Josep Escorihuela
Josep Escorihuela
Genres: catalan, 18th century, 17th century
Similar artists via Last.fm
Joan Basseia
About Josep Escorihuela
Josep Escorihuela, born in Morella in 1674 and later known in archival sources by the fuller form Jusep Agustí Norberto Escoriguela, was one of the most distinctive chapelmasters active in Catalonia and the Crown of Aragon during the early eighteenth century. A nephew of the older maestro Isidre Escorihuela, he belonged to a family deeply embedded in the regional musical tradition, and his early training was shaped by the polyphonic and instrumental practices of local cathedral chapels. His professional career began as a singer and versatile keyboard player, with documented ability on organ, spinet and related instruments, a combination that made him attractive to cathedral chapters seeking adaptable musicians. In 1695 he became maestro de capilla of Tarragona Cathedral, where he spent more than a decade directing the music chapel, teaching its boys and singers, and providing a steady supply of new music for the liturgical year. His success in Tarragona prepared the way for his appointment as maestro de capilla of Tortosa Cathedral in 1708, one of the most important musical posts in the region. Here he remained until his death in 1743, presiding over a smaller but energetic chapel that relied heavily on his ability both to compose and to train performers. Escorihuela’s surviving output is surprisingly large. More than a hundred works survive, almost all sacred, preserved primarily in the archive of Tortosa Cathedral, but also in other Aragonese and Catalan collections and even as far away as Kraków. His catalogue includes psalm settings, Latin motets, antiphons and litanies, but his most characteristic contributions are in the vernacular sphere: duets, cantatas and, above all, villancicos. His villancicos for the Virgin of the Cinta, Tortosa’s patron saint, form a particularly important cycle, composed over many years for the city’s annual festivities and for major ceremonial events such as the inauguration of the new chapel dedicated to the Cinta in 1725. In these pieces he embraces an increasingly Italianate idiom—recitative-aria structures, dance-inflected refrains, flexible scoring—while maintaining the rhythmic and melodic verve of the traditional Spanish villancico. Escorihuela’s instrumentation varies widely: some works remain intimate, while others employ violins, shawms, sacbuts, flutes, continuo and even early uses of horns in festive contexts. The political turbulence of the War of the Spanish Succession also appears in his music. He composed villancicos honouring both Archduke Charles of Austria and Philip V, weaving dynastic symbolism into the devotional and ceremonial fabric of Tortosa. His music thus documents not only regional liturgical practice but also the shifting political allegiances of early-eighteenth-century Catalonia. Escorihuela remained at Tortosa until his death in 1743, leaving behind a body of work that captures a pivotal moment in the transformation of Iberian sacred music. His compositions reveal a musician rooted in the late-seventeenth-century polychoral and villancico traditions but fully conversant with the newer Italianate vocabulary spreading across the peninsula. Today he stands as one of the most important transitional composers in eastern Spain, and modern performances and editions have begun to restore his place within the wider European Baroque landscape.
Taken from Last.fm
3 listeners · 32 plays via Last.fm