Juan Bautista José Cabanilles [also Juan Bautista
Josep] (1644 – 1712) was a Spanish organist and
composer at Valencia Cathedral. He was born in
Algemesi, and his first name is shown variously as Juan
and Joan; some works ascribed to "José Cabanillas" are
now confirmed as belonging to his output and not that
of another composer. Outside of his baptismal
certificate, nothing is known of him until 1665, when
the 21-year-old Cabanilles was appointed second
organist at Valencia Cathedral, replac...(+)
Juan Bautista José Cabanilles [also Juan Bautista
Josep] (1644 – 1712) was a Spanish organist and
composer at Valencia Cathedral. He was born in
Algemesi, and his first name is shown variously as Juan
and Joan; some works ascribed to "José Cabanillas" are
now confirmed as belonging to his output and not that
of another composer. Outside of his baptismal
certificate, nothing is known of him until 1665, when
the 21-year-old Cabanilles was appointed second
organist at Valencia Cathedral, replacing the departing
Jerónimo de la Torre. Somehow the issue that
Cabanilles was not yet a priest was discreetly avoided,
and thus he was not prevented from being promoted to
first organist in April 1666. Cabanilles was finally
ordained as a priest in September 1668. From then on,
little is known of Cabanilles' activity, although he is
said to have traveled north to France on occasion to
play certain high holy feast days. In 1703, his health
began to decline, and Cabanilles soon began to rotate a
number of substitute organists in order to keep his
position filled in Valencia. He died there, aged 67, in
1712.
Much of what is known, and the survival of many of
Cabanilles works, is owed to the industriousness of his
student Josep Elias. The manuscripts that Elias
conserved and others of Cabanilles reside within the
Library of Cataluña in Barcelona, which also publishes
an edition of the works of this composer. Cabanilles'
surviving output is rather extensive, numbering to
nearly 200 pieces, all but eight written for the organ.
Ninety are Tientos, monothematic in nature and based on
the Renaissance form of the ricercar. Cabanilles'
Tientos de falsas are noted for their liberal use of
chromaticism and dark modal coloring. This approach has
led some writers to cite Cabanilles as a harmonic
revolutionary, but his approach is likely more
reactionary. Cabanilles was one of the lone holdouts to
Renaissance mannerism in an era where greater Europe
was concerned with Baroque forms and major/minor key
orientation. Nonetheless, Cabanilles' style was in
keeping with trends in seventeenth century Spain.
Cabanilles also composed polyphonic elaboration of
chant and several works in variation form over a
repeating bass figure, which he variably called
passacalles, galiarda, paseos, and xacara. Cabanilles
also experimented in six works with the Italian form of
toccata. Of his Battle Pieces the famous Battala
Imperiale has been discovered to be the work of Johann
Kasper Kerll, not Cabanilles.
Valencia is a major port of call in Spain, and
Cabanilles' music betrays some superficial elements
derived from Italian practices, demonstrating that he
knew contemporary Italian music. As the Kerll piece is
found among Cabanilles' manuscripts, this seems to
confirm his awareness of German music, and he may have
known something about Franco-Flemish music as well. But
overall, Cabanilles' music is overwhelmingly Spanish in
character, and in his own time he was considered the
last major figure in the line of "mystic" Spanish
organists that begins with Antonio de Cabezón and
continues through de Heredia, de Arauxo, and Coelho.
Eight sacred vocal works survive in Cabanilles'
catalog; a fragmentary mass, Magnificat, and six
motets, of which the four-voice "Mortales que amais a
un Dios immortal" utilizes a tune which would later
coincidentally turn up in the St. Matthew Passion of
Johann Sebastian Bach. His pupil, Josep Elias, who
wrote, "the world will vanish before a second
Cabanilles comes," gives an indication of the high
regard in which Cabanilles was held in his day..
Source: AllMusic
(https://www.allmusic.com/artist/juan-cabanilles-mn0001
448304/biography)
Although originally written for Organ, I created this
Interpretation of the "Pasacalles de 1° tono" (WSC 47)
for Double-Reed Quartet (2 Oboes, English Horn &
Bassoon).
PARTITION