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Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla
November 12, 1605 - December 16, 1673
born in Malaga, Spain, composed during the Baroque period
Biography
Juan Gutiérrez de Padilla was easily among the most important Mexican composers of the post-Renaissance era. He wrote much in the realm of sacred music including masses, motets, and hymns, all having Latin texts. He also composed a number of villancicos, whose vernacular texts dealt with religious subjects, such as Christmas, the Immaculate Conception, and other Roman Catholic feast days.

Born in Malaga in about 1590, Padilla received extensive musical training at the Malaga Cathedral under Francisco Vásquez, the maestro di capilla there. In 1612 Padilla was appointed maestro di capilla at the Jerez Cathedral, where he served for over three years. By the end of his tenure there, or perhaps even earlier, Padilla was ordained a priest, as attested to in documents relating to his next appointment, in 1617, as maestro di capilla at the Cádiz Cathedral.

Padilla left Spain in 1622 for Mexico, probably in an arrangement made by the Church and Spanish monarchy. Upon arrival in Puebla that autumn, he assumed the post of assistant maestro and cantor at the local Cathedral, working under Gaspar Fernandes, whom he would succeed as maestro di capilla seven years later. Although Padilla had apparently written music in Spain, it is his output from Mexico that has survived.
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