Ambrosio Cotes (c.1550-1603) was a Spanish renaissance composer.

Cotes was born in Villena

Villena

Villena is a city in Spain, in the Valencian Community. It is located at the northwest part of Alicante, and borders to the west with Castilla-La Mancha and Murcia, to the north with the province of Valencia and to the east and south with the province of Alicante. It is the capital of the comarca...

, Alicante

Alicante

Alicante or Alacant is a city in Spain, the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of Alacantí, in the south of the Valencian Community. It is also a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 334,418, estimated , ranking as the second-largest...

 around 1550 of noble birth. He studied theology with the Theatines

Theatines

The Theatines or the Congregation of Clerks Regular of the Divine Providence are a male religious order of the Catholic Church, with the post-nominal initials "C.R."-Foundation:...

 of Yecla

Yecla

Yecla is a town and municipality in eastern Spain, in the extreme north of the autonomous community of Murcia, located 96 km from the capital of the region, Murcia....

. In 1573 he was maestro de capilla

Kapellmeister

Kapellmeister is a German word designating a person in charge of music-making. The word is a compound, consisting of the roots Kapelle and Meister . The words Kapelle and Meister derive from the Latin: capella and magister...

at the church of St. James Church in his hometown. In 1581 he was appointed maestro de capilla of the Capilla Real de Granada, in the place of Rodrigo de Ceballos

Rodrigo de Ceballos

Rodrigo de Ceballos was a Spanish composer.He was born in Aracena , and was ordained a priest in Seville in 1556. He was named maestro di capella in Malaga in 1554, in the cathedral of Córdoba in 1556, and in Royal Chapel of Granada in 1561.He is among the composers of the Andalusian school,...

. In 1596 he was maestrescuela in Cathedral of Valencia, until 1600 when he succeeded Guerrero at the Cathedral of Seville. His works were copied and carried to the New World. He died in Seville in 1603.

Extant works and editions

Like many other Spanish composers of the period, his secular villancicos and canzonetas have been lost. Of the sacred works 25 polyphonic compositions are preserved in Granada

Granada

Granada is a city and the capital of the province of Granada, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. Granada is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains, at the confluence of three rivers, the Beiro, the Darro and the Genil. It sits at an elevation of 738 metres above sea...

, a mass in the Cathedral of Valencia, and a further 3 motets in the Colegio del Patriarca. Four separate pieces without words have been published by López Calo, who believes they are the only instrumental works for church to survive from the sixteenth century.

• Lamentations (3 sets)
• Officium Defunctorum
• Mass
• Mortus est Phillipus Rex, a 7 voces
• Non in solo pane vivit homo, a 4 voces
• Visionem quam vidistis, a 4 voces
• Veni, sponsor Christi, a 4 voces
• Quomodo sedet sola, a 5 voces
• Cogitavit Dominus, a 4 voces.
• Prudentes virgines, a 4 (wedding motet 1599)