Juan Bautista José Cabanilles (also Juan Bautista Josep, Valencian: Joan) (6 September 1644 in Algemesí

Algemesí

Algemesí is a municipality in the comarca of Ribera Alta in the Valencian Community, Spain.The town of Algemesí is one of the major centres for the production of citruses in Spain, and several cooperatives are based there...

 near Valencia

Valencia (city in Spain)

Valencia or València is the capital and most populous city of the autonomous community of Valencia and the third largest city in Spain, with a population of 809,267 in 2010. It is the 15th-most populous municipality in the European Union...

  29 April 1712 in Valencia) was a Spanish organist

Organist

An organist is a musician who plays any type of organ. An organist may play solo organ works, play with an ensemble or orchestra, or accompany one or more singers or instrumental soloists...

 and composer at Valencia Cathedral. He is considered by many to have been the greatest Spanish Baroque

Baroque music

Baroque music describes a style of Western Classical music approximately extending from 1600 to 1760. This era follows the Renaissance and was followed in turn by the Classical era...

 composer, and has been called the Spanish Bach.

Biography

He probably began his musical career as a singer in a choir of a local church. Later he studied to become a priest in the cathedral at Valencia, which included lessons in music. On 15 May 1665, at 20 years of age, he was named the assistant organist of the cathedral. A year later, upon the death of his predecessor, he became the principal organist. On 22 September 1668 he was ordained as a priest. He kept his position as principal organist for 45 years, but from 1703 on his health often necessitated that a substitute be found. From 1675 to 1677 he also took charge of teaching the children in the cathedral choir.

Works

Many of Cabanilles's compositions are virtuosic and advanced for their time, but generally, he is in the Spanish tradition of keyboard music following 16th century patterns. The majority of his manuscripts are kept in the Biblioteca de Catalunya in Barcelona

Barcelona

Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...

. Numerous compositions for organ (tiento

Tiento

Tiento is a musical genre originating in Spain in the mid-15th century. It is formally analogous to the fantasia , found in England, Germany, and the Low Countries, and also the ricercare, first found in Italy. The word derives from the Spanish verb tentar , and was originally applied to music...

s, toccata

Toccata

Toccata is a virtuoso piece of music typically for a keyboard or plucked string instrument featuring fast-moving, lightly fingered or otherwise virtuosic passages or sections, with or without imitative or fugal interludes, generally emphasizing the dexterity of the performer's fingers...

s, passacaglia

Passacaglia

The passacaglia is a musical form that originated in early seventeenth-century Spain and is still used by contemporary composers. It is usually of a serious character and is often, but not always, based on a bass-ostinato and written in triple metre....

s, and other works) have survived, as well as a number of works for choirs of up to 13 parts.

Selected recordings

• Joan Bautista Cabanilles: Batalles, Tientos & Passacalles - Jordi Savall, Hesperion XX - Alia Vox 9801
• La Gloria Musical del Barroco Valenciano, 2 CDs. Fundación La Luz de las Imágenes (2010).
• Jan Willem Jansen, Los Musicos de Su Alteza: Tientos y Passacalles: Juan Cabanilles (Éditions Hortus
  Éditions Hortus
  Éditions Hortus is an independent French disk producer which offers largely unknown works for voice and organ as well as contemporary compositions...
  
  , HORT013, ASIN: B00004VHOX).

Media

Further reading

• Arsenio Garcia-Ferreras: Juan Baptista Cabanilles: sein Leben und Werk (Die Tientos für Orgel) (Dissertation). Bosse, Regensburg 1973, ISBN 3-7649-2086-6.
• M. Roubinet, "Juan Cabanilles", in: Gilles Cantagrel (dir.), Guide de la musique d’orgue, Éditions Fayard 1991, ISBN 2-213-02772-2

External links