Agustìn de Contreras: Miserere Mei Deus a 7 coros con instrumentos – 1712

Composer(s)

Agustín de Contreras (bap. Poveda, nr Cuenca, Feb 1678; d Córdoba, c19 Dec 1754). Spanish composer. In 1689 he became a choirboy at Sigüenza Cathedral, where he studied composition with Pedro Ventura Enciso (d 1698). He moved to Madrid in 1695. On 25 June 1706 he succeeded Juan Pacheco Montión (1684–1706) as maestro de capilla of Córdoba Cathedral, remaining there until his retirement on 22 December 1751, when he presented his scores to the chapter. According to the Córdoba Cathedral chapter acts he had not had an official post in Madrid, but he must have been in contact with Sebastián Durón, maestro de capilla in the royal chapel. When the royal palace music archive was destroyed by fire in 1734, Francisco Courcelle, who was to replenish it, ordered that music by Contreras be brought from Córdoba. Contreras took an active part in the controversy regarding Francisco Valls's music. He was of the generation of Spanish composers who were the first to adapt the Italian style to traditional Spanish music, and should not be confused with the composer Fernando Contreras, whose works are preserved in Andalucian archives (E-GRcr, MA).