José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January 18689 July 1894) was a Mexican

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and Def ...

and

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

ist.

Life and career

Rosas was born in Santa Cruz, Guanajuato, later renamed Santa Cruz de Galeana,

Guanajuato Guanajuato (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Guanajuato ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Guanajuato), is one of the 32 states that make up the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 46 municipalities and its capital city i ...

, and still later into

Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas Santa Cruz de Juventino Rosas is a Mexican city (and municipality) located in the central east region of the state of Guanajuato. The municipality has an area of 428.64 square kilometres (1.40% of the surface of the state) and is bordered to the no ...

. Rosas began his musical career as a street musician, playing with dance music bands in Mexico City. In 1884-85 and 1888 he enrolled into the conservatory, both times leaving it without taking any examination. Most of Rosas's compositions—among them " Sobre las Olas" ("Over the Waves")—were issued by Wagner y Levien and Nagel Sucesores in Mexico City. In the late 1880s, Rosas is reported to have been a member of a military band, and in 1891 he worked in Michoacán. In 1892–93 Rosas lived near Monterrey before joining an orchestra in 1893 for a tour through the USA. During this tour, the group performed at the

World Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago in 1893 to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus's arrival in the New World in 1492. The centerpiece of the Fair, hel ...

World's Fair in

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

. In 1894, Rosas went for a several-month tour to Cuba with an Italian-Mexican ensemble, where he came down with major health problems, having to stay behind in Surgidero de Batabanó. As a result of spinal myelitis, he died there at the age of 26.Helmut Brenner, Juventino Rosas: His Life, His Work, His Time (Detroit Monographs in Musicology/Studies in Music 32, ed. by J. Bunker Clark). Foreword by Robert Stevenson. Warren, Michigan: Harmonie Park Press, 2000. Fifteen years later, in 1909, his remains were brought back to Mexico. Rosas is one of the best known Mexican composers of salon music, as well as the one with the highest number of editions abroad and of sound recordings, the first of them released in 1898. Rosas's best known work is "Sobre las Olas" or "Over the Waves". It was first published in Mexico in 1888. It remains popular as a classic waltz, and has also found its way into New Orleans Jazz,

Bluegrass Music Bluegrass music is a genre of American roots music that developed in the 1940s in the Appalachian region of the United States. The genre derives its name from the band Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys. Like mainstream country music, it la ...

, Country and Western music and

Tejano music Tejano music ( es, música tejana), also known as Tex-Mex music, is a popular music style fusing Mexican and US influences. Typically, Tejano combines Mexican Spanish vocal styles with dance rhythms from Czech and German genres – particular ...

. In the

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"Sobre las Olas" has a cultural association with

funfair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Types Variations of fairs incl ...

ice skating Ice skating is the self-propulsion and gliding of a person across an ice surface, using metal-bladed ice skates. People skate for various reasons, including recreation (fun), exercise, competitive sports, and commuting. Ice skating may be per ...

circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

es and trapeze artists, as it was one of the tunes available for

Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...

's popular line of fairground organs. The music was used for the tune "The Loveliest Night of the Year", which was sung by

Ann Blyth Ann Marie Blyth (born August 16, 1928) is an American retired actress and singer. For her performance as Veda in the 1945 Michael Curtiz film ''Mildred Pierce'', Blyth was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. She is one of ...

in MGM's film ''

The Great Caruso ''The Great Caruso'' is a 1951 biographical film made by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and starring Mario Lanza as Enrico Caruso. It was directed by Richard Thorpe and produced by Joe Pasternak with Jesse L. Lasky as associate producer from a screenpla ...

''. It remains still popular with country and old-time fiddlers in the United States. The 1950 film '' Over the Waves'' was based on his life.

Compositions (first editions)

Waltzes

* ''Sobre las Olas'' (1888) * ''Ensueño seductor'' ("Impassioned Dream", 1892) * ''Carmen'' (1880s)

Polkas

* ''La cantinera'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Carmela'' (1890, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Ojos negros'' (1891, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Flores de México'' (1893, Eduardo Gariel, Saltillo / Robert Forberg, Leipzig)

Mazurcas

* ''Acuérdate'' (before 1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City) * ''Lejos de ti'' (before 1888, H. Nagl. Sucs.) * ''Juanita'' (1890, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Último adiós'' (1899, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leies JuventinoRosas

* ''El sueño de las flores'' (before 1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Floricultura-Schottisch'' (before 1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Lazos de amor'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Julia'' (1890, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Salud y pesetas'' (1890, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Juventa'' (1892, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''El espirituano'' (1894, Autograph Archivo Provincial de Sancti Spíritus, Kuba)

Danzas

* ''A Lupe'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''En el casino'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Juanita'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''No me acuerdo'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''¡Qué bueno!'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''¿Y para qué?'' (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City / Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig) * ''Flores de Romana'' (1893, Eduardo Gariel, Saltillo)

Bibliography

* Hugo Barreiro Lastra: ''Los días cubanos de Juventino Rosas'', Guanajuato 1994 *

Helmut Brenner Helmut Brenner (1 January 1957 in Mürzzuschlag, Austria – 17 February 2017) was an Austrian ethnomusicologist. Biography Education Brenner received music degrees in 1981 and 1984 at the Hochschule für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Graz, A ...

: ''Juventino Rosas, His Life, His Work, His Time'' (=Detroit Monographs in Musicology/Studies in Music 32), Warren, Michigan 2000 * Jesús Rodríguez Frausto: ''Juventino Rosas. Notas nuevas sobre su vida''Guanajuato

References

External links

* *
Sheet music for "Sobre Las Olas"
F. Trifet & Co., 1895.
''Sobre las Olas: Mexican Music from Nineteenth-Century New Orleans''
Louisiana Digital Library. {{DEFAULTSORT:Rosas, Juventino 1868 births 1894 deaths 19th-century classical composers 19th-century classical violinists 19th-century male musicians Male classical violinists Mexican classical composers Mexican classical violinists Mexican male classical composers Mexican Romantic composers Musicians from Guanajuato