José Palomino

about

José Palomino (Madrid, 1755 – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 1810) José Palomino was a Spanish composer, violinist, and chapel master active during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, a period of significant transition in Iberian musical life. Born in Madrid in 1755, he belonged to the first generation of Spanish musicians shaped by both the lingering influence of the Baroque villancico tradition and the new, cosmopolitan Classical style that entered Spain through Italian opera, court orchestras, and Bourbon cultural reforms. Palomino trained as a violinist and early on gravitated toward ecclesiastical music. His career flourished not on the Peninsula but in the Canary Islands, where he became a central musical figure. By the 1780s he had settled in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, eventually serving as maestro de capilla of the Cathedral of Santa Ana. In this role he oversaw liturgical music, trained singers and instrumentalists, and introduced orchestral practices modelled on the broader European classical style. His surviving works include Masses, motets, psalm settings, litanies, and instrumental pieces—often written for cathedral use, with clear melodic contours, lighter textures, and periodic phrasing that reflect the Classical idiom. Palomino’s music shows the stylistic shift from dense Spanish polyphony toward clearer homophonic writing, a transformation comparable to the contemporaneous evolution seen in Portugal and in provincial Spanish cathedrals under

top songs

albums

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Iberian Harpsichord Concertos

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From Baroque to Fado: A Journey Through Portuguese Music (Live)

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José Palomino: Quintetos de Cuerda Con Dos Violas 1, 2 y 3 (El Patrimonio Musical Hispano 27)

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Tonades dels segles XVII i XVIII

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Modinhas e Lunduns dos Séculos XVIII e XIX

Musica de Salão do Tempo D. Maria I

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La Creación Musical en Canarias 38 - José Palomino

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