Bernardino de Ribera

The influence of Bernardino de Ribera, and the intrinsic value of his music, have been partially obscured by vandalism: someone cut the illuminations out of the manuscript from Toledo Cathedral in which most of his works were preserved, also taking the musical notation on the backs. Ribera was born in Játiva, Spain in 1520, where his father was a university church chapel master. By 1559, he was maestro de capilla at Ávila Cathedral. There he taught the young Tomás Luis de Victoria, a composer with whom there is a spiritual commonality. Ribera moved on in 1563 to Toledo Cathedral, where the copy of his works was made. Reconstructions of his surviving works often show intensely expressive qualities.