José Pacheco y Basanta

José Pacheco y Basanta (Mondoñedo, 15 December 1784 – Mondoñedo, 23 March 1865) was a Spanish composer tied almost exclusively to the cathedral of his native city, in Galicia, during the first half of the nineteenth century. His significance lies both in the continuity of the cathedral's musical life and in his early interest in Galician folklore.

He joined the choir of Mondoñedo Cathedral in 1795. When his voice broke, he became organist while studying composition. His first public appearance took place at Christmas 1804, when he conducted some villancicos of his own composition. From then on he took charge of the training and care of the choirboys and, in 1806, was officially appointed maestro de capilla. Although he received offers to move to Lugo in 1817 and to Oviedo in 1833, and unsuccessfully applied for the directorship of the cathedral of Santiago de Compostela, the greater part of his career was spent in Mondoñedo.

From his predecessor, A. C. Santavalla, he inherited the best-endowed chapel in the cathedral's history. However, from 1820 onwards economic difficulties undermined musical practice and led to the loss of many of its finest musicians. Despite this, he continued to compose for the great celebrations. Around 1850 he replaced the oboes with clarinets, dispensed with the bassoons and introduced novel wind instruments such as the ophicleide, the saxophone and the tuba.

His earliest works closely resemble those of his teacher, Melchor López. The later ones, by contrast, have an ornate, rhapsodic style and frequently draw on popular material. By using Galician folk tunes in his villancicos, he anticipated the Galician nationalist composers of the second half of the nineteenth century. Only a few of his works survive in the cathedrals of Santiago, León, Lugo, Oviedo, Seville and Tui; the bulk of his output, comprising liturgical works and numerous villancicos in Castilian and Galician, is held in the archive of Mondoñedo Cathedral.