Juventino Rosas

José Juventino Policarpo Rosas Cadenas (25 January, 1868 - 9 July 1894) was a Mexican composer, violinist, and band leader.

Rosas was born in Santa Cruz de Galeana, Guanajuato, in a poor Otomi Native American family. In his youth he did whatever he could related to music, from ringing church bells to playing violin on the street, making music for his living from age 7 on. He used music for his ambitions to better himself, including composing a waltz in exchange for a pair of shoes.

He moved to Mexico City and soon became a well known musician and composer. At age 12 he was playing violin in one of the city's most popular dance bands. In his early teens, he worked accompanying well known singer Angela Peralta. Although he applied twice for entrance to the National Music Conservatory and briefly studied there, he was mostly self taught.

Rosas led a large orchestra and a brass band that toured internationally.

Rosas's best known work is "Sobre las Olas" or "Over the Waves". This classic waltz has often been mistakenly thought by many to be Viennese, and frequently attributed to Johann Strauss II. It was first published by Rosas in 1884 when he was in New Orleans, Louisiana with the popular Mexican band at the World Cotton Centennial World's Fair. (It was later republished in Mexico and Europe in 1888, and 1891; these later years are sometimes incorrectly given as the piece's first publication date.) It remains popular as a classic waltz, and has also found its way into New Orleans Jazz and Tejano music. In the United States "Sobre las Olas" has a cultural association with funfairs, and trapeze artists, as it was one of the tunes available for Wurlitzer's popular line of fairground organs. The music for "Over the Waves" was used for the tune "The Loveliest Night of the Year", which was sung by Ann Blyth in MGM's film "The Great Caruso".

In 1893 he led a band at the World Columbian Exposition World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois.

Rosas died in Surgidero de Batabanó, Cuba. Fifteen years later, in 1909, his remains were brought back to Mexico.

Compositions

I. Waltzes
* "Dos pensamientos" (before 1888, no Publisher mentioned)
* "Sobre las olas" (Über den Wellen - Over the Waves) (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City)
* "Carmen" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Amelia" (1890, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Aurora" (1890, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Ensueño seductor" (1890; A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Ilusiones juveniles" (1890, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Eva" (1888-1891, Publiher not clear, most probably A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City)
* "Josefina" (1892, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Flores de margarita" (1893, Eduardo Gariel, Saltillo/Robert Forberg, Leipzig)
* "Soledad" (1893, Eduardo Gariel, Saltillo/Robert Forberg, Leipzig)II. Polkas
* "La cantinera" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Carmela" (1890, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Ojos negros" (1891, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Flores de México" (1893, Eduardo Gariel, Saltillo/Robert Forberg, Leipzig)III. Mazurcas
* "Acuérdate" (before 1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City)
* "Lejos de ti" (before 1888, H. Nagl. Sucs.)
* "Juanita" (1890, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Último adiós" (1899, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)IV. Schottishes
* "El sueño de las flores" (1888, (before 1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Floricultura-Schottisch" (1888, (before 1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Lazos de amor" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Julia" (1890, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Salud y pesetas" (1890, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Juventa" (1892, A. Wagner y Levien Sucs., Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "El espirituano" (1894, Autograph Archivo Provincial de Sancti Spíritus, Kuba)V. Danzas
* "A Lupe" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "En el casino" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Juanita" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "No me acuerdo" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "¡Qué bueno!" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "¿Y para qué?" (1888, A. Wagner y Levien, Mexico City/Friedrich Hofmeister, Leipzig)
* "Flores de Romana" (1893, Eduardo Gariel, Saltillo)

Bibliography

* Hugo Barreiro Lastra: "Los días cubanos de Juventino Rosas", Guanajuato 1994
* Helmut Brenner: "Juventino Rosas, His Life, His Work, His Time" (=Detroit Monographs in Musicology/Studies in Music 32), Warren, Michigan 2000
* Jesús Rodríguez Frausto: "Juventino Rosas. Notas nuevas sobre su vida", Guanajuato 1969

External links

*imdb|0741097