Antonio de Salazar

This Mexican composer of Spanish birth was a choir master of Puebla Cathedral in 1679 and by 1688 was the master of the chapel at the Cathedral of Mexico City. He organized the archives, supervised the building of a new organ and was a noted teacher. The majority of his vocal works demonstrated a keen sense of counterpoint and the works for choruses were often scored for two choirs. Rarely did he employ the use of imitation and gave his compositions a wholeness through recurring motifs derived from plainsong. Other than composing strictly sacred music for choruses Salazar was well known for his villancicos and chanzonetas. The former were often set in nine different cyclical sections with a great deal of instrumental coloration. It is thought that Salazar composed approximately twenty villancico cycles with most of the textual data derived from the poet Juana Ines de la Cruz. ~ Keith Johnson, Rovi