Miguel Navarro
Miguel Navarro
Genres: spanish, 17th century
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About Miguel Navarro
Miguel Navarro (Pamplona, 1563-Pamplona, January 12, 1627), sometimes identified as Michael Navarrus or Miguel de Echarren Navarro, was a Spanish priest, polyphonist musician, composer of religious works and master of chapel of the cathedrals of Pamplona and Calahorra. Miguel Navarro, who signed and was known, although his surnames were Echarren and Navarro, was born in Pamplona, capital of the kingdom of Navarre, around 1563. The place or the teachers he had in his training as a musician are not known, although it is known that by 1585, when he was only 22 years old, he held the position of chapel master of the cathedral of Pamplona,1 and from here, in 1591, he moved on to the same position in the Calahorra. After nine years, in 1600, he resigned from office and retired as hermit to Turruncún, in La Rioja, to the hermit of the saints Nunilo and Alodia, near Calahorra; thus he remained for eight years, away from the world, dedicated to the life of prayer. In 1608 he returned to his hometown, where he held the when I was 64 years old. As has been anticipated, Miguel Navarro was a chapel master in the cathedral of Pamplona approximately between 1585 and 1591, and from 1608 until his death in 1627. Between 1591 and 1600 he held this position in the cathedral of Calahorra. He intended, although unsuccessfully, to accede to the same position in other cathedrals. Thus, on October 12, 1585, he competed for the position of chapel master of the cathedral of Calahorra although he was defeated, along with two other candidates, by Juan Esquivel de Barahona, who came from the cathedral of Oviedo. Six years later, in 1591, he again competed, together with Juan García Garay and Marcos Esteban, in the chapel master square of the cathedral of León and was surpassed by the Zamoran Alonso de Tejeda, a more veteran musician with a better resume. In 1593 he presented himself for a similar place in the Cathedral of Salamanca but, as it happened in León, he was again surpassed by Alonso de Tejeda. The Chapel of Music of the Cathedral of Pamplona has the "Book of Polyphony 1", dedicated exclusively to Miguel Navarro that contains fourteen compositions; while the "Book of Polyphony 2", brings together works by various authors, including Miguel Navarro with eleven. Together, the two codices add up to 25 compositions by Miguel Navarro, which are distributed in 17 psalms, seven magníficats and an introductory song. For its part, the collegiate church of Roncesvalles guards the "Book of Polyphony 1" which is intended exclusively for compositions by Miguel Navarro, and the "Book of Polyphony 2", which, among other authors, includes three compositions by this musician. Miguel Navarro's two music books bring together seven works: four psalms, two magníficats and an introductory song. Miguel Navarro edited the Liber Magnificarum, printed in Pamplona in the printing press of Carlos de Labayen in 1614.6 Only one copy of this work is known and is preserved in the Music Archive of the Cathedrals of Zaragoza. It is a book for employment in the church choir. It is printed in one ink, in larger folio format and has 104 folios, practically in its entirety with musical notation.7 The ornate initials with which the songs are opened are related to those used in the Aragonese workshops of Juan Pérez Valdivieso (Huesca) and those of Juan Lanaja and Quartanet and Pedro Cabarte (Zaragoza). The volume contains 19 compositions in total: eight magníficats for odd verses, as many for even verses, a salve and two motets. Possibly, in the same year and in the same printing press, he released an edition, with the same title,Liber Magnificarum. Only one copy of this edition is known that belongs to the Tarazona Cathedral archive. The volume has the same typographic characteristics as that of Zaragoza, with the only variant that has one less folio: 103. As far as its content is concerned, it offers differences with that of Zaragoza: it brings together 22 compositions: an introductory song, seven psalms, eight magníficats for odd verses, three magníficats for even verses, a Salve and two motets. The very low number of known copies of both editions (one for each edition) is striking, as well as the fact that they do not include the mandatory legal authorizations at that time: license, privilege and fee. In any case, the circulations of this type of print was very small because of the limited market, which was limited to cathedral temples, abbeys or collegiate churches. It should be noted that the two editions of the "Liber Magnificarum" are after the musical codices of this same author preserved in the cathedral of Pamplona and in the collegiate church of Roncesvalles. In the polyphonic music of the time, the singing of the Magnifica became especially important and, therefore, editions with this musical issue were frequent. As an example, it is worth mentioning the also entitled Liber Magnificarum, edited by Sebastián de Vivanco, master of chapel of the cathedral of Salamanca in 1607, seven years before the appearance of the edition of Miguel Navarro. On the prominence of Miguel Navarro in Spanish Renaissance music of the late 16th and early 17th centuries, Gembero affirms: Miguel Navarro's polyphony, of great quality and beauty, places him among the best representatives of the Hispanic polyphonic repertoire of his time. For his part, Sargent, after a thorough study of Navarro's magníficats, which contrasts those of Sebastián de Vivanco and Juan Esquivel Barahona, affirms that he dedicated his "most sustained compositional effort" to them, to conclude: Among the Spanish composers of the Lower Renaissance who cultivated the composition of magníficats, the most outstanding aspect of Navarro's work lies in his determined effort to balance tradition and innovation.
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