Francisco Correa de Arauxo

Francisco Correa ( de Arauxo, de Acebedo ) ( baptized September 16, 1584 in Seville, † October 31, 1654 in Segovia ) was an Andalusian organist and composer at the border between the Renaissance and Baroque.

Life and work

The first position as organist held Francisco Correa de Arauxo, son of a craftsman, at the age of 15 years from September 1599 in the church of San Salvador at Seville. He was ordained a priest in 1608. Many years of strife and harassment to which Correa has been exposed in the local priesthood, led to unsuccessful applications to several Spanish cathedrals. It was not until 1636 he could change as organist at the cathedral of Jaén. Soon afterwards, in 1640, he improved to Kathedralorganisten of Segovia, where he died in 1654.

The music-historical importance Correas is due to his organ school, the collection Libro de musica practica de Discursos tientos y, y theoretica de organo, Facultad Organica intitulado, which was printed in 1626 in Alcalá de Henares. It contains not only 69 Tientos (many for split register, a peculiarity of Spanish organs ) that intabulations and embodiments of liturgical chants, but also a detailed guide for playing the organ, the insightful notes on performance practice of the time. Outside the Facultad Organica no composition Correa has survived.

His music has occupied for the most part the contrapuntal and harmonic flow of the music of the Renaissance, however, combined with the compelling rhythms and virtuosic melismas that are typical of the Spanish music of his time.