Surge Propera Amica Mea. Francisco Guerrero.

Text and Illustration taken from Wikipedia - the free encyclopaedia,

unless otherwise stated.

English: Francisco Guerrero (1528-1599), Spanish composer.

Español: Retrato tomado de Francisco Pacheco, (1564-1644) 

El libro de descripción de verdaderos retratos, ilustres y memorables varones, 

[Sevilla, s.n., s.a.]- Real Academia de la Historia (Madrid). Signatura: 1/736.

Date: 1599.

Source: Descripción de verdaderos retratos de ilustres 

y memorables varones, Sevilla, s. d., 1599.

Author: Francisco Pacheco (1564–1644).
(Wikimedia Commons)

Francisco Guerrero (1528 - 1599) was a Spanish composer of the Renaissance. He was born and died in Seville.

Guerrero's early musical education was with his older brother, Pedro. He must have been an astonishing prodigy, for at the age of seventeen he was already appointed maestro de capilla (Singing Master, i.e. Music Director) at Jaén Cathedral. A few years later he accepted a position in Seville. Apparently, during this time he was much in demand as a singer and composer, establishing an exceptional reputation before his thirtieth birthday; in addition, he published several collections of his music abroad, an unusual event for a young composer.

Francisco Guerrero's 

"Surge Propera Amica Mea."

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/1seXH9kVEuA.

After several decades of working and travelling throughout Spain and Portugal, sometimes in the employ of Emperor Maximilian II, he went to Italy for a year (1581–1582), where he published two books of his music. After returning to Spain for several years, he decided to travel to the Holy Land, which he finally was able to do in 1589. His adventure included visits to Damascus, Bethlehem, and Jerusalem; on the return trip, his ship was twice attacked by pirates, who threatened his life, stole his money, and held him for ransom. His ransom must have been paid, for he was able to return to Spain; unfortunately he had no money, and endured a series of misfortunes including some time spent in debtor's prison; at last his old employer at Seville Cathedral extricated him, and he resumed working for them. His book on his adventurous visit to the Holy Land was published in 1590 and was a popular success (it is reasonable to suppose that Cervantes knew it). At the end of the decade, he planned one more trip to the Holy Land, but, unfortunately, he died in the Plague of 1599, in Seville, before he was able to depart.

Another version of 

Francisco Guerrero's

"Surge Propera Amica Mea."

Available on YouTube at

http://youtu.be/H1NzqKzwzoE.

Of all the Spanish Renaissance composers, he was the one who lived and worked the most in Spain. Others, for example Morales and Victoria, spent large portions of their careers in Italy (though, unlike many Franco-Flemish composers of the time, Spanish composers usually returned home later in life).

Guerrero's music was both sacred and secular, unlike that of Victoria and Morales, the two other Spanish 16th-Century composers of the first rank. He wrote numerous secular songs and instrumental pieces, in addition to Masses, Motets, and Passions. He was able to capture an astonishing variety of moods in his music, from ecstasy to despair, longing, joy, and devotional stillness; his music remained popular for hundreds of years, especially in Cathedrals in Latin America. Stylistically he preferred homophonic textures, rather like his Spanish contemporaries, and he wrote memorable, singable lines. One interesting feature of his style is how he anticipated functional harmonic usage: there is a case of a Magnificat, discovered in Lima, Peru, once thought to be an anonymous 18th-Century work, which turned out to be a work of his.