Pedro Carrera y Lanchares

Pedro Carrera y Lanchares was a Spanish liturgist, organist and composer active in Madrid between the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His exact dates are not known with precision; his documented activity can only be placed between 1786 and 1815. A pupil of José Lidón, he is linked above all to liturgical practice and to the teaching of music theory.

He was organist at the royal convent of the Carmelitas Calzados in Madrid. In 1789 he published the Ritual carmelitano, with a learned introduction to Gregorian chant and details on the Mass with organ. In 1805 he brought out the Forma canendi in missis, containing Mass propers in plainchant according to the Toledan rite; it seems the project was not continued. That same year his Rudimentos de música appeared, intended for the pupils of the Real Seminario de Nobles; the second part was delayed by a decade owing to the Napoleonic occupation.

For organ he composed the Salmodia orgánica (1792) and the Adiciones a la salmodia orgánica (1814), collections of verses for psalms with fugues, though in a style close to that of classical piano music. He also left, in manuscript, psalms for four voices and bass in fauxbourdon style.