Francisco Javier García Fajer «El Españoleto» (Nalda

Nalda

Nalda is a municipality of the autonomous community of La Rioja . It is located near the capital, Logroño. Its population at January 2006 was of 1,074 inhabitants and has 24.6 km extension.- History :...

, Logroño

Logroño

Logroño is a city in northern Spain, on the Ebro River. It is the capital of the autonomous community of La Rioja, formerly known as La Rioja Province.The population of Logroño in 2008 was 153,736 and a metropolitan population of nearly 197,000 inhabitants...

 2 December 1730 - Zaragoza

Zaragoza

Zaragoza , also called Saragossa in English, is the capital city of the Zaragoza Province and of the autonomous community of Aragon, Spain...

 1809) was a Spanish composer of the Italianate galante

Galante music

A new style of classical music, fashionable from the 1720s to the 1770s, was called Galante music. It consciously simplified contrapuntal texture and intense composing techniques that realized a pattern on the page and substituted a clear leading voice with a transparent accompaniment....

 school.

He studied at the choir school at Zaragoza Cathedral

La Seo Cathedral

The Cathedral of the Savior is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Zaragoza, Spain. It is part of the World Heritage Site Mudéjar Architecture of Aragon....

. As a young man he moved to Italy, where he was chapelmaster of the see of Terni

Terni

Terni is a city in southern Umbria, central Italy, capital of the province of Terni, located in the plain of the Nera river. It is 104 km N of Rome, 36 km NW of Rieti, and 29 km S of Spoleto.-History:...

 1754-56 and gained his Italin epiphet "Lo Spagnoletto", which he retained even back in Spain as "El Españoleto".

The Italian musical environment during the 1750s was characterised by composers on the threshold between galante and early classical such as Niccolò Jommelli

Niccolò Jommelli

Niccolò Jommelli was an Italian composer. He was born in Aversa and died in Naples. Along with other composers mainly in the Holy Roman Empire and France, he made important changes to opera and reduced the importance of star singers.-Early life:Jommelli was born to Francesco Antonio Jommelli and...

 and Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi

Giovanni Battista Pergolesi was an Italian composer, violinist and organist.-Biography:Born at Iesi, Pergolesi studied music there under a local musician, Francesco Santini, before going to Naples in 1725, where he studied under Gaetano Greco and Francesco Feo among others...

.

García Fajer returned home as maestro de capilla of la Seo in Zaragoza 1756 till his death during the French siege of Zaragoza

Siege of Saragossa (1808)

The First Siege of Saragossa was a bloody struggle in the Peninsular War. A French army under General Jean-Antoine Verdier besieged, repeatedly stormed, and was repulsed from the Spanish city of Saragossa over the summer of 1808....

 in 1809. As part of his Italianate reforms the Spanish villancico

Villancico

The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...

 was supplanted by the Latin responsory.

García Fajer was out of favour for many years in Spain due to his promotion of Italianate musical idiom, however in recent years he has been rehabilitated and taken on his own merits as a galante composer. A conference dedicated to rehabilitation of his reputation and work was held at the University of La Rioja

University of La Rioja

The University of La Rioja is a public institution of higher education based in Logroño, La Rioja, Spain. Inaugurated during 1992-1993 from various existing schools and colleges, it currently teaches Grades 19 adapted to the European Higher Education, and a varied program of masters, summer...

, Spain, in April 2007.

Works

• Operas - Rome 1754, 1756
• Pompeo magno in Armenia libretto by Anastasio Guidi.
• Oratorios - Tobias 1752
• Intermezzi - La pupilla. La finta schiava.
• Masses
• Psalms

Discography

• Oficio de Difuntos - Latin psalm settings. La Grande Chapelle. Schola Antiqua dir. Albert Recasens. Lauda.
• Latin settings of the Seven words on the cross, Pater dimitte illis etc. - (modern Catalan title: Les set paraules de Crist a la creu) with motets by Joan Rossell
  Joan Rossell
  Joan Rossell was a Catalan composer. He was maestro de capilla at the Cathedral of Toledo, where he was succeeded by another Catalan, Francesc Juncà .-Works, editions, recordings:...
  
   and Melcior Juncà
  Melcior Juncà
  thumb|right|Cathedral of TarragonaMelcior Juncà i Farré was a Catalan maestro de capilla, composer and music theorist. He was son of a musician, Jacinto Juncà. From 1798 to 1806 he was chapel master at the Cathedral of Tarragona...
  
  . Young Hee Kim (soprano), Montserrat Pi (contralto), Orquestra de Cambra Catalana dir. Joan Pàmies. La mà de Guido
  La Mà de Guido
  La mà de Guido is a Catalan music publishing house in Barcelona Spain founded in 1986 by the composer and musicologist Llorenç Balsach .The name La Mà de Guido comes from the Catalan translation of the Guidonian hand....
  
  .