José Eulalio Samayoa
Encyclopedia
Biography
José Eulalio Samayoa was educated within the system of guilds, progressing from apprentice to journeymanJourneyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
before becoming a master
Master craftsman
A master craftsman or master tradesman was a member of a guild. In the European guild system, only masters were allowed to be members of the guild....
. He founded the Philharmonic Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, with a series of musical and liturgical celebrations held on July 2, 1813. The same day he was admitted to the Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
Cathedral
Cathedral
A cathedral is a Christian church that contains the seat of a bishop...
choir, as third tenor
Tenor
The tenor is a type of male singing voice and is the highest male voice within the modal register. The typical tenor voice lies between C3, the C one octave below middle C, to the A above middle C in choral music, and up to high C in solo work. The low extreme for tenors is roughly B2...
, which he regarded as a heavenly grace for having established the Philharmonic Society. In 1842 he wrote the history of this Society, with an extended historical appendix on the development of Music in Guatemala since the earliest days of the Spanish missions, thus becoming the first music historian in Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and perhaps all of Latin America
Latin America
Latin America is a region of the Americas where Romance languages – particularly Spanish and Portuguese, and variably French – are primarily spoken. Latin America has an area of approximately 21,069,500 km² , almost 3.9% of the Earth's surface or 14.1% of its land surface area...
.
Samayoa is one of the first composers in the Americas to attempt the composition of larger instrumental forms that culminates in the symphony. Having been trained in the tradition of Spanish church music, he was taught how to write well for voices with instrumental accompaniment. The resulting forms, mainly those of the villancico
Villancico
The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...
and cantata
Cantata
A cantata is a vocal composition with an instrumental accompaniment, typically in several movements, often involving a choir....
, were defined by the poetic form of the text. When the Cathedral chapter
Chapter (religion)
Chapter designates certain corporate ecclesiastical bodies in the Roman Catholic, Anglican and Nordic Lutheran churches....
decided in 1804 that vernacular matins
Matins
Matins is the early morning or night prayer service in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. The term is also used in some Protestant denominations to describe morning services.The name "Matins" originally referred to the morning office also...
texts were not up to the standard, chapel master Vicente Sáenz tried to remedy the situation by substituting villancico
Villancico
The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...
s for movements of concerto
Concerto
A concerto is a musical work usually composed in three parts or movements, in which one solo instrument is accompanied by an orchestra.The etymology is uncertain, but the word seems to have originated from the conjunction of the two Latin words...
s by Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Vivaldi
Antonio Lucio Vivaldi , nicknamed because of his red hair, was an Italian Baroque composer, priest, and virtuoso violinist, born in Venice. Vivaldi is recognized as one of the greatest Baroque composers, and his influence during his lifetime was widespread over Europe...
and menuets from symphonies by Joseph Haydn
Joseph Haydn
Franz Joseph Haydn , known as Joseph Haydn , was an Austrian composer, one of the most prolific and prominent composers of the Classical period. He is often called the "Father of the Symphony" and "Father of the String Quartet" because of his important contributions to these forms...
. Samayoa however was of the opinion that a new instrumental music of local invention and flavour should be used, and so he started with short pieces called "sones" that were part of the culture of the local Indians. Studying Haydn, he taught himself European instrumental forms, writing first his brief "Tocatas", and then expanding to ever larger movements, until he was able to sustain his musical discourse in full-fledged symphonies. The oldest extant work in this form is his Seventh Symphony finished in June, 1834, which he dedicated to te victory of the Federal Army at the battle of Jiquilisco
Jiquilisco
Jiquilisco is a municipality in the Usulután department of El Salvador....
, in present-day El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
. It is structured, as would be expected, in four movements: allegro, andante, minuet
Minuet
A minuet, also spelled menuet, is a social dance of French origin for two people, usually in 3/4 time. The word was adapted from Italian minuetto and French menuet, and may have been from French menu meaning slender, small, referring to the very small steps, or from the early 17th-century popular...
, and a fast finale with programmatic elements such as a stylized military march and a "son." It is scored for strings with pairs of oboe
Oboe
The oboe is a double reed musical instrument of the woodwind family. In English, prior to 1770, the instrument was called "hautbois" , "hoboy", or "French hoboy". The spelling "oboe" was adopted into English ca...
s and horns
Horn (instrument)
The horn is a brass instrument consisting of about of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. A musician who plays the horn is called a horn player ....
. Two later symphonies, the "Sinfonía cívica" and the "Sinfonía Histórica" demand larger orchestral forces in expanded movements.
Works
Orchestral: Three extant symphonies: SymphonySymphony
A symphony is an extended musical composition in Western classical music, scored almost always for orchestra. A symphony usually contains at least one movement or episode composed according to the sonata principle...
No. 7, dedicated to the victory of the Federal Army at Xiquilisco; "Sinfonía Cívica"; "Sinfonía Histórica"; "Piezas para tocarse en la Iglesia," for larger orchestra; "Piezas de Iglesia," for small orchestra; "Tocatas de Iglesia", for strings and two horns.
Chamber: "Tocatas" for string trio.
Vocal-choral: 8 Mass
Mass
Mass can be defined as a quantitive measure of the resistance an object has to change in its velocity.In physics, mass commonly refers to any of the following three properties of matter, which have been shown experimentally to be equivalent:...
es, including "Misa del Señor San José", for three-part chorus and orchestra; "Servicio de difuntos" (Requiem
Requiem
A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead or Mass of the dead , is a Mass celebrated for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, using a particular form of the Roman Missal...
); music for funerary services; music for vespers
Vespers
Vespers is the evening prayer service in the Western Catholic, Eastern Catholic, and Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, and Lutheran liturgies of the canonical hours...
; and villancico
Villancico
The villancico was a common poetic and musical form of the Iberian Peninsula and Latin America popular from the late 15th to 18th centuries. With the decline in popularity of the villancicos in the 20th century, the term became reduced to mean merely "Christmas carol"...
s for matins
Matins
Matins is the early morning or night prayer service in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran and Eastern Orthodox liturgies of the canonical hours. The term is also used in some Protestant denominations to describe morning services.The name "Matins" originally referred to the morning office also...
.