Antoni Milà

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Antoni Milà was an eighteenth-century Catalan composer and maestro de capilla whose career was split between his native Vilafranca del Penedès and the metropolitan see of Tarragona. His exact date of birth is unknown, but he was born in Vilafranca and belonged to a family that produced at least one other musician, his brother Ramon. Later writers have suggested that, like many Catalan church musicians of his generation, he probably received his early musical training at the Escolania of Montserrat, whose reach extended across much of central Catalonia. Milà’s first securely documented post was as maestro de capilla of the basilica of Santa Maria in Vilafranca del Penedès, where from 1743 to 1762 he directed the music chapel, trained choirboys and adult singers, and provided new music for the full cycle of feasts and local devotions. In the early 1760s he moved to Tarragona, initially serving in an interim capacity before being confirmed as maestro de capella of the cathedral around 1770; he held that position without major conflict until his death in Tarragona on 23 March 1789, after which he was succeeded by Melcior Juncà. During his Tarragona years he even briefly tested the waters for a more prestigious appointment, putting himself forward for the vacant magisterium in Málaga after the death of Juan Francés de Iribarren, though he ultimately remained in Catalonia. Milà’s surviving output is unusually large for a provincial chapelmaster, and it reveals a composer perfectly

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