Juan Bautista Plaza

Juan Bautista Plaza

Juan Bautista Plaza Anfonzo (born July 19, 1898 in Caracas ; † January 1, 1965 ibid) was a Venezuelan composer and musicologist .

Life

In 1916 Plaza began studying piano and music theory with Jesús María Suárez . After studying law for one year and medicine for two years, he received a scholarship to study church music in Rome in 1920, which he completed in 1923. On his return to Caracas he became conductor and organist at the city's cathedral. He held this position until 1948.

From 1924 to 1928 he was professor of harmony and composition at the Escuela Nacional de Música de Caracas . In 1931 the Ministry of Culture created a chair for music history and aesthetics for him at the same school, which he held until 1962.

From 1936 to 1944 he worked on the material in the possession of the Escuela National on the music of Venezuela during the colonial era. As a result, twelve volumes of sheet music were published in collaboration with the Instituto Interamericano de Musicología Montevideo .

In 1945, Plaza founded the Escuela Preparatoria de Música (today Escuela Juan Manuel Olivares ), which he directed from 1948 to 1962.

Works

• Miserere (1924)
• Las Horas (1930)
• Misa de Réquiem (1933)
• Fuga criolla (1931)
• 7 canciones criollas (1932)
• Sonatina Venezolana (1934)
• El picacho abrupto (1936)
• Cantata de Navidad (1939)
• Las campanas de Pascua (1940)
• Fuga romántica venezolana (1950)
• Cuatro ritmos de danzas (1952)
• Elegía (1953)
• Misa litúrgica de la esperanza (1962)

literature

• Miguel Castillo Didier: Juan Bautista Plaza. Una Vida por la Música y Venezuela. Caracas 1985