José Castel was a Spanish composer.

José Castel was a church musician in his native Tudela and Aragon

Aragon

Aragon is a modern autonomous community in Spain, coextensive with the medieval Kingdom of Aragon. Located in northeastern Spain, the Aragonese autonomous community comprises three provinces : Huesca, Zaragoza, and Teruel. Its capital is Zaragoza...

 before moving to Madrid around 1760. There, in addition to his church duties, he was active as a theatrical composer, for the Teatro del Príncipe, as well as a printer and publisher. Castel was well paid for his music, for example he received 360 reales for the music for the comedy El Faetón.

In 1773 he moved back to Tudela, as maestro de capilla at the Colegiata de Santa Maria, yet he continued 1774-1782 to still be based in Madrid and spend more time on theatrical activities. In 1797, following the death of his wife, he was ordained a priest, dying on Sept. 2nd 1807 and being buried in Tudela Cathedral.

He was particularly regarded for his tonadilla

Tonadilla

Tonadilla was a Spanish musical song form of theatrical origin; not danced. The genre was a type of short, satirical musical comedy popular in 18th-century Spain, and later in Cuba and other Spanish colonial countries. It originated as a song type, then dialogue for characters was written into the...

s.

Selected recordings

• La fontana del placer. Zarzuela in two acts. Compañía Teatro del Príncipe, dir. Pablo Heras-Casado
  Pablo Heras-Casado
  Pablo Heras-Casado is a Spanish conductor.- Training and competitions :He won the Lucerne Festival Conductors' Competition in 2007 after a unanimous vote from the jury...
  
  . Música Antigua Aranjuez MAA 007 (77:00) Literary research, transcription and musical edition: Juan Pablo Fernández-Cortés