Francisco Guerrero

A succession of great composers of choral polyphony emanated from Seville in the 16th century. In 1505 Francisco de Peñalosa was appointed to the Seville Chapter . . . Cristobal de Morales was born in Seville around 1500, no doubt he trained there and maintained close contact all his life . . . Francisco Guerrero was born there in 1528 and except for a few travels he seemed to stay close to the Cathedral precincts from the time that he joined the choir as an alto at age 13; he wrote that he had studied with Morales in Seville at age 18.

Guerrero’s first directing job, however, was at the Cathedral of Jaen in 1546. He wasn’t successful in dealing with the choristers and in 3 years was back as a singer at Seville. From 1551 Guerrero managed to fend off offers of the position of maestro at Malaga Cathedral until, in 1554, he was appointed coajutor chapelmaster at Seville with Pedro Fernandez, who was outliving his chapelmaster abilities. (He died in 1574!)

Guerrero was a prolific composer of religious/liturgical music, much of it printed in Rome, Venice, Paris . . . of particular interest for the set of performances on this site is the ‘Canciones y villanescas espirituales’ printed in Venice in 1589.  It provided a store (61) of lively villancicos for our Christmas programs.  In the 1580s Guerrero started to travel more, visiting Rome, and in August 1588 he sailed from Venice to Palestine where he visited Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Damascus. On his return, after securing the publication of the ‘Canciones’ and a Second Book of Motets in Venice in January 1589, he embarked for Spain, on the way the boat was attacked by pirates who robbed him and threatened his life. He arrived back in Seville in August, and resumed his duties at the Cathedral, but the pirate attack had left him penniless and in debt. For a few days in August 1591 he was in Debtors’ Prison until the Cathedral Chapter paid his debts. He was getting old . . . unable to care for the choir boys, so an assistant was found, Alonso Lobo, to relieve him of some of the duties.  A few years later he succumbed to the plague that ravaged Seville in the Summer of 1599.

Some of the above information is found in four pages of Francisco Pacheco’s ‘Libro de descripcion . . . ‘, Seville, 1599.  It presents a biography and portrait of Guerrero along with those of other leading citizens of Seville.  It is an honour not generally afforded musicians of the day.