Juan Navarro

Juan Navarro was a composer born in Cádiz around 1550, whose work developed in Mexico, where he is regarded as a Mexican composer by nationality, though Spanish by birth. The date of his death is not known with certainty; sources place his death in Mexico around 1610, though with reservations.

During his period in the Mexican province of Michoacán he worked as a Franciscan priest, confessor and choir cantor. In 1572 the Bishop of Michoacán, Juan Diego de Rincón, acquired one hundred copies of a Passionario printed with care in Mexico City, which contained the plainchant of the Passion according to St John. Shortly afterwards, Navarro set out to compose plainchant melodies for all the Passion narratives and for other readings, so that Holy Week would be musically complete. He finished the work in 1601 and obtained a printing licence granting exclusive privilege for twelve years, although the book did not appear until 1604, published by Diego López Dávalos in the Novohispanic capital.

The Liber in quo quatuor Passiones Christi Domini continentur is the first book of music composed and printed in America. Its melodies, which are responsorial in character, resemble somewhat individualised plainchant, syllabic in general with occasional melismas of dramatic intent. To ensure its sale among clergy of different orders, Navarro added approvals from the Dominicans, the Augustinians, the archbishop and the viceroy to the Franciscan recommendations. For a long time the book was attributed to an earlier Juan Navarro, an error that Chase corrected.