Benito Bello de Torices

Benito Bello de Torices, also known under variants of his surname such as Abello, Vello or Torizes, was a Spanish composer born in Benavente around 1660 and who died in Madrid after 1717. His reputation rests on sacred music in Spain at the close of the seventeenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth, a period in which the Spanish traditions of the previous century coexisted with newer Italian currents.

He belonged to a noble family, although his training is not known with precision; it is supposed that he may have studied with Andrés Lorente.

His career was spent mainly in the service of religious and royal institutions. Around 1687 he married Ana Pérez Daza y Brabo, and he was then living in Alaejos. In 1691 he was maestro de capilla at the convent of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid, and between 1696 and 1697 he held the same post at the royal church of San Cayetano. Possibly before 1701 he took charge of the chapel of San Justo y Pastor in Alcalá de Henares, a position he held until 1714. That same year he was elected maestro of La Seo in Zaragoza. In 1718 he was back in Madrid as music master of the Colegio del Rey, the last documented post.

His style combines the Spanish polyphonic heritage of the seventeenth century with a growing Italian influence. He mastered imitative counterpoint and polychoral techniques, and he was attentive to the accentuation of the text. His son, Juan de Alaejos, a Hieronymite monk at El Escorial between 1706 and 1752, was also a composer. The largest surviving collection of his works is held at El Escorial, and it is believed to have been assembled by his son; some attributions are doubtful, as certain pieces may belong to other composers named Torices.