Aldana, José Maria (1758–1810)

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Aldana, José Maria (1758–1810)

José Maria Aldana (b. 1758; d. 7 February 1810), Mexican composer and violinist. Aldana began violin lessons while a choirboy at the cathedral in Mexico City. In 1775 he joined the cathedral orchestra but relinquished that post in 1788 when his duties as violinist at Mexico City's Coliseo theater, begun two years earlier, conflicted. In 1790 he was named the Coliseo's orchestra director, a position he held concurrently, after 1808, with leadership of the Mexico City choir school. Compositions such as his vesper psalms for the Office of the Dead and other sacred and secular works (Boleras nuevas; Minuet de variaciones) place Aldana among the best native composers of his day.

See alsoMusic: Art Music .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Robert Stevenson, Music in Mexico: A Historical Survey (1952).

                                     Robert L. Parker