Jayme Cassellas (1690-1764)
- Alarma, alarma, sentidos! (1748)
Performers: Sphera Antiqua & Memoria de los Sentidos; Carlos Martínez Gil (dirección)
Further info: Corpus Christi en Toledo, 1751
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Spanish composer. In 1715, while maestro de capilla of Granollers, near
Barcelona, he was elected to succeed Luis Serra as maestro of S María
del Mar, Barcelona, and on 13 November 1733 to succeed Miguel de Ambiela
as maestro of Toledo Cathedral (confirmed in his prebend 21 June 1734).
He was one of the most prolific composers of his time, and in 1736 was
conceded an extra 37,500 maravedís by the Toledo chapter ‘because of his
ability’. In 1762, after long and distinguished service as a composer,
conductor and teacher, he retired because of illness. His works from S
María del Mar are lost, but others survive in various Spanish sources
(E-Bc, E and MO; Tc Choirbook 24 contains four of his a cappella hymns
for four and five voices). The bulk of his surviving music, however,
consists of villancicos, tonos, tonadillas, and Latin music (masses,
motets and psalms) with orchestral accompaniments in 11 volumes, each of
600–800 folios, little explored, at Toledo Cathedral. Although Casellas
was a stubborn advocate of native Spanish traditions, in book 11 of
this series his music is found alongside that of the immigrant Italian
Francesco Corselli. Ironically, José Durán's four-voice Madrigale (I-Bc)
contains a protracted interchange of 1755–7 with Casellas, who objected
to the italianisms of this young Barcelona pupil of Durante. When
invited to censure Antonio Soler's Llave de la modulación (Madrid,
1762), Casellas remarked that previously taste alone had governed
modulations, commending Soler for providing scientific rules.
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