Esteban Salas Castro

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Composer, instrumentalist, singer, poet. Considered the first and greatest Cuban classical musician.

Esteban Salas Castro was born in Havana. While very young he studied violin, organ, plainchant, counterpoint and composition at the Main Parish Church of Havana, where he had entered as a soprano in the Choir. Later, at the Seminary of San Carlos and San Ambrosio, he studied philosophy, theology and canon law.

In 1763, he was appointed by Bishop Pedro Agustín Morell de Santa Cruz y de Lora as Master of the Chapel of the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba, a city where he also worked as a professor of music, philosophy and moral theology at the Seminary San Basilio Magno. In March 1790, he was ordained a priest.

On Friday of Sorrows that year he sang his first mass as celebrant. For this solemn occasion he composed a Stabat mater of monumental proportions. In the mastery of musical composition, Esteban Salas is a creator of liturgical music, often conceived for vocal ensembles, in which he used texts in Latin (within this group are most of his works that have survived to our days: psalms, litanies, sequences, masses), and non-liturgical compositions (among them his numerous villancicos and also cantatas and pastorales), with lyrics in the form of Castilian romance.

His work as author and supplier of repertoire for all the parishes of the eastern governorship of Cuba included sacramental plays, masses, salves, villancicos and pastoral poems, which he wrote each year for Easter celebration.

A large part of his musical work falls within Spanish models, conservative of pre-classical tradition, especially in the Baroque style and, above all, in the canons of the Neapolitan school, which he admired. His production has been noted to show the influence of Francesco Durante and Pergolesi, one of the first European composers known by the educated society of the time.

Nevertheless, Salas is a man of transition insofar as he belonged to two epochs within the history of music, in tune with the profound changes that would occur toward the end of the eighteenth century. It has been noted that to understand the work of Salas, who was born four years before Sebastian Bach wrote the St. Matthew Passion and died one year after Beethoven composed his second symphony, two milestones of different kinds in the course of international music.

He possessed a vast humanistic culture, and above all he was a virtuoso of music. His work is divided into sacred (religious), which is the majority, and non-religious. His poetic qualities can also be highlighted, since he wrote lyrics for many of his compositions.

Little is known about his life and work during the time he lived in Havana. In his childhood and youth he showed great interest in studies in general and in music in particular, so much so that at the age of eight he was already a soprano in the Main Parish, where he studied plainchant, violin, organ, counterpoint and composition.

In 1738, at age fifteen, he began at the Seminary of San Carlos, and took lessons in philosophy, theology and canon law. It is supposed that his life should have been spent between teaching and composing for the parish churches of the western governorship.

It is known that in February 1764, at age 39, he arrived in Santiago de Cuba with the appointment of interim master granted by Bishop Morell de Santa Cruz. By procedure, he composed as proof of his competence an Ave Maria Stella that he delivered to the City Council and which fortunately was not lost to oblivion and is known today. Also a "Psalm of Compline" that was never found. His objective: to lead the Music Chapel of the Cathedral

On March 12 and as a sign of approval, the City Council confirmed his provisional title, since the definitive one had to be extended by Royal Decree, which was obtained through Mexico, and which was finally delivered to him on March 12, 1769.

Salas began to put order in the Music Chapel of the Cathedral of Santiago, which came to have a roster of 14 musicians, distributed in 3 sopranos, 2 altos, 2 tenors, 1 harp, 2 first violins, 1 second violin, 1 organist and 2 bassoonists ("bassoonist" is used to designate musicians who performed the general bass part, 1 cello and 1 bassoon, and does not refer to the word "bajón" as an old name for the bassoon). Salas used the term "baxon" for the bassoon parts, but in preserved works there is only one part for this instrument and there is evidence that Matías Alqueza, the first printer established in Santiago, was his cellist for some time.

On March 20, 1790 Salas was ordained a priest in a ceremony held in the church of Dolores, and for this occasion he wrote a villancico without Christmas character, "¿Quién es esta, cielos?" and a Stabat Mater, in 14 movements.

During those years he worked tirelessly to improve the economy of the musicians in his Chapel. He produced works or copies for all the churches in the eastern zone, was a professor of plainchant, philosophy and moral theology at the Seminary of San Basilio. All of that and more he accomplished with no other pay than that of Master of the Chapel.

He made the texts for his non-liturgical works, which reveal him as a poet. He completed his last villancico at Christmas 1801. His music is framed in the style of the late Baroque, with traits of classicism. The influence of Italian and Spanish authors is natural, but without doubt, Salas was a musician framed in what has been called "American sensibility".

His work catalog consists of 7 masses, 5 hymns, 7 sequences, 12 antiphons, 5 psalms, 1 passion narrative, 3 canticles, 2 litanies, 8 lessons, 7 invitatory psalms, 2 motets, 29 alleluia verses, 1 vespers, 1 terce, 1 none, as well as the villancicos "Pues la fábrica de un templo", "Toquen presto a fuego", "Quién ha visto que en invierno", "Sobre los ríos undosos", "Una noticia alegre", "Escuchen el contento", "Vayan unas especies", "A Belén José y María", "Como la luz ha nacido", "El que impera soberano", "0 que anuncio tan plausible", "Vengan todos presurosos", "Resuenen armoniosos", "Qué dulce melodía", "Preparaos o mortales", "Claras luces", "Qué niño tan bello", "Los Cuatro elementos", "0 los tiempos", "Oigan una nueva", "Al niño muy hombre", "Una nave mercantil", "Quién es ésta", "Cielos", "Ya en el apacible puerto", "Cantadas", "Saltando viene", "Silencio, por si dormido", "Unos pastores", "Astros luminosos", "El cielo y sus estrellas", "Respirad o mortales", "0 qué noche", "Resuenen armoniosos", "Tú mi Dios entre galas", "Vengan a ver", "Son las de Jacob", "Nace el sol". Also the pastorales "O niño soberano", "Pastores por un ángel prevenidos", "Unos pastores de lo alto avisados" and "Lleguen en buena hora". The manuscripts of Salas' work were discovered in the archives of the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba by Alejo Carpentier, when he was engaged in research work for his book "La Música en Cuba", in the 1940s. There is a book published in the 1980s in Cuba with the scores of Cantatas, Pastorales and Villancicos by Salas.

Sources describe him as a small man, thin, somewhat dark-skinned, with thick lips, black eyes, a broad forehead and an aquiline profile. He was energetic, decisive, willful and orderly; and he stood out for the clarity of his handwriting, which left no room for mistakes when reading his scores.

In the 39 years of creative and pedagogical work he carried out in Santiago de Cuba, he not only displayed extraordinary musical work, but tirelessly fought to improve the economic situation of the city's musicians, it is said that on many occasions he came to finance his work with his meager economic income with which he had to cover his personal expenses.

His last villancico was composed for Christmas 1801. He died on July 14, 1803.

Work
His music continued to be performed until the end of the nineteenth century. After a brief hiatus it would be rediscovered by writer and musicologist Alejo Carpentier. At the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century, his work would be the subject of musicological studies, such as those carried out by Miriam Escudero, and recordings, such as those by Choeur Exaudi de Cuba.

Among his works, belonging to the Neapolitan school, are:[2]

7 masses
17 salves and motets, psalms, hymns and sacramental plays:
Tota Pulcra
Christus factus est (antiphon)
Passio Domine Nostri Jesuchriste
Secundum Joannem
Venite adoremos
Deus in adjutorium
Pueri Hebraeorum
Gloria, laus et honor
Ingrediente Domino
Officium Hebdomadae Sanctae (Office of Holy Week, set of 21 pieces)
Popule meus (for 3 voices and continuo)
Parce mihi domine
¡Oh niño soberano!
Requiem Mass
Que dulce melodía (cantata for 3 voices, violins and bass)
Escuchen el contento (cantata for 4 voices, violins, horn and bass)
Salve Regina in C minor
villancicos:
Un musiquito nuevo, for 4 voices, soloists and violins
Pues logra ya, for 3 voices and violins
Una nave mercantil, for 3 voices and violins
Cándido corderito, for 2 voices and violins
Si al ver en el Oriente, for 4 voices, solo and violins
Que niño tan bello, for 2 voices and violins
Los bronces se estremezcan
Toquen presto a fuego, for 4 voices, soloists and violins
Claras luces
Venga el mundo todo, for 4 voices and violins (1793)
[edit] Discography
"Esteban Salas: Les Grandes Heures du Baroque Cubain", 1996
"Esteban Salas: Un Barroco Cubano del Siglo XVIII", 1996
"Nativité à Santiago de Cuba", 2001
"Cantus in honore Beatae Mariae Virginis", 2002
"Esteban Salas: Un Barroco Cubano", 2003
"Esteban Salas. Passio Domini Nostri Jesu Christi", 2004