Don Hilarión Eslava y Elizondo (1807 - 78)
Eslava was born in Burlada, then a village in the outskirsts of Pamplona. At an early age he became s chorister in the Music Cahpel of the Pamplona Cathedral. He remained there until he finished his musical studies, meanwhile have been ordained a priest. From Pamplona he moved first to the Cathedral of Burgo de Osma, as Chapel Master and then he went on to occupy the same post at the Cathedral of Seville, a very prestigious appointment. From Seville he went to Madrid to become Chapel Master of the Royal Chapel and one of the founders of the Conservatorio Superior de Música, where he went to become its director until removed by the fall of Queen Isabel II, his protector. He had many important pupils, amongst which we must mention Felipe Gorriti.
He was considered by some of his contemporaries to be one of the greatest composers of all time but very soon his music fell in disgrace because of its "italianate" or "operatic (Italian, of course)" flavour and, when new liturgical dispositions were introduced by the Vatican at the beginning of the XXth century, went to become the most disliked and despised composer of all time. For a century he has been systematically portayed oficiaally in Spanish conservatories, as the pit, in as far as musical composition and taste is concerned. BUT, some of his compositions - masses, Miserere Grande, Salve Regina, and specially, his mottets Tu es Petrus and Veni, veni Sancti Spiritus - have remained very popular and part of the repertoire of cathedral and church choirs - at least until Vatican II.
He has even made to poetry. The Mexican writer Octaviio Paz quotes in one of his books a couple of lines by López Velarde, the Mexican national poet, in which a childrens choir practices a solfege lesson from Eslava's book.
Beacuase Don Hilarión accomplished many great things too. He wrote a solfege method which remained in use until very recently: more than 120 years!. He is the absolute founder of Spanish musicology and went to great pains to establish it on solid modern bases. He edited the Lira Sacro Hispana, from where for the first time the works of the great Spanish polyphonists become accessible to the modern musician. He established a musical pinting facility through which his works and those of some his contemporaries became known. Finally, he discoverd Julián Gayayre, who was then a young smithy, and payed for his musical education until Gayarre could stand on his own feet.
He was the most important musical figure in XIXth Span, whatever the official manuals say.