Sebastián Aguilera de Heredia

Sebastian Aguilera de Heredia was appointed as the organist of Huesca Cathedral in 1585. In 1603 he became the master organist and priest for the Cathedral of La Seo. His reputation and skills qualified him as the most singular religious composer in Spain during the early seventeenth century. Aguilera's influence was later heard in the music of Spanish composers such as Cabanilles, Correa de Arauxo, Ximenez (his student) and Rodrigues Coelho. This was not due to any profound innovations on Aguilar's part; he did however present the opportunities needed to usher in new directions taken by the aforementioned composers. Aquilar, however, was considered innovative because he was the first Spanish composer to employ the term "falsas" to indicate a slow moving section of music utilizing dissonance, unusual chord changes, interesting distances between notes, and unexpected musical nuances heretofore only closely related. The concept of "medio registro' was his most important contribution theoretically. Characteristically this idea contained independent registration for different halves of the organ keyboard as well as an emphasis on one hand as solo; always the left hand for Aquilar. "Canticum Beatissimae Virginis deiparae Mariae" remains Aguilar's primary musical composition. It contains settings of the magnificat in 36 different arrangements and includes a dispersion of many-voices, chants, and different voice cycles. Each verse contains a canon beginning with the note which corresponds to the number of the verse being sung (the canon of the first verse begins with the initial tone and the canon of the second verse begins on the second tone). ~ Keith Johnson