Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599); ESP

Francisco Guerrero (1528–1599) was born in Seville and became, alongside Tomás Luis de Victoria and Cristóbal de Morales, one of the principal Spanish composers of the Renaissance. He received his earliest musical training from his elder brother Pedro and later studied with Morales. Still in his teens, Guerrero was appointed maestro de capilla at Jaén Cathedral, and he subsequently spent most of his career at Seville Cathedral, where he served in increasingly important musical posts. He traveled widely, including journeys to Rome and the Holy Land; on his return from the latter pilgrimage he was twice attacked by pirates and later imprisoned for debt before resuming his duties in Seville.

Guerrero composed masses, motets, Magnificats, hymns, and secular and devotional songs, and his music circulated widely throughout Spain, Portugal, and the Spanish colonies in the Americas. Compared with the often austere intensity of Victoria, Guerrero’s sacred writing frequently displays a warmer melodic character and a particularly direct response to text. Collections such as Sacrae cantiones and Motecta helped establish his international reputation, while his Spanish devotional songs brought sophisticated polyphony into a more accessible vernacular sphere. His music represents the flourishing of sacred polyphony in Spain during its sixteenth-century Golden Age.

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Read biography at allmusic.com.