José de Torres y Martínez Bravo (16701738) was a Spanish composer, organist, music theorist and music publisher.

Biography

Torres was born in

Madrid Madrid ( ; ) is the capital and List of largest cities in Spain, most populous municipality of Spain. It has almost 3.5 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 7 million. It i ...

, where he served as organist of the ''capilla real'' from 1697. With the arrival of the

Bourbons The House of Bourbon (, also ; ) is a dynasty that originated in the Kingdom of France as a branch of the Capetian dynasty, the royal House of France. Bourbon kings first ruled France and Navarre in the 16th century. A branch descended from ...

, Torres was expelled from the ''capilla,'' but avoided exile and was rehabilitated. From 1702 he established a music printing press, Imprenta de Música, the first in Iberia. With the continuing exile of

Sebastián Durón Sebastián Durón (19 April (baptized) 1660 – 3 August 1716) was a Spanish composer. Life and career Sebastián Durón Picazo was, with Antonio de Literes, the greatest Spanish composer of stage music of his time. He was born in Brihuega, ...

, Torres served the former Duke of Anjou, now

Philip V of Spain Philip V (; 19 December 1683 – 9 July 1746) was List of Spanish monarchs, King of Spain from 1 November 1700 to 14 January 1724 and again from 6 September 1724 to his death in 1746. His total reign (45 years and 16 days) is the longest in the ...

, as ''maestro de capilla'' and rector of the boys choir (Colegio de Niños Cantorcicos), replacing the interim maestros Matías Cabrera and Nicolás Humanes, in 1707. He held this post until his death. He died in Madrid. He was the author of various musical works. These include “Reglas generales para acompañar órgano, clavicordio o arpa” (Madrid, 1702) work covering accompaniment techniques for organ, clavichord and harpand a book of masses dedicated to

. His work "Arte de canto llano" was published in 1705 and subsequently augmented was a “corrected and augmented” edition of the work by the same name of

Francisco de Montanos Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed "Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Commu ...

. It contains a number of compositions by Torres, including his 4-part ''

Salve Regina The "Salve Regina" ( , ; meaning "Hail Queen"), also known as the "Hail Holy Queen", is a Marian hymn and one of four Marian antiphons sung at different seasons within the Christian liturgical calendar of the Catholic Church. The Salve Regina ...

,'' printed in score, a solo cantat
Flavescite, serenate
and a solo aria. It also contains settings of the ''

Benedictus Benedictus, Latin for "blessed" or "a blessed person", may refer to: Music * "Benedictus" (canticle), also called the "Canticle of Zachary", a canticle in the Gospel of Lukas * Part of the "Sanctus", a hymn and part of the eucharistic prayer in W ...

'' by

Alonso Lobo Alonso Lobo (February 25, 1555 (baptised) – April 5, 1617) was a Spanish composer of the late Renaissance. Although not as famous as Tomás Luis de Victoria, he was highly regarded at the time, and Victoria himself considered him to be his equal ...

and

Philippe Rogier Philippe Rogier (c. 1561 – 29 February 1596) was a Franco-Flemish composer of the Renaissance, active at the Habsburg court of Philip II in Spain. He was one of the last members of the Franco-Flemish school, in the closing days of the Renaissa ...

. A large number of compositions by Torres are preserved in the archive of Guatemala Cathedral, although some of these are in poor condition with some missing parts. These manuscripts have been microfilmed or scanned. Digitised versions of the microfilm are online. They include manuscript and printed works, the latter possibly from Torres' printing press. These compositions include a large number of ''

villancicos The ''villancico'' (Spanish, ) or vilancete ( Portuguese, ) was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. Important composers of villancicos were Juan del Encina, Ped ...

'' in three, four, seven and eight parts, solo

cantatas A cantata (; ; literally "sung", past participle feminine singular of the Italian verb ''cantare'', "to sing") is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir. The meaning ...

for treble,

soprano A soprano () is a type of classical singing voice and has the highest vocal range of all voice types. The soprano's vocal range (using scientific pitch notation) is from approximately middle C (C4) = 261 Hertz, Hz to A5 in Choir, choral ...

and “

contralto A contralto () is a classical music, classical female singing human voice, voice whose vocal range is the lowest of their voice type, voice types. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare, similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to ...

”, an 8-part “Missa annuntiate nobis” with

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

oboe The oboe ( ) is a type of double-reed woodwind instrument. Oboes are usually made of wood, but may also be made of synthetic materials, such as plastic, resin, or hybrid composites. The most common type of oboe, the soprano oboe pitched in C, ...

and

basso continuo Basso continuo parts, almost universal in the Baroque era (1600–1750), provided the harmonic structure of the music by supplying a bassline and a chord progression. The phrase is often shortened to continuo, and the instrumentalists playing th ...

accompaniment Accompaniment is the musical part which provides the rhythmic and/or harmonic support for the melody or main themes of a song or instrumental piece. There are many different styles and types of accompaniment in different genres and styles of m ...

and a 4-part

a cappella Music performed a cappella ( , , ; ), less commonly spelled acapella in English, is music performed by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Rena ...

mass "ad omnem tonum" concluding in an eight-part

Agnus Dei is the Latin name under which the "Lamb of God" is honoured within Christian liturgies descending from the historic Latin liturgical tradition, including those of Roman Catholicism, Lutheranism and Anglicanism. It is the name given to a spec ...

based on

Magnificat The Magnificat (Latin for "y soulmagnifies he Lord) is a canticle, also known as the Song of Mary or Canticle of Mary, and in the Byzantine Rite as the Ode of the Theotokos (). Its Western name derives from the incipit of its Latin text. This ...

tones. The cantatas are in the

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

style. The lyrics are often very obscure. The cantatas for “contralto” are particularly elaborate with long

melismatic Melisma (, , ; from , plural: ''melismata''), informally known as a vocal run and sometimes interchanged with the term roulade, is the singing of a single syllable of text while moving between several different notes in succession. Music sung in ...

sections. It is not clear whether they were intended for male or female singers. The solo soprano cantat
Afectos amantes
contains an aria "La solfa mia" based on the natural

hexachord In music, a hexachord (also hexachordon) is a six- note series, as exhibited in a scale ( hexatonic or hexad) or tone row. The term was adopted in this sense during the Middle Ages and adapted in the 20th century in Milton Babbitt's serial t ...

which may be a personal statement by Torres of his approach to composition. A number of works by Torres have been recorded on CD by the Spanish group Al Ayre Español.Al Ayre Español
/ref> Some of the scores from ''Arte de canto llano'' and from the Guatemala archive have been transcribed and are accessible in th
Choral Public Domain Library

Works

* Music theory : Reglas generales para acompañar órgano, clavicordio o arpa (1702) - The first work in Spain to deal specifically and completely with thorough bass accompaniment at the keyboard. * Editor: ''Francisco de Montanos - Arte de canto llano: con entonaciones de coro, y altar, y otras cosas'' (edited by Torres), Imprenta de Música (Madrid) 1705 (augmented in later editions). * ''El Libro Que Contiene Onze Obras para Órgano de Registros Partidos del Dr. Dn. Joseph de Torres.'' Transcripción y estudio Felipe Ramírez, México: Conaculta, INBA, Cenidim, 1993, 112 p.

Discography

* Mas No puede ser. Al clamor. - on ''Barroco Español Vol 1 - Mas No puede ser''

Al Ayre Español Al Ayre Español is a vocal and instrumental ensemble specialized on early music founded in 1988 by harpsichordist Eduardo López Banzo.Interview with Eduardo López Banzo owww.odb-opera.com/ref> The name of the ensemble was inspired by the title ...

Banzo, DHM 1994 * Miserere. Lamentación segunda. - on ''Barroco Español Vol 3 - Quando Muere El Sol'' Al Ayre Español Almajano (Soprano), Banzo, DHM 1997 * Vuela abejuela (cantata) - on ''La Cantada Española En America'' Mena, Al Ayre Español Banzo, Harmonia Mundi. 2004

References

External links

* *
Música Colonial Management Site
(works by Torres are mostly in reels 6, 7 and 8). * {{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Jose De 1670 births 1738 deaths Spanish Baroque composers Spanish male classical composers 18th-century Spanish classical composers 18th-century Spanish male musicians