Hernando Franco

Hernando Franco ( * 1532 in Galizuela, † November 28, 1585 in Mexico City) was a Spanish composer of the Renaissance, who was mainly in Guatemala and Mexico ( at that time the New Spain ) active.

Life

Franco was from a small town near Alcántara in the Spanish province of Extremadura. As a child he was a chorister at the Cathedral of Segovia and was taught by Gerónimo de Espinar, who was probably also the teacher of Tomás Luis de Victoria. He Lázaro del Álamo what friends with, his predecessor as maestro de capilla in Mexico City.

Probably wandered Franco in the 1550s to New Spain from the first evidence of his activities there, however, dates only from 1571, in which he is listed as maestro de capilla of the cathedral of Santiago de Guatemala.

Franco left this post in 1574 and went to Mexico. Here he received in 1575 the post of maestro de capilla of the new cathedral.

He retired in 1582 from his post and died 1585th He is buried in the cathedral.

Work

Franco wrote 20 motets preserved, 16 settings of the Magnificat and a four -part setting of the Lamentations of Jeremiah. Apparently he did not write settings of the Mass, which is unusual for a Kathedralkapellmeister, may, however, many of his works have been lost. Some hymns in the country's own language Nahuatl, have been handed down under the name of Hernando don Franco, are now considered works of an indigenous composer who possibly adopted this name in proselytizing Christianity. In this case it would be the oldest surviving examples of notated music in the European tradition of indigenous aborigines of America.

Franco is the first known composer in Guatemala; his two pieces in the archives of the Cathedral of Guatemala, a lumen ad revelationem and a Benedicamus Domino, come from the oldest extant manuscripts of this region at all.