Juan Bautista Plaza

Juan Bautista Plaza

Works for Cello

Melodía (1932), for cello and piano, published as a facsimile on the Élite magazine, 11/25/1933 (manuscript is at ILVES in Caracas).

Diferencias sobre un aire venezolano (1953), for cello and piano, not edited (manuscript is at ILVES in Caracas).

Sources:

Grove Music Online: https://doi.org/10.1093/gmo/9781561592630.article.21930

Elizabeth Labonville, Marie (2007). Juan Bautista Plaza and Musical Nationalism in Venezuela. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.

Juan Bautista Plaza

Venezuelan composer and musicologist, born July 19, 1898, died January 1, 1965.

Juan Bautista Plaza, Venezuelan composer and musicologist, was born in Caracas, July 19, 1898. Beginning his studies at 15 with Jesús María Suárez, he simultaneously began to lead the choir and teach music to his peers at the Caracas French School. He continued to be a choirmaster at the French School, and produced his first large work, Zapatero a tus zapatos. On scholarship, Bautista Plaza attended Scuola Superiore di Musica Sacra in Rome and earned his Masters of Sacred Composition in 1923; during this time, he studied under Casimiri, Manari, Dagnino and Ferretti. Plaza’s formal studies in Europe influenced him to implement European forms in his own works.

With his roots in Caracas, he returned and became choirmaster of the cathedral, writing several religious Christmas songs in popular style. He also became a professor of harmony at the Escuela Nacional de Música, later teaching music history and aesthetics. Plaza also assisted in cataloguing colonial music, which evolved into a twelve-volume set called Archivo de Música Colonial Venezolana.

Most of Bautista Plaza’s compositions consist of sacred vocal music, written for church or students at the schools in which he instructed. His main influences reflect Puccini and Perosi, and, later in life, Stravinsky. Well-known Venezuelan composers such as Alejandro Enrique Planchart and Alberto Grau studied music history and aesthetics under Bautista Plaza. Bautista Plaza passed away in Caracas, January 1, 1965.