José Ángel Lamas

Infobox Person
name= José Ángel Lamas


caption=
dead=dead
birth_date= birth date|1775|8|2|mf=y
birth_place= Caracas, Venezuela
death_date= death date|1814|12|10|mf=y
death_place= Caracas, Venezuela

José Ángel Lamas (August 2, 1775 – December 10, 1814) was a Venezuelan classical musician and composer born in Caracas. He was the main representative of the classical period in Venezuela.

Author of the immortal sacred piece, "Popule Meus", his most important and best known piece. It was composed in 1801, and premiered in Caracas Cathedral during the colonial-provincial period. Lamas, away from politics and the whirlpool of the independence war, dedicated his life to music and specifically religious music. As a member of the School of Chacao, in 1789 he played "Tiple" and "Bajón Chirimía" in the cathedral orchestra.He played the chirimía, an ancient medieval Spanish instrument, which preceded the oboe. From 1796 until his death on the December 10, 1814, José Ángel Lamas was "Maestro Bajonista" or Main Bassoonist of the orchestra.

Among his pieces are, "En Premio a tus Virtudes" (As a Price to Your Virtues), "Sepulto Domino" (Sepulted Lord), "Ave Maris Stella" (Ave Star Mary), "Misa en re" (Mass in D), "Benedicta et Venerabilis" (Blessed and Venerable).

José Ángel Lamas died at 39 on December 10, 1814, and was buried in Saint Paul's church in Caracas. His bones were never found when later Antonio Guzmán Blanco demolished the church and subsequently built the "Teatro Municipal de Caracas"' (Municipal Theatre of Caracas) on it.

See also

*Venezuela
*Venezuelan music

References

* [http://www.cpdl.org/wiki/index.php/Jos%C3%A9_%C3%81ngel_Lamas José Ángel Lamas at CPDL.org]

External links

* [http://www.comunidadandina.org/bda/docs/VE-CA-0024.pdf A publication of "Populemeus" was issued in 1943 with the score for voices and orchestra (PDF)]