Hernando [Fernando] Franco

(1532 - 1585)


Composer, born near Alcára, a few miles from the Portuguese border. Described as "the earliest composer of church polyphony in the Western Hemisphere about whom we have definite information," Lobo seems to have arrived in the New World ca. 1554 and was active both in Guatemala and--from 1575 until his death--as maestro di capilla of the Cathedral in Mexico City. His surviving works include seven Magnificats and two Salve settings as well as miscellaneous psalms, hymns, and responsories. Some of his ,music, used by missionaries in training the Indians, has text in the Nahuatl language and is the only surviving early polyphony in one of the native tongues.





A Partial Hernando Franco Discography | IVL: The Iberian Masters |  VIIH: Music in Iberia, New Spain and Colonial America