Sebastian Raval

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"Lamentationes Ieremiae prophetae quinque vocum". Romae 1594
"Lamentationes Ieremiae prophetae quinque vocum". Romae 1594

Sebastian Raval (c. 1550 – 1604) was a Spanish composer of vocal and instrumental music. Born in Cartagena, he served as a soldier of the Spanish army in Flanders and Sicily. He joined the order of St. John of Jerusalem after being wounded in the siege of Maastricht.

He moved to Italia where he served as a musician in the courts of Francesco Maria della Rovere in Urbino, of the viceroy of Sicilia, Bernardino di Cardine and of the cardinals Perreti and Colonna in Rome.

In Rome, he declared himself the "best music of the world", and because of that, he was first challenged by Giovanni Maria Nanino and shortly after by Francesco Soriano to a musical duel. Sebastián Raval was defeated in both cases.

On 28 April 1595 he took the post of maestro di capella of the viceroyal chapel of the Spanish viceroys in Palermo.

In Sicily, he challenged again Achile Falcone to a musical competition, that was decided first in favour Falcone and, after some appeals, in favour of Raval afterwards. After Achile Falcone's death in 1600, Antonio Falcone, father of Achile, published all the process of this musical duel in his "relazione del successo" and took Raval and Falcone's pieces object of this competition to print including several, canons, madrigals, motets and ricercari. This edition of both Falcone and Raval's pieces is available nowadays in modern edition.

Sebastián Raval died in Palermo in 1604.

In 2004, the city of Cartagena, his natal city, paid homage with a concert conducted by the violist Pere Ros to this composer on the occasion of the 400 years of his death.

[edit] Works

Raval composed religious poliphonic music, madrigals and instrumental ricercari. The Raval work has not been yet object of deep study. Just a few pieces have been published in modern times, and the rest waits a deserved musicological research.

Sacred: - Motectorum liber primus. 5 vv (Rome 1593)

- Lamentationes Hieremiae Prophetae. 5 vv Rome 1594

- Motecta Selecta organo Accomodata. 3-8 vv. org. (Palermo 1600)

Secular: - Il Primo Libro de Madrigali. 5vv (Venice 1593)

- Il Pimo Libro di Canzonette. 4 VV (Venice 1593)

- Madrigali 3, 5, 8 vv (Rome 1595)

- Il Primo Libro di Ricercari (Palermo 1596)

- 2 Madrigals in "Infidi Lumi" (Palermo 1603) (lost)

[edit] External links

Free Scores in the choral public domain library

[edit] Editions

  • "Achile Falcone-Madrigali, Mottetti e Ricercari" (Includes pieces of Raval). Leo S. Olschki Editore. (Firenze, 2000)
  • "Sebastián Raval. 6 Canones (IL Primo Libro di Ricercari. Palermo 1596)" Sociedad Española de Musicología, Madrid 1985.
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