Juan Pérez

Juan Pérez Roldán (baptised in Calahorra on 26 December 1604; died in Zaragoza at an uncertain date after 1672) was a seventeenth-century Spanish composer who served as maestro de capilla at several cathedrals and convents in the Crown of Castile and the Crown of Aragon. López-Calo identifies him as a nephew of the chaplain and musician Pedro Pereda, although this is a hypothesis rather than an established fact.

His career began as a choirboy at Calahorra Cathedral in 1617, and he soon moved to Sigüenza. In 1634 he was seeking a post as a tenor singer in Toledo. Two years later he was working as maestro de capilla and canon at the collegiate church of Berlanga, but in November 1636 he moved to Toledo Cathedral as claustrero and choirmaster, and in June 1638 he obtained a tenor's prebend. In 1639 he was offered the post of maestro de capilla at Calahorra. By December 1641 he was at Málaga Cathedral, where he won the post after a competitive examination held in March 1642, although he had already left before 30 October 1645, possibly because of disagreements with musicians in the chapel. From 15 March 1648 at the latest, he was maestro de capilla of the Encarnación convent in Madrid. In 1655 he refused to return to Málaga because his travel expenses had not been paid in advance. In 1661 he was a priest and royal chaplain, and in 1667 he was appointed maestro de capilla of Segovia Cathedral, although by 1670 he had disappeared, taking his scores with him and leaving his commitments unfulfilled. In 1671 he took up the post of maestro in León, from which he retired that same year in exchange for a pension of 300 ducats. That December he moved to El Pilar in Zaragoza, where in January 1672 the chapter entrusted the care of the choir boys to the organist Joseph Muniesa. The last direct record of him is a letter from February 1672.

In his own time he was regarded as an outstanding composer, and Iriarte, a century later, included him among the great Spanish musicians. His work shows a solid grounding in counterpoint, both in the old style and in his villancicos, which are elaborately crafted and show melodic and harmonic interest. His use of dissonance and modulation gives him a recognisable personal style. His madrigal Ah del sol is one of the few known Spanish works of the eighteenth century for instrumental ensemble. The music for Tetis y Peleo, composed to celebrate the Peace of the Pyrenees and the marriage of Maria Theresa to Louis XIV, can be attributed to him with almost complete certainty. Much of his music survives in the cathedrals of Zaragoza, which suggests that he died in that city.