquez para niños